As is customary at the end of a four-year World Cup cycle, the level of change is more acute than at any point over the previous three seasons
Ireland World Cup players Bundee Aki and Finlay Bealham at Connacht training at the Sportsground on Monday. Photograph: James Crombie/Inphounfold didn’t exactly ease the post-Irish hangover or dilute the feeling of what might have been. If anything, the final will reinforce the belief inRegrets and flashbacks would have been commonplace. Sleep patterns were affected, and that wasn’t just the players and coaches.
Both in terms of what comes before and after a World Cup, the plusses are loaded in favour of the southern hemisphere teams. The feeling remains that for France and Ireland, it would have benefited them had the World Cup followed in the slip stream of the Six Nations instead of being a continuation of the season for South Africa and New Zealand.
Tony Butler made a superb full debut for Munster in their 45-14 win over the Dragons. Photograph: Inpho/Ben Brady Admittedly, he missed a crunch 57th-minute penalty which would have extended Ulster’s lead to 23-17 but his performance was also a timely reminder of the qualities this classy player brought to bear as part of the Irish Under-20s Grand Slam in 2019.
Certainly, Ross Byrne will believe his time is now and at 31 one of Carty’s ambitions is to play in the next World Cup. Some of his performance last Saturday against Ulster, not least the missed penalty to draw the sides level, will fuel the doubters, but the way he arrowed his ensuing penalty into the corner and then executed the kick-pass for Diarmuid Kilgallen demonstrated his innate footballing ability.
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