Tag Archives: Sean Cronin

Ireland RWC15 Report Cards, Pt.1 – Front Rows

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Is the RWC the be all and end all? No it’s not – but it’s a useful benchmark, amongst other things. I shake my head sometimes at the Ghosts of World Cups Past that haunt every step of the tournament and what inferences can be drawn from some coincidental detail. Cup rugby is unforgiving because it’s knock out: so one bad game, an unsympathetic referee, a series of unfortunate injuries, and you’re out … with no shot at redemption. Continue reading →

Out of the West

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West Coast/East Coast – ol’ skool

Connacht is the runt of the litter of Irish rugby. While there’s various dynamics at play between Leinster, Munster and Ulster, the attitude towards Connacht is that they’re everyone’s favourite underdog and that it’s a bitch of an away trip, to mix canine metaphors.

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Heineken Cup Final Reaction #1: M’Learned Friends Of The Bench

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Cronin scoots in on eighty minutes for the fifth Leinster try. While it must have been hard to take for Ulster fans, Leinster fans will be happy that the team played for the whole match and kept scoring until the final whistle.

Leinster were always going to try and stretch the eighty minutes; one of their major advantages over Ulster lay in the fact that they had more talent on the bench, especially in the pack. The starting eights seemed quite equal on pre-match inspection, but it was obvious that there was a quality disparity in whom the respective coaches could call off the bench.  Continue reading →

Ow! Captain, my Captain?

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Paul O’Connell’s injury deprives Ireland of their captain at the same time that Brian O’Driscoll is missing. Under Eddie O’Sullivan, this was an absolute disaster – the team relied hugely on its two main men. While the injuries almost certainly make Mike Ross the most important man on the Irish team, they also provide others with a chance to stake a claim. Continue reading →

Dexy’s Midnight Rugby Correspondent Scolds ‘The Man’

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“One wonders how Connacht have viewed the progress of Seán Cronin with Leinster in the Heineken Cup, and the contributions of Keatley, the try-scoring Fionn Carr and Jamie Hagan to the weekend victories of Munster and Leinster, as they slipped to their seventh successive defeat. If the strong are to continue plucking selectively from Connacht, then there has to be more traffic going the other way too.”* Continue reading →

Montpellier 16 – 16 Leinster

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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 →