Tadhg Furlong: 'We feel there is potential left in us'

Every fortnight spent in camp this time around has been followed to date by a week of remote work where the assigned duties have been much lighter

MENTAL WELLBEING: Ireland and Leinster rugby player Tadhg Furlong, alongside students from Good Counsel College in New Ross, who had teamed up with Rugby Players Ireland for a new content series centered on his journey back to his old school to spotlight the work of the Tackle Your Feelings Schools programme to promote mental wellbeing. Pic: INPHO/Evan Treacy

Ireland’s failure to make it beyond the last eight of the first nine Rugby World Cups has fuelled a deep well of frustration and disappointment, prompted no little mirth/schadenfreude, and fostered a whole host of theories.

One train of thought has it that the IRFU’s player welfare system plays to the national team’s advantage during the course of a normal season but dilutes in importance every four years when everyone else gets their ducks in the same neat row for the big one.