Changing the subject completely but what great ‘privilege’ do the likes of these fellas enjoy in this day and age? I would have thought going to a private school like Blackrock or Clongowes is nearly a negative to you in the rest your life given how much most people dislike them and the reverse snobbery that goes on.
I can’t really see the any great ‘advantages’ that they get over the likes of you and me who come from decent family backgrounds and go to decent free schools…
In my opinion Farmer TOL has brought little if anything to the party
He may occasionally make a break that Stringer wouldn’t but he doesn’t do any of the basics as well as Stringer and our team suffers for it. Our back play has ben poor for the past 2 seasons coinciding with TOL’s elevation.
He doesn’t kick well, he doesn’t pass well and he takes an age to make up his mind and yet he has the starting position at Munster and Ireland.
Stringer is a fantastic scrum half and its only in his absence that people are properly beginning to appreciate him.
Totally agree. TOL is hopeless. Stringer provided the only moment of skill and guile in the game v Scotland last year and set up the drop goal with a pass TOL would def have fucked up. TOL should have stuck to hurling.
I’ll be coming to the coaching situation later in the week but I want to put down a few thoughts on the starting XV for the rest of the competition. I think it’s a given there’ll now be a new half back pairing for Twickenham - the pity being that the changes some of us were crying out for a couple of weeks ago weren’t made prior to Paris, but we must move on.
I think it’s interesting to note the amount of people crediting Leo Cullen’s two displays, while stating that O’Callaghan should replace him nonetheless. The matter being completely and conveniently overlooked in many quarters is, yet again, Paul O’Connell’s chronic underperformance for Ireland. I believe O’Callaghan’s contribution at the breakdown is being overstated somewhat but, even at that, if Cullen and O’Connell are considered too ‘like for like’ then it’s Leo who should remain in the team based on their respective starts to the championship and indeed provincial form over the past 12-18 months (including direct match ups between Cullen and O’Connell).
Some of us were ridiculed when we previously referred to O’Connell’s inability to catch restarts or balls dropping at a steep angle, his tendency to ‘hang out’ in the three quarters where he regularly disrupts and gets in the way of back line moves, the resulting neglect of his duties in the tight, his ineffective and, as Stephen Jones put it, ‘arthritic’ ball carrying, his lack of presence at and failure to hit rucks and the point Matt Williams makes, and with which I agree, the lack of leverage he provides when scrummaging behind the tight head.
He’s good at securing line out possession when he’s lifted up and the ball is coming at him from a close distance at near enough right angles. Other than that he’s a distinctly average rugby footballer and he doesn’t deserve to be in the team given his own poor displays and the better play and form of other players in his position.
The amount of absolute horseshit that has been written in this thread is astonishing.
+1.
You do know this whole thread is a wind up?
Nobody here even watches rugby.
Ah lovely, it only took 3 weeks
People here are writing off Ronan O’Gara and Tomas O’Leary far too soon. There’s a really tight battle at the top of AIL Division 1 and both will have crucial roles to play for their clubs over the rest of the season. Cork Con and Dolphin will be so much the better for their return, and you’d fancy the title will be heading to one of the Leeside clubs this season. O’Gara is the King of Temple Hill
Someone I know referenced S Jones in a text to me about Sat’s match the other day, I deleted the text and doubt I’ll ever interact with him again.
Cracking sig btw.
Do you not support Liverpool?
Larry, if there is one thing this site has in abundance, its hypocrites, dozens of them.
If i’m going to support a financial sporting organisation at least its going to be an Irish one. Its funny that some of the most anti-rugby/munster/leinster/“ireland” blaaa blaaa blaaa people on here can nearly always be found on the CL thread, an Aston Villa thread, a liverpool thread, the NFL thread or talking about cricket or whatever.
When you see the likes of wtb, farmer, KIB, bandage or whoever talking about this kind of stuff, just have a little chuckle. Can’t understand why they don’t just talk about their own interests, and learn to tolerate/respect the other ones.
A week for every nation. A six week ban for Flannery.
Yep…
Ireland’s Jerry Flannery will miss the rest of the Six Nations after receiving a six-week ban for kicking France’s Alexis Palisson in last weekend’s game.
The Ireland hooker received the ban after attending a disciplinary hearing in Dublin on Wednesday.
The Munster player had been cited for “an alleged kick” on Palisson even though referee Wayne Barnes merely awarded a penalty after the incident.
Flannery has the option of appealing against the ban.
The six-week ban means that Ulster hooker Rory Best is now in line to start for Ireland in the remainder of the Six Nations.
Flannery, who pleaded guilty and acknowledged the offence deserved a red card, has been banned until March 29, ruling him out of Ireland’s fixtures against England, Wales and Scotland.
An independent disciplinary panel found the offence, which forced Palisson from the field with a dead leg, had been reckless rather than deliberate.
Ireland’s next match is away to England on 27 February.
The minimum suspension for the offence is four weeks but the mid-range sanction for the offence is an eight to 12-week ban, which can be extended to a possible year.
Best had been expected to miss the entire season after undergoing surgery on a neck injury last summer but recently returned to club action in Ireland before turning out for Ireland Wolfhounds against Scotland A at Ravenhill.
Best replaced Flannery during the second half of Saturday’s game in Paris, as he had done in Ireland’s Six Nations opener against Italy in Dublin seven days earlier.
Referee Barnes had consulted his touch judge Stuart Terheege, who believed the challenge to be a ‘shoulder charge’ and Flannery escaped a potential red card.
France’s dominant display ended defending champions Ireland’s hopes of back-to-back grand slams.
He’ll take his medicine if he has sense
Flannery has previous so was lucky that was all he got
Our disciplinary record has disimproved drastically over the past few years
Flannery
Quinlan
Hayes
Jennings all suspended
Just goes to show that our players are no different when it comes to foul play
4 suspensions suspensions in 12 months out of 40 odd lads playing every other week surely isn’t that bad a record considering what the French and English have got up to over the past 12 months?
Your right, the French have been a joke.
Flannery deserved a suspension, but one game would have been enough. But in line with the severity of suspensions in rugby its probably fair enough.
And your right wby, he should take his medicine.
I wonder if the French lad didn’t have to go off injured, would Flannery have gotten such a severe ban?
These are the types of things I wonder about in my head sometimes.
Well the French may not have cited him had yer man not gone off, thats the only difference i can see.