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
The Mole may have mentioned before that he’s a big fan of Off The Ball, and especially their rugby coverage. Last night saw Denis Hickie and Matt ‘Mattie’ Williams give their opinion on the stalling – breakdown? – of Luke Fitzgerald’s contract talks with the IRFU. Continue reading
Ireland would most likely have lost on Saturday but Tomas O’Leary’s decision to carry the ball over his own line and concede a 5m scrum after Owen Farrell’s aimless kick was a dreadful lack of composure from a player woefully short of form and confidence.
Impervious to hypnotism and all that sort of stuff – Declan Kidney's mind games are his own. Sure let's just get ready for the next cup final, after all, this is the reason why you get involved in rugby!
Declan Kidney’s substitution decisions have The Mole hearing footsteps, so to speak. With Kidney’s deserved reputation for inscrutability, and his über-questionable loyalty to some players, he’s the sort of coach that’d have you believing in conspiracy theories. Continue reading
Canal+ are reporting that Munster’s Tomás O’Leary has signed for Perpignan. This move has been rumoured for a couple of weeks, and while O’Leary’s agent has issued a typical non-denial denial, there are a number of factors which point toward it being as good as a done deal. While Donal Lenihan reckons that O’Leary has not yet signed on the line that is dotted [thank you, Glengarry Glen Ross], there’s every indication that O’Leary is off to the sunny sud-ouest. Continue reading
In this installment of The Team That Never Travelled, we look at the scrum-halves and out-halves who could have made all the difference. Continue reading
Boss, Murray, Reddan, O'Leary, Stringer: Choose Your Weapon
The Irish squad selection for RWC 2011 is due to be announced on Monday, and the smoke is clearing from one of the most hotly debated positions: scrum-half. Declan Kidney’s initial training squad selection saw the inclusion of no fewer than five scrum-halves [Isaac Boss, Conor Murray, Tomás O’Leary, Eoin Reddan and Peter Stringer], and it is widely expected that three will tavel to New Zealand. Continue reading
Digging Like a Demented Mole 