That is one of the reasons why WR changed the tackle rules, to avoid direct head hits (although it might be just a huge cover your ass kinda move, to avoid future lawsuits, from WR)
They had a report on the news about some Irish rugby player missing the World Cup. I looked up and thought it must be a bad injury. Turns out it was a woman. 
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Niamh Briggs our captain is out of WRWC . This is an awful blow for the team and indeed the competition with the host nation’s most identifiable player out . To give people an idea this would be like Naymar missing the soccer World Cup in Brazil .
This competition is gonna drive loads of the lads in here ape.
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Fixed.
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Are we hosting it? Is this a dry run for the mens?
Tough week for West Waterford sports stars. First the Tadhg de Burca sending off and suspension, now this news about Niamh Briggs.
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Yes and no .
In fairness, she’s probably got a lot more publicity from missing the tournament through injury than she would have from playing in it.
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Wayne Rooney introduced the majority of Britons to metatarsal bones . Injuries to superstars do catch the public imagination .
Look at the hysteria in Kilkenny in 2010 with Henry’s injury .
Becks introduced the British public to metatarsals in 2002.
That public training session before that final is Aaron Kernan’s favourite ever GAA moment.
Hysteria was a Def Leppard album. Def Leppard had a one-armed drummer. Kilkenny had two one-legged hurlers in that final. It was a wounded cat that took to the field that day, for sure.
Rick Savage was the drummer . Hysteria was awful and never matched Pyromania’s sales .
You are correct on Becks. He led on the metatarsal which added further to my point .
This new pro 14 sounds like some cluster fuck.
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Does seem overly complex in the effort to retain the derby games. Its rushed too but neccesarily so (the two SA sides would have been wound up otherwise) so they had to decide on a structure months after they began process of selling the season tickets so had to match the promised games/derbys. Id say that will change next season.
Worth a go though for sure. Bringing a lot of money to the table relative to existing deals. Will be loads of teething problems though. For e.g. the Kings were quite competitive against most sides bar the Kiwis last yr but because they knew they wete being cut from super rugby they allowed loads of players to leave to europe and to other SA sides so they need to pull in a lot of players now. The SA sides will also only have had a 6 or 7 week break between super rugby and start of pro 12
Super rugby final is this Saturday and reasonable chance of a SA winner. But just to give an example of the shit structure in that. The two semis were on last Saturday. Crusaders won the first played at 8 pm kiwi time. The 2nd semi was at lunch time in SA. The winner of the 2nd decided who was at home in the final this saturday. So the kiwi players couldnt go to bed as they had to get on a plane at 4am to go to SA if the Lions won (which they did from 22-3 down, scored 41 points in last 45 mins of game). Crusaders by far best of all through league phase but Lions ended up with better record as they were playing much poorer sides in the conference systems. Its completely fucked up comp structure but they have no choice in it. Brilliant rugby at latter stages though
At first I was pretty much of the same opinion, but after hearing more and more details the feel of dread is going away more and more. Still seems to me a bit of a clusterfuck tbh, but no so much as the beginning. The flight time/distance between SA-Ire/Sco/Wal (and the potential impact on the players) still bother me though.
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I can wait to hear the tales of derring do as the brave and the faithful make their way by camper van to Bloemfontein to witness a vital bonus point defeat.
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I won’t be disappointed either if we are not treated in 10 years time to yarns about the bitter historical rivalry between the Leinster Laighins and the Southern Kings
A camper van through the Congo would be a real test of them