Sometimes you read an interview that makes you question how much you know about rugby. Continue reading
Gnomic
28
Category Archives: Opinion
Munster’s Slide – Rock Bottom Or Ready To Relapse?
Mick O’Driscoll leads his team off the pitch at the Liberty Stadium. Munster had just suffered their worst defeat in eight years in his last game for the province he represented more than two hundred times. He deserved better.
The Mole is like a dog with a bone, and that bone is a broken record. Engrish rangruage, forgive-eness preeze. Continue reading
Ulster: A Season At The Brink Or A Place At The Top Table?
“Stand Up For The Ulstermen” rings out and Stephen Ferris is all ears. Having had a taste of Heineken Cup knock-out rugby over the last two seasons, Ulster will be looking to get to the top of the mountain next season. Do they have what it takes?
Ulster are a fine team who got into the Heineken Cup final on merit: they beat ASM Clermont Auvergne, Leicester and Munster [in Thomond Park, no less] in the competition, a very worthy set of scalps in any season. Continue reading
Approach Shot
Just like they change their watches when they arrive in the new timezone, the Irish coaches should change their calendar. Continue reading
The Fingers Of The Red Hand
Even for The Mole, there has almost been surplus coverage of the Heineken Cup final in Twickenham. Ulster and Leinster have been analysed, examined and dissected in such depth that it is very difficult to consider any angle that would contribute anything further in the search for clues as to which team might have the ascendency in this game. Continue reading
Q: What Can You Read Into A Game Against Newport Gwent Dragons?
A: Probably Too Much
It would be very interesting to hear the opinions of Devin Toner on a youthful Leinster team’s win in Newport ten days ago. Toner has started the last five editions of this fixture – teammate Kev McLaughlin has started the last four – and it has long been one of the curios on the calendar in terms of selection. Continue reading
“If Isa Was Irish”
Isa Nacewa has been selected to play his 100th game for Leinster tomorrow in the Pro12 semi-final against Glasgow.
The story goes a little bit like this: “If Isa Nacewa had never been called off the bench for the last two minutes of a game by Fiji back in the 2003 Rugby World Cup as a 21 year old, he’d be an Irish international by now.” Continue reading
Signing Contracts And Joined-up Thinking
Ivan Dineen’s blistering performance when allowed off the bench against the Scarlets was an enjoyable feature of a mistake-ridden game and hugely encouraging for fans of the player. To describe Dineen as a peripheral figure over the last two seasons is to do injustice to those peripheral figures in the Munster squad … in truth, with just one start in his Munster career [and that coming a full eighteen months ago] he had more or less slipped off the radar entirely. Continue reading
The Art Of The Undersell
Mark McCafferty, Premership Rugby Chief Executive: he's "world class" alright ... a world class spoofer.
“The panel has come up with an incredibly impressive shortlist, which reflects the strength of Aviva Premiership Rugby,” said the Premiership Rugby chief executive, Mark McCafferty. “It’s great to see players who have emerged from our academies in what is undoubtedly a world-class list of players. It will be a tough job picking the winner, as clearly all six would be a worthy Aviva Premiership Rugby player of the season.” Continue reading
Ulster’s Strong Conservative Element
The very picture of happiness!
Brian McLaughlin’s selection for Ulster’s final home game of the season could equally be described as either overly cautious or unambitious – or are they merely different words to describe the same state of mind? Continue reading
Digging Like a Demented Mole 