Zoooooom!
Munster turned in a phenomenal second half performance that crushed the spirit of Northampton for the second time in four months and sent a tremor of fear down the spine of any and all prospective opponents in the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup. Continue reading
Former copper Paul Ackford is presented as a journalist whose articles are straight to the point with a hard line in incisive questioning. If we allow his reputation to precede him, Ackford’s sub-editors have some explaining to do. Continue reading
Leinster eased into a home quarter-final fixture in an odd sort of game against last year’s Top 14 runners-up, Montpellier. Saturday lunchtime at the RDS is better than Sunday brunch at Firhill, but not by much; Leinster have kicked off four of their six group games before 2pm, which doesn’t do much for the atmosphere. Coupled with the lack of big-name opposition – and to speak frankly, outright quality – in the group, it has been a relatively undistinguished qualification campaign compared to last season’s block-busting efforts against the best that the English and French could muster. Continue reading
Yawn. Sorry Richard, you were saying something about the refereeing of the breakdown ...?
Richard Cockerill sings the same sad old song in the aftermath of Leicester’s heavy defeat to Ulster at Ravenhill. Continue reading
Leinster must be very, very glad to get away with four points from Firhill on a day that the machine did not function all that well. Sean Lineen’s men showed ferocious hunger, picked up all the scraps from the champions’ table, and feasted on them. Continue reading
Ulster take on perennial contenders Leicester in fortress Ravenhill this evening. Ulster’s stunning 33-0 victory a number of years ago has been mentioned frequently in the build up to this game but does that have any bearing on events this evening? Continue reading
Possibly based on the same perception as the Lonely Planet colour writers who visited Ireland, the Mole has a long streak of fatalism when it comes to anticipating rugby results for favoured Irish teams. Continue reading
Harlequins’ away win in Toulouse proves yet again what a great tournament the HEC is and puts in place some interesting pool arithmetic, with one of the Irish provinces centrally involved in the unfolding tale in Pool 6. Continue reading
Jonathan Sexton put in a performance that had rugby purists weak at the knees, and an über-confident Leinster fed Bath a fifty-burger on Saturday night in the Aviva Stadium. Continue reading
Shaun Edwards has written some interesting articles in the past, and it’s relatively rare that a current coach of his stature in the game writes a column, so The Mole always has a read. This one is pretty half-hearted, unfortunately: the only reason we’ve linked to this classic example of a space-filler is because of the comment from one ‘WestCountry Pete’, transcribed below: Continue reading
