The Dying Days Of The Diddymen

The Leinster second-string backline head out to training. They’re very keen on playing on tightly-mown surfaces, both so that their flashy skills and quick feet are in evidence and so that they can actually see each other. It’d be like patrolling in Vietnam if they had to play in a meadow. Because they’re all midgets, y’see?

There’s nothing inherently noble or right about having a small backline, rather than one composed of enormous, planet-boshing mutants. When old-timers quote the gospel that rugby is a sport for all shapes and sizes, they conveniently forget that a good big ‘un will always beat a good little ‘un.  Continue reading

The Backrow Debate

When is this guy going to get his Radio Oscar for services to humanity? He should have been Pope, Ted. Or at least president.

How do I love Off The Ball? Let me count the ways: a lot.

It really is a highwater mark for Irish sports broadcasting, a one-program golden age. As a man who turns off an awful lot of radio programming in double-quick time, Off The Ball is the one regular transmission which not only escapes the cull, but is [occasionally] actively sought out on the morning after.  Continue reading