They are all grand for a colour piece but leave the serious analysis to someone else e.g… Murray Kinsella
I imagine if it’s a lottery system most teams have a similar record, I’m guessing roughly 50% wins. What’s England’s record under the lottery system?
Cummiskey gets the best beat of them all covering the Leinster Schools Senior Cup annually.
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He is a tennis devotee and a soccer fan alright. It’s baffling. I remember some of the ads they plastered all over the place when he just got the big job. They were desperate to get this scruff wearing a tv shirt and shit beard over with the rugby public. He had the audacity to criticise the Senior Cup and lost any trust he had.
John O’Sullivan would be more suitable in the role. He comes from a rugby background and loves the sport.
Why not? Blackrock have had some decent sides for a while now, notably the 2003 Dr Tony O’Neill Cup winning outfit.
He also probably had a telly and a sky subscription at home
That was entirely down to Mark Vaughan to be fair. It’s shameful they allowed the sport in but they never had much to be fair.
mcgeady did well, brought the team forward when he had the ball
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Here’s that ridiculous ad the IT ran to introduce Thornley to the Irish rugby support in the late 90s. An embarrassment.
Contrast that with this great piece of work from the Independent showing off Lion Tony Ward. No wonder the IT’s sales sank in south Dublin. Sir Anthony was in his business pomp and knew what the market wanted. You’ll also note to the right page from the programme that the players middle names were being printed proudly. Tradition. 
While I’m browsing old programmes, any international goer in the 90s to 00s will remember this fantastic ad ran in every programme on match days. Some say that Leyden’s son destroyed the pride in club rugby in Ireland by demanding Blackrock College RFC wire him 1k when he was on the piss in Thailand at the height of the Celtic Tiger. When they refused another club stepped into the breach and he was signed up for the next years McCorry Cup campaign. They say Blackrock College Union President Leyden was in tears when he heard. A dark day for tradition in this country.
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I thought we had a great chance of beating Italy. I’m not so sure about France.
You don’t have to make it up, it happened. We beat Italy. Your lot couldn’t beat Russia.
We will piss all over them.
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Of course we had a great chance of beating Italy, and we seized the moment and did it which deserves great credit. We also have a chance against France, as they look a bit overawed from all the expectations, and there really are no seasoned veteran leaders on that team (the older players aren’t leaders). They have the individual talent to rip us a new one, but if we frustrate them they could implode. The Belgian game should be a good template for us on how not to play against a team with pace and skill, we simply can’t get caught on the break like we did that night. The first and decisive goal was a calamity, we had 10 players in their half when we inevitably lost the ball, we can’t do that against the French.
Which is why we probably can’t play the same team, or at least the same set up as we did against Italy. We were very positive against Italy and had a very aggressive formation. It worked, but it was a massive physical and mental effort by the players. Whether they all pull up ok after it is anyone’s guess. I wonder whether O’Neill will go back into himself and bring Whelan back, so we have more cover, or will he say fuck it, lets go after the French. Personally, I’d like to see the same set up - you’re right about the French team, they don’t seem to have many veteran leaders, other than maybe Evra which says it all and they seem a bit disjointed and reliant on individual skill. We can win them down in their half, but like the Belgian’s they will break with lightning speed and that’s the worry. If it’s McCarthy screening the back four, he’ll have to have the game of his life.
The biggest worry I’d have is that it’s a very short space of time (essentially three days) to recover after a game like that against Italy, a massive effort. Do they have another in them within such a short space of time?
Ya totally agree.
I am in a coaching forum with alot of English lads and some of them have brilliant concepts and really understand the psychology of it all. But they simply do not get to practice it due to the FA’s structures.
Money has ruined England as well. Will be interesting to see what affect the Brexit will have
Recovery is huge. It makes France very very strong favourites really.
The high of the win the other night will probably be a drain as well. Very difficult for Management to get them down and up again.
Walters back training…
The schedule of games for the next two weeks does not make sense. To win it out, we will play on Sunday / Sunday / Thursday / Sunday. Was it designed by Ryanair to shift the green army to and from France in something resembling the Berlin Airlift?
Training will surely be minimal given the effort the other night and the small gap between games, won’t it.
Ah ya, but france have pretty much had 10 days off.
4 days is nothing to recover from what was essentially a final for us. Huge task.
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