Dan McDonald

Yeah.

Yeah, I had a conversation with an ex-international about this the other day.

He was probably making the point that this group maybe got away lighter compared to previous generations.

Big time.

I suppose my response to that would have been

It probably is a reflection of how low the expectations are for that group now.

And I think that that's probably where it comes from.

They were slaughtered after Armenia.

But on the basis of, Jesus, these players are terrible.

This is the worst.

And Hamer got a bit of it, obviously, and there was some criticism there.

But it wasn't as vicious as it might have been, say...

After Cyprus, you know, but after Cyprus, you had a team full of like Premier League stars, some of probably one of the great Irish generation of players, you could argue, you know, Keane Duff, John O'Shea, Richard Dunn, etc.

in their prime.

I think that's where it comes from.

Whether that's fair or not, I think probably, you know, at times you're talking about probably rugby teams getting criticised when it's regarded as like a great, one of the top teams in the world who have been previously winning, who in the previous year might have won a Six Nations and struggled in a World Cup or, you know, beaten teams the year before they're now losing to or whatever.

I think that's what's different with this.

And I think it's a valid point to raise, but I think that those caveats have to be pointed out.

It is almost, you could argue there's a patronising element almost that the expectations for them are so low that there isn't a desire to pile in.

Like Ryan Manning would have got criticism and Alan Brown, I suppose, and Finneas Az, but even some of that has couched in well.