Didnt know that. Thought I read it on some other discussion board from a fella who knows his stuff.
Speaking of which - whereās Mr. Carter this morning? Suffering from celebrating in Coppers with the Leinster team last night Iām sure
[quote=āMacā]Didnt know that. Thought I read it on some other discussion board from a fella who knows his stuff.
Speaking of which - whereās Mr. Carter this morning? Suffering from celebrating in Coppers with the Leinster team last night Iām sure[/quote]
Not saying it for certainty, but think I read that. I let Frannoās stuff go in one ear and out the other.
the term āruck inspectorā best describes neil francis as a playerā¦
Francis is a complete wanker alright. Talented player but ultimately a waster - like a listless, overweight John OāShea.
His column can be entertaining the odd time but usually itās just plain wrong and no amount of smarmy gags can save it.
Iām pretty sure Francis picked a ābest ofā Ireland team combining the pre and post professional eras in the Mad About Sport magazine in the Tribune about 6 months ago and included himself in it. I laughed at that one.
I think youāre right Bandage, ah shur we expect him to do these things at this stage.
OāGara nearly did a Stephen Ireland
OāGara nearly did a Stephen Ireland
OāGara ācame closeā to Irish exit
By Hugh Farrelly
Monday September 29 2008
IRELAND and Munster out-half Ronan OāGara has revealed how he threatened to walk out of the national side after he was substituted by then coach Eddie OāSullivan in the 13-40 defeat to Australia in November 2005.
In an extract from his book āRonan OāGara: My Autobiographyā, written in conjunction with Sunday Times journalist Denis Walsh, OāGara says he was furious when replaced by David Humphreys seven minutes into the second-half and confronted OāSullivan at the next training session.
āIām here, trying hard, obeying your tactics, doing whatās right for the team. Iām trying to organise the backs and the second things go wrong, you whip me off,ā OāGara claims he told OāSullivan in the extract.
āI donāt intend hanging around for that. Iāll gladly go home and play for Munster and be happy for the rest of my career. I think Iām respected down there. Iāve had enough of it. Iām not enjoying it. Iām happy to go.ā
OāGara also claims OāSullivan had little contact with many of his squad although the out-half says he enjoyed a good working relationship with the coach.
"Eddieās demeanour didnāt really invite dialogue. Some fellas didnāt say two words to him from one end of the season to the next. He wasnāt good at small talk or easy conversations. Very few fellas behaved in a relaxed way in his company.
"Over the years, I got beyond that with Eddie. It wasnāt a personal relationship, I suppose. You couldnāt call it a friendship but it was a strong, close working relationship.
"He had shown great loyalty to me over the years and I felt real loyalty to him.
Why do players bring out books when they are still playing? Iāll never understand it.
What. He has several Grannies who die every year, has pink rims on his 4x4, is bald, gets bullied by team matesā¦
But did you see the interview with him on the Munster DVD this year where he says that playing for Munster you give it everything and you go above and beyond, unlike playing other games not for Munster.
OāGara seems to me to always go to great lengths to reinforce what a servant he is to Munster and how nothing else mattersā¦its a bit repetitive at this stageā¦just fcukin get on with it like others before him haveā¦
I didnāt take it like that. The way I saw it was that he was as good as saying that if it didnāt go well for Ireland, he wouldnāt be all that bothered.
Iām talking in generalā¦
A typical American attitude from him I suppose 
No Questioning Munster Player Availability
29 September 2008, 5:16 pm
By IRFU
The Irish Rugby Football Union wish to confirm the position regarding the availability of Ireland squad players for the game between Munster and New Zealand in Thomond Park on November 18th.
Any Munster players who are involved in the Ireland match squads for the Ireland v New Zealand game on November 15th and the Ireland v Argentina game on November 22nd will not be made available for selection for the Munster game.
This has been the position since the game was originally agreed with the IRFU and that decision was made bearing in mind both the importance of IRB World Ranking points available for the Ireland team this November and the physical impact on players participating in high level games in such a short space of time.
Report of Wasps game.
Fixture Type: Guinness Premiership Venue: Welford Road Match Date: Fri 26 Sep 2008, Kick Off: 20:05 Referee: Wayne Barnes Assistant Referee: Stuart Terheege TV Match Official: Graham Hughes Assistant Referee: Kevin Stewart
28-19 Victory for Wasps at Welford Road
Ian McGeechanās men pulled off a masterstroke to guide Wasps to their second win in succession at Welford Road, kick starting their Guinness Premiership season on the turf of their fiercest rivals.
Jeremy Staunton, who this summer secured his place in Wasps squad signing for 2008/09, made his first start of the campaign playing at fly half and the Irishman was the key figure in a result which could reignite Waspsā title defence.
He did not miss a kick all night to score 23 of Waspsā 28 points slotting five penalties, two drop-goals and a conversion ā after Damien Varley, initially on trial with the club from Munster and now a full member of the Wasps squad, had ploughed over in the second half.
After trying and failing to out-rugby teams this season, Wasps changed their approach completely for this match and put the emphasis almost completely on kicking.
It didnāt please the home fans, who booed Wasps off at the end, but the table doesnāt award points for entertainment and although McGeechan himself admitted the match wasnāt a thriller, the Experimental Law Variations forced Waspsā hand.
And Wasps can argue that Leicester were equally guilty, with Geordan Murphyās box kicks the key weapon of either side in the first half.
Tom Voyce dropped the first and fumbled the third, after Mark Robinson had spilled the second, while Waspsā kicking from hand too often lacked accuracy or penetration to put Leicester under prolonged pressure.
Two penalties each, Flood replying to Stuantonās efforts, moved the score to 6-6 before Leicester took a grip on the match midway through the first half.
Staunton was at fault as he let Johne Murphy through his grip and the Tigers centre offloaded for namesake Geordan Murphy to finish off the move beside the posts.
Floodās conversion put the home team 13-6 up and the majority of the 17,498 crowd settled back to watch their team finally put one over Wasps.
Dominic Waldouck nearly made them choke on their cheering however when he chased down Josh Lewseyās grubber seconds after the Leicester try, but Murphy was back to sweep up and although Wasps pushed hard in the latter stages of the half the home team maintained their lead to the interval.
The second period, though, was a different matter and Staunton was the man who instigated the fightback with two penalties and two drop-goals inside 12 minutes.
It put Wasps 18-16 in front with just under half an hour to go.
By then Leicester had thrown on their talisman Julian White, but all he had succeeded in doing was starting a 30-man pushing match which resulted in Stuantonās second penalty of the half.
Tigers bit back with another Flood penalty to regain the lead, but almost immediately they infringed again and Staunton seized the chance again ā 21-19.
With Tim Payne ruled out before kick-off, Phil Vickery coming off early in the second half and then Pat Barnard hobbling off with a hamstring injury, the final quarter of the game was uncontested scrums.
The Leicester crowd were not happy, but Wasps had more than held their own in that department and it offered neither side an advantage.
What the front row injuries did to though, was lead to the introduction of Varley, and in the final stages of the match his touch proved the decisive one.
Leicester have finished all three of their games strongly this season, but as is so often the case they had no answer to Wasps on this occasion.
Instead of pushing the men in black and gold backwards, it was their much-lauded pack on the receiving end of a powerful Wasps drive.
A mass of bodies ended up in a pile over the Leicester line, and after referee Wayne Barnes had consulted the television match official, debutant Varley was awarded the try which all but won it for Wasps.
Stuanton was never going to miss the conversion from just to the left of the posts, and 28-19 with ten minutes left was a lead Wasps protected with ease.
On the back of victory Wasps will now prepare for the arrival of Bath at Adams Park on Wednesday night for a rare midweek fixture. They will of course be eager to claim a first home win of the season as they prepare to do battle with the 2007/08 European Challenge Cup winners. With a great night of rugby on the cards - one which could see the inclusion of returning fly half Danny Cipriani - be sure you donāt miss a minute of the action! Tickets are on sale online here or by calling the Ticket Hotline on 0870 414 1515 - secure your place in the stands!
ON MONDAY CATCH THE POST MATCH REACTION OF MOTM TOM REES, TRY SCORER DAMIEN VARLEY AND HEAR FROM DANNY CIPRIANI ON A POSSIBLE COMEBACK AGAINST BATH
Varley and Stan are dropped nowā¦
Wasps -v- Bath: Voyce; Sackey, Flutey, Waldouck, Lewsey, Cipriani, Reddan; Payne, Ibanez Ā©, Vickery, Shaw, Palmer, Worsley, Rees, Hart.
Replacements: Webber, French, Birkett, Haskell, Hoadley, Robinson, Staunton.
At least Staunton is still on the bench. Still its early days for Varley.
From the Guardian:
Apologies if this was posted up already-
Image-conscious Cipriani should take a moment to step into ROGās world
Danny Cipriani has more talent than Ronan OāGara ever had, but he could still learn a great deal from the Cork manās autobiography
OāGaraās book reminds us that rugby is above all about desire and bloody-mindedness.
The next time Danny Cipriani finds himself with a spare hour or two between photoshoots he should sit down with a copy of Ronan OāGaraās newly-published autobiography. We are not exactly talking James Joyce or Oscar Wilde here but, then again, neither of them ever played international rugby at outside-half. If Cipriani wants a glimpse of what the future might hold he would be well advised to put Ulysses aside and enter Rogās world.
It is a fascinating place, particularly if you hail from outside Ireland. What comes through strongest is that talent on its own is never enough. OāGara has his critics but his steely determination slices through almost every page. When he was a teenager coming up through the ranks he was not even rated the most promising young out-half in Munster. Everyone reckoned Jeremy Staunton was the wonder kid and OāGara has the cuttings to prove it. He can still recall the shock of being left out of the Ireland Schools team in 1994 for a certain Emmet Farrell. No-one imagined when he started that Munster would become the best team in Europe and OāGaraās entire career has been one long fight to prove himself in the toughest of environments. Neither he nor his team give the impression they are done yet.
OāGara, assisted by his elegant ghostwriter Denis Walsh, is nicely self-deprecating too. Mixed in with the magnificent Munster memories are passages that do more than hint at the less attractive aspects of life as a professional player. Take the morning after the Bay of Plenty game against the Lions in 2005 during which he missed several first-half tackles. āKnows how to kick to the corners but Ronan Keating would be a better tackler,ā concluded the New Zealand Herald. āKiwis know their rugby and they know a lemon when they see one,ā sneered another local chronicler. āOāGara should have painted himself yellow and jumped in a gin and tonic.ā
It is a bitter verdict, particularly when directed at a player who used to be paranoid about what other people thought of him. He still finds dealing with strangers tricky. āIād say people find me rude. A couple of people have told me so straight out. They were right. Iām not comfortable being a face people recognise. I really struggle with match days ā¦ even afterwards I donāt like the back-slapping. I know itās only a game and I should relax a bit more but I donāt believe I could think like that and still perform.ā He sounds happiest on those days when he is able to sneak out, anonymous beneath a baseball cap, to attend midweek mass.
It comes as little surprise, therefore, to read he was incandescent with rage last year when a reporter and a photographer from a Sunday tabloid rang his doorbell, keen to dig up some dirt on some non-existent marital problems. āPeople like you are whatās wrong with modern Ireland,ā he screeched at the hack. āYouāre a low life.ā At which point in the narrative, the paparazzi-plagued Cipriani may just experience a flicker of recognition. No one ever accused Cipriani of lacking self-confidence. He has more natural talent than OāGara has ever had. But via the pages of the Cork manās revealing, hard-nosed book, the young genius will discover that recuperating from a shattered ankle is merely the first of many hurdles set to examine not just his rugby ability but his private life and, occasionally, his sanity. He might even care to flick to page 282 to discover what Munster thought of him last season: āCipriani is a talented guy but he didnāt hurt us in either game.ā
Rugby is partly about talent, of course it is. But most of all, as OāGara reminds us, it is about desire and bloody-mindedness and knocking the English down a peg or two. Danny Boy has already discovered that life is not always a posy of violets but a couple of hours with Ronan will familiarise him with fameās darker side.
Who wrote that?
RoGās mother