Somebody sort this lad out with a Cotton Traders baggy jersey from the 1990s.
At one stage in this ‘A’ international the Saxons led the Wolfhounds 17-5, despite never having any real dominance. Ireland fought their way back to a more respectable – not to mention reflective – score with well-taken tries from Tomás O’Leary and Simon Zebo, but they had leaked too many soft points to take home the win … in a totally meaningless match. Continue reading
The Boys From The County Hell
“Be careful what you wish for: you just might get it.”
What a terrible, hack-ish way to start off. Don’t worry, it’s all straight downhill from here.
Connacht went into the game against Harlequins, the last game of their inaugural Heineken Cup campaign, with nothing to play for but pride. That seemed to do it for them, however, as they put in a monumental effort to deny the high-flying leaders of the Aviva Premiership both the win and the chance to go to the quarter-finals. Continue reading
The only team that wins in Clermont is Clermont. That’s one of those local customs that the HSBC “The World’s Local Bank” series of ads never got around to: nobody ever tells you, but you’ll notice if you visit there that nobody but Clermont wins in the Stade Marcel Michelin. Continue reading
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
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
The choke tackle: comes in both green and red for all you colour-blind rugby fans
While the Munster vs Treviso game wasn’t a ‘must-see’ by any definition, there were some intriguing elements to it. That should be qualified to ‘intriguing elements for Irish fans’, because the interest came more in the selection than the action. 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
Munster didn’t require any last minute heroics from Ronan O’Gara to seal a vital away win at Parc y Scarlets, but the Heineken Cup centurion controlled the shape of the game and won his personal duel with Welsh out-half Rhys Priestland. Continue reading
The Iceberg does some damage
In a very timely show of strength, Toulouse put the brakes on the Harlequins bandwagon with a 21-10 win at The Stoop. Quins have been rightly lauded for their very strong start to the season, but all too often the English rugby media can cheerlead without putting results in context. Continue reading
Ryan Caldwell tries to find the 'Off' button on Jonny Sexton
Over the last three seasons since Leinster have established themselves as European big hitters, their trips to England have always been tight games. There was the 25-23 victory over Saracens in Wembley last year, the 11-11 draw with London Irish in Twickenham at the end of January 2010, the 6-5 win over Harlequins [the infamous ‘Bloodgate’ game] in the 2008-09 quarter final in The Stoop, and a 12-19 loss to London Wasps in January 2009 in Twickenham. Games against English teams have long been tight affairs, and Sunday’s 18-13 win over Bath continued the trend. Continue reading
Digging Like a Demented Mole 