But there's a little bit of a gap emerging now between the top three and Ireland.

Yeah, I think so.

I, I also think that the, the tier below Ireland, if you want to put it that way, could beat Ireland on any given day.

Like England, Argentina, like they're...

I know Ireland have a thing over Scotland and, and anyone else maybe, but you know, they're not that far away either from, like, England could show up at any stage and give, and, and give you a thumping, you know? So, um- Definitely have to be looking over our shoulders than to be looking ahead, but yeah, I think there is a small bit of a gap.

But you know, people are kind of, I'd say social media discord, discourse anyway would say like, where are we? Um, it's a, yeah, a reality check I think is, is, is accurate, but would we not want that now as opposed to the Six Nations? Because that's what's happened to us in the past.

You know, where, uh, Joe Schmidt's World Cup in 2019, going into, you know, the, the Six Nations, and all of a sudden England kind of show you up, and now is the time to be shown up a small bit if you are gonna get ...

Mm-hmm

Yeah

...

they, um, so they, you know, you could say like, "Oh, they were strong," but, like, how strong is the same team going out every week? You know, that they don't get a break, or they don't get, uh, a kind of a, a fresh impetus from other players coming in with a, with a, the bit between their teeth.

So, like, you, you could be seeing something like that, the intangible that's very hard to ...

It's hard for a coach, you know, to get consistency in selection, but then also know when the right time is to actually take them out.

And unfortunately, for Richard Murphy, like, he's in a position now where they've been taken out before he got the chance to do it.

So it would've been interesting to see his, his kind of approach to the, uh, top four, top eight, uh, and, and fighting in the other competition as well.

Mm-hmm.