The Rugby World cup has opened up a huge can of worms for Ireland over the way we're playing the game.
The way in which Argentina decimated us has left many arguing that the way we're currently playing rugby is the reason there's such a massive gulf in class between ourselves and the Southern Hemisphere.
With four Southern Hemisphere teams through to the semi's it's easy to say that we need a change up in Irish rugby if we're to keep up with the competition. However if we are to switch to a sexy and attractive brand of rugby it will bring to an end some of the things we've loved cheering on over the past few years.
Here's the six things we'll be crying out for when we get knocked out by Argentina in 2019.
Mauls
There's nothing attractive about a catch and drive maul. You have a line out meters away from the line and literally just pile everyone in on top of each other until one lucky sod finds himself over the line. If we're to adapt an attractive new playing style these will unfortunately have to go.
As ugly as mauls are there's no denying how much we love them. People are always brought together by the collective cry of "HEAAAVVE" once the ball is caught, and the slow and patient build up before the ball is touched down gives everyone a great sense of anticipation before the eventual scrappy score.
We also love to gloat about how good we are at mauls despite their overwhelming ugliness, with the Munster lads always getting a special mention for their sheer passion and desire to will the team over the line.
Choke Tackles
"If we cant play attractive rugby than neither can you," this is the thinking behind one of Irish Rugby's favoured manoeuvres, the choke tackle.
For those of who don't know how it works, it's when a player is held up in contact and the defending team receives a scrum as the ball remains trapped. It's an incredibly effective form of defending, but it's not allowed in the slick passing, free flowing blueprint due to it's ability to slow the game down massively.
Just like the maul we love to cheer on a big choke tackle, probably because it turns into a bit of a maul after a while and because we end up getting a scrum, which we usually kick straight back to the opposition.
GAA Style Catches
What do Tommy Bowe, Shane Horgan, and Rob Kearney all have in common? They're all from a GAA background and they're all great under the high ball when representing Ireland, but do these kicks have a place in our restructured playing style?
If we were to start flinging the ball left,right and centre we wouldn't need these speculative kicks, they 're the rugby equivalent of a hit and hope up to Niall Quinn, and we all know there's nothing sexy about that.
That being said we all love seeing GAA style catches, and why not they're great, they're a genuine crowd pleaser.
We love nothing more than nudging the person beside and informing them that we're the only country in the world who can do it because of our GAA heritage, despite the fact that majority of teams compete with us just fine once we hoof it into the clouds.
Marauding Runs
One of the key elements of attractive rugby is flinging it wide to the guys who have quick feet and bags of pace and giving them loads of space to do their thing.
One of the key elements of our current game is to giving it to Cian Healy and Sean O'Brien in no space at all and watching them swat away defenders.
These runs are great to watch and very satisfying, especially when you see Richie McCaw getting toppled but if we're to implement an easy on the eye strategy these types of run will become less and less common.
Territorial Kicks
Nothing quite matches the collective cheer when we see a ball trickling into touch for an opposition lineout like a finely struck drive bouncing down the fairway.
It's great when we're under pressure, but for some reason it's equally cheered when we're on the front foot despite the fact that we've just booted away possession. These kicks will have to be phased out if we're hoping to introduce a new playing style.
I imagine these kicks will be sorely missed in years to come and we'll b turning to our mates saying, "if we had O'Gara now we'd pin them back into the corner."
Patient Yards
I've never met a group of fans more happy to see their team rack up some patient yards than the Irish faithful.
One meter gains are not a part of the free flowing strategy and they will have to be removed if we wish to start playing with more flair.
That being said the cheers let out for a short one meter gain would make you think we've just won a turnover or hit a penalty from the halfway. The sight of Iain Henderson kamikazing himself into contact for the sake of a short gain was a sight to behold, but was it really that necessary when we could have flung it wide?
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