The Mole isn’t sure when this article was published; he’s only catching up on it now. Continue reading
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Author Archives: dementedmole
Montpellier 16 – 16 Leinster
You'd take that result every day of the week.
Jonny Sexton nervelessly knocked over the last kick of the game amidst a racket of whistles and boos to grab a draw for Leinster against Montpellier, last season’s Top 14 runners-up. Continue reading
Harlequins 25 – 17 Connacht
Future England captain speaks out
While they ended up on the wrong side of an eight-point margin, and thus in practice got nothing from the game, Connacht’s performance against high-flying Harlequins was worth all the praise that comes its way. As the old saw goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression: in their debut in the Heineken Cup, the Westies showed that they belong in the competition. Continue reading
Go On Then, Gizza Job
Yozzer Sean Edward’s column in the Grauniad makes for rib-tickling reading. Continue reading
HRH Tins-Upon-Turnpike Deposed
HRH Tins
Mike Tindall has been hit with a whopping £25,000 fine and been axed from the England Elite Players Squad. Continue reading
Report Card: Wales
The Big Bopper Jamie Roberts - Sings A Good Anthem, Runs a Good Line
Wales have a lot to be happy about in the aftermath of their World Cup.
True, they came home with a 4-3 record, but this is cup rugby. If you don’t win them all, it’s better to come home with a 4-3 record than a 4-1 record: playing seven games is a better result than playing five.
Heineken Cup Pool 4
IT’S THE GROUP OF DEATH! It’s scarcely credible that this phrase has taken hold in rugby and managed to survive in commentary. It doesn’t have any notable lineage [for example, it’s not old naval slang or public school code], it’s an enormous overstatement – nobody calls failure to qualify from another group a death, so why should this be a ‘group’ of death? – and it’s really quite crass.
It’s the sort of modern over-statement that doesn’t sit well with rugby, where the method of scoring is still called a ‘try’, and you still have positions like tighthead prop and second five-eighth. If rugby were to adopt the sort of language from which GROUP OF DEATH! has managed to cross over, we’d have Right Scrum Masters, Megaboot Generals and VICTORY TOUCHDOWNS! Continue reading
Montpellier Hérault Rugby
Revving up for Sean O'Brien
As draws go, the emergence of Bath, Glasgow and Montpellier to accompany Heineken Cup champions Leinster in Pool 3 seemed to the Mole, like the best of good fortune last summer. For sure, Leinster did not get an Italian minnow (the pleasure reserved for Biarritz it seems) but no Clermont, Racing or even Castres to send a shiver of nerves down the back, at the prospect of a tough away fixture in the frozen weeks before Christmas, seemed like the sort of Champions League start usually reserved for Man U and Barca. Continue reading
Heineken Cup Pool 5
Fava beans and chianti not pictured
The traditional perception has been that a Heineken Pool containing an Italian team is likely to produce two of the eight quarter finalists. If that perception was ever valid, it is now a proven misconception. Continue reading
Digging Like a Demented Mole 