Scrums should be banned anyway. An awful spectacle at best and a chance of a life threatening injury at worst. That and the rolling mauls, garryowens, rewarding teams who kick the ball out of play, the utter cunts that follow and play the game, Irelandâs Call, British Lions, vomit inducing pet namesâŚ
Need I go on? Or can someone take over from highlighting the wrongs of this abomination of a *sport
Given you always feel the need to comment on Tomas OâLeary every time he plays Iâm assuming youâre counting yourself in the bolded category?
:rolleyes:
Alright mate?
People are forgetting about the art of rummaging and how this is dying out of the game too, in the modern game you need people adept at both pushing and rummagingâŚ
While you get the odd LH prop who is relatively comfortable at TH, generally speaking most LHâs would regard move to TH as difference between winning the lottery and working 50 hour weeks down a mine. Even though Court is still probably our second best TH he is nowhere near as comfortable on that side. At LH he can more than hold his own and I think dans criticism of him is little bit harsh. One needs to only look at how frontrow of Court Best and Afoa have performed this year to illustrate how Court can do very well once played in position and with good support.
Even on Saturday I think Court wasnât helped by a couple of factors
That said Court was probably too high and didnât seem to learn his lesson which is pretty damning. I donât think Ross did himself any favours in his time on the field either mind.
IRFU way too late in reacting to this but better late than never. Ulster Branch need to get finger out and appoint a scrum coach too. Bit ridiculous that Leinster have one and Ulster have none. Just because Ulster scrum is doing well is no excuse.
My criticism of him? He was made shit of, granted not on his best side but he was still destroyed. Anyways was using him as a convenient example really to illustrate the point that there are far better scrummagers out there who wonât make pro props for other, non scrummaging reasons. Was he not a TH when he came to Ulster first?
Yes I donât really know many better LH props around in the country at the moment. I think it is fairly easy to say x or y could be better scrummager despite not having played at pro level. Impossible to know really.
Court hasnât played at TH rugby for four five years now dan. Actually canât remember last time he started match at TH. Paddy Wallace used to play outhalf. He isnât a outhalf though.
Not making any criticism of him as a LH as well you know it. The fact that he was, and felt himself, that he was originally a TH is a different story Lar and makes matters worse!
You only need to go watch the AIL an youl see pro props getting done by amateurs quite regularly. Munster have an AIL prop in their extented squad for this exact reason, trying to condition him sufficiently for pro game at te moment, but thatâs a slow process
Well I didnt see you qualifying your criticism of him dan but if I picked u up wrong apologies. I thought ur criticism was general one and not specific one. I do watch AIL. I canât think of many better scrummagers than Court but if there are options in Munster thatâs good to hear. Paddy McCallister looks good prospect and can make good impact. Different matter doing it for 80 mins mind. I have seen several props doing very well in bits and pieces but few have done it consistently. Donât think ithats always related to conditioning either.
I think these apparently awesome amateur pushers would be transported direct into the national team if they were capable of pushing the professional pushers backwards with ease. Thatâs patently a load of bullshit posted by dancarter.
Something I donât think has been mentioned so far but has to be important to the debate - what is the right age for a young man to start pushing?
Read my posts, they can push but they might not be able to run, or push for more than 20 mins at pr pace
My point on the scrummaging is that you will have guys with superior technique, who can do a number on a professional , but who do not have the other elements (I.e sufficient athleticism) to play in the professional game. Gerry Cronin is in the Ulster squad, heâs a good example, he can scrummage v v well but is years behind in the other aspects of the game required to get to the top level. If it were American football and you could do special teams for scrums it would suit the likes of him v well. He got his contract on the back of destroying two contracted props in an AI cup final for ballynahinch as an amateur, he played junior rugby in Cork 4/5 years ago