Ireland Women were one of the best teams at the world cup all 4 of which could have won the tournament. But if you look at the 3 pools the hardest pool by far was pool B Kazachstan, Ireland, USA, New Zealand, 3 teams emerged as pool contenders resulting in an enormous expenditure of mental and physical energy to get out of the pool. Thus when it came to the semis Ireland had expended more energy mental and physical than the other semi finalists.
Would we be complaining about this if we had won the world cup, perhaps not so maybe its the job of those who have not won to point out what they think!
Further reflection brings up the issue of the Canada v England game which ended in a 12 all draw and knocked New Zealand out of the semis! Canada & England had therefore not spent as much mental and physical energy to get to the Semis.
The issue is energy spent both physical and mental.
Lets not forget the final ended up being Canada v England.
When we look at the Six Nations Ireland v England we performed well this year and the previous year comprehensively beat England @ Ashbourne. It follows that we were well and truly exhausted as a direct result of the pool structure.
It is time look at a 4 pools structure @ the womens rugby world cup.
It is very easy to think, but thats just the way it worked out, and its very easy to extrapolate back from now and construct various scenarios as to why this or that happened. So without any further adoo let us say that the world cup was truly fantastic and our nation has achieved so much in its development plan and we are very proud of all the teams and humbled by the their passion and love of the game.
However with that being said we do feel there is something in this and would welcome the chance to discuss this and see where it takes us even if that is to a full backing of the 3 pool structure.
