You beautiful man
Steve Thompson has had to retire a second [and presumably final] time, due to a recurrence of the serious neck injury that halted his career in 2007. Continue reading
Thomo Retires
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Author Archives: dementedmole
Bumface Is A Legend
Leinster vs Cardiff Preview
John Smit's savoir faire ruffled for the first and only time in his career
On what promises to be a fairly grisly evening weather-wise, much has been made of the fact that the Cardiff Blues team visiting the RDS tonight is denuded of eight Welsh internationals. Wales, you see, are playing the Australians in a coffer-filling exercise tomorrow. Fortunately for them, the base avarice of the WRU has been allowed skulk through the mists of sentimentality that have followed Shane Williams’ announcement of his retirement from international rugby. This match isn’t actually a testimonial to the former IRB International Player of the Year, as much as he deserves one, and as much as it is being portrayed as such by the Welsh media. No, this is just the WRU in full money-grabbing mode, flogging its players in a bid to capitalise on their reasonably successful RWC11 efforts. Continue reading
DM Hall Of Fame Inductee #1
The Mole has his favourites. Everybody does; I think that’s fair to say. Players you grew up watching on TV before you even had played a game of rugby, players who played in your position and you idolised as a kid, guys who played at your club or were in your school in the years ahead of you and went on to play for Ireland. Continue reading
When Rob Andrew Is The Least Of Your Problems
The RFU, the grandaddy of them all, is in a mess. This is hardly news to anybody that has been keeping up with recent happenings in the rugby world, and the Mole has been enjoying the excellent coverage provided by the various hacks at the Torygraph, the Grauniad and the London Independent. Amongst the journos, there seems to be a genuine despair at how badly wrong things have gone, and a belief that their readers are both concerned with and willing to follow what amounts to the breakdown of a bureaucracy. Continue reading
A League Of Its Own
The results during the first two rounds of this season’s Heineken Cup were a clear indicator that the Pro12 League, sponsored by RaboBank, has become a strong league in European Rugby. Just how strong remains to be seen – possibly by season’s end – but evidence-based assessments suggest that it is right up there with France’s Top 14 and England’s Premiership competitions.
A Salute To Pére Harinordoquy
Dexy’s Midnight Rugby Correspondent Scolds ‘The Man’
“One wonders how Connacht have viewed the progress of Seán Cronin with Leinster in the Heineken Cup, and the contributions of Keatley, the try-scoring Fionn Carr and Jamie Hagan to the weekend victories of Munster and Leinster, as they slipped to their seventh successive defeat. If the strong are to continue plucking selectively from Connacht, then there has to be more traffic going the other way too.”* Continue reading
The Argument Against Sevens
Sevens - A Hornet's Nest
The mighty Fangio’s recent article in the Sunday Tribune provided some good talking points on the Munsterfans website, and resurrected the topic of the state of Sevens in the Irish game. Continue reading
The New Generation
"Kick it into the corner, then maul it over. Else drop a goal."
Failing to get out of the pool stages of last year’s Heineken Cup was perhaps a blessing in disguise for Tony McGahan and his need to find replacements for Generation Ligind. The journey was always going to have to end somewhere but until then it was difficult for McGahan to jettison proven campaigners. Kidney’s silverware gave him the status to make some structural changes, notably introducing O’Leary and Hurley against Gloucester. McGahan’s status as an “outsider” without silverware meant he lacked the political capital to rock the boat too much. The fact that Munster finished the season by winning the league and beat Leinster in a match that mattered was very important for Dumper. Continue reading
Digging Like a Demented Mole 