In fairness, and Iād be as anti rugby football as the next man, the vast majority of the current Ireland players seem grand lads. The likes of Keenan, Doris, Ringrose, Sheehan, Henderson et al all seem fairly inoffensive, grounded lads and miles away from Heaslip types. Farrell seems a decent guy too.
Had Off the Ball on last night for a bit. It was like a different game they were analysing. Not a single word of criticism of the Ireland team. Just about how brave they were, how gut wrenching the whole thing is. The equivalent show in NZ or SA would point to the terrible start, a line out shambles, Sextonās missed penalty, Porter getting rinsed in a few scrums, Doris dropping the ball, a front row being outpowered and prevented from grounding the ball by a fella a stone or two lighter than him. Not on OTB though - Molloy was at pains to point out it wasnāt a choke. No siree.
And he added heād scream the next time someone mentions there is a World Cup quarter final mental hoodoo. That performance, losing by four points in a game that was there for the taking, proves there isnāt.
It was just one giant pity party from Molloy, with some fella called Andy Dunne who Iād never heard of.
I guess now that the Rugby World Cup is over for Ireland, itās time to support our rubbish soccer team and the 28 or 29 counties who never win anything in hurling or football.
Yes. Whatās your point exactly? We have always done so. Some of ye lads are taking they often valid criticisms of Oirsh rubby the wrong way. Soccer, bogball and stick hurling all get a ton of criticism too, and for often perfectly valid reasons.
This whole they are not ārepresentativeā thing is bullshitty enough really. I see Ewan saying 14 of the players dont represent him. Leaving out furlong. Iād be fairly sure a good few of the privately educated lads would come from more similar backgrounds to Ewan than furlong. Where do we draw the line? Sure nearly all gaa players now would be roughly middle class and university educated. Very few from council estates. A lot of the dubs went to private schools. Loads of the gaa greats boarded in jarlaths, flannans, colmans etc
I would contend that Flannanās, Jarksths etc showed how representative the GAA was as youād have boarders who were the sons of wealthy farmers playing next to townies from council estates.
Loughman too. Apparently Paul Mescalās brother did the same with Blackrock though he didnāt get that far after school.
I donāt think St Michaels are producing the number of players that they do without there being talent funnelled through there. Not scholarships but kids who are good at rugby going there for that reason.
