Kev McLaughlin and Jean Bouilhou: they don't just look alike
Kev McLaughlin could be Leinster’s version of Toulouse’s Jean Bouilhou, a player for whom the Mole has a whole heap of time. Bouilhou got his first cap for France back in 2001 as a 22 year old down in New Zealand, then got a second two years later in 2003 on tour to Argentina before the World Cup … and that’s the sum of his international career. Continue reading
Probably a bit far-fetched
There’s no doubt that Sean Lineen, coach of the Glasgow Warriors, would have been delighted by the outcome of the first Heineken Cup Pool game last weekend. A home win is almost essential to further progress in the competition, but this is particularly true when your December back-to-back games are against a team who finished runners-up in the prestigious Top 14 competition in France less than 6 months ago. Continue reading
Ooooooh, James Downey! (With apologies to Whiff of Cordite)
On the strength of the weekend’s games, James Downey is Ireland’s best number 12 at the moment. This Mole has long rejected calls for Downey to be included in squads, never mind teams, but his displays over the last year have not only been impressive, they’ve shown improvement. Continue reading
Bath Rugby
Bath are previous Heineken Cup winners and perennialy competitors but the only trophy they have picked up in the last decade is a European Challenge Cup 3 years ago. Continue reading
Recent years have seen at least three episodes of this game a season. The home leg for either team and the playoff game in the Magners/Rabo. The games provide a snapshot of Irish rugby and a way of connecting the seasons together. Continue reading
You wouldn't force your worst enemy to watch this game twice
Every sports league in the world provides a few games that fans would pay to miss. Llanelli entertained hosted Leinster on Saturday for their 5,000 game and it’s probable that few have been worse. Continue reading
All genuine quotes from the Sunday Independent, 03 October 2010
Leinster showed up in Liberty Stadium with a relatively untried team and took a first-half pasting from a fired-up and fluent young Ospreys side. Continue reading
Leinster have a plethora of internationals in New Zealand. A combination of RWC and a summer clear-out has changed the face of the Ospreys. It is difficult to know exactly what to expect from these teams in the opening game of the RaboPro12. Continue reading
The Melbourne Rebels roll into the RDS tonight, and while the Anglesea Terrace Ultras will have all eyes fixed on the performance of a young Leinster team with a number of debutants, two big names in the visitor’s side will provide another focus to the casual viewer.
Stirling Mortlock and Danny Cipriani are big names in world rugby, despite the fact that neither of them are perhaps the draw they were three years ago. Back in 2008, Mortlock was the captain of the Wallabies, and Cipriani was coming off a magnificent performance where he oversaw the dismantling of Ireland in the final game of the Six Nations at Twickenham. Within the English rugby media, the rush to acclaim Cipriani as the heir to injury-prone Jonny Wilkinson – ‘injury-prone’ is putting it mildly; maybe ‘injury-decimated’ is more accurate – may have been unseemly, but it wasn’t totally without evidence. Cipriani’s game that day showed a rounded game management and leadership that, allied to his natural pace and footballing skills, seemed to mark him out as a potentially world class outside half.
Digging Like a Demented Mole 