Back in the day when I was living in England, the Monday after an Ireland-England Five Nations match was usually a day to keep the head down. Back then, the Chariot was in its pomp, and it was a rare occasion where we managed to stop its progress. These days though, it’s different. We go into this tie as favourites, and have won six of the last seven.

We won today despite several factors. We won despite the fact that England had the ball for most of the game. We won despite the fact that the ref was in hometown mode, and we got shag all off him for the whole game. We won despite the fact that we lost our talismanic captain to an incident of friendly fire on the 70th minute. We won despite the fact that Sexton had a mare with the boot.

But whatever the possession and territory stats show, the important stats were those that showed we scored three tries to one, and ended the game four points to the good. Possession and territory count for very little if you don’t have anything to show for it at the end of the day. We were there for the taking for long periods of the game, but we weren’t taken. However, when our chances came, we pounced on them. Our three tries came from our wing men, and Tommy Bowe’s second one in particular will live long in the memory. O’Connell claims it from the lineout, down to O’Leary, out to Bowe, who runs an exquisite line to get in under the posts.

I’m still struggling to understand just how England managed to have their try awarded. There is a convention relating to TMO decisions whereby if you can’t see it, you can’t give it. No replay showed a clearcut grounding of the ball by an English hand, and even the ref (who probably had the best view of all) was surprised when the TMO came back to recommend awarding the try.

After today, we are third in the table, with two wins from three. Our points difference is inferior to England, so they stay ahead of us for now. Assuming France beat them in Paris (and I honestly can’t see otherwise), we should finish second, providing we can do the business over Wales and Scotland at home. We are the only ones left who can win the Triple Crown (not that it means much these days anyway.)

The company I work for now has an office in London. I’ll try to resist being smug in my emails on Monday. That resistance could be futile.

Tags: Rugby, six nations

After the disappointment of Paris two weeks ago, Ireland look to get their Six Nations campaign back on track against England in Twickenham tomorrow.

Our record against England has been very good in recent years, and we have only lost to them once in the six times the teams have met since England won the World Cup in 2003. Two of those wins have been at Twickenham.

Neither team has gotten off to a great start in this year’s Championship. Our first outing, against Italy in Croke Park, was over as a contest by half time, and Ireland just stopped playing in the second half. Then we were slaughtered by France in the next match. England have won both of their matches so far, but have looked far from convincing.

Ireland have four changes in the starting XV from the side that lost to France. Jerry Flannery is out due to suspension and Rob Kearney is injured, so they are replaced by Rory Best and Geordan Murphy respectively. ROG makes way for Jonathan Sexton (I don’t buy this bullshit that ROG was ‘dropped’ - Kidney has to invest in Sexton so that he has two competent out-halves for the World Cup), and Donncha O’Callaghan replaces Leo Cullen in the second row. There has been some media commentary suggesting that Cullen had done enough in the first two games to retain his place. Cullen is a good player, and is of course the captain of the current Heineken Cup champions. His lineout work was very good in the two games he played, and he nicked a good few opposition throws. But Donners is a better option in the loose, at the breakdown and just being a menace to the opposition.

If we can get quality possession and get the backs moving, it should be a good day for Ireland. If their forwards frustrate us, it could end up as a terrible game, all pullin’ and dhraggin’.

Tomorrow also marks a magnificent achievement by one of Ireland’s greatest servants over the last decade. John Hayes will make his 100th Test appearance for Ireland, which is a phenomenal record for a prop. You know those great lineout steals that Paul O’Connell does, where he soars majestically into the air and comes away with the opposition ball? That’s as much about John Hayes as it is about Paul O’Connell, as he is the man lifting O’Connell. In the picture here (courtesy of Willie Joe) he’s hoisting Leo Cullen at the lineout by himself. Cullen is 111kg, or 17st 6lb in the old money. Remember Jean de Villiers’s try for Munster against Perpignan in the away game? That wouldn’t have happened if John Hayes hadn’t hit that ruck and turned the ball over. John Hayes operates under the radar. He’s never won a Man of the Match award, and would probably be mortified if he did. He doesn’t seek the limelight. He wasn’t even at the reception in Dublin last year to welcome home the Grand Slam winning team. He will hate all the attention he gets tomorrow, and would probably prefer if his 100th cap was treated exactly the same as the 99 that came before it.

So, let’s call it. Yes we should, and I believe that we will. Not by much, but a win all the same.

Tags: Rugby, six nations

As has often been the case before, Ireland’s ambitions for glory have been buried in a French graveyard. We can’t have any complaints. France were just imperious on Saturday, and as much as we may hate losing to them, we just gotta take it on the chin and move on.

There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth in the aftermath of this match. Some seem to think that we are back to the wilderness days as a result. We lost one game, our first in fifteen months. Granted, we were stuffed 33-10, but the way France played on Saturday, any team facing them would have come away with a similar hiding.

All too often we have taken some serious punishment in Paris. Having beaten them there in 2000 and again back in Dublin in 2001, they crushed us 44-5 in 2002. In 2006, they were out of sight by half time, and were leading 43-3 when Ireland eventually realised that they had a game to play. We came back with four unanswered tries, but still ended up 12 points short. Two years ago, it was a closer affair, but we still lost 26-21.

So where do we go from here? Well, to Twickenham, of course - hopefully to get our campaign back on track. Our chances of winning the Championship are remote now, as France are in the driving seat and look like going all the way to a Grand Slam. I reckon that this defeat gives Declan Kidney an opportunity to do some forward planning. The World Cup is a little over 18 months away, and several of our first-choice players are the wrong side of thirty. Now is the time to start developing a bit more depth to the squad, and bringing lads in from the fringes in order to give them some big match experience. You’d never know, we might end up winning the rest of the matches anyway.

Not even the most wide-eyed follower of Ireland could have expected the wins to keep on coming ad infinitum. While it was disappointing to lose on Saturday, it could have been worse, like if Stephen Jones had converted that last minute penalty in Croke Park last season to pull the Grand Slam from under our noses. Whatever happens now, we can look back at 2009 and see an unbeaten Irish team with a Grand Slam won. No-one can take that achievement from us, not even the French.

Tags: Rugby, six nations

The Winter Olympics kick off tonight in Vancouver, and the opening ceremony will be of special interest to us here in Portarlington. Local woman Aoife Hoey will be the flagbearer for the Irish team at the ceremony.

Aoife and her bobsleigh partner Claire Bergin have been the subject of much controversy this week, as they had to contend with two challenges to their rightful place at the Games. First the Australian team tried to take their place (despite having finished below the Irish women in qualifying) because they were the only representatives from Oceania, and therefore were entitled to a place. The Court of Arbitration for Sport decided that they should be allowed compete, but not at the expense of the Irish. Then Brazil stuck their necks out and said they should be allowed compete too - again in place of the Irish team. No decision has been made yet, but it is expected that this will be thrown out.

After all they have been through, Aoife and Claire deserve our wholehearted support. Hopefully there will be a decent-sized Irish contingent in Vancouver to cheer them on.

Coverage of the opening ceremony starts at 01.45, on BBC2.

Tags: winter olympics, portarlington

I normally do a preview of the Six Nations every year, but with the new little fella making his debut last weekend, I didn’t get a chance this time around.

The show kicked off this afternoon, with 2009 Grand Slam Champions Ireland facing Italy at Croke Park. Nobody really expected a shock here, and indeed none came. Ireland had it sewn up by half time, but a spirited display by the Azzurri in the second half prevented the match from turning into a rout. In the end Ireland ran out 29-11 winners.

This was followed by England entertaining Wales at Twickenham. Two years ago, Wales won this fixture 26-19, which set them on their way to their second Grand Slam on the decade. It was not to be this time around. After a really desperate, forgettable first half, play opened up after the break. England finished the stronger, winning 30-17. France and Scotland meet in Edinburgh tomorrow.

This year sees Ireland play two away games and the other three at home. To someone unfamiliar with the competition, this might be seem to be a favourable season for Ireland, but of course, it isn’t. The two away games are against France and England. In recent times, we have had a very good record against England, and have only lost once to them since 2004 and beaten them five times. Tellingly though, the last time we were beaten by them was the last time we were in Twickenham.

France is a different story. From 1972 to 1999, we lost every single game against them. We beat them in 2000, 2001 and 2003, and then lost five in a row to them (plus two World Cup games) until we finally got the better of them in Croke Park last year. Our next game is in Paris, and this is the game upon which our Six Nations chances rest. If we can beat them, then I think we have every chance of retaining the title and with it a second Grand Slam.

There will be a lot of criticism of Ireland’s display today, but I’m not too worried at this stage. It was the first match of the tournament, so you can expect that all the moves might not come off. Also we were missing some stalwarts of the first team, notably Marcus Horan and Donncha O’Callaghan. I expected Leo Cullen to have a better game than he did, and Rob Kearney will want to forget today for ever. Also, sometimes inferior opposition just try to close the game down, and that’s what Italy did today. They never looked like being able to create anything,and their try came from an Irish mistake. We will know better how good this Ireland side are once they take to the field in Paris next weekend and face a top class outfit.

So how will we do? As I said, it all depends on next week. If we win, the championship is there for the taking. If we don’t, we might still sneak it (along with a Triple Crown) providing France slip up along the way.

Winning the Grand Slam last year was a superb achievement. Retaining it would be even more so. As well as having to go and win in Paris and London, every other team in the competition will be looking to bring us down a peg or two. If Ireland can retain the title this year, they will truly go down in history as one of the greatest sports teams from this island to have ever taken the field.

Greatness awaits. Let’s hope our men have it within them to grasp it.

Tags: Rugby, six nations

Munster’s reward for topping the seedings after the Pool stages of the Heineken Cup is to be drawn against the last team they played against in the competition - Northampton. This had become evident by Saturday afternoon as the action around the grounds unfolded. If memory serves me correctly, this is the first time this has happened for Munster.

Northampton are the only Guinness Premiership team left in the competition, and you can be sure that Sky Sports will be bigging them up come quarter-final day. Sky always try to put forward the impression that they are impartial, but whenever a Premiership team is in the hunt, particularly one with a smattering of young English internationals, the mask slips. Barnes and Harrison were painful to listen to on Friday night. In their eyes, Shane Geraghty was running the show, when in fact he was having a mare.

I think it’s good to have tough opposition in the quarters, because if Munster can get past a difficult opponent at that point, they get momentum for the next two games. Last year, they slaughtered a poor Ospreys at Thomond in the quarter finals, and then got done over by Leinster in the semis - a team they had beaten twice in the Magners League earlier in the season.

If we get past Northampton, then an away semi final awaits, against either Biarritz or the Ospreys.

Leinster will entertain Clermont Auvergne at home in the quarters and if they get through that, they will be on the road to France for the semi against either Toulouse or Stade. Which opens up the possibility of an All-Ireland Final in Paris, the first one to be played offshore since Cavan bate Kerry in New York in ’47.

Tags: Rugby, munster, Heineken Cup

Despite the best efforts of the referee Romain Poite, Munster managed to keep their noses ahead of Northampton in tonight’s Heineken Cup sixth round pool match at Thomond Park.

I always think that it’s a poor show when the ref ends up as the most influential man on the pitch, and so it was tonight. There was hardly a single decent scrum in the whole match, with the front rows unable to engage properly. Any other top level referee would have stopped the rot early on, hauling the two front rows out and explaining that they had to come in straight. Instead he let them infringe at will. When Paul O’Connell tried to draw his attention to it, he was accused of trying to interfere.

In case anyone needs reminding, this little bollix was the very same ref who tried to ruin the Munster - All Blacks match in November 2008.

But still we won. It wasn’t pretty, but then Northampton came here looking for a win in order to ensure qualification. The bonus point they picked up means that they probably still will get through, and might even end up back at Thomond for the quarter final.

Moment of the match was when Northampton has a succession of five-metre scrums on the Munster line. At the time they were getting all the scrummaging decisions going their way. Munster held them out and looked like they had turned them over, but Monsieur Poite decided that Paul O’Connell had handled in the ruck and binned him. Then the seven men of the Munster pack managed to get one against the head of the dominant Northampton eight-man unit. In an intensely ugly match, it was a rare moment of beauty.

This was Munster’s toughest match to date. There will be sore bodies tomorrow morning, but at least the pain will not have been borne in vain. Munster are three matches away from regaining the Heineken Cup. They must show the same level of doggedness and tenacity in the knockout stages, whoever they meet. Improvement is needed too in certain areas, especially the scrum.

The elite players go off now to International duty. When they come back (hopefully with the Six Nations Trophy safely back in the IRFU cabinet), they will have to be prepared for even more of the same.

Tags: Rugby, munster, Heineken Cup

How many times have we been here before? Last round of the pool stages of the Heineken Cup, and Munster welcome a high-flying English team to Thomond Park for a winner-takes-all do-or-die encounter. Gloucester have been here, as have Sale and Wasps. The only team ever to have spoiled the party for Munster was Leicester back in 2007, but we were qualified by then anyway.

Northampton Saints are the latest to make the trek to Limerick in order to try to upset the Munster applecart. To many of the players, this will be seen as just another match. But how that perception will change when they run out onto the pitch and see the sea of red and hear the deafening roar. Thomond is as intimidating a place to come to for an opposing player as you can imagine. (But in a nice sort of way, you understand. Munster rugby people are very welcoming folk in every other way. Just don’t get cocky, or presume that you might win.)

This should be a Munster win. Not necessarily a comfortable one, and a bonus point will not be considered before the game kicks off. Munster need to win in order to get a home quarter final, and they have been in this type of situation before.

“But Munster have never beaten Northampton in the Heineken Cup, and the Saints have a better scrum, and they’re third in the Guinness Premiership, and, and, and…”

And bollocks. Northampton have never faced Munster in Thomond Park on the last weekend of the pool stage before.

Tags: munster, Heineken Cup, Rugby

There is a thing about Munster and respect (as Bock noted yesterday.) Famously, whenever a kicker - home or away team - is addressing the placed ball at Thomond Park, the crowd fall silent to allow the kicker to concentrate. You never see a Munster player showboat when scoring a try. He may celebrate, of course, but he will do so respectfully. Munster have only lost one Heineken Cup match there in the entire history of the competition, but it remains the top ground for rugby fans all over Europe to come to. Your team may take one hell of a beating, but at least they and the supporters will be treated with respect. (The only visiting team to depart from that script was Leicester, when they beat Munster at Thomond in 2007. But there is huge mutual respect between Munster and Leicester, so we have no issue with that fact.)

What you should never do when you come to Thomond is abuse that respect afforded to you. In the home fixture last Saturday night week, Phillip Burger of Perpignan scored a peach of a try. Most Munster folk, rugby people to their fingertips, would have applauded the score had it not been for what Burger did once he’d touched down. The cheeky pup cupped his ear as if to say “We don’t hear you signing any more.” Bad mistake.

The great thing about Munster is that most of the players are actually from the province. We have a few high-profile imports, who by and large, a bit like the Anglo-Normans who came to Ireland in the 12th century, have become as much Munster as the natives. Given that such a big percentage of the players are of the province itself, it follows that their supporters should be made up of many of their family members, friends and neighbours.

Burger’s gesture was fundamentally disrespectful to the Munster fans, and by extension, the team. And when you do that to Munster, they will punish you. Just as Munster did to Perpignan yesterday.

Before the match, I wasn’t too hopeful that Munster would get much out of their visit to Stade Aime Girail. A losing bonus point would have been a decent day’s work, I reckoned. Munster hadn’t put in a truly convincing Heineken Cup performance since they dismembered the Ospreys in last year’s quarter final, and their away form this season was dismal. Things just weren’t clicking. The scrum was not performing as it should, the backs weren’t making their presence felt and ROG seemed to be trudging across the Valley of Lost Confidence.

Now, of course the reason behind Munster’s incredible performance yesterday may have had nothing at all to do with Burger’s little sideshow. It may have been Vivalda’s comment that he felt he was playing the Munster Academy in Thomond (mind you, the Academy provided a good few player to the team that only narrowly lost to the All Blacks last November twelve months.) Or maybe it was the players collectively deciding that they simply were not going to allow themselves to come out second best any more. Whatever it was, it worked.

As well as watching the match live (a big thank you to Aoife for taking her nap while the match was on), we Sky+’d it too and I watched it again last night. When you’re not concentrating on how the match might end up, it’s easier to be more analytical and appreciate the individual performances of the players. There were huge performances from all areas of the park. The dominance of the breakdown was a pleasure to behold. O’Connell at the lineout and the restarts. Leamy, Wallace and Quinlan hitting the rucks. Earls taking the ball at speed. ROG’s kicking. O’Leary’s breaks. Wallace’s defence. Warwick’s presence at the back. Quinny’s garryowens (his what??)

As the press said today, this was up there with the best of Munster’s previous smash and grab forays in the south of France. But, going back to my original point, did you see any Munster player disrespect the home crowd or their team?

No. Because it’s not the Munster way.

Tags: Rugby, Heineken Cup, munster

The biggest call made by Declan Kidney today, in announcing his match squad for Saturday, was the inclusion of Jonathan Sexton at outhalf, with Ronan O’Gara on the bench. Some Leinster fans I know are citing this as evidence of Leinster’s further eclipse of Munster. Some Munster fans are suggesting that Kidney has bowed to pressure from the media.

This is all bollocks. Jonathan Sexton has shown excellent form since the start of the season, and therefore he deserves a start in a top-class international test. It’s not like he’s a callow 19 year old, wet behind the ears - he’s 24 and has been a professional for some time now. He deserves his chance and I hope he has a magnificent game for Ireland.

When Declan Kidney was head coach at Munster, no-one owned the red shirt on their back. He promoted Tomás O’Leary at the expense of Peter Stringer, and even dropped the great Munster lidgind Axel Foley. It’s the same in the Ireland camp - no-one owns their shirt.

Will it affect O’Gara’s confidence when he comes back to Munster? I doubt it somehow. If anything, it might help him improve.

Tags: Rugby

We all know that the French can be a right shower of bastards when they want to be. Just ask the New Zealanders. Back in 1985, they sank a Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior, in Auckland Harbour, drowning a photographer in the process. Ten years later, they started testing nuclear weapons in the South Pacific, blowing the shit out of a number of atolls in the region.

Judging by the hysteria in the media today, you would swear that the French navy had steered a nuclear submarine into Irish territorial waters and started sinking Irish fishing trawlers. Dermot Ahern has called for the game to be replayed. A senator from Wexford was on The Last Word suggesting that we take legal action against the French. Brian Cowen is going to raise the matter with Nicolas Sarkozy.

As Harry Enfield's Scousers used to say - "Eh! Eh! Calm down! Calm down!"

I love me sport as much as the next man, but that's what it is - sport. Unless you make your living from it, and you stand to lose out as a result of us not qualifying for the World Cup, then in the overall scheme of things, it's not that important. Certainly it's disappointing that our team's Herculean efforts were scuppered in such an unsporting manner. Having played so well over the course of the qualifying campaign (and having to play both of the finalists of the last World Cup), it is heartbreaking for the players, the management and all backroom staff to have been cheated out of their place in the World Cup.

But it doesn't warrant the acres of newsprint and the hours of airtime that have been expended analysing the nitty-gritty of what happened. And as for the politicians jumping on the bandwagon - two thoughts come to mind. One: there is nothing like The National Grudge for uniting the people. For years, the National Grudge was all about those perfidious Brits. But now that We Have Grown Up As A Nation, we can look beyond the white cliffs of Dover to see others who might do us down. We like our National Grudge. We like to take it out of its box every now and then, especially when times are hard, stroke it, feed and water it. What happened last night is perfect food for the NG. We were wronged. FIFA didn't want us going to South Africa anyway. They can all go and shite, so they can, we're off to the pub to sulk and pick at our scabs.

Secondly - this is s perfect diversion to keep the people's minds off the recession, the public sector strikes, the queues in the hospitals, the unemployment, the budget, NAMA, and everything else that makes up the utter clusterfuck¹ our government has led us into. Formal intervention on this issue by any politician is populist bullshit. I have no problem with them voicing their opinion on the matter from a personal point of view, but this nonsense of Cowen raising the issue with Sarkozy is just loo-laa.

The people who are responsible for complaining about this matter on an official level are the FAI. Let them raise the issue with FIFA, and the politicians can get back to doing what they're supposed to do.

¹ I first heard this word used by Sgt Jay Landsman in The Wire, and vowed that one day I would use it in a post.

It must have been the experience of playing in Croke Park that influenced Thierry Henry to use his hand in setting up the French goal this evening.

Cheating French fuckers, may their World Cup be like the one they had in 2002.

Having not played together since March, Ireland put in a spirited display in their opening Autumn International against Australia today. They never held the lead, and managed to draw level twice, most crucially at the end of the match, to earn a 20-20 draw.

It was clear from early on that the Ireland players were having to get used to playing together again. There were mistakes aplenty early on, one of which allowed the Aussies in for a try in the third minute. The scrum was a shambles, and in one instance the Irish pack was marched back off their own put in. They were second best at the breakdown for much of the match.

They managed to get going during the second half, and a period of sustained pressure on the Australian line saw Tommy Bowe get over for Ireland's first try. ROG added the conversion to bring the sides level. However, shortly afterwards, a superb team effort by the visitors saw them cross the line again, and Ireland were seven behind again.

But that was not to last. Again, Ireland piled the pressure on the Aussie line, and once again Bowe got over. However the try couldn't be seen by the TMO, and the try was not given. From the ensuing five metre scrum, captain Brian O'Driscoll waltzed his Matilda through the Aussie defence to score under the posts. Once again O'Gara added the extras and that was it.

Plenty of positives to be taken from this game. For a start, Ireland didn't give up. They kept going to the end and got the reward. Secondly, there were some very good performances from individual players. Cian Healy had a good game, and showed that he is useful in the loose. Keith Earls was another to shine, coming on after Luke Fitzgerald went off injured.

Fiji next week, and then the big one the week after - World Champions, Lions Tour Winners and Tri-Nations Champions South Africa.

Tags: Rugby

Ireland's first international of the season takes place on Sunday, when we welcome Australia to Croke Park. The groundsmen at GAA HQ will have had a busy Saturday night, having to change the pitch over from a soccer layout to a rugby one.

This is the first time that the first choice Ireland team will have played together since that heart-stopping, destiny-fulfilling thriller in Cardiff last March. There was a summer tour of course, but the bulk of Ireland's elite players were in South Africa on Lions duty. So it will be good to see the full team back, and hopefully they aren't too ring rusty since their last outing.

As you might expect from any visiting Southern Hemisphere team, the challenge from Australia will be a formidable one. But to be honest, we won't know for sure till Sunday just how good the Wallabies are. They beat a weak England last weekend, and were caught in the crossfire of the SA/NZ shootout that was the Tri-Nations.

One area of potential worry is the scrum, the front row in particular. One one side, we have John Hayes, returning after a six-week layoff due to suspension for stamping. On the other side is the stampee in that incident, Cian Healy, who is making his international debut. Healy is a good player and has established himself within the first-choice Leinster team, so hopefully he will be able to bring those positives with him once he puts on the green jersey. In between is Jerry Flannery, who is just back from injury, and who picked up a minor knock in training today.

Elsewhere, Ronan O'Gara will need to have a good game, as he now has not just one but two pretenders to his throne. Jonathan Sexton will be on the bench on Sunday, hoping to get a chance to show his stuff. In addition, Ian Humphries is showing his form for both Ulster and Ireland 'A' at the moment, and could well stake a claim for the full international No 10 jersey.

There are too many unknowns to make an informed prediction, so I am going to make an uninformed one - Ireland by five.

Tags: Rugby

So, I got my ticket for the Treviso match through the Supporters' Club lottery (tho' in fairness, I don't think it was all that much of a lottery. If you applied for one, you got one.) We went to Cork for the weekend, so I scabbed a lift to Limerick from Mr & Mrs Munstermad.

To say that the first thirty minutes or so were worrying would be understating things a tad. I had to rub my eyes a couple of times whenever I looked at the scoreboard and saw Munster 0, Treviso 10. But, in truth, the scoreboard told no lie. Munster were second best in the opening quarter if the game. The scrum was a shambles, and there was little or no shape to the team overall. ROG's crisis of confidence when addressing the dead ball clearly hadn't been resolved.

Munster started the match with only one of the regulars in the front row. John Hayes was out due to suspension and Jerry Flannery was lost to injury. Marcus Horan went off midway through the first half, so we had our second choice front row in its entirety. They did manage to steady the ship, but I never felt confident at scrum time, especially on Treviso's put in.

Thankfully, things turned around as the first half drew to a close. First, Paul Warwick got over after a sustained period of pressure in Treviso 22. This was followed on the stroke of half-time by a wonderful cross-field kick from Keith Earls down the gullet of Ian Dowling (on for Doug Howlett, who had pulled a hamstring). The video ref had to take several looks before he decided that Dowling had not lost control of the ball before grounding it, but in the end awarded the five-pointer.

The second half was all Munster. Denis Leamy was in shortly after the match resumed, and another four were to follow, scored by Denis Fogarty, David Wallace, Ian Dowling (his second of the afternoon), and late on Jean de Villiers opened his account.

That's it now for the Heneken Cup till December, when we welcome USA Perpignan to Thomond. The Catalans are a tough bunch, and although they were beaten by Treviso in the first round, they came back to see off Northampton at the weekend.

Tags: Rugby, munster, Heineken Cup

So it was an eventful weekend of sport. Well, from a rugby and football point of view at least.

It all started off with Leinster falling to a shock home defeat to London Irish on Friday night. I didn't see all of the match, but it appears that the Exiles just didn't allow Leinster any space, and also dominated the line-out. Maybe Leinster, having scalped Munster the seekend before, thought they were invincible, and then got taken down by a sucker punch. In the pool stage of the Heineken Cup, the minimum required to advance is to win your home games, and then see what else you can pick up. These can be four-try bonus points at home, losing bonus points away, or better still an away win. Losing your home games makes it all the more difficult to keep your qualification destiny within your own hands.

Saturday evening saw Munster away to Northampton. Again, I didn't see this match (for reasons that will become clear sson), but we have it in the Sky+ can, so I'll have a look at it during the week. At one point, it looked like Munster were dead and buried, but they fought back to stay within seven at the end, and came away with a losing bonus point. They could have taken four points away at the end, but just couldn't make nearly five minutes of sustained pressure on the Northampton line count at the end of the match. They welcome Treviso to Thomond Park next Saturday, and I will be there.

The reason I didn't see the Munster match was because I was on my way to Croke Park to see Ireland take on Italy in the World Cup qualifier. This is the first soccer international I have been to in ages. Herself and I used to go to nearly every home game in years gone by, but the move to Port and the arrival of the wee 'un put a stop to that. But my father in law was going and he had a spare ticket, so I went with him.

What a match! On paper, Ireland should have been hosed by the World Champions, but they came out with the intention to win. Eight minutes in and they were one up. The Italians finally woke up and started to take control of the game. The way the Italians moved the ball around just showed the gulf in class between the two sides. But what Ireland lacked in class, they made up for in spirit and intent. Italy got one back in the twenty-somethingth minute, and it looked at that point that Ireland were going to be taken apart. But they held on, and in the 86th minute, pulled ahead once again. All of us there were on our feet, hoping, praying that they would be able to hold on for the greatest win in Irish football history since… well, since the last one. But it was not to be. In what was almost the last kick of the game, the Italians equalised for the second time, sealed their place at the World Cup in South Africa, and broke Irish hearts. Still, if we were offered a 2-2 draw before the game, most would have taken it. But, what could have been?

Here's my video of Glenn Whelan's goal:

Tags: Rugby, Heineken Cup, football

So, Saturday evening, in the midst of all the hoo-haa surrounding the Lisbon Referendum, Munster only go and get themselves beaten 30-0 by Leinster. As a Munster fan, I should be absolutely devastated and afraid to come out of the house, lest I happen to meet a blue-clad Foxrock boy called Christian or Fionn.

But, you know what, I'm not. Of course, I'm disappointed that Munster were well beaten, but it's not the end of the world. And just because Leinster are the Heineken Cup champions and have beaten Munster twice on the trot, doesn't necessarily mean that the earth is going to stop spinning on its axis. This time last year, Munster were the Heineken Cup champions and also whitewashed Leinster in the same fixture.

What it does mean is that we now have two of the strongest teams in Europe here in Ireland. Leinster have come a long way in the last few seasons, and at last are the equal of the men in red. As an Irish rugby fan, this is exactly the sort of situation we should welcome. There is now genuine competition for places in the national squad, and the twice-annual (at least) meetings of these two sides have become high points of the Irish sporting calendar.

OK, we lost on Saturday. But we did the same to them last year (in their paddock, it should be said - sorry, couldn't resist) and they went on to win the Heineken Cup. We'll beat them again at some point in the future, and they will beat us again. There is a very good chance that one or other will bring home the Heineken Cup to Ireland again this season.

There is one unanswered question from Saturday's match, though - wtf happened between John Hayes and Cian Healy? I didn't see the incident (not getting all Wengerish or anything - I didn't see the match at all), but I was shocked to hear John Hayes getting a straight red card. In all the times I have seen him play, I can't recall him even getting a yellow before this. No doubt all will be revealed at the disciplinary hearing at Ravenhill tomorrow.

Not wanting to stray onto the subject ground of my good friend Willie Joe, but I can’t let Sarah Carey’s column in today’s Irish Times go without comment. In it, she contends that the desire to see a rival county’s GAA team beaten can be stronger than the loyalty to one’s own county’s team. That’s fair enough, as there are plenty around the country who would belong to the ABK (Anyone But Kerry) or the ABDD (Anyone But De Dubs) camps.

She then reveals her own prejudices as a Meath native, and puts forward the reasons for her desire to see Dublin, Mayo, Kildare and Kerry lose. As a Mayoman, naturally I wanted to see what she had to say about my own native county:

“As for Mayo, I will never forgive them for their complaints when they lost to Meath in 1996. Gaelic football is a man’s game and I like my losers to take their beatings like men. I accept that in Meath’s case this statement might be unfairly interpreted too literally. What I mean is, in defeat, shake the other guy’s hand and move on. Mayo will never win an all-Ireland until they stop complaining about losing.”

Mayo have lost five All-Ireland finals in the last twenty years. There was no complaint from the Mayo supporters when they were beaten out the gate by Kerry in 2004 and 2006. Nor was there any when they lost by three points to Kerry in 1997, or by the same margin to Cork in 1989. They accepted that they had been beaten fair and square on the day, and moved on. The only All Ireland loss that rankled at the time, and still does, is the loss to Meath in 1996.

This is because they were robbed. Hopefully Mayo will set the record straight this weekend, and in the process help this festering sore to heal.

Yesterday’s failure by the British and Irish Lions to close out the second test, having led for most of the match, handed the series to South Africa. They will play the third test next Saturday for pride alone. Should they lose, it will be the second series whitewash in a row for Britain and Ireland’s elite. If this happens, then surely there will have to be a major reassessment of how future Lions tours are undertaken.

As it stands, the host union holds all the trump cards. They are playing at home, are an established side with players all well used to one another, and are in the middle of their season. In contrast, the Lions play every Test match away, have only six weeks or so to gel together as a team, and are at the end of their season. This is where the problems lie.

Rugby is a team game, with each player having a defined role. Successful teams are those which have an established core of players with plenty of experience playing alongside one another. Some of these players may be better players than others, but in the end the team should be more than just the sum of its parts. It takes more than just a talented squad of players and a top class coaching outfit to create a Test-standard team from scratch. And it certainly takes more than six weeks to achieve it. It’s not just the fact that they have to play one of the Tri-Nations teams each tour. You could try the same experiment with an equivalent squad from the Southern Hemisphere and they would have a hard time beating the best teams in Europe in Dublin, Paris, London or Cardiff.

When the Lions get on the plane to cross the equator every four years, they will have just finished a gruelling season. The Magners League, Guinness Premiership and the Six Nations will all have taken their toll. Chances are they have had to peak twice in the course of the season already, for club/province and country. And now, when they should be thinking about heading off on their summer holidays, they have to peak once more as they face one of the top three Test sides in the world. Let’s face it, they’re knackered! Look at how many of the squad have picked up injuries so far. There is only so much punishment the human body can take, even elite athletes such as the Lions players. Summer tours should be for development sides and emerging players, not high-octane, full-on Test matches played by top players with 35-odd matches under their belts that season.

The last Lions Tour win was in 1997 in South Africa. Professionalism was in its early days, and the game was very different to what it is now. Looking at the way things are going, that feat is highly unlikely to be repeated any time soon. As I said back in 2005, the IRFU should have a long, hard think about its participation in future tours. Our pool of world-class players is just too small to risk them being injured.

Tags: Rugby, Lions Tour 2009

Imagine…

It’s the knock-out stage of the Champions League 2010. Manchester United have been drawn against Real Madrid. First leg in the Bernebeu ends in a 0-0 draw. Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t play against his former club in that match because he’d, I don’t know, broken his suntan or something.

Second leg in Old Trafford, and Ronaldo is back to full fitness and ready to face his old comrades. United are one up as the clock ticks over 90 minutes and we go into injury time. Thirty seconds to go, Real make a break up the field, and just as Ronaldo crosses into the penalty area, Wayne Rooney tries to put in a tackle. No contact is made, but true to form Ronaldo hits the deck clutching his knee in apparent agony. Penalty given. Ronaldo leaps to his feet and sends the United keeper the wrong way. He wheels away, kissing the badge on his shirt. There is no time left. Real go through on away goals.

If I had £80 million of my own to spare, I’d nearly pay it just to see that…

The draw for the pools stage of next season’s Heineken Cup was made earlier today. Munster are top seeds in Pool 1, and will face Perpignan, Northampton and Italian club Benneton Treviso. Leinster are in Pool 6 along with London Irish, Llanelli Scarlets and Brive.

Despite the presence of an Italian team in Munster’s pool, this will once again be a tough assignment for the two-time Heineken Cup Champions and current Magners League champions. Perpignan are the current Top 14 champions, and Northampton won the Challenge Cup this season. However, in comparison to recent seasons, it is somewhat more favourable.

Meanwhile in South Africa, Ireland lost another Lion. Stephen Ferris has been ruled out of the rest of the tour after suffering a knee injury, and his place has been taken by Welsh captain Ryan Jones. Ferris joins a growing list of Irishmen who have been forced out of the tour, either through injury or suspension. So far, along with Ferris we have lost three Munstermen - Tomás O’Leary, Jerry Flannery and Alan Quinlan, and with Gordon D’Arcy joining the squad, the Irish contingent has gone down from 14 to 11.

Tags: Heineken Cup, munster, leinster, Lions Tour 2009

Whenever a sportsman or woman cries off for medical reasons, the press release is usually a bit vague, and for good reason. If someone is feeling a bit under the weather, it’s nobody’s business but their own. He “has the flu” or “is suffering from a viral infection”, or something similarly vague.

This obviously doesn’t apply to Pakistani cricket players. When fast bowler Shoaib Akthar couldn’t report for duty at the World Twenty20 tournament, the Pakistani Cricket Board were somewhat candid about the condition that was keeping him out of the action. From the Guardian:

"The medical board has reported that Shoaib Akhtar was suffering from genital viral warts and the wound needs further care and treatment for another 10 days," the PCB said in a statement.

The Lions Tour kicks off this weekend, with the first match against the Royal XV at Phokeng. Five more matches against regional sides follow, and the first Test against the Springboks takes place on 20 June.

As a rugby fan, I should be eagerly anticipating the action following all the hype in the build up to the 2009 tour. The best of Britain and Ireland taking on the World Champions - surely that gets the blood stirring? Well, no it doesn’t, really.

When my teams, Munster and Ireland, are playing, I change from the mild-mannered individual I normally am into a raving, ranting lunatic. In our house, a big Six Nations or Heineken Cup fixture just wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t get a severe talking to from my wife about my composure during the game. I kneel in front of the TV, willing the pack to force their way over the line. I waken sleeping babies in neighbouring houses when I celebrate an Irish or Munster try. The vilest of curses emanate from my mouth when opposition score. Back in March, when Stephen Jones was placing the ball to take that last penalty against Ireland that would decide whether we would win a Grand Slam or not, I couldn’t stay in the room, I was so wound up. Why? Because it is a tribal instinct, and depending on who is playing, either Munster or Ireland is my tribe.

Now, I hope that the Lions do well on this tour. There is a big Munster and Irish contingent involved, and naturally I would like to see them succeed. (Also the fact that the test series is against South Africa, a team in which I really struggle to find any redeeming features. They may well be world champions, but they won the 2007 RWC by sheer luck. They didn’t have a single tough match in the whole tournament, and managed to avoid playing New Zealand, Australia and France, all of whom would have beaten them out the gate.) I will probably watch the test matches, and maybe even one or two of the other matches as well. But I will not put in the same amount of emotional investment that I would in an Ireland or Munster match. If they win - great. If they lose - no big deal.

The Lions, in its current format, will never be my tribe. I simply cannot buy into it. I know that for the players, a Lions call-up is a huge honour, a test-match start is even bigger and the captaincy is even greater still. Ireland is contributing more players than any other participating union this time around, yet the impression is that we are an afterthought. Since the tour to Australia in 2001, the official name of the touring party has been known as “The British and Irish Lions”, and informally as “The Lions” yet still we sometimes get forgotten. Above is a screengrab from the official Lions site from today, where Paul O’Connell is described as the captain of the “British Lions”.

Rugby has changed immeasurably since the advent of professionalism following the 1995 World Cup. I don’t think the Lions concept had developed sufficiently in that time. Why does it remain just the three British unions and Ireland? Why not expand it to include all unions from the Six Nations? Why does it have to be the Lions against one Southern Hemisphere nation per tour - why not a combined Six Nations Lions versus a combined Tri Nations equivalent predatory feline? Could we get Argentina involved? Could we stage a match in Japan? Could we get the putative Tri Nations predatory feline to tour Europe every second series?

If all Six Nations were involved in the Lions, I might get excited about it. But as it stands, my inner lunatic will stay within for now.

Tags: Lions Tour 2009, Rugby

In my last post, I did something of a George Hook on it in my prediction for the Heineken Cup Final, in that I went for the team I did not want to win. I hoped that I would be proven wrong, and I am very glad to say that I was. Leinster played a magnificent game to win by three points, 19-16.

After Leicester had gone seven points ahead, I was afraid that that would have been curtains for Leinster. Had they gone any further ahead, it would have been a huge ask. But they got back in it, with a superb try by Jamie Heaslip. Dogged defence and intelligent counter attacking left Leicester chasing shadows for most of the second half, and Leinster’s reward came about ten minutes before time, when young Johnny Sexton put the men in blue back in front. They held on under immense pressure from the English champions, to at last join fellow provinces Ulster and Munster in the Heineken Cup roll of honour.

Present in the crowd today were several Munster supporters, who had pre-emptively bought weekend packages to Edinburgh in the expectation of a Munster appearance in the final. Even though there would have been a small minority supporting Leicester, I’d reckon the vast majority were there to cheer on their fellow countrymen. After all, once Munster’s interest in the competition ended, any fan of Irish rugby should surely lend their support to another Irish team.

I am delighted for the stalwarts of this Leinster team, who have had precious little to show for their efforts both at provincial and national level until this season. Brian O’Driscoll must be a very satisfied man tonight. Going into this season, many (me included) thought his best days were behind him. It would have been a terrible shame had he ended his career without a winner’s medal in any major championship. But he proved us all wrong, and put in a magnificent season for both province and country. The Irish captain was the best Irish player this season with several lengths to spare. His Six Nations and Heineken Cup medals are due reward for a superb career.

I think it is also fitting that Leinster should have claimed the trophy in Edinburgh, so often the graveyard of their European ambitions.

Ronan O’Gara had better watch out, as next season there will at last be a young pretender vying for his green No 10 jersey. Johnny Sexton has the potential to develop into a fine international outside half. Now that Felipe Contepomi is on his way to Toulon, Sexton has the opportunity to make the Leinster out-half position his own, and from there plan his assault on the Munsterman’s citadel.

So there we have it - an Irish clean sweep of trophies. What an achievement. Onward and upward!

Tags: Heineken Cup

Heineken Cup final tomorrow, and while I won’t have as deep an emotional interest in it as I have had in previous years, I still know who I’m supporting. Let’s say that the first three letters of their name are “Lei” and the last four are “ster”.

I’m kidding of course. There can only be one destination for my support tomorrow, and it is the men in blue. As a Munster fan, naturally I have a great respect for Leicester, who probably come closest to us in terms of club and supporters. If it was any other non-Irish team in the final, I would support Leicester without a second thought. But I am an Irishman first and foremost, therefore my support is for my fellow countrymen. A win for Leinster tomorrow would complete a perfect season for Irish rugby, with the Heineken Cup, the Magners League trophy and the RBS Six Nations trophy all residing in Irish cabinets till next year at least. It would be a fitting end to the regular season for Brian O’Driscoll, a man who has had a phenomenal season.

But, will they do it? Do Leinster have the wit, guile and above all the cojones to come away with the Heineken Cup? If Cardiff had won that ridiculous place-kick shoot-out three weeks ago, I would say “Yes, absolutely.” But this is Leicester. If there is one thing Leicester know about it is winning finals. They know how to play the referee, how to play just on the right side of wrong, and how to make superior opponents doubt themselves. I have two concerns about Leinster tomorrow - the half-backs and the line-out. If Whitaker and Sexton can play like they did against Munster, that will go quite some way in deciding the game in their favour. If, however, they play like they have done for most of the season, then the momentum will be back with Leicester. If Leinster ship as much ball from their own line-out to Leicester as they did to Munster in the semi-final, they are in trouble.

So, to call it - my heart says Leinster, but my head says Leicester. They have been in this sort of situation many times before and more often than not have closed it out. This is Leinster’s first time in a major final.

I hope to God that I’m wrong, but I think head is going to over-rule heart. Leicester by a whisker.

Tags: Heineken Cup

A couple of weeks ago, I was on the phone to my brother, talking about his eldest daughter’s upcoming First Communion. It’s on the weekend of the 16th, and the following weekend, my sister’s youngest daughter will have hers. I mentioned that this was the weekend of the Heineken Cup Final, and we discussed the possibility of a clash with the ceremony and the match.

“But they might lose to Leinster in the semi”, he said, knowing what my reaction would be. And predictably, I replied “They will in their holes lose to Leinster.”

During the week, I warned about the dangers of presumption, but of course I was as guilty of it as anyone else. Given the form of these two teams going into the match, I honestly didn’t believe that Leinster would pose a credible threat to the might of Munster. Where heretofore Leinster had struggled, Munster had been invincible. Munster walked all over Leinster home and away in the Magners League this season.

As a Munster fan, my natural instinct is to ask just what went wrong today. A Leinster fan would just be happy that it all went right. The simple fact is that Munster were beaten by a better team on the day. I read somewhere during the week that for Leinster to have a chance, they would have to be at their absolute best and hope that Munster would have an off-day. And that is what happened. Leinster dominated all over the park, and with the exception of the lineout, had the measure of Munster in every department. The Munster team and the fans can have no complaint. Leinster fully deserve their victory.

Munster sometimes suffer inexplicable losses like today. Back at Christmas-time, we were hockeyed 37-11 in Thomond by Ulster. It is disappointing when it happens, but we just have to put it behind us and look forward.

As I said in my preview post, whoever wins this match deserves the support of the losing team’s supporters in the final. Back in 06, I knew of several Leinster fans who were in Cardiff to cheer on Munster in the final. OK, their fans may be hard to take at times and their captain may look like Miley from Glenroe, but Leinster are an Irish team, and I for one would much prefer to see Miley hoisting the Cup rather than Paul Tito of Cardiff, or Geordan Murphy (or whoever it is captains Leicester these days.)

As the title of this post suggests, you can’t expect your team to win everything. If you do, you’re probably a Manchester United supporter. Following a team brings good days and bad, and you have to be able to take both with good grace. Sometimes you may think that your team will never win the big prize, and if they do, you must savour that win, because you don’t know when that time will come again. Us Munster fans have been fortunate enough to witness our team win two Heineken Cups, but by God, we know how long we were knocking on the door before it finally opened. This will be Leinster’s first crack at a Heineken Cup Final, and I hope for their sakes that today’s win wasn’t the performance reserved for the final.

Tags: Rugby, munster, Heineken Cup

This weekend will make Irish and world rugby history. The 82,500 people who flock to Croke Park on Saturday evening will constitute the biggest ever crowd at a club rugby match. In this amazing season for Irish rugby, it’s great to see that the teams to take the pitch will be Ireland’s top two, Munster and Leinster. The current Heineken Cup champions versus the current last season’s Magners League champions. The two teams that will most likely finish first and second in this season’s Magners League. (Edit 01/05/09: Munster have already fulfilled their part of the bargain) The bulk suppliers to the Irish national team. The two provinces that have among their ranks twelve of the fourteen Irish Lions. The current Lions captain and the previous Lions captain.

The pairing of the sides at this stage in the competition guarantees Irish representation at the Heineken Cup final in Edinburgh on the 23 May, the sixth time an Irish team will have contested the final since 1999 (three of those resulted in wins.)

Given Munster’s awe-inspiring form of late, it is easy to succumb to the temptation of complacency. In the quarter finals, Munster crushed the Ospreys 43-9. Leinster, on the other hand, had to work hard and defend with their lives to edge Harlequins out by six points to five. In the Magners League, Munster have already done the double on Leinster this season. Over the two matches, Leinster only managed to register a single score on Munster. Of the 26 matches Munster have played this season, they have won 22.

But we cannot be complacent. Cast your mind back to Friday, 10 October 2008. In the first Heineken Cup match of the season, Munster hosted a second string Montauban side at Thomond Park. The consensus was that all Munster had to do was show up and a handsome victory would be in the bag. In the pre-match analysis on Today FM’s The Last Word, one of the analysts suggested that Montauban be sanctioned for sending an under-strength team. The match ended 19-17, and Munster needed a last gasp penalty from ROG to win it. Not only did Munster not get the expected bonus point, but they actually coughed one up. A hard lesson was learned that night - never take a win for granted.

Not that I believe for a minute that the Munster team believe that Saturday’s result is a foregone conclusion. Munster may have done the double on Leinster this season already, but they did the double on us last year. The last time Munster beat Leinster three times on the trot was over the course of the latter part of the 04/05 season and the beginning of the 05/06. Just looking back over the results on the Munster rugby site, I cannot see any instance of where Munster beat Leinster three times in the same season.

Back in 06, what should have been a home match for Leinster in Lansdowne Road ended up with an overwhelming majority of Munster support. See this little movie I shot on the day from behind the south goal line - the place was almost entirely red, with a few isolated pockets of blue. That won’t happen again. Although I believe that Munster supporters will significantly outnumber Leinster supporters again, it will not be on the same scale as three years ago.

In the Magners League match of a few weeks ago, the Leinster pack were dominant in the first half, and it took some time for Munster to get into their stride. We can expect much of the same again, with a big performance from their front row, while Leo Cullen will do his best to disrupt the Munster throw. Rocky Elsom and Jamie Heaslip will be a threat in the back row. In Thomond Park, there was no Brian O’Driscoll, but he will be present on Saturday. Given he is playing possibly the best rugby of his career right now, he will be a serious threat.

However, all that said, overall I think Munster have enough in the tank to prevail. This is a very settled team, made up of players who know that there are other eager squad members who are pushing them for their jerseys. Look how Keith Earls has developed this year. His centre partner, Lifeimi Mafi is playing awesome rugby at the moment, tackling like a demon, breaking lines and getting passes away. Paul Warwick is creating havoc for opposing teams.

This promises to be a magnificent occasion and a great celebration of how much Irish rugby has progressed in recent years. In 2006 I suggested that whoever won the semi-final deserves the support of the losing team’s supporters for the final. Again I believe that this should be the case. Munster won the Magners League this evening, even though they weren’t even playing. That’s two out of the three titles up for grabs for Irish teams so far. We should all get behind the winner of Saturday’s match to make it a really Grand, Grand Slam season for Irish rugby.

Tags: Rugby, Heineken Cup

I was in Cork on Friday night and got to Musgrave Park for the Munster-Scarlets match. A 29-10 bonus point win was achieved with Munster never really breaking sweat, but it came with a terrible price. Scrumhalf Tomás O’Leary was stretchered off after eight minutes, and as he was carried off in front of us, you could see from the anguished expression on his face that this was a serious injury. It was confirmed later that he had fractured his ankle, which brings his season to an end.

This is an awful blow for Tomás, as it means he will miss not just the climax of Munster’s season, but also the Lions tour as well. It is reminiscent of what happened to Geordan Murphy in 2003, when he broke his leg in a World Cup warm-up match against Scotland, missing the tournament as a result. It is very rare for a top level player to go through his career without losing time to injury, but for some the timing is rotten, and for Tomás it is particularly so. All we can do is wish him a speedy recovery, and hope that he comes back even stronger.

Munster will now have to plan for the remainder of the season without Tomás, but we are lucky to have Peter Stringer to step up to the mark. Even though his star has been eclipsed somewhat by O’Leary’s, both at Munster and within the Irish set-up, he has shown this season just how bloody good he is. He was in cracking form against the All Blacks at Thomond Park back in November, and was on the end of a huge hit just as he supplied Barry Murphy with a winning pass that had ‘Try’ written all over it. In the Six Nations, he started against Scotland and walked away with the Man of the Match award.

The Ospreys’ loss to Edinburgh means that Munster only need one more win to clinch the Magners title. Their last two fixtures are both against Welsh opposition - away to Cardiff (which could be a preview of the Heineken Cup final two weeks later), followed by a home fixture against the Ospreys.

But that’s all for another day. Focus now switches to 17.30 next Saturday, when Munster face up to Leinster in the All-Ireland semi final of the Heineken Cup. That deserves a post of its own, which I will endeavour to deliver later this week. Work will keep me away from UnLaoised House for a couple of days early in the week, but I will be back by Wednesday.

Tags: Rugby

After the disastrous 2005 tour to New Zealand, I felt that the Lions brand was damaged beyond repair. The test team lost all three matches against the All Blacks, but in reality they were beaten before they even got on the plane. Victims of their own hubris, there was only one way they were headed and that was for a fall.

The blame for that tour rests with the management, headed by Sir Clive Woodward. Still beaming with pride from having brought a World Cup home to England two years earlier, he obviously thought he could repeat the trick with the Lions. We could also blame the media. The hype surrounding that tour was incredible. Ghost-written book deals were being offered left, right and centre, as well as diary columns in the papers (the more controversial the better). Woodward claimed this was the best-prepared Lions team ever to set off on tour. That may well be, but they came back the most chastened.

This year’s tour offers a chance for redemption. Ian McGeechan has chosen a good balance of players from across the four unions, with fourteen Irish(eight of whom are Munster players), thirteen Welsh, eight English and two Scots. The only really obvious standout dickhead in the squad is Riki Flutey (Gavin Henson being unavailable due to injury).

For the fourteen Irish players selected (and of course for Paul O’Connell, who was chosen as squad captain), this is a proud day. And not just for the players, but also for their families, clubs and the schools they went to.

As you may already know from my previous writings, I don’t buy into the whole Lions schtick. For me, the greatest honour for an Irish rugby player is to represent his country. But I won’t go into that today. Maybe some other time.

Tags: Rugby, The Lions

Staying with the Turbine for a minute, I don’t normally read the GAA bits of the sports section, but the opening paragraphs of Liam Hayes’s piece today caught my eye.

In it he admits that he has a problem with Declan Kidney’s style of management and how he deals with the press. He compares Deccie’s modest public persona unfavorably with that of Wales coach Warren Gatland, a blowhard of the highest order. He asks:

But wouldn't Irish sport be in grave danger of dozing off for long periods of time if there were a couple of dozen Declan Kidneys coaching and managing our greatest rugby, soccer, football and hurling teams?

What Hayes forgets is that both managers have their own individual style. Gatland likes to get up people’s noses by shooting his mouth off, while Kidney disarms with charm, talking up the opposition while giving nothing away about where his own team are at. Even if his team was playing the Latvian Ladies Under-14 Wheelchair team, he would point out how they thrashed their Russian and Estonian counterparts in recent matches. And that the most important thing is that we all enjoy the occasion, because that is why we get involved in sport in the first place. I don’t know if Declan Kidney is a poker player, but he has the best poker face in the business.

Look at his record at the top level in international rugby - two Heineken cups with Munster and a Grand Slam with Ireland. Pardon me Liam, but I’m very happy that he is (and has been) the coach of the teams I support. Shame he wasn’t bainisteoir of Mayo back in ’96…

Tags: Rugby

A few weeks ago, I wondered aloud as to why the Six Nations was unique among major rugby competitions in not using the bonus points system. I attempted to answer my own question by pointing out that if such a system was in place, a team could win the Grand Slam yet not win the Championship.

Now it would appear that I my reasoning was correct, as The SundayTribune asked the very same question recently. From the “Against The Head” column in today’s paper:

Bonus-points system gets a grand slam

After calling for the bonus-points system to be introduced into the Six Nations championship, the Tribune has been put in its box following a communiqué from John MacGovern. With a firm grasp of both basic maths and commonsense, John has gently reminded us why bonus points would not be suitable for the championship in its current format. A country could win the Grand Slam with five victories and no bonus points (20 points), but could still end up losing the championship to someone with four wins including four try-scoring bonus points and one losing bonus point (21 points). Extremely unlikely, but possible. So the bonus-points system is out unless the championship is played on a home and away basis which isn't going to happen anytime soon.

I don’t know if John MacGovern is involved in the running of the Six Nations, or is from the IRFU or is just a regular Joe Soap like me. Or indeed, he may be a reader of UnLaoised and saw my post from 24 March!

Tags: Rugby, six nations

Second last round of the NFL over the weekend, so last chance to make up any sort of ground before the final two matches at the end of the month.

Once again, three draws nobbled my efforts, and with another completely wrong and two matches with runaway winners, my score was just a half-decent 94. I have dropped to 27th out of 28 in the Green and Red mini-league, which means I will be playing in Division 2 next season.

Score card:

Tags: face the ball

Irish rugby continued on its winning odyssey this weekend, with Munster and Leinster booking their places in the Heineken Cup semi-final. Sadly, it’s the same semi-final that they are destined to be in, which means that a rugby All-Ireland Final will not happen. However we will get an All-Ireland semi-final, and what better venue could we have for such an encounter than Croke Park? Even at 83,000 capacity, tickets will be scarce.

I saw three of the four matches over the weekend. The opener, Cardiff v Toulouse, was a dour encounter. As the game wore on, I remarked to Munstermad (as we were all in Cork for the weekend) that we were not watching the eventual winners of the Heineken Cup. Cardiff prevailed 9-6, and thus French interest in the Cup ended at this stage for the first time since God knows when. Leicester v Bath was up next, and I missed this one. Leicester came through 20-15.

What can I say about this Munster team that hasn’t been said already? Their 43-9 dispatch of Ospreys was possibly their most complete performance ever. Back in the 1970s, Ajax of Amsterdam were developing a system of playing that became known as “Total Football”. Yesterday, we saw something similar, as Munster played something that could be called Total Rugby. Even though there were brilliant individual performances, such as those from Paul Warwick, Lefeimi Mafi and Paul O’Connell, it was the unstoppable momentum that built up as the match progressed that showed that this was an exceptional performance by a team, not just a collection of individuals who happens to be wearing the same colour jersey.

One aspect about the modern game that I abhor is the tendency to name rugby teams after predatory animals. Look, if you want to go see lions, tigers, etc., just go to a fucking zoo. Thankfully, Munster have eschewed this nonsense (the stag motif on the badge notwithstanding), but ironically yesterday, they displayed the temperament of a big cat in the wild. Lure the prey to your territory, toy with it for a while, allowing it to think that it can get away unharmed. And then, go in for an efficient, clinical kill. Coming out after half time, the Ospreys were still, just about, in the game. Fifteen minutes later, they were roadkill. The other three teams in the competition will have looked at that Munster performance and thought “Shit! That’s what we have to beat.”

Leinster’s match away to Harlequins was a complete contrast. It finished 5-6, and Leinster were forced to defend with their entire will for the whole match. They almost got a try when Brian O’Driscoll let fly a lovely chip and chase, but he was hauled down just before the line. Similarly in the second half, Luke FitzGerald had to get in to make a last gasp effort to stop a Quins player scoring.

If Munster and Cardiff get through to the final, it will be their second meeting in the space of a fortnight. They are due to play a Magners League match in Cardiff on the second weekend in May.

If it’s Munster v Leicester, it will be the first meeting of the two sides since The Fall of Thomond. We didn’t like that. One little bit.

Tags: munster, Rugby, Heineken Cup

The Heineken Cup returns this weekend after the break for the Six Nations. We’re at the quarter-final stage, and of the eight teams still in the hunt, four ply their day-to-day trade in the Magners League, three in the Guinness Premiership, and only one in the French Top 14. If that doesn’t prove that drink is good for you, I don’t know what will!

Munster face the Ospreys on Sunday in Thomond Park, and the conventional wisdom would suggest that this should be an easy win for Munster. But we write them off at our peril. The Ospreys are the form Welsh team, and it is from their ranks that the majority of the Welsh national side is drawn. A side, lest we forget, that has won two Grand Slams this decade.

Taking a leaf from the book of my good friend Willie Joe, I think it would be instructive to cast a more analytical eye over the history books, and see exactly how Munster’s record stacks up when it comes to meetings with the Ospreys.

The Ospreys were formed in 2003, with the coming together of Neath and Swansea to form a provincial side for participation in the then Celtic League and the ERC competitions. To date, Munster and the Ospreys have played thirteen competitive fixtures against one another, and Munster just about have the upper hand, winning seven of those encounters. However, the Ospreys have scored more points on aggregate over the thirteen matches - 244 to Munster’s 232 (average of 18.77 to 17.85 per game). Eleven matches were in the Celtic/Magners League and two were in the Pool stages of the Heineken Cup in the 04/05 season.

The good news is that Munster have only lost once at home to the Ospreys, back in February 2004 at Musgrave Park. In our previous Heineken Cup encounters, we beat them home and away. At home, our aggregate score is 119 over six matches (19.83 points per match), while we have conceded 75 points (12.5 per match). Munster also hold the record for biggest winning margin, when they had 27 points to spare at the final whistle on 10 September 2005.

The whole record is as follows:



These stats make Munster favourites on Sunday. The other stats to take into account are that Munster have never lost a home quarter-final, and have only been beaten once in Thomond Park in the Heineken Cup.

I expect those records to remain intact on Sunday.

Tags: Heineken Cup, munster

They say a week is a long time in politics, but what about a fortnight in rugby? Fourteen days ago, a united and triumphant Irish team lifted the Six Nations trophy and claimed the first Grand Slam for Ireland in 61 years. Brothers in arms then, but tonight, the Munster and Leinster elements of that Irish team lock horns in the Magners League at Thomond Park.

There is plenty to play for in this fixture. Munster are three points ahead of Leinster, on top of the Magners table, so the result of this match will go some way in determining the destination of this year’s title. A win for Munster without conceding a bonus point would put them seven clear, while a similar result for Leinster would see the men in blue take over at the top.

There is also the issue of bragging rights. Last season, Leinster did the double over Munster, and Munster didn’t like that one little bit. When they met for the first time this season, in September at the RDS, Munster ran out 18-0 winners. So now, Munster want to complete the double, and Leinster want to avenge the whitewash from six months ago.

The teams are:

Munster: P Warwick; D Howlett, K Earls, L Mafi, I Dowling; R O'Gara, T O'Leary; M Horan, J Flannery, J Hayes; D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell capt; A Quinlan, N Ronan, D Wallace. Replacements: D Fogarty, T Buckley, M O'Driscoll, D Ryan, P Stringer, B Murphy, D Hurley.
Leinster: G Dempsey; I Nacewa, G D'Arcy, S Horgan, R Kearney; F Contepomi, C Whitaker; C Healy, B Jackman, S Wright; L Cullen capt, M O'Kelly; R Elsom, S Jennings, J Heaslip. Replacements (from): J Fogarty, O le Roux, R McCormack, T Hogan, C Jowitt, S O'Brien, C Keane, J Sexton, S Keogh

There is nothing shabby about either of those teams, both being as close to full strength as circumstances allow. For Munster, Rua Tipoki is missing because of injury, and Denis Leamy is also out, possibly because of the upcoming Heineken Cup semi-final against Ospreys next weekend. Paul Warwick (who has resolved his contract difficulties and will remain a Munster player next season) takes the full-back berth, with Doug Howlett and Ian Dowling on the wings. Lifeimi Mafi and Keith Earls are in the centre, with Tomás O’Leary and Ronan O’Gara as half-backs, as expected. Up front, it’s the first-choice tight five for both Munster and Ireland, while in the back row, Alan Quinlan is at six, hat-trick hero from last weekend Niall Ronan is at openside, and David Wallace is at eight.

For Leinster, veteran Girvan Dempsey is at full-back in place of Rob Kearney, who moves to the wing with Isa Nacewa. There is no Brian O’Driscoll in the side, so Shane Horgan moves in one channel to partner Gordon D’Arcy. In the half-backs, Felipe Contepomi plays one of his last games for Leinster before he heads off to Toulon, and how much would he like to win this one. Alongside him is Chris Whitaker. CJ van der Linde is missing from the front row, while Leo Cullen will go head to head with the first-choice second-row pairing of Munster, Ireland and quite possibly, the Lions. Rocky Elsom, Shane Jennings and Jamie Heaslip are at 6,7 and 8 respectively.

While this should be a high-octane, no-holds-barred contest, both teams will be keeping the Heineken Cup quarter-finals next weekend in mind too. Munster welcome the Ospreys to Thomond Park, while Leinster travel to London to face Harlequins. Should both of them come through those, then tonight’s match will also serve as a preview of the second ever All-Ireland Heineken Cup semi-final. An as might be appropriate, this one (if they both make it, that is) will be at the natural home of an All-Ireland semi-final - Croke Park.

OK, time to call it. This will be a closer match than the September fixture, but I reckon Munster have a more complete look about them. A win for Munster, but at the cost of conceding a losing bonus point.

Tags: Rugby

FaceTheBall.com

The Six Nations may be over, but the National Football League goes on. I suppose I had to have a bit of luck at some point, and this week a lot of it came right.

I had two games exactly right and another two within a point, giving me a best-ever score of 138. That was enough to lift me off the floor of the Green & Red mini-league, up to the heady heights of 27th.

My scorecard is below. I should frame it, I reckon.

Tags: face the ball

This is very clever:

Tags: Rugby, six nations

The above question was one that raised its head recently in conversation.

A win in the Six Nations earns the winner two points in the table, a draw earns one point each and a loss leaves the beaten team empty-handed. Most of the major rugby tournaments in the world now use a bonus point system, including the Tri-Nations. Under this system, a win earns four points, a draw earns two, and a loss earns none. However, a team that scores four or more tries, or loses by less than seven points earns a bonus point. It incentivises teams to aim for tries rather than just going for penalties or drop goals, and it also gives teams that are ten points or so behind on the scoreboard something to play for in the last minutes of a game. It works very well in the pool stages of the Heineken Cup, and Munster in particular are masters at using it to their advantage.

So why is it not used in the Six Nations? I was thinking about it today as I was stuck in traffic, and I think I have come up with an answer.

Imagine for a moment that there are two unbeaten teams facing up to one another in a Grand Slam decider on the last day of the Six Nations. Team A has gained a four-try bonus point in each of their previous four matches, while Team B hasn’t gained any. If Team B were to win that match, they would win the Grand Slam, but if Team A secured a losing bonus point, they would win the Championship by virtue of having earned one more point in the table than Team B. (Team A would have 21 points while Team B would have 20.)

I readily admit that it’s an outside chance that a situation like this would actually happen, but it is a plausible possibility.

Tags: Rugby, six nations

FaceTheBall.com

Last week of the rugger this week and I came into it in 22nd place overall.



I can’t imagine too many got the Italy-France score bang on, but other than that, I did OK. I finished 16th overall, which is a decent result.

There were some low scores in the GAA this week, mainly because of the three draws. This is one thing about the scoring system that needs to be looked at, I reckon. You can predict the winner and be out by 50 points, yet you will still earn points for correctly predicting the winner. However, if you predict a team to win by a single point and the match ends in a draw, you get nothing. Of course, if you predict a draw and the game ends in a one point win for either team you get nothing either. So you need to be pretty confident of a draw before predicting it, as it’s all or nothing.

Here’s my scorecard:



That leaves me 307th in the overall standing, and of course, in my by now customary 29th place out of 29 in the Green And Red mini-league.

Tags: Rugby, six nations, face the ball

Can you imagine if Stephen Jones had nailed that last penalty?

Or if ROG had missed that drop at goal?

It was moments like those that contributed to the drama of Ireland’s first Grand Slam win in 61 years, and our first Championship in 24. Before this Six Nations started, I would have been happy with a Championship win, with or without a Grand Slam. But as this weekend approached, it was all or nothing. A loss to Wales by fewer than 13 points would have delivered us the title, but it would have been a hollow victory. The men taking the pitch today were thinking along the same lines. They wanted their Grand Slam and their names in the history books, and by Christ, no-one was going to stop them.

Ireland were easily the better team on the day, but their indiscipline almost cost them the prize. This is somewhat ironic, because up to now, their discipline was nigh on impeccable. In the first game against France, they conceded only two penalties all match. Today it was almost ten times that, and several of them were in the Irish half, this allowing Stephen Jones & Co to capitalise. Thankfully, the only attempt by Gavin Henson to have a go at the dead ball came up short.

This is a great day for many. For Declan Kidney, who took this bunch of outrageously talented players and moulded them into a winning force. He also magnanimously paid tribute to Eddie O’Sullivan. For Brian O’Driscoll, who was our player of the tournament. For Paul O’Connell, who simply was his awesome self. For Ronan O’Gara, who managed to exorcise some of his demons, though more need to be worked on. For John Hayes, whose 94 caps for Ireland finally bring some tangible reward. And of course, for all the rest of the squad, their coaches and the backroom staff.

But not only that, this is a great day for the grassroots of Irish rugby - the clubs, the schools and everyone who has nurtured the talent over the years. Great rugby players and teams don’t just drop from the sky. Talent has to be identified and developed. We are a small nation and rugby is at best the third (and it might even be the fourth) most popular team sport. But we have been blessed with a truly golden generation of Irish rugby players, and we even ask why it took so long for them to realise their potential. We should count ourselves lucky that we have had such a confluence of talent at this point in time. That the two most prestigious trophies in European rugby are now in Irish trophy cabinets (well, metaphorically at least), shows that Irish rugby punches well above its weight.

Sixty-one years. The last time Ireland won a Grand Slam, the second world war had finished only three years earlier. The Irish team that beat Wales to win the Grand Slam at Ravenhill in 1948 stood for God Save The King as their national anthem. The Republic of Ireland didn’t exist. The moon landings were 21 years away. Elvis hadn’t even entered the building, never mind left it.

We should savour this and enjoy it. We may not see too many more in our lifetime.

Tags: Rugby, six nations

So it all comes down to Saturday. Eighty minutes to bridge the gap between 1948 and 2009. An opportunity for Jack Kyle and the other surviving members of Ireland’s last Grand Slam winning side to finally hand the baton over and retire.

Jeremy Guscott reckons we’re going to choke. No doubt there will be a succession of pundits lining up between now and teatime on Saturday explaining exactly why Ireland will throw away their best ever shot at the Grand Slam. I only hope George Hook is one of them, because he normally gets it wrong. Personally, I couldn’t give a shit what any of them say, because we are going to win not just the Championship, but the Slam as well.

“But, but, but… we have to play Wales, the defending Grand Slam champions in Cardiff. Surely, we haven’t got a hope? I mean, Wales are a top class side.”

The only thing that Wales have going for them next week is that we are playing them in Cardiff. In order to retain the Championship, they have to beat us by 13 points. I’m not underestimating the Welsh, but we should be able to beat them. They have some good players, but ours are better. They have a good coach, but ours is better. They are drawn from a collection of Welsh clubs and provincial teams that Irish teams beat for fun in the Magners League and Heineken Cup.

The current Irish squad are sick to their back teeth of being known as nearly men. They know that they threw away a Grand Slam in 2007. Sometimes it happens in sport that the finest player of a generation can go through his career without winning top honours. If this fate should befall Brian O’Driscoll, then it will be one of rugby’s tragedies. This season has seen Ireland’s captain regain his form of old, and he has been unquestionably the outstanding Irish player of the Six Nations. This, in a season where we have seen players like John Hayes, Paul O’Connell, Donncha O’Callaghan, Stephen Ferris and David Wallace play the best rugby of their careers for province and country. In addition we have seen the raw talents of players like Jamie Heaslip, Luke Fitzgerald, Tommy Bowe and Rob Kearney being honed into devastating effect. And of course, we have witnessed to comeback of the season, where Peter Stringer has forced his way back into the national team.

There is one simple reason why Ireland have been in such good form this season - the coach. Declan Kidney would appear to take the approach that if you are good enough to pull the green of Ireland on over your head, then you must know a thing or two about the game of rugby football. Rather than imposing a top-down approach, he would appear to foster a regime that allows players the space to bring their best to the table and allow them to develop their own game plan among themselves. Anyone who doesn’t fulfill his side of the bargain will have to deal with not only the wrath of the coach, but that of his colleagues as well. In other words, it’s all built on trust of one another. The ultimate team approach.

In looking forward to Saturday, we must also take the Munster factor into account. In the four matches so far, eight of the starting fifteen were Munster players. It is likely to be a similar proportion again on Saturday. Every single one of those Munster players has a Heineken Cup medal, and most of them have two. Both of them were won at the Millennium Stadium and both were won under the tutelage of Declan Kidney. The spine of this team is made up of winners, not chokers. Alongside them is the finest player ever to don a green No 13 shirt. On Saturday, Brian O’Driscoll and the rest of the non-Munster contingent will be honorary Munstermen, and buy into the winning philosophy.

Now, of course it will not be an easy match. The permatanned sunshine boys will ask serious questions of our defensive capabilities, and we will have to contend with genuine game breakers like Martyn Williams, Shane Williams and Tom Shanklin. Cool heads will be required, especially if Wales get in front. However, I expect Ireland to be able to contain the Welsh threat, and when the time comes, just close the deal out.

Of course, I may be wrong in this assessment. But even if I am wrong, come Saturday night, I will not be embarrassed. The title of this post is “Believe” not “I Can See The Future”. I believe that Ireland will win the Grand Slam on Saturday. If we go about our lives not believing in our own capabilities, how can we expect others to believe in us?

Tags: Rugby, six nations

Good result this weekend - I had all three winners. I just got the margins of victory badly wrong for two of them. But then, so did everyone else. Who would have predicted that Wales would huff and puff to beat Italy, and that England would blow France to kingdom come at Twickers? I’m up 33 places in the overall leader table to 22nd.

Tags: Rugby, six nations, face the ball

Mixed result this weekend. I got the winners of all of Saturday’s GAA matches wrong, but made up some ground on Sunday with four out of five winners. That netted me 108 points, but I’m still 29th out of 29 in the Green & Red mini-league. This time, in order to make up for my lack of knowledge of GAA matters, I consulted an online betting resource and formulated my predictions based on the odds on offer. That resulted in a 50% success rate, which is better than average for me.

Tags: face the ball

Ireland’s hard-earned win over Scotland today means that the Six Nations championship is now Ireland’s to lose. Should England beat France tomorrow (which I reckon they will), then it will be a straight two-horse race between Ireland and Wales for the title. However, Wales will have to win by 13 points to retain the title, while we can afford to lose by 12. Any win by Ireland gives us the Grand Slam.

Ever since the win over England, Declan Kidney was keen to stress that the Scotland match was not a foregone conclusion. And he was right - Ireland were made to work hard for that win, and had to come from behind to do it. Scotland won the first half decisively, and Ireland were forced to compete for scraps. We were 12-9 down going into the break, and it could just as easily have been 19-9. But, Munster-like, Ireland came out in the second half and just took control of the match. Discipline was vastly improved, ball-retention was much better, and crucially, Ireland upped the pace to a level that Scotland simply couldn’t match. The Irish try was reminiscent of Stringer’s try for Munster in the Heineken Cup Final of 2006. Off a set-piece, the scrum-half spotted a gap and just galloped through it. Sadly, this time he didn’t make the line, but he was able to offload to Jamie Heaslip who did. (Incidentally, I reckon Heaslip will get his hole kicked severely for his inexcusable showboating before he scored. Save your celebrations until the points show up on the board, Jamie.)

There were excellent performances from several Irish players. Peter Stringer - what can we say? Out of favour at both Munster and Ireland, and he comes back with a Man of the Match display. He has to start against Wales. John Hayes was immense as ever. Rory Best was solid in the scrum and was bang on in every lineout. POC and DOC were untouchable, as ever. Ferris and Wallace were their destructive best. ROG packed his kicking boots today, contributing 17 of the total of 22. He’s now the highest scorer in the history of the Six Nations. O’Driscoll continued the return to his imperious best with a magnificent display, both offensively and defensively. The other four backs had good solid games too.

Earlier today, Wales had to dig themselves out of a hole to get past Italy in Rome. A late Tom Shanklin try spared their blushes. Had they lost, and if England were to beat France tomorrow, then Ireland would have had the title in the bag by tomorrow evening. But they didn’t, so we won’t. Wales are well known for their poster-boy, fake-tanned showboaters, but their two most effective players are the least flashy - Martyn Williams and Tom Shanklin. The latter in particular must rue the fact that his career coincided with that of Brian O’Driscoll, as if it hadn’t been so, then Shanklin would be the first choice outside centre for the Lions in both 2005 and 2009. Both Shankiln and Williams will start next week, as will the other Williams - Shane - and all three have potential to do us some serious damage.

But that’s for another day. Let’s celebrate today’s win and get behind the lads to go to Cardiff and finish the job.

Coming soon - Ireland, Munster and the Millenium Stadium Effect.

Tags: Rugby, six nations

I was away last night, and so only now have the chance to write about the team announcement for Saturday’s Six Nations match against Scotland.

Most commentators were expecting that Declan Kidney would stick with the same starting fifteen as the previous three matches. The only change that might have been predicted was Gordon D’Arcy coming in for Paddy Wallace. But no-one saw four changes coming. Rory Best will replace Jerry Flannery at hooker, Denis Leamy comes in at No 8 in place of Jamie Heaslip, Tomás O’Leary makes way for Peter Stringer at scrum-half, and D’Arcy gets the inside centre spot in preference to Wallace.

Why change? It’s not as if any of these guys underperformed in the three matches of the campaign. Indeed Jamie Heaslip was awarded RBS Six Nations Man of the Match by the BBC in the game against France. One thing is for sure, this is not a case of first team players being replaced by second string for an “easy” match. For a start, the players coming in are the equal of those making way. And secondly, Scotland at Murrayfield is never an easy fixture.

What Kidney has done is to let his squad know that everyone has a chance. When you have two players vying for the same jersey, with absolutely nothing to separate them in terms of ability, then it is only fair that both get the chance to show what they are worth. In some cases there are marginal differences in skills, and it is knowing which games require which skills that makes Kidney such a good coach.

One problem we have had of late has been slow ball coming back from the ruck. While Tomás O’Leary is an excellent tactical player and a superb defensive option, Peter Stringer is brilliant at getting fast ball out. His distribution skills also helps in getting the outside backs onto the ball at pace, and that extra millisecond he gives to O’Gara and the three-quarters can make all the difference between them breaking the line or being swallowed up in a tackle.

The Heaslip/Leamy call must have kept Kidney awake at night. Both are immense at the breakdown and are highly effective ball carriers. There is absolutely nothing between them. While some might say that it is a blow to Heaslip to be on the bench, it has been the same for Leamy for the previous three games. We can’t have two No 8s in the starting XV, so one has to make way.

As I said, it will not be an easy game. Many times in the past, Ireland have come to Murrayfield with the expectation of a walkover in the minds of supporters and media alike, only to be subjected to a grueling 80 minutes. Ireland need to keep their defensive discipline as intact as in the previous three matches. They also need to keep their overall discipline in check and not concede any penalties within kicking range, as Chris Paterson is at full-back for Scotland, and he doesn’t miss too many.

Ireland should win this, but even though the Irish team would be considered the better prepared and more settled, they will have to face the intangible force of Scottish passion and pride. We’re in for a bumpy one.

Tags: Rugby, six nations

Better effort this week, scored 129 points, which is more that my total for the first two weeks combined. Got the winners of five of the eight matches, and was only a point out for the Derry v. Kerry match. Still way, way down the table and propping up the Green & Red Mini-League.

Tags: face the ball

Forgot to post this at the weekend. Better late than never, I suppose. Further slippage in the Six Nations table, mainly because I tipped Italy to beat Scotland. I did, however, get the France-Wales result spot on. Down to 55th now. Oh, for the heady days of sixth in the table.



I’ll have to sit down and study the form for the next round of the GAA. I have serious ground to make up.

Tags: Rugby, six nations, face the ball

Munster supporters are renowned for their ability to source tickets for Heineken Cup matches, and the stories of how far they will go to do so are legion. So when I heard about this via a comment on Slugger, I have to admit I wasn’t really surprised.

The money quote:

...as it would appear a number of Munster (or at least Irish) Rugby supporters are purchasing memberships [of the Ospreys Supporters Club] as a means to secure tickets from our allocation, we are NOT accepting any membership applications from Irish addresses.

Tags: Heineken Cup, munster

Before this match, Declan Kidney said that this would be a determined England team, who wouldn’t come here just to make up the numbers. He was right. They were determined, but he omitted to mention that they were also the dirtiest shower of fuckers ever to wear the white of England.

Two yellow cards in this game, ten overall in the last four games: that record speaks for itself. England’s indiscipline was the cause of their downfall today. They lived offside and got away with it for most of the match. There was an obvious campaign to nobble Brian O’Driscoll, and he was the victim of two disgraceful fouls, where both offenders should have been yellow-carded.

But Ronan O’Gara’s wayward kicking performance could have cost us the match. As the teams lined up for the anthems, I got the impression that ROG looked nervous and jumpy, and it quickly became clear that he had the yips. I can’t ever remember as poor a performance from him with the boot.

When Ireland beat France, they showed that they could beat a team with flair and skill. When they beat Italy, they showed that they wouldn’t be derailed by a team whose only approach was to frustrate them. Today, they showed that they could beat a dirty team.

Two more to go. Scotland in Edinburgh will be another turgid affair, and Ireland will be forced to get down into the mud to come through it.

Come on Ireland - it’s in your hands, you can do it.

Tags: Rugby, six nations

France’s 21-16 win over Wales in Paris tonight brings Les Bleus right back into the mix. Had they lost tonight, their championship season was over, but a superb performance saw them overcome a determined Welsh side.

This was the result Ireland wanted. We are now the only unbeaten side in the Six Nations, and as such our championship destiny is in our own hands.

Tags: Rugby, six nations

A big weekend is coming up in the Six Nations, and one that could have a decisive bearing on who wins the championship and who gets the wooden spoon.

This will also be the first time that a Six Nations match has been played on a Friday night. France and Wales get the weekend’s action underway under the lights of Stade de France in Paris tomorrow night. This is a crucial match that could go someway to shaking out a potential also-ran from the title race. If Wales win, France are effectively out of the hunt, as they will have lost two games. Wales will overcome Italy in the next round and head home to Cardiff to meet our lads, looking to claim the first ever back-to-back Grand Slam of the Six Nations era. However if they lose in Paris, France are right back in it, and they could claim the championship if one or more of the home nations do a number on Ireland.

This should be a cracking match, as both teams will be there to play rugby, not piss around like Scotland or Italy. Yet again, Marc Lievremont has gone for a new half-back combination, with Morgan Parra coming in at scrum-half and Benoit Baby (normally a centre) making his international out-half debut. For some bizarre reason, Sebastien Chabal is starting in the second row, even though he was comprehensively outplayed in that position in the Irish match. Still it could have been worse, and Lievremont could have copied his Italian counterpart Nick Mallet and started him at scrum half. The way the new half-back combinations keep coming our way, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this happen. Maybe he would be partnered with Sylvain Marconnet.

What France need to do is to play right in the Welsh faces. They need to get their tackles in early and hard in order to prevent an offload before contact. Force them into rucks and slow the ball up. Better still, they need to hang onto possession, as the speed merchants in the Welsh back line can do serious damage.

France were also hampered by the fact that several of their first team players were involved in club duties last weekend, and nine of those took part in the high-octane Toulouse-Clermont Auvergne Top 14 clash last Sunday. Wales, in contrast, allowed all their main players to spend quality time with their sunbeds last weekend.

Still, going to Paris for a result will be tough for the Taffs, and France have the extra motivation of knowing that their championship season depends on the result of this match. It’s a tough one to call, but I’m going for Les Bleus. Maybe it’s hope over logic, but we need France to knock the stuffing out of Wales and soften them up before we get them on the last weekend.

The following day at 15.00, Scotland host Italy at Murrayfield. As I pointed out before, Italy have beaten Scotland four times in the Six Nations. A victory for the Azzuri tomorrow and the win count over the ten championship matches played since 2000 will be even-stevens between the two sides. It would also mark a three in a row for the Italians. Scotland haven’t beaten Italy in the championship since 18 March 2006, although they did beat them in the pool stages of the 2007 World Cup, 18-16 in St-Etienne. Again it’s a hard one to call, but Scotland look marginally more shambolic, so I’m going Italy for this one.

So we will have had the entrée on Friday night, the soup on Saturday afternoon, and the main course at 17.30 that evening. Ireland v. England in Dublin is always a fantastic fixture. Back in 1973, Irish fans stood and applauded England as they ran out on to the Lansdowne Road turf, the same pitch Scotland and Wales had refused to come to the year before as a result of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Ireland won that day, and at the post match dinner, England captain John Pullin got another standing ovation when he remarked “England may not be a very good team, but at least we showed up.”

Who can forget “Protocolgate” in 2003, when Martin Johnson & Co faced down the IRFU officials and refused to budge from the position they had taken on the red carpet before meeting Mary McAleese? The Irish team had to take up their positions off the carpet, and poor Mary got her shoes muddy during her walkabout. England had that match won before a ball was kicked.

Then there was 2007, when Ireland put in the performance they should have put in against France two weeks earlier. They beat a poor English side out the gate that day, their fourth win over the World Champions in a row.

Make no mistake, this will be a tough game. England may be in rag order at the moment, but they don’t roll over. Even though they lost against Wales two weeks ago, they came away from Cardiff with their dignity intact, having put in a credible performance. They did themselves no favours during the week by insinuating that Wales had “gotten to” referee Jonathan Kaplan before the match. Ireland need to soak up the pressure that they will inevitably encounter and keep cool heads. The half-backs need to be more selective with their kicking, as sometimes in the first two matches, they simply handed possession back to the opposition and were then forced to defend. Solid defence is all well and good, but if you don’t have the ball, you can’t score. I hope we will see a measured, patient display from Ireland, defending well, keeping their discipline and ready to pounce when the opportunity arises. Ireland are the more settled, experienced, confident and better coached of the two sides, so we should see a home win.

Tags: six nations, Rugby

The finalists for this year’s Irish Blog Awards were announced in the wee, small hours of this morning, and I am glad to see that several of my regular reads have made the shortlist. (Needless to say, my own efforts fell at the first hurdle.)

First up I am delighted to see Willie Joe’s Green and Red get to an All-Ireland Final. He has been shortlisted in the “Best Sport and Recreation Blog”. Followers of Mayo’s footballing fortunes are hardy types, used to walking away from Croke Park with the cheers of the opposition supporters (usually Kerry’s) ringing in their ears. Having endured such disappointment in the last twenty years (five All-Ireland finals contested, five All-Ireland finals lost), most other counties’ supporters would have difficulty getting out of bed ever again. But Mayo’s followers never give up on their Magnificent Obsession. This September, fifty-eight years will have passed since the Sam Maguire was last hoisted by the arms of a Mayoman (that man was Seán Flanagan, who later went on to be a Fianna Fáil TD and cabinet minister), and every true Mayo supporter believes that this day will come again.

If you have never visited Willie Joe’s site, or even have no interest in Gaelic football, just go over there and have a look. Click on the Results Archive tab and there you will find something quite special. The results, teams, and scorers of every single match Mayo’s senior team has played in the National Football League and Championship for the last fifty years. This archive was not copied and pasted from the official Mayo GAA site, because it doesn’t exist there. Nor was it lifted from any other single source. It came from painstaking research, trawling through national and local newspaper archives to find that information. This is then transcribed and uploaded onto the site. Neither is it complete, as Willie Joe intends to go back as far as possible to find all the results he can. Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is dedication to the cause.

Hopefully, he can now go one step further than his subject and land the big prize.

[I should disclose at this point that WJ and I know one another in real life, and I occasionally offer technical advice for his site.]

My other regular reads that I will be keeping an eye on:

Conor’s Pricewatch in Best Blog from a Journalist

Lar’s Sour Grapes in Best Food/Drink Blog

Irish Election, Slugger O’Toole and Cedar Lounge Revolution, all in Best Political Blog

Pat Phelan in Best Technology Blog/Blogger

Bock in Best News/Current Affairs Blog

Jim’s On The Record in Best Music Blog

Sweary’s Arse End of Ireland in Best Humour Blog (if she doesn’t win something this year, they’ll have to create a new category next year, the ‘Is It Because I Is Blog? Award’ )

Twenty Major in Best Humour Blog

Bock again in Best Blog Post

May the best bloggers win!

Week Two of FaceTheBall can be summed up thus - solid performance in the rugby and as for the GAA, well the less said about that the better…

I got all three winners in the rugby (not too difficult, I will readily concede), but lost points by overestimating France’s winning margin over Scotland and underestimating Ireland’s margin over Italy. I’m now 24th in the overall standings (down from sixth last week), out of a field of 231 players.

Rugby results:



As for the GAA, all I can offer in my defence is that I know shag-all about it, and my predictions are pure pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey guesswork. Also, Willie Joe assures me that NFL results were all over the shop this weekend, and no-one scored well. Nonetheless, I am 29th out of 29 in the Green and Red mini-league, and 240th out of 329 in the overall competition. Must do better next round.

Tags: face the ball, six nations, Rugby

I always think it’s the mark of a good team to be able to win even when you’re not playing well. Ireland did that today in Rome, in a tough physical encounter with the Azzuri. Perhaps the final score flattered them a bit, but if you had offered Declan Kidney a 29-point, five tries to nil win on Sunday morning, he would have snapped it out of your hand.

The tone for the match was set after 46 seconds, when Rob Kearney was felled with a clothesline tackle worthy of a Hanna Barbera cartoon. The culprit, Kearney’s opposite number Andrea Masi was yellow carded on the spot. But the incident showed that for all the beauty that Rome has to offer, precious little would be on show for the duration of this match. This was an ugly encounter, and nothing like the enthralling show of free-flowing rugby we had seen in Croke Park last weekend. Three players were yellow-carded - along with the aforementioned Masi, Ronan O’Gara and Salvatore Perugini also spent ten minutes in the sin-bin.

To be fair to the Italians, they did their level best to disrupt the Irish game plan. They slowed ball up at the ruck and never let Ireland develop a rhythm. The match was littered with indiscipline on both sides, and the pea in Chris White’s whistle must have been a lot smaller by the end of the proceedings. The scrum was a mess all through the game, the two front rows unable to bind effectively enough to ensure a steady scrum. Why Chris White allowed this to go on, I don’t know. Normally the ref calls the two front rows out and gives them a stern talking to and threatens cards, and if that doesn’t work, carries out that threat. But today, he just allowed the messing to continue.

Ireland took their tries well. The first came from an intercept by Tommy Bowe, who ran through a tackle on his own 22 all the way to the Italian line. He was hauled down just short of the line, but his strength and momentum got him over. It was well taken, and he could easily have lost control of the ball before grounding it. Number two was the result of a patient, multi-phase build-up in the Italian 22 which sapped the energy of the Italian defenders. Once they were sufficiently softened up, Jamie Heaslip offloaded to Luke Fitzgerald who scampered over for his first international try.

Six minutes into the second half, and Ireland had registered another seven pointer. Jamie Heaslip barged through the Italian line and almost got over by himself. The ball was recycled until it found its way into the arms of David Wallace, five metres out. Nothing was going to stop him from this distance, and indeed nothing did. The half wore on with Ireland making precious little progress. But at least they held their defensive composure and improved their discipline, and Italy didn’t have any opportunity to register points at all in the second half. Try number four came from a lost lineout in the Italian 22. An attempt to clear Italian lines gave Luke Fitzgerald the opportunity to take a quick throw in. An exchange of passes with Gordon D’Arcy ensued and Fitgerald doubled his international try tally. A couple of minutes later, Brian O’Driscoll was in under the posts, after having intercepted a wayward Italian pass just outside the 22, and running in inopposed. Bryan Habana would be proud of such a try.

The doom and gloom merchants will have plenty to say about Ireland’s shortcomings in the next few days, but I think we should remind ourselves about the positives from today’s match:

• We scored five tries and conceded none.
• Our defence was rock-solid.
• Discipline in the second half was excellent, with no opportunity offered to Italy to score from penalties.
• ROG was wearing his kicking boots.
• Our winning margin, away, was better than England’s at home. And they were playing an Italian team with a flanker playing scrum-half.
• We finish round two on top of the table.

To expect Ireland to be able to play exhibition rugby every time they take the field is unreasonable. Good teams often find themselves dragged down to the level of inferior opposition, as that opposition has nothing to offer except infringement and disruption. So it was today. Ireland struggled to find their rhythm against an Italian side that more than likely knew before the match had even started that they were not going to win today. All they could hope to do was disrupt Ireland’s game plan.

England next in Croker. Bring ‘em on.

Tags: Rugby, six nations

They can call it the Aviva Stadium all they like, but to me and many others, it will always be Lansdowne Road.

I should have blogged about this before now, but anyway.

I was introduced to FaceTheBall.com by my good friend Willie Joe of Green and Red. FTB is a site where users can predict the winning margins of teams in matches in various GAA and rugby competitions. Each prediction is awarded points based on whether the user got the winning team right (or indeed called a draw), and by how closely they predicted the winning margin. Once the round of matches is completed a league table of users is published on the site. Groups of users can create their own mini-league, and WJ invited me to join his Green and Red mini-league.

The first round of predictions was for the opening games in Divisions One and Two of the NFL. I’m no GAA expert, so I only managed 79 points and finished up in 213th place in a field of 224. In the Green & Red Mini-League, I’m 27th out of 29. My predictions and the actual results were as follows:

Division One
Tyrone to beat Dublin by four points (they won by two) - 28 points
Mayo to beat Derry by one point (they lost by two) - no points
Galway to beat Westmeath by three points (they won by five) - 28 points
Donegal to beat Kerry by two points (they lost by eight) - no points

Division Two
Wexford and Armagh to draw (Armagh won by 13) - no points
Fermanagh to beat Monaghan by two (they lost by five) - no points
Cork to beat Meath by two (they won by nine) - 23 points
Laois to beak Kildare by one (they lost by seven) - no points

I had better luck in the rugby last weekend. Mind you there were only three matches and two of those were odds-on, sure-fire predictable.

I had:

England by 23 over Italy (they won by 25) - 48 points
Ireland by four over France (they won by nine) - 45 points
Wales by 17 over Scotland (they won by 13) - 46 points

That gave me 139 points, and sixth place in a field of 224. There are another eight matches in the NFL Divisions 1 and 2 this weekend, as well as three more Six Nations game.

If you’re signed up for FaceTheBall, my handle there is Tommy Joe, the name I use on Green and Red

Tags: face the ball, six nations, Rugby

Declan Kidney announced his starting fifteen and replacements for Sunday’s match against Italy in Rome, and it’s the same as that which started against France in Croke Park last Saturday.

Team is as follows: 15 Kearney, 14 Bowe, 13 O’Driscoll, 12 P Wallace, 11 Fitzgerald, 10 O’Gara, 9 O’Leary. 1 Horan, 2 Flannery, 3 Hayes, 4 O’Callaghan, 5 O’Connell, 6 Ferris, 7 D Wallace, 8 Heaslip. Replacements: 16 Best, 17 Court, 18 O’Kelly, 19 Leamy, 20 Stringer, 21 D’Arcy, 22 Murphy.

This is a match that Ireland should win quite comfortably. Italy lost to a very poor England team last Saturday, going down 36-11 at Twickenham. A lot of that defeat can be attributed to Italian coach Nick Mallet’s bizarre decision to play flanker Mauro Bergamasco as scrum-half. Last year, still suffering from the post-World Cup hangover, a very cagey Ireland huffed and puffed to a 16-11 win over Italy in Croke Park. The year before, Ireland ran in eight tries en route to 51-24 win. Unfortunately, they let Roland de Marigny in for a late Italian try, which handed the Championship to France on points difference. (Of course, this wasn’t really the reason we lost the Championship to France that year, it was because we lost to France in Croke Park.)

This is the tenth season that Italy have competed in the Six Nations. Ireland have beaten them in the nine previous meetings:

2000 60-13, Dublin
2001 41-22, Rome
2002 32-17, Dublin
2003 37-13, Rome
2004 19-3, Dublin
2005 28-17, Rome
2006 26-16, Dublin
2007 51-24, Rome
2008 16-11, Dublin

Italy beat Ireland three times between 1995 and 1997, and came uncomfortably close to doing so again at Ravenhill in 2007 in a World Cup warm-up.

Some interesting factettes about Italy’s Six Nations participation:

• Italy won their first ever Six Nations match, beating Scotland 34 - 20 in Rome.
• In their nine seasons in the Six Nations, Italy have ended up with the wooden spoon six times.
• Three of those wooden spoons saw them lose all their matches.
• Their best ever finish was fourth in 2007.
• They have only ever beaten two other teams in the competition, Scotland (4 times) and Wales (twice + one draw).
• 2007 was the only season where they managed more than one win, when they beat both Scotland and Wales.
• Their biggest ever win was against Scotland in 2007, by 37 points to 17.
• Their biggest ever loss was to England in 2001, scoring 23 points and conceding 80.
• Ireland’s biggest winning margin over Italy was 60-13 in 2000.
• The first time they ever avoided an away defeat was in 2006, when they drew 18-18 with Wales in Cardiff.
• The following year, they bettered that, beating Scotland at Murrayfield, 37-17.
• They have only once suffered a whitewash. In 2004, they lost 25-0 to France in Paris.

As Father Ted might have said: “The Italians - a great bunch of lads.”

Tags: Rugby, six nations

We owed them that one. Big time.

How many times have Ireland left the field, their heads drooped in disappointment, knowing that they had lost to a French team they should have beaten? The really satisfying thing about today’s result was that they beat a very, very good French side. I said in my preview that Ireland had a chance to beat France because they often are somewhat off-colour on the first day of the campaign, especially away from home. Not so today. The French were on fire. Their back play was mesmerising. Harinordoquy’s try started way back in their own half, and the ball went through several pairs of hands before the big Number 8 touched down. Speaking of whom, Harinordoquy was immense in the French lineout. This was no second rate French team, this was the real deal, and Ireland beat them.

This was a superb Irish performance. They soaked up a huge amount of pressure, and even when they went behind to Harinordoquy’s try in the fourteenth minute, they didn’t panic. They kept their discipline, and only conceded three points to penalties. I can’t find the full stats, but from what I remember, Ireland gave away very few penalties. Then when the opportunities came, they took them. All three Irish tries were brilliantly finished. Heaslip took his like he as a centre. In the RTE studio, George Hook claimed that Heaslip was the only Irish forward that could score like that. He’s obviously forgotten Munster’s recent matches, as David Wallace is a specialist in scoring from a standing start on the 22 as well. BOD’s try was a throwback to his early form, when he sliced through the opposition defence to score. It was good to see Gordon D’Arcy score, after all the problems he’s had in the last year. He took it well, with three Frenchmen hanging off him as he went over. Credit must be given to the forwards who did a fair amount of softening up of the French defence before Darce dotted down.

In games like these, I often feel that a Man of the Match award is pointless. Rugby is a team game, and the best teams are the ones where there are Man of the Match performances from all players. This was the case today. No Irish player left anything behind on the Croke Park turf this evening. Jamie Heaslip was awarded the glassware, but every player in green was worthy of the award.

There were some frustrating moments too. Like in the All Blacks match last November, possession was often cheaply given away with pointless punts down the field. Medard’s try came from one of these.

In all the excitement about the win, it could be forgotten that a significant milestone was passed today. John Hayes played his 90th game for Ireland this evening, and something like his 45th match in succession in the Six Nations. He has only ever scored two tries for Ireland, and never gets Man of the Match. Yet, if we didn’t have him, we wouldn’t have a hope. He scrummages like a man possessed. He hoists Paul O’Connell into the air at lineout time singlehandedly. He secures rucks and makes a menace of himself in the loose. John Hayes, a real living “lidgind” of both Munster and Ireland rugby, and by all accounts, a true gentleman, I salute you, even if many in the Leinster-obsessed media would not.

Today’s win was the start we all wanted. Italy are next. We should win that one, but it is essential that our players are focused on that match and not the next one against England in Croke Park. For too long, Ireland have promised much and delivered little. Let this season be different.

Come on Ireland, let’s go win the Six Nations.

Tags: Rugby

I posted my first Six Nations preview in 2005, and have done one every year since. My overall prediction for each year can be summed up as follows: 05 - positive; 06 - negative; 07 - positive; 08 - negative. You can see a pattern emerging here, so this year I should be quite positive again about our chances.

But I’m not sure that I am.

On the plus side: We have a new coach. Munster and Leinster are both qualified for the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup. Ulster seem to have found some form this season. We are relatively untouched by injury. We are starting to see strength in depth in the squad and genuine competition for places.

On the minus side: We had a shaky Autumn series and were badly beaten by the All Blacks. Previous campaigns have shown us that good provincial form doesn’t necessarily translate into national form. There is no doubt that we have a very talented bunch of players in our national squad, but they seem to have difficulty gelling together as a team.

Our first match is home to France this Saturday. It’s probably just as well that we have this one first, as it has the potential to define the campaign for us. Our record against France is woeful, and over the years we have lost to them when we should have won. 2007 is a case in point. Two minutes to go and four points up, and one millisecond of lapsed concentration lets that serial breaker of Irish hearts Vincent Clerc in for a try. I was at that match, and to this day, I’m still pissed off about it. That lapse cost us not just the Championship, but a Grand Slam.

This one could go either way. The best time to get France is when they’re cold and away from home (if you’re anyone but Ireland, that is.) I think one of the problems over the last number of years was that Eddie O’Sullivan simply couldn’t work out how to beat France, and ended up just writing off the possibility. In Declan Kidney, we have a coach who has no fear of French teams, and in his Munster days used to lead his men into the badlands of the Languedoc and the southwest and come home with the spoils.

Kidney named the starting 22 today as follows: Kearney, Bowe, O’Driscoll, P Wallace, Fitzgerald, O’Gara, O’Leary. Horan, Flannery, Hayes, O’Callaghan, O’Connell, Ferris, D Wallace, Heaslip. Replacements: Best, Court, O’Kelly, Leamy, Stringer, D’Arcy, Murphy.

There is strength throughout that team. The pack is 75% Munster, one of the most effective forward units in world rugby. The two non-Munster players are no slouches either. At half-back it’s all Munster, and this pair have been in scintillating form for their province. Hopefully ROG will remember to pack his kicking boots this Saturday, as this has been a weakness in his international game of late. ROG in a green shirt kicks a lot more from hand than ROG in a red shirt, and he has to be sure that his kicking for field position is effective.

Behind them, it is a back line that has the three sharpest arrows in the Leinster quiver, along with two Ulster natives (one of whom has now departed for foreign shores.) What’s important here is that these guys actually get their hands on the ball and get to attack the opposition. This is the area that worries me most. If the backs don’t fire, we won’t win, simple as that. However, if we can get fast ruck ball coming back to them, then these guys can do some damage.

Elsewhere, defending champions Wales start their defence of the title on Sunday, away to Scotland. Wales are a confidence team, and once their tails are up and they have a few wins under their belts, they become virtually unbeatable. However, if they get tripped up early on, they can lose their way and implode. England are in transition, as they have been since 2003. There seems to be little faith that Martin Johnson can lift the former World Champions from their current ennui. France are trying another new half-back pairing this season, and their squad is a mix of youth and wise old heads. Thankfully, Ireland’s tormentor Vincent Clerc won’t be playing this weekend. I honestly can’t comment about Scotland, and Italy are Italy.

There is an added ingredient this season in that it’s a Lions year, and players from the four unions involved will be keen to impress the watching Lions brass and the media commentators. Personally, I couldn’t give a shit about the Lions and would be happier if Ireland withdrew from it. But I understand that for the players involved, selection for the Lions is seen as a great honour and a testament to their reputation as a world-class player, so the Irish lads will be looking to be as much in contention as the English, Welsh and Scots.

So overall, I should be positive. A win this weekend would set us up nicely, as the following fixture is away to Italy, and then it’s back to Croker to face England. We would not want to lose that one as it is the last Six Nations game to be played at GAA HQ. Then it’s away to Scotland, and who knows, maybe a Grand Slam showdown against Wales in Cardiff. But there’s an awful lot of rugby to be played before then, and anything can happen in the meantime.

Update: I have changed the background colour of the site to green for the duration of the Six Nations.

There would appear to be more to the Paul Warwick story (see below) than originally thought. After London Irish came out last night and made a statement that they had signed him, it would appear that Munster moved quickly to deny it, and claim that he is a Munster player for the foreseeable future. (There is no statement on the Munster site, just this report in the Limerick Leader and this on BreakingNews.ie.)

It’s a hot topic of conversation at Munsterfans.com.

I’ll update if I hear any more.

Is it really that long since I last wrote about rugby?

Since then, Munster lost away to Connacht and got whipped at home by Ulster in the Magners. Following these setbacks, they won away to Ospreys (Magners again); romped into the quarter finals of the Heineken Cup, having dished out a six-try spanking to Sale at Thomond; and last weekend thrashed Montauban five tries to one to set up a home quarter final against Ospreys. (Whipping? Romping? Spanking? Thrashing? This post is beginning to resemble something you might read in the memoirs of a British cabinet minister of the Thatcher era.)

Not wanting to tempt fate or anything, but we should be able to get past the Ospreys at Thomond on Easter Sunday. In some ways I would have preferred if we had drawn Toulouse at this point, just so that we could have a better chance to neutralise them on our patch, rather than have to face them later on. As it happens, if we get to the semi, we will face either Harlequins or The Goys. This will be a home match for Munster, even though it can’t be played in Thomond. That raises a problem - where could this match take place? Lansdowne Road won’t be available and none of the other provincial grounds is big enough. There is Croke Park, of course, but given that the agreement between the IRFU and the GAA is for international matches only, that might not be an option. The GAA work to their own agenda and don’t like being pressured into anything. However, a Munster-Leinster semi-final would guarantee a full house at GAA HQ, and the prospect of all that lovely lolly flowing into cash-strapped GAA coffers might help sway things. Also the fact that the fanbases of Munster rugby and the various Munster counties’ GAA teams overlap so much could influence a decision in favour of opening the ground up. We’ll wait and see.

Sad news today from the Munster camp, in that Paul Warwick is to decamp to London Irish at the end of the season. Since arriving from Connacht two seasons ago, he has added a valuable extra dimension to Munster’s backs. We saw that on Sunday against Montauban, where he and ROG were able to mix things up very effectively between one another. Also, we will never forget his superb display against the All Blacks back in November.

In the Irish camp, Brian O’Driscoll has been retained as captain of the national squad. I would like to have seen Paul O’Connell take on the captain’s armband this season, but by all accounts Declan Kidney made his decision having consulted with the senior members of the squad, who strongly favoured retaining BOD in the role. So that’s that then.

I’ll get around to a Six Nations preview before too long.

Tags: Rugby, Heineken Cup, munster

I reckon the cardiac unit at Limerick Regional was working to absolute capacity yesterday evening. Why do Munster do this to us? They take us to the edge of the cliff, dangle us over it and then just when we think we’re about to plummet into the abyss, haul us back to safety.

I wasn’t at the match yesterday. Mr & Mrs Munstermad had tickets and they dropped off their little ‘un to us en route to Limerick. Watching a high-stakes rugby match while looking after a toddler is often a recipe for disaster, but when we had the two of them yesterday, by full-time the house looked like it had been burgled. Mr & Mrs M stayed with us last night, so this is the first opportunity I have had to write about the match.

One thing is for sure, Clermont came to Limerick with a completely different mindset from the last time they were here. Having beaten Munster in France last week, they were looking for the double on the champions. And there were long periods throughout the match yesterday when they looked like they were going to do just that.

The turning point was when Jamie Cudmore was sent off half way through the first half for repeatedly punching Paul O’Connell. O’Connell himself got a yellow for his troubles. You might expect Munster to run riot from that point on, having numerical advantage, but Clermont dug their heels in and refused to lie down. David Wallace got in for a late try just before half-time, but when the teams re-emerged, it was all Clermont.

The French side held Munster scoreless for almost the entire second half, but the introduction of veteran scrum-half Peter Stringer seven minutes from the end completely turned the tables on the visitors. At that point 14-man Clermont were leading Munster 13-11, and the men in red were facing the real prospect of not only their second ever home defeat in the Heineken Cup, but also the possibility of having the destiny of their qualification from Pool One taken from their hands. With Stringer on the field, straight away Munster’s ruck ball was fast and the passing was crisp. Having been pinned in their own half of the field for so long, suddenly they were in Clermont’s 22. A delicious flip pass from Lifeimi Mafi to Marcus Horan saw the fleet-footed prop barge over in the corner. ROG missed the conversion, and Munster led 16-13. (All afternoon, Sky’s stats-obsessed commentators kept going on about O’Gara’s imminent passing of the 1000 points mark in Heineken Cup games. It seemed like it was a monkey on his back, as his place-kicking game yesterday was poor.) Had it stayed like this, Clermont would have claimed a losing bonus point, and the two sides would have been even-stevens over their two matches.

But this is Munster. The next time they secured possession, flanker Niall Ronan chipped ahead and ran onto the ball to score. That put Munster eight points ahead, keeping Clemont out of range for a losing bonus point. ROG nailed the conversion this time, taking his personal tally of Heineken Cup points to 1001.

Further good news came Munster’s way later yesterday evening, when Sale went down to defeat away to Montauban. If Munster can win their remaining two matches (home to Sale and away to Montauban) they are through to the quarter-finals.

No doubt Munster will provide some more nail-biting moments before the pool stages are over, but hopefully we won’t have to sweat like we did yesterday.

I didn’t get to see the Clermont - Munster match today, as I was at a family get-together. I have it canned in the Sky+, but my better half had also recorded Strictly Come Dancing. So I’ll have to wait to get to see the match.

Although we were hoping for a win, this was always going to be hard to come by. Even for a team with an away record like Munster’s, we can never take a French team for granted on their home ground. Crucially, by staying within seven points of Clermont, Munster got a losing bonus point, which would have been the minimum required from their travels.

The return fixture is next Saturday, and Munster must win this one. Not only that, but they must prevent Clermont from getting the losing bonus point, thus keeping their noses ahead.

Hopefully, Munster will put on a better show that they did against Montauban back in October.

The draw for the 2011 World Cup was made this afternoon, and Ireland have been drawn with Australia and Italy.

Being a second seed team meant that there was never going to be an easy draw. We have beaten Australia in the past (though never at the World Cup, but we came close twice), so we should be reasonably happy with the outcome. At least we didn’t get hosts New Zealand.

We were unlucky to be in the Pool of Death last time with France and Argentina. This came about because Argentina were third seeds going into that draw, and the French were in the top rank. Last time around the seedings were determined by where you finished in the previous World Cup, and because we beat Argentina in the pool match in 2003, we got to the quarter final and they exited at the pool stage. This time around the seedings were done on world ranking position, and our beating of Argentina last Saturday week meant that we maintained our eighth place in the rankings. Had we lost, we would have slipped to ninth, and if ROG had converted Tommy Bowe’s try, Argentina would have been in the second tier with us.

We should get out of that group, even if we lose to the Wallabies. Declan Kidney now has the best part of three years to prepare, and we will play Italy at least three times before the tournament, so barring a crash in confidence like we had in 2007, we should be able to see them off handily enough.

The rest of the groups are quite interesting. Current World Champions South Africa were drawn with current Six Nations Champions Wales. Also in that group are Fiji, who dispatched the Taffies last time around. 2011 hosts New Zealand and 2007 hosts France are in the same group, setting up the mother of all grudge matches. The only potential Pool of Death is the one with Argentina, England and Scotland.

Still, it’s all a good way off yet. We have Six Nations business to deal with first.

You’d be forgiven for getting the impression that Ireland had lost to Argentina yesterday, given the amount of negative commentary in the wake of the game. OK, it was a dreary match to watch, but there was a lot at stake. Ireland had to win it in order to stay in eighth place in the rankings. If they lost, they would have dropped to ninth and into the third seeds for the World Cup draw. Argentina would have climbed into fourth place and would have claimed a top seeding. The way these things work out, we would probably have ended up in the same pool again in the World Cup.

Against this background, it was never going to be a free-flowing game. There was never going to be any of that fancy-Dan sort of play from the backs. Both teams are strong in defence, and that showed yesterday. Throughout the match, RTE commentators Ryle Nugent and Tony Ward claimed that Argentina were winning the defensive battle, but I cannot recall a single time that Ireland’s line was broken, or that Irish defenders had to scramble back. There was only one genuine try-scoring opportunity in the match, and it was taken by Tommy Bowe, who collected Ronan O’Gara’s exquisite cross-field kick to run in unopposed. (Incidentally, one or other of RTE’s commentators referred to ROG’s kick as if he had learned the manouevre from Dan Carter. Sorry, but ROG has had that one in his arsenal for a long, long time.)

The Irish rugby team is still in transition. They are still getting over the trauma of the 2007 World Cup when their confidence imploded. Decaln Kidney has had three games in charge so far and won two of them. Add to this the ELVs, which have forced Ireland to radically rethink the way they approach the game.

Even though we won yesterday, Kidney still has some way to go to get his charges into the sort of form that is capable of competing at the top table. Last week’s result emphasised that. If it’s any small comfort, Scotland and Wales were also thumped by New Zealand during this Autumn series, and England suffered a record home defeat to South Africa yesterday. As Ronan O’Gara said, the national team needs to show a bit of the spirit Munster’s second strings displayed in their Herculean display against the All Blacks last Tuesday night. There needs to be genuine competition for every place on the team.

The next test come in the New Year, when the Six Nations comes around. Once that’s over and done, we will be in a better position to see how Declan Kidney’s new regime is shaping up.

As promised, video footage from the match last night:

1. The match ball arrives



2. The teams emerge



3. The Munster Haka



4. The All Blacks Haka



5. Kick Off



6. 3-0 Munster



7. A promising move



8. 6 - 3 Munster



9. Barry Murphy’s try

Just back from Limerick, having witnessed one of the most breathtaking games of rugby in my life. The standard of the game certainly lived up to the occasion, with full-blooded commitment from both teams.

Munster led for almost the entire game. We were 16-13 up with four minutes to go, when the heart inside every red-clad chest was broken by a Joe Rokococko try that the All Blacks two points ahead.

Every Munster supporter should be proud of their team tonight. They put in a heroic performance and left nothing on the field. And this team was lacking almost all its internationals.

I had the video camera with me as well as the still camera, and got some good footage. I was on the West Terrace, just at the 10 metre line, which was perfect for capturing the event. I’ll trawl through the tape to see what’s useable and horse it up onto YouTube over the next few days or so.

After the abject disappointment of Saturday’s defeat to the All Blacks, attention now turns to the encounter between the Men in Red and the Men in Black. International duty and the garnering of vital world ranking points mean that both sides are shorn of most of their first choice players, but this should not take in any way from the sense of occasion at Thomond Park tomorrow evening.

There’s nothing shabby about either side. In red, former All Black Doug Howlett starts at full back, with fellow Kiwis Rua Tipoki and Lifeimi Mafi in the centre. Veteran international scrum-half Peter Stringer will start, as will fellow Irish caps Frank Sheahan at hooker and Mick O’Driscoll in the second row. O’Driscoll has the honour of captaining the side. Denis Leamy eases himself back into the swing of things following several months out due to injury with a gentle workout at No 8.

In the black corner, scrum-half Piri Weepu captains the team. Joe Rokocoko starts on the wing, and is the only member of the starting XV from Saturday’s game. In the replacements, Mils Muliaina and Brad Thorn were also in Saturday’s match day 22.

Hopefully, we’ll see more creativity from Munster than we did from Ireland on Saturday. I’m not going to predict anything, but here’s hoping we give their cage a bloody good rattle.

So much for my prediction of a narrow Irish win over New Zealand. Next time, I’ll just keep my big mouth shut. Twenty-two games played over 103 years and we have yet to register a single win. Twenty seconds into yesterday evening’s game and it was clear that the record was not going to change.

What went wrong? First up, Ireland showed too much respect. They knew that New Zealand were going to come at them with all guns blazing, and they just let them for the first twenty minutes or so. Secondly, they didn’t put any faith in their own ability to attack. Possession was hoofed away aimlessly all throughout the game.

A good kicking game has two aims. The first is to get the ball to touch in order to get a foothold in opposition territory. Even if it is an opposition lineout, there is the opportunity to disrupt and get both possession and field position. The second aim is to get the ball into open space behind the opposing three quarter line, in order to force them to turn back and secure possession, by which time your forwards will be in their faces forcing them to clear their lines. Ireland did neither yesterday. They had possession in their own half, got it back to Ronan O’Gara who just wellied it down the field, straight down the throats of the All Black three-quarters. Five seconds later, play was back at the point where ROG had kicked, except this time New Zealand had the ball. Utterly pointless play. He may as well have just taken the ball and passed it over to the other side of the ruck.

There was no creativity in Ireland’s play yesterday, mainly because they spent most of the match in defensive mode. If you don’t have the ball, you can’t attack. And if you keep giving possession away, you have no-one to blame but yourself.

Hopefully, Ireland will have learned something from yesterday’s match. Next weekend, we face Argentina, who have twice put us on the plane home from the World Cup.

In the meantime, next Tuesday evening, Munster face New Zealand at Thomond Park. This match is to commemorate the famous Munster win over the All Blacks in 1978, and is also the official opening of the new Thomond Park stadium. My old mucker Munstermad has secured the necessaries, and I will be there. Report to follow.

Earlier today, Declan Kidney named the Irish squad to face New Zealand this coming Saturday in Croke Park, in the second of the Autumn internationals.

The personnel line up is virtually identical to that which wiped the floor with Canada last Saturday, the only selection changes being Girvan Dempsey taking the place of Leinster team mate Shane Horgan; and Tomás O’Leary coming in for Peter Stringer. The rest of the changes are all swaps between starting XV and the bench.

Despite a confident performance in his full international debut last week, young Keith Earls has to be content with a place on the bench for the upcoming match. I will admit to arching an eyebrow when I saw the name of Girvan Dempsey at the top of the list that was published this lunchtime. But, thinking about it, it is the correct choice. The All Blacks are starting Dan Carter at outhalf, and he has the potential to torment a relatively inexperienced full back in a match like this. Best to put in a solid and experienced man in this role, even if he is at the twilight stage of his international career.

Elsewhere in the back line, it’s as you were last week. Ireland’s back five all played well last week, in atrocious conditions and against poor opposition, so all those that are starting this weekend have won their places on merit.

It’s all-Munster in the half-backs. No surprise to see ROG reacquaint himself with Carter, McCaw & Co., and you can be sure that the Kiwis will try to exploit his channel, as they have done in the past. Tomás O’Leary comes in at scrum-half in favour of Eoin Reddan, who drops to the bench. This is a good call, as I feel that Reddan has been somewhat ponderous about his recycling. O’Leary is a fast recycler of the ball, kicks well and isn’t afraid to break if need be.

Up front, it’s wise old heads all round, almost without exception. Hayes and Horan prop, either side of Rory Best. My personal preference at hooker would be Flannery, but then I would say that, wouldn’t I? Best generally does little wrong, is reasonably accurate with his darts, and scrummages well. He will give way to Flannery late in the game. The second row consists of DOC and POC as usual, but it’s in the back row that Kidney has played his best hand.

Stephen Ferris might feel somewhat aggrieved to only have a place on the bench, given his man of the match performance against Canada last weekend. But this encounter needs a special type of player at 6, and that player is Alan Quinlan. Opposing teams hate him, because he causes havoc at the breakdown. This is where the match will be won or lost, and where New Zealand traditionally dominate, so we need the best, most experienced players at 6,7 and 8. Alongside Quinlan, Munster team mate David Wallace starts at 7 and Jamie Heaslip is at No 8.

Add to this a strong bench, most of whom started last week, and this is a formidable Irish side. It mixes the wisdom of experience with the zeal of youth and it demonstrates one thing about the dawn of the Declan Kidney era. The Corkman means to win these matches.

When Eddie O’Sullivan was coach, he simply couldn’t work out a way to pick the lock of either New Zealand or France. He seemed to be content with “moral victories” and “running them close this time.” Kidney doesn’t do that shtick. Look back at his CV and you will see winning teams all over it, from schools to underage to Munster. Declan Kidney has put out the team that he believes will beat the All Blacks, the first Irish international team ever to do so. He knows that New Zealand can be felled, that they are mere mortals like his men. Remember that the All Blacks under Graham Henry were beaten by France in Cardiff in the quarter-final of the World Cup, a tournament they should have walked away with.

This is a relatively inexperienced All Blacks side at the end of their season facing a very experienced Ireland side at the beginning of theirs. This crop of players want to lay the All Black hoodoo to rest, and this is probably their best opportunity to do so. They are not going to Croke Park on Saturday to make up the numbers.

I’m sticking my neck out on this one. Ireland to win by a very tight margin.

Declan Kidney named the starting 15 and replacements today for his first game in charge of the Irish team. They take on Canada at Thomond Park on Saturday, in the first of three matches in the Guinness International Series.

The big news is the start for Munster full-back Keith Earls, making his Irish debut in the No 15 shirt. This is a richly deserved start for Keith, as he has been outstanding for the European Champions so far this season. Confident under the high ball, incisive in his running and blessed with a fine kicking game, he has great potential both in the red shirt of Munster and the green of Ireland.

Earls is joined in the back line by Leinster youngsters Luke FitzGerald and Rob Kearney, both of whom were bright lights in an otherwise gloomy Six Nations 2008 campaign. Brian O'Driscoll retains the captaincy and partners his Leinster team-mate FitzGerald in the centre, while The Ospreys' Tommy Bowe starts on the opposite wing to Kearney.

ROG is at 10 as normal, understudied by Ulster's Paddy Wallace, while Eoin Reddan continues his stint as first choice scrum half, with back up from Peter Stringer.

In the forwards, Tony Buckley starts in the front row alongside his Munster colleagues Jerry Flannery and Marcus Horan. It's good to see Buckley get the start, as Ireland have to start preparing for the eventual retirement of the great John Hayes, who's on the bench. Donncha O'Callaghan and Paul O'Connell make up an all-Munster tight five. The starting back row is remarkably Munsterless, and it must be the first time in years that an Irish starting XV hasn't had at least one Munster player at 6,7 or 8. Fear not, as David Wallace and Alan Quinlan will be prowling the touchline, ready to come on and cause mayhem to the Canadians if need be. Ulster's Stephen Ferris is at 6, and Leinster duo Shane Jennings and Jamie Heaslip are at 7 and 8 respectively.

In the subs, alongside those already mentioned above, are Ulstermen Rory Best and Ryan Caldwell, and veteran winger Shane Horgan.

This is a well-chosen team, with a good balance of youth and experience. Under a new coach (and also being one with a proven track record in actually winning things that matter), the players should be well up for it. What I hope to see is an efficient performance from Ireland, with good set pieces and discipline, and minimum handling errors. How many times in the last fourteen months have we seen promising passages of play lost because of a knock-on, or a crooked throw, or a touch-finder missed, or a stupid penalty conceded?

This is a new start for the Irish rugby team, and one that hopefully will bring tangible results. Triple Crowns are all well and good, but Irish rugby supporters deserve more. We need to win the Six Nations, preferably with a Grand Slam, and we need to start putting to rights our completely one-sided record against the All Blacks.

The future starts here!

Tags: Rugby

Tomorrow night sees the return of European Rugby’s premier club/province tournament - the Heineken Cup. Now in its fourteenth season, it has had its ups and downs. I was at the 2003 final between Toulouse and Perpignan in a half-empty Lansdowne Road. At the end of the 2007 season, the French and English clubs were threatening to pull out of the competition altogether, which would have doomed it.

But the downs are nothing compared to the ups. The quality of the rugby on display is awesome. The rivalries are intense. This is a very competitive tournament, and of all the teams taking part at least half of them could be touted as potential winners. All-Ireland Hurling Championship it ain’t. And of course, Munster are the current champions, and have won it twice.

From this Munster fan’s point of view, the Heineken Cup is very special. Only in the Heineken Cup has a team I actively support actually won something meaningful. Apart from the wins in 2006 and 2008, who can forget that amazing match against Gloucester in 2003? Or the semi-final against Leinster in 2006? Or Rob Henderson of Munster running through Austin Healy of Leicester in 2003? On the flip side, there was the agony of losing to Wasps in the semi of 2004, a game cited by many as one of the finest games of rugby ever played. The Back-Hander that robbed us in the final of 2002. John O’Neill’s perfectly good try being disallowed in the semi against Stade in 2001 (the day after my wedding.)

Having won the tournament twice, Munster are now one of the most feared sides in Europe. Since 1995, they have been beaten only once at Thomond Park. They have qualified for the quarter-final stage for ten seasons on the trot, contesting four finals (winning twice) and seven semis along the way. This year they have a new head coach and have had a good start to the Magners League with five wins from five. Alongside their many veterans, they have some really exciting talent coming through the ranks, most notably Keith Earls. In addition, there appears to be genuine strength in depth in key positions.

As champions, Munster are also the team that everyone will want to beat, so you can be sure that every match will be high-octane stuff. Munster didn’t like very much losing their 100% record at Thomond Park to Leicester in 2007, and will be keen to re-establish their newly-revamped home as the impregnable fortress it once was. Like last season, Munster are again in a tough group. Last season, they won all their home matches, picking up a bonus point against Clermont, and denying all three visitors the opportunity to pick up losing bonus points. On the road, they beat the Scarlets, and picked up losing bonus points at Clermont and Wasps. They will need to emulate that performance if they hope to get to their eleventh successive quarter-final.

Their pool opponents this season are Clermont, Sale and debutants Montauban. Tomorrow’s match is against the newbies at home. It should be a comfortable win, hopefully with a bonus point for good measure, but to borrow a cliché from the round-ball game, it is a potential banana skin. Montauban are an unknown quantity and have nothing to lose coming to Thomond. An even mildly complacent Munster could have difficulty putting them to the sword, but I don’t believe that this will happen. Munster don’t do complacency, and the team selection for tomorrow night shows that Tony McGahan is taking the opposition seriously.

Elsewhere, Leinster find themselves with their perennial nemesis, Edinburgh, as well as Wasps and Castres. If they can get over their Murrayfield hoodoo this weekend, then they will have a good chance of qualifying from the group. If they don’t (and remember that they are coming off the back of two Magners League defeats to Munster and Connacht), they are sunk.

In Pool Four, Ulster are in with Stade, the Scarlets and Harlequins. The group page on the Heineken Cup website lists the four clubs alphabetically in the table with no games played. By virtue of the initial letter in their name, Ulster are bottom of the table. Expect them to stay there. They shouldn’t even be in the competition and have their place by virtue of being only marginally less useless than Connacht were last season.

I will know in the morning if I am going to be making the journey down the N7 tomorrow afternoon. Me old mucker Munstermad (who used to be one of the contributors at The Fear of God) texted me this evening to tell me that he might be able to get his hands on a spare ticket.

Here’s hoping.

Tags: munster, Rugby, Heineken Cup

Sky+ is feckin’ brilliant. I don’t watch much telly at the best of times, but it often happens that what I want to watch is shown at times that don’t suit. Like tonight, when the Leinster-Munster clash coincided with bath ‘n’ bedtime for the little ‘un. Where once upon a time, we were able to dunk her in the bath, get her into her PJs and Grobag, read the bedtime stories and have her off to the land of nod in under half an hour, these days it’s at least an hour or more. Being an independent little Miss, she insists on dressing herself. A parental attempt to put on a vest or PJ top elicits a sharp cry of “I self!”, followed by a ten minute process of actually getting the garment on, usually with parental intervention.

So it was 9.30 by the time I got to sit down and watch the match. I could think about little else today. Opening up the Turbine this morning and reading Neil Francis’s preview almost brought out the Kevin Keegan in me. I was seconds away from donning the headphones, stabbing my forefinger and declaring “I will LUV IT if we beat them” with my voice cracking and tears in my eyes.

Why, oh why, oh why, oh why do the Irish media have such a hard-on about Leinster? OK, Franno is Leinster to his bone marrow, so it is natural for him to talk them up. But tonight, watching the match on Setanta, the commentary was all about Leinster. If a Munster player broke three tackles and was hauled down by the fourth, it was all about the tackle that brought him down, not about the way he skinned the three players en route. Even Donal Lenihan, a Munsterman through and through was commentating on this game like it was Ireland (Leinster) v. Anyone Else (Munster). In case you haven’t noticed, lads, Munster are the current Heineken Cup Champions. They have won it twice in three seasons. They are a decent outfit. Give them some credit, will yiz?

But, anyway, on to the match. Leinster should have been up 9-0 (or maybe 9-3 if ROG’s attempted drop goal had gone over) by the end of the first quarter. But Dr Felipe had obviously left his kicking boots elsewhere, as he missed three penalties on the trot. He never got another shot at goal for the rest of the match. Munster’s lineout was a weak point for the whole match, and Leo Cullen in particular made hay on Munster’s throw. But it was Munster’s tenacity that showed through. They defended like their lives depended on it. From the second quarter on, they gave away no penalties within kicking range (not that it would have made much difference, as Contepomi couldn’t hit a pig’s arse with a banjo tonight.) ROG nailed the two penalties he was offered, and Munster took their chances to score two tries.

Even though the one-eyed commentary was constantly talking up Leinster’s defence tonight (and it was good, save for the two tries they conceded), there was precious little comment for Munster’s defence. Leinster never looked like scoring tonight. Any promising-looking move was snuffed out well before the line. Munster put in some monster tackles and turned over a huge amount of ball.

This was a very satisfying win for Munster for several reasons. First up, it was a whitewash. On Leinster’s patch. For all their huffing and puffing, and their great pack and their brilliant backs, Leinster failed to score, on their own patch. It was also a big two fingers to the Irish media, who need to be reminded that Munster are still officially the best team in Europe.

Tags: munster, leinster

After a few seasons establishing itself, the Magners League is shaping up into a fine competition. Tomorrow sees the first clash between the two Irish heavyweights, defending champions Leinster versus Heineken Cup Champions Munster.

Traditionally, this match has been seen as the clash between the brawn of the Munster pack and the flair of the Leinster backs. How that has changed. Leinster now possess a pack capable of beating up any opposition up front, while Munster’s fleet-footed backs have the capability to mix it up behind the pack.

The Irish media, being mostly Dublin-based, is drooling over Leinster. The arrival of prop CJ van der Linde and flanker Rocky Elsom has only added to this. This is something of a make or break season for Michael Cheika. The Magners, even though its stature is growing every season, is still very much a lesser prize than the Heineken Cup. Bragging rights among the Celtic nations of These Islands™ is all fine and dandy, but coming top of the pile in a competition that includes the best of England and France is the gold standard for Irish rugby. Cheika and his charges do not need reminding that their opponents tomorrow have reached the European summit twice in the last three years. Leinster’s best Heineken Cup finish was in 2006, when they got to the semi-final (beaten by guess who?), whereas Munster have been to the final four times, winning twice.

Both teams have had good starts to the Magners and remain unbeaten. Munster have won all three of their matches so far, picking up two bonus points. Leinster were held to a draw in their opening match against Cardiff, and won the next two, picking up a bonus point in their thumping of Edinburgh.

Tomorrow is very difficult to call, because there are too many variables in play. It’s a home game for Leinster, and a noisy, partisan crowd at the RDS will help lift the man in blue. (Not that hostile away matches faze Munster all that much.) Leinster will be keen to maintain the domestic superiority of last season, when they won home and away against Munster. The men in red will want to put that right. Munster have a new coaching line-up in Tony McGahan and Laurie Fisher, who will be eager to best their fellow Aussies Cheika and Alan Gaffney.

What I can predict with a degree of certainty is that it will be a tough match, it will be close, and that one of these two teams will be the eventual winner of the Magners League.

Tags: munster, leinster

Blimey! An Arsenal team with an average age of 19 canes Sheffield United in the Carling Cup. 16-year-old Jack Wilshere was among the scorers.

Imagine what would have happened if they had sent out the senior squad…

Environmentalists all over the world have a neat turn of phrase to encapsulate their campaign - “Ten years to save the world.” After today’s farce of an All-Ireland final, the GAA have a task of their own - ten years to save hurling.

Today, Kilkenny annihilated Waterford by 3-30 to 1-13, a winning margin of 23 points. I had a quick look at the list of All-Ireland Final results on Wikipedia, and you have to go back to 1941 to find a bigger margin (Cork put Dublin to the sword that day, 5-11 to 0-6.) Today was Kilkenny’s third All-Ireland in a row, and their sixth in the last ten years. Overall, this is their 31st All-Ireland title, the most won by any county.

Hurling is often described as Ireland’s national game, and the GAA themselves claim that hurling in some form or other has been played in Ireland for 2,000 years. But what we are seeing now is a decline in the game as a national sport, as it becomes more entrenched within its heartland of the south/south-east of the country. Unlike gaelic football, there are only a handful of counties that are competitive in the championship (i.e. have a chance to get to the All-Ireland final to be cannon fodder to Kilkenny.) All of them, with the exception of Galway are in Munster or south Leinster. The Ulster championship is Antrim v. Down (although a couple of years ago, New York made it to the Ulster final, but they couldn’t play the final in Ireland, because they were afraid that several of the New York team wouldn’t be able to get back into the US.) There is no Connacht championship anymore. It could be argued that neither is there a meaningful Leinster championship - Kilkenny have won it every year since 1998, with the exception of 2004 (though they did make it to the All-Ireland that year, losing to Cork.)

Waterford were the lambs to the slaughter today, but in truth fans of Tipperary, Limerick, Cork, Wexford, Clare and Galway needn’t feel too smug. Such is the power of the hurling machine that is Kilkenny, any of those other teams would have been on the end of a comparable hiding. I feel really sorry for the Waterford fans, as they have been there or thereabouts for the last few years, and this was their first shot at the All-Ireland in 45 years. They haven’t won it since 1959. They have nothing to take from today’s match. A bad refereeing decision or an unlucky bounce of the ball would at least have provided some succour if the game had been tight, hope that next year they could come back and finish the job. But the brutality of their defeat today will have the hearts of the Déise’s followers in their boots. I should know something about this. After all I am a Mayoman, and we have been to the All-Ireland football final five times in the last twenty years, with nothing to show for it. Three of those defeats were to the football equivalent of Kilkenny (Kerry) and two of those encounters with the Kingdom were hidings (2004 and 2006.) And I’m not even a serious follower of the game. This lad will tell you a thing or two about what it’s like to lose five All-Irelands in twenty years.

At the moment Kilkenny are unassailable. But for a neutral’s point of view the future is not rosy. Not only did the senior team win the All-Ireland today, but the minors also beat Galway. There will be wild celebrations all over the county of Kilkenny tonight. The festivities will go on to the wee small hours in such places as Grangemockler, Callan and Mullinavat. But deep down, even the most ardent of Kilkenny fans must realise that each passing year and each facile All-Ireland won, the victory is going to get hollower and hollower. Unless the GAA do something to stem the decline of hurling as a national game, it will be practically gone within a generation.

Tags: Kilkenny, Waterford, All-Ireland

Neil Francis writes in today’s Turbine on who should be Declan Kidney’s choice for Irish captain. His Leinster bias shows when he contemplates the possibility of Munster captain Paul O’Connell taking the armband.

Munster coach, Munster captain and majority of the side from Munster – Ireland might as well play in red.

Indeed, Franno. We might win something then, mightn’t we?

In honour of Spain’s deserved win in Euro 2008 - The Pogues.

Well, what can I say after that? Me nerves!!!

After a pulsating, nerve-wracking, tightly-fought contest, Munster prevailed over the might of Stade Toulousain to claim their second Heineken Cup title in three years, and can now truly be known as one of the world's greatest rugby teams. Whatever critics may say of their style, they know how to win, and that's what counts.

After an opening period of Toulouse domination, Munster were on the back foot, but managed to keep the damage down to a single drop goal. The fact that Ellisalde chose to take on the role of sniper possibly showed that Tououlse realised from early on that they were going to get little change from the Munster defence. Once Munster managed to get hold of the ball, they made ground and started to control the game, and after a sustained ten-minute period of pressure were 10-3 to the good. They conceded a penalty on the stroke of half time, which allowed the French to get back to within four.

The turning point in the second half was Fabien Pelous getting sin-binned. ROG slotted the penalty, but in the ten minute period when they had numerical advantage, they conceded a try. It was a work of genius conceived by full-back Heymans, who ran like a train down the left touchline, and slotted the ball in-field .Jauzion ran on to it to give it another poke, allowing wing Donguy to fall onto it.

Minutes beforehand, we were treated to the genius of Doug Howlett, who ran onto a pass from fellow Kiwi Rui Tipoki and then shredded the Toulouse defence. Sadly, the pass from Tipoki was adjudged to be forward and it didn't count.

A further penalty from O'Gara nudged Munster in front again, and they controlled the ball through the forwards for most of the last quarter to run down the clock and keep the French on the back foot. In the end, Toulouse ran out of time and Munster prevailed.

There were some immense performances from the Munster men, particualrly in the pack. Alan Quinlan rightly won Man of the Match for a barnstorming performance in the back row. He made a menace of himself all day and was instrumental in several turnovers. Captain Paul O'Connell kept the line-out ship steady and even managed to nick a few off the French. He was off for a blood injury for a short period in the second half, and in that time Munster shipped two line outs. Donncha O'Callaghan was superb, driving, tackling, and assisting, especially when he added his muscle to Denis Leamy's lunge for the line for Munster's try. Similarly Jerry Flannery, who picked and drove magnificently. And never forget John Hayes, who's scrummaging was magnificent.

A nice touch came at the presentation of the trophy. Instead of just hoisting it over his own head, Paul O'Connell shared the lifting duty with Ronan O'Gara, who captained the side throughout the treacherous pool campaign.

There can be no doubt now as to Munster's standing at the top of the pile of European rugby. To get to where they are tonight, they had to get past last year's champions, last year's Challenge Cup champions, the side that knocked them out last season, two of the top sides in the English Premiership (both away), and then today overcome the aristocrats of French and European rugby.

Declan Kidney now goes on to the national set up. Two things he has brought to Munster which he hopefully will bring to Ireland will be: always winning tight games, and knowing how to beat French teams.

OK, everyone in Ireland has heard this one by now. I was in London on Tuesday, and so missed the debut on Gift Grub.




Whatever about Jerry Flannery's reaction to hearing it for the first time, I'd love to know what his girlfriend thought of it!

I missed the Heineken Cup Final in 2006. You know, the one that Munster won. As in Munster, the team I regularly write about. Here's what happened.

Back in January of that year, I was asked to take a group of customers to Jerez de la Frontera in southern Spain on a wine trip in the middle of May. Not wearing a rugby hat that day, I agreed. As the season panned out, it became apparent that I was going to miss the final due to the trip, but by that stage it was too late to back out.

We arrived on the Tuesday and were due to leave on Saturday afternoon. We were flying out of Seville, so we had an hour's bus journey to the airport, and that hour was right splat in the middle of the match. I had my laptop with me, and managed to get the first 20 minutes in the lobby of the hotel, listening to the great Michael Corcoran on RTE's streaming web coverage. Back home, my wife, six months pregnant, was watching the match live and sending me updates by text. Being a proud Cork woman and Munster supporter, she naturally got caught up in the emotions of the day, and as the match wore on, her missives to me on the bus between Jerez and Seville became more cryptic.

But then one came through loud and clear. "STRNGR TRY!!!!!!!"

When we got to the airport, she rang me. It was all over. She was speechless, but eventually managed to squeak out "We won!" between sobs of joy. She still maintains that if she had been a few weeks further along the pregnancy that day, she would have been in The Coombe that night.


So here we are again. Munster stand on the cusp of glory once more, and if they make it to the top of the hill this time, it will be even better than '06. (Apologies for the mixed metaphors.) Two years ago, they had a home quarter final and to all intents and purposes, a home quarter final against Leinster. This time, they had to practically tunnel out of the worst possible pool draw, and then face two away knock-out draws. And once that was over, face the only side that has contested more Heineken Cup Finals than they have, a side who have won three so far. As Sheryl Crow sang, no-one said it would be easy.

On the plus side, this is a more complete Munster side than in 2006. Alongside the well-established pack, there is a back line that any opposition would fear. The two Kiwi centres, Mafi and Tipoki have been awesome for Munster this season. Once Trevor Halstead left, I was afraid that our back line would miss that line-smashing element he brought to the game. Thankfully Tipoki has it, and his partnership with his fellow New Zealander means that we have a mean centre partnership. Plus the fact that these guys can run. I remember Mafi's first appearance in a Munster shirt. Can't remember the opposition, but I think it was a Welsh team in the Celtic League. He got hold of the ball, saw a gap, slid through it and put on the afterburners. He didn't score, but he really showed that he had pace.

Then we have Doug Howlett on the wing. Everyone thinks that Decaln Kidney signed him just for his try-scoring ability, but it's his defensive work that has more than repaid the fee laid out for him. On the other wing, Ian Dowling is maturing into a fine player, with a keen eye on the break and also on keeping his channel secure. Likewise, Denis Hurley will most likely secure the full-back berth, having done well in the position in recent matches.

So, how's it going to go? I'm not as confident going into this final as I was back in 2006, but I still think Munster can win it. There will be no more than a score between the teams, and it will either be won by an act of genius or lost by a cruel mistake.

The cake would be a Munster win. The icing would be seeing the "Man of the Match" award going to Munster's most faithful servant. The man the commentators never see securing the rucks, steadying the scrum and launching Paul O'Connell single-handedly into the sky at the line-out. The man known as "The Bull". Munster's unsung hero, John Hayes.

Like in 1999, Man Yoo had to rely on luck to win the Champions League trophy tonight. Chelsea equalised on the stroke of half time through Frank Lampard and controlled the game from then on. They struck the woodwork twice (as did Bayern Munich in the '99 final), but eventually lost on penalties.

Naturally the Glory Glories will be filling their scrapbooks from tomorrow on, but this victory is a hollow one. At least nine years ago they managed to win in normal time. This time their win came about as a result of John Terry's misfortune in losing his footing as he took his penalty.

Just in case anyone thinks that I am an embittered Chelski fan, think otherwise. I can't stand either of them. It's just that my dislike of United has deeper roots.

There were two highlights for me, though: Drogba's sending-off and Ronaldo missing the penalty. If Ronaldo's miss had cost them the title, that would have been the icing on the cake, but, hey, you can't have it all.

(Unless you're a United fan, that is.)

From today's Indo:

David Knox, The Goys' backs coach is perplexed by Declan Kidney's appointment as Irish national coach.

"The Irish international team badly needed a foreign coach."

Like an Aussie, maybe? One with blond hair?

"Kidney's methods, like making the team train in the away strip they'd be wearing at Gloucester in the Heineken Cup and playing them a tape of the crowd noise at Kingsholm to get them used to the conditions, are bizarre. I would be embarrassed as a coach for people to know that."

Lemme see, who won that quarter-final? Oh yes, it was Munster, wasn't it?

Knox was also heavily critical of Munster's playing style under Kidney. He acknowledges their successes in the Heineken Cup but maintains they have achieved glory in that competition at the expense of any style or flair.

In a straight choice between "glory" and "style or flair", I think I'll pick…hmmm…tough one this…

He also has a go at Ronan O'Gara:

"I have been here, coaching in Ireland for three years, and I have never seen that guy create space for anybody. I've never seen him put anyone into a hole."

And that's the be-all and end-all of everything, is it? Controlling the pace and tempo of the game, gaining field position, etc., means nothing?

"Munster's record is fantastic but you can't tell me they play anything but 10- man rugby."

Come on Dave! Admit it. You're going for the Munster job, aren't you?

"Munster get 30 points on the board by grinding away and when the other team is shot, they try and throw the ball around a bit. Then people say, what a great team. It's rubbish."

Eh, which Irish team is in the final of the Heineken Cup? The only one to get out of their pool this season?

"If Doug Howlett had played for Leinster this season, he would have ended up scoring 30 tries."

And if your Auntie had bollocks, she'd be your uncle. What about your own Galacticos? Any of them score 30 tries this season?

"He's seen as the greatest buy of the year but how often has he touched the ball? Maybe 10 times in a real attacking sense? I'm talking about serious attacking play, not chasing kick-aheads. Yet this is one of the world's premier wings. They have no idea how to use him."

If anything, Howlett's defensive work alone has more than justified what it cost to sign him.

"And the two other guys they brought in from the southern hemisphere, Rua Tipoki and Lifeimi Mafi, hardly ever played Super 14 rugby I think Tipoki made a couple of appearances off the bench. They are both steppers, they never pass the ball."

But they're playing Heineken Cup Rugby at the highest level and will start in the final on Sunday week, while your charges will be sitting on their orses in Kiely's, roysh, necking the Heinos and watching the game.

He goes on to rail against "the paranoid world of Irish [international] rugby", and I actually agree with most of what he says there.

So yesterday, one obscenely wealthy football club managed to beat another obscenely wealthy football club to the Premiership title. And if that wasn't enough, next week the same two obscenely wealthy football clubs will battle it out for the Champions' League title in Moscow.

I have noticed over the last month or so, a sudden reappearance of replica Manchester United shirts in the cities, towns and villages of our fair isle. They had been conspicuously absent for the last couple of years, but now that Man Yoo are back in their pomp, it's time to break the piggy bank and splash out on the merchandise again.

The Glory Glory days are back with a vengeance.

It was never going to be easy. Munster went into today's semi-final against Saracens in the knowledge that this was not going to be the cakewalk that some were predicting. Saracens are a tough, competitive team, and it showed today.

Saracens started the brighter of the two teams and were the first to score, with a brilliant move that started in their own 22. With that, Munster came back into the game and ran in 15 points without reply, 12 of which came from two well-taken tries.

Indiscipline costed both sides in the second half, with Munster shipping a worrying number of penalties, and Rua Tipoki spent ten minutes in the sin bin. But then, over the space of two minutes, Sarries lost both of their props to yellow cards. By the time they were restored to their full compliment of players, the score was 18-13. Glen Jackson added another penalty to finish the match 18-16 to the men in red.

This was as tough a match as Munster could have hoped for, and their defence was tested severely. Doug Howlett showed today just what he is worth to Munster, with some fine breaks and at least one try-saving tackle. But he wasn't the only one putting in the savage hits. All across the board, Munster were defending as if their lives depended on it.

It could so easily have gone the other way. As the clock inched towards the eightieth minute mark, Saracens were making the hard yards in the Munster half. Eventually, the move broke down and Munster were awarded a penalty, the last kick of the game. Had Saracens kept it going for one more phase, Glen Jackson would probably have had a pop at a drop goal.

But one thing Munster have learned over the years is how to win tight matches. They held out to win by two points, and go on to face Toulouse in the final on 24 May. For a season that had thrown out some of the oddest results, it seems somewhat fitting that the two most aristocratic of regular Heineken Cup teams should contest the decider.

It should be a right old ding-dong.

Tomorrow's Heineken Cup semi-final clash between Munster and Saracens brings about all the usual pre-big-match emotions and apprehensiveness. We know that the Munster should prevail, but it can never be taken for granted.

All this week, Declan Kidney has been bigging up Saracens in an effort to deflect from the general media consensus that Munster go into this match as favourites. They came out of a group that included Biarritz, perennial HC heavyweights. they dispatched the Ospreys, several of whom had won the Grand Slam in Welsh shirts a few weeks earlier. They are coached by Alan Gaffney, a coach who, more than most, knows what makes Munster tick.

Much has been made of the fact that the Munster branch returned a portion of their ticket allocation for this match. This has been interpreted as the fans taking the Kerry approach, and choosing not to travel until the final. This may or may not be the prevailing attitude (and I don't believe it is, as Munster fans take nothing for granted), but if there is complacency among the support, it is not there in the team. This is cup rugby, and as such you only have one chance to get it right.

Munster have worked very hard to get this far. They had the shittiest pool draw imaginable, yet won it in style. This was followed by an away quarter-final to Gloucester. Kingsholm is never a venue to look forward to, but Munster went there and won comfortably.

Saracens have never competed at this level of the Heineken Cup before. This is Munster's seventh HC semi-final. They have won three of the last six, and of course, won the competition itself in 2006. Declan Kidney was able to deal from a full deck when he named his team during the week. Alan Gaffney is missing some key players like Andy Farrell and Chris Jack.

Predicting the outcome of a sporting encounter is not particularly scientific. Relying on statistics alone is never a definitive route to making a call. As the man said, statistics are like lamp posts, there to illuminate but not to lean to heavily upon. You look at past performances, take into account mitigating factors like injuries and so on. But there are also the intangibles, the unknown unknowns as Donald Rumsfeld might say.

Saracens may surprise Munster, as they did the Ospreys in the quarter final. But we also have to look at their form in the Guinness Premiership. This is their bread and butter, and they are mid-table at present. They lost to both Gloucester and Wasps in the GP since their win over the Ospreys. Big deal, you might say, Munster lost to Leinster in the Magners League the week after winning at Gloucester. But there is a difference. Even though they will deny it publicly, deep down, as long as they are still in the Heineken Cup, Munster couldn't give a shit about the Magners League. For Saracens, the Guinness Premiership matters hugely.

Munster should win tomorrow, but it will not be easy. Saracens will put up a good fight, but it won't be enough.

A Munster-Toulouse final should be in the offing by tomorrow evening. Now that would be something to look forward to.

Monday, 7 April. I arrive home at about 10.30pm from Vinitaly. My wife is away at a work do. The wee one is with her Granny and Grandad. There is a beer in the fridge. Munster's quarter-final against Gloucester is on the Sky+ box.

All of the above is true, just until you pass the bit about the beer. Somehow, we managed to record the London Irish - Perpignan match, but miss the Munster - Gloucester one. Oh well.

This Sunday, Munster face Saracens in the semi-final at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. I'm at home this time, so there should be no repeat of the Sky+ debacle this time around.

The starting lineup is as follows:

15 Hurley
14 Howlett
13 Mafi
12 Tipoki
11 Dowling
10 O'Gara
11 O'Leary
1 Horan
2 Flannery
3 Hayes
4 O'Callaghan
5 O'Connell
6 Quinlan
7 Wallace
8 Leamy

Replacements: Sheahan, Pucciarello, O'Driscoll, Ryan, Stringer, Warwick, Murphy

That's a strong team in anyone's language. I'll say no more, except COME ON MUNSTER!!!

Finally, Eddie O'Sullivan has done the decent thing and stepped down as coach of the Irish rugby team. Statements from both himself and the IRFU following the disastrous World Cup last year indicated that he was going to brazen it out, but a fourth place finish in the Six Nations sealed his fate.

Lest anyone think I have it in for E O'S, I don't think he's a bad coach, but as his tenure went on, it was clear that he was running out of ideas. To have such a talented group of players and win nothing in seven years (and by that I mean nothing, Triple Crowns don't count as "anything") is a failure that speaks for itself.

The new coach, whoever he will be, will have to shake up the system in a big way. He will need to develop new talent, especially in such key areas as prop and half back, so that we have strength in depth, and also genuine competition for places. He will have to rebuild the shattered confidence of the players and make them fearless of any team they face. He will have to develop a varied game plan capable of overcoming our serial tormentors like France and New Zealand.

The IRFU needs to cast its net widely in its search for a new coach, and a genuine world-class coach won't come cheap. Does anyone have Tony O'Reilly's phone number, by any chance?

And finally, I would like to wish Eddie O'Sullivan all the best in whatever he does in his future career.

Six Nations 2008 will be one that Irish rugby supporters will want to forget in a hurry. Finishing fourth meant that we had our worst final table placing since before Five became Six back in 2000.

Several truths were laid bare during the campaign. The first was that Ireland's dismal World Cup was more than just a 'blip', as had been claimed by the team's coach and the IRFU. Secondly, it proved beyond doubt that Eddie O'Sullivan's position was untenable, and that the IRFU's decision to award him a new four-year contract before the World Cup last September was a big mistake. Thirdly, it demonstrated our shocking lack of strength in depth in key positions. And fourthly, it showed that if you take an average side with a few world class players, under the right coach they can actually win the Grand Slam. In fact, they can even do it twice in the space of four seasons.

Despite a good start at Twickenham yesterday, once England got into their stride, Ireland had no answer. Poor defending let England in for three tries, while a lack of creativity meant that Ireland's last score of the game was registered at seven minutes. Our midfield, lacking talismanic captain Brian O'Driscoll, had a torrid time. We were unlucky to lose Denis Leamy so early in the game, and also to see Geordan Murphy coming off early in the second half. But this didn't lose the game for us. England were just too good and their outhalf and centres made hay.

So where do we go from here? First up, Eddie just has to walk. Someone has to take responsibility for Ireland's dismal form over the last twelve months, and as he is the man in charge of player selection, coaching and motivating the players, then he has to be the one that takes the blame when things go wrong. That's what Wales did after the World Cup, when they - like us - failed to qualify from the pool stage. Gareth Jenkins got the boot, Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards took over and reinvigorated the team, who went on to win their second Six Nations Grand Slam in four years. Hopefully the IRFU will have the balls to do it, bearing in mind the new contract was signed only six months ago. If they choose not to, expect them to present the Genesis Report as their fig-leaf.

Whoever is the Irish coach going forward has to start looking for new talent. The IRFU needs to facilitate the development of up and coming players by giving them as much opportunity as possible to play their non-international rugby at home with the provinces. If this isn't possible, then the union needs to have someone keeping an eye on Irish-qualified players plying their trade overseas, to make sure that no potential international players go unnoticed. There needs to be genuine competition for places so that the established players don't get complacent. A player that gets dropped has to be assured that he can get back into the team, but will have to earn his place.

Brian O'Driscoll has been captain for several seasons now, and in my opinion, it is time to hand the armband over to someone else. He has done his due, and freedom from the burden of captaincy might help him to concentrate on his game. ROG would be the natural contender for the position, but given his age, we should be looking for another candidate for the longer term.

After this campaign, and the World Cup before it, will have left Ireland's international players with their confidence at a very low ebb. Whoever takes over will have to be able to re-instill the confidence that was once there. He will have to enable them to rediscover their winning mentality, and also to convince them that it really is possible to beat France and to win the Six Nations.

The bottom line is this - Wales have done it, so can we.

In the normal scheme of things, a St Patrick's weekend England-Ireland clash would be something to savour, especially if there had just been a good week for the Irish in "Chiltnim." There might be a championship up for grabs, or at least a Triple Crown. But not this time.

Both Ireland and England are in the doldrums, both having lost two games in the championship so far. Whoever wins tomorrow will finish third in the final shake-up, and the loser will finish fourth. It's a dead rubber in other words.

For the second time in two weeks, Eddie O'Sullivan faces a team coached by one of his predecessors. This time however, that predecessor is under more pressure than O'Sullivan, and neither is he carrying any baggage into the fixture. If England lose tomorrow, Brian Ashton may well lose his job. If Ireland lose, Eddie will more than likely keep his.

There is little point in analysing the Irish team. Losing BOD is a big blow, but one upside is that it finally gives Ronan O'Gara the captain's armband. ROG has been the de facto captain this season so far, so it is good to see him get the job de jure. Murphy is back at full-back, which should add an extra attacking edge. But all of this is irrelevant, because as we have seen for several months now, the Irish team as a whole adds up to a lot less than the sum of its parts.

Ireland's record against England has been very good in recent years. We have won the last four encounters against them, and a win tomorrow would be a three-in-a-row for Ireland at Twickenham. However, I don't think it's going to happen. The creative juice has been squeezed out of this team, and they can be read like an open book. Watch Danny Cipriani tomorrow. He's going to cause us problems.

England by a score, I reckon.

Well, we're back to square one again, aren't we? Ireland were deservedly beaten today by Wales in a really poor match. In the end they were flattered by the scoreline, as opportunities aplenty were squandered by the men in red.

It seemed as if Ireland simply had no game plan whatsoever. The limit of their ambition seemed to be to deny the Welsh any possession, but sadly, they had no idea of what to do with that possession. Half an hour in, the Welsh had them sussed, and as a result Ireland were left chasing shadows. The only Irish players that seemed to have any creative nous were Rob Kearney and Jamie Heaslip, but whenever they got a head of steam going, they were let down by the support players.

Looking forward to next week, I expect Wales to close out the deal by beating France in Cardiff. Unlike Ireland, Wales aren't scared of their shite of France, and also unlike Ireland, they can actually go all the way, as they did three years ago. Ironically, I wouldn't be surprised if Ireland were to beat England, as this seems to be the sum total of Eddie O'Sullivan's ambitions.

This will not be remembered as a vintage Six Nations year (except in the Valleys, of course.) No team has stood out, and to be honest, Wales, even though they will probably land the Slam next week, are no great shakes. A good three-quarter line, decent half-backs and Martyn Williams, and that's about it. Let's face it, any team with Gavin Henson in it can hardly be considered great.

Currently, Ireland are second in the table, but will fall to third tomorrow once France beat Italy. If we lose to England next week, we will finish fourth, our worst ever finish in the Six Nations. In one way, it might be a good thing as then it would be further impetus for the IRFU to say "Adios" to Eddie O'S.

This weekend sees the first ever visit of the Welsh rugby team to Croke Park. They're not the first Welsh team to run out onto the hallowed ground though - the football team came here last year, and Stephen Ireland scored the first soccer goal in Croker in a 1-0 win for the home side.

Eddie O'Sullivan would take the rugby equivalent of a 1-0 win next Saturday. His charges won unconvincingly against Italy in the opening match of the Six Nations, followed by the customary defeat to an ordinary French side the following week. Then last Saturday week, Ireland notched up a five tries to one win over a hapless Scotland.

On the other side of the draw, Wales shook off their 20-year Twickenham hoodoo with a win over England in their opening match, followed by solid home wins against Scotland and Italy. They remain the only unbeaten team in the competition.

Both teams go into Saturday's match on the back of wins and good performances, and on paper there is little to separate them. Ireland have a relatively settled team (although Eddie has made a few changes, some by choice, others forced upon him.) Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards are finding their feet in the Principality, and so are using each game that comes along to test new combinations of players.

Wales are a confidence team. When they play well and string together a few wins they become unbeatable, like in 2005, when they won the Grand Slam. But when they are lacking confidence, they are dreadful. This season their tails are up, the passes are sticking, the breaks are working, and they are getting the benefit of the doubt in the refereeing decisions. They will come to Croke Park on Saturday expecting nothing less than another notch on the 2008 Grand Slam belt.

Ireland have been dealt a blow by losing both their first and second choice full-back to injury. It means that Rob Kearney will have to start at international full-back for the first time, with Tommy Bowe switching wings and Shane Horgan coming in. Having a rookie at full-back is always a worry, particularly with as wily an out-half as Stephen Jones in the Welsh team. Hopefully Kearney will have as assured a performance at full-back as he has had at wing so far. My worry is Horgan's fitness. He's not had a happy season so far, blighted by injury and struggling to find form. He'll have Shane Williams to contend with on Saturday, and will need to be on top of his game to contain the Taffy Twister.

The restoration of Paul O'Connell to the second row means that we have leadership in the pack for the first time this season. The leader of the front eight is normally either the hooker, a second row or the No 8. Jackman and Best have had mares at the lineout, and in all we have coughed up roughly one in four. Jamie Heaslip is too inexperienced at this level to be a true leader yet. So it's good to see POC back, as hopefully he will be able to keep things steady upfront and ensure that we manage to get and retain possession.

I'm not going to call it. It's too close. However Ireland have the experience, the capacity and the home advantage to prevail on Saturday. Let's hope they do.

Taylor shouldn't have just been sent off. He should have been arrested as well.

And to add insult to injury, Birmingham scored from an ill-deserved penalty deep in second-half time added on, to draw the match 2-2.

Fuckers.

Ireland's rugby rehabilitation continued today, with a comprehensive five-tries-to-one demolition of Scotland at Croke Park.

There was a dazzling performance by the backs, with full-back Geordan Murphy putting in a man-of-the-match performance. Bearing in mind that he wasn't even in the matchday 22 on Tuesday, this was a two-fingered display for Eddie O'Sullivan's benefit. Murphy is and out-and-out full-back, and you can be sure that if he was qualified to play for any other Six Nation team, the team sheet coming out of the coach's printer on a Monday would have the name "G Murphy" pre-printed on the No 15 spot.

Andrew Trimble played one of his best games in an Ireland shirt so far. Rob Kearney got his first international try, while Tommy Bowe bagged two. The Munster forwards showed that they were no slouches either, with David Wallace and Marcus Horan claiming a score apiece.

There are still some areas of concern. Ireland got off to a very slow start and allowed Scotland a lot of possession early on. Caledonian ineptness ensured that this possession did not translate to points on the board, but you would think that if this had been England or Wales in Croke Park today, we would have been playing catch-up after 20 minutes or so. The line-out was poor. This is a dilemma for O'Sullivan. Jackman is effective around the park, but his throwing is not up to scratch. Rory Best simply isn't international standard. Jerry Flannery is the best hooker in Ireland at the moment, and hopefully he will be available for our last two matches. However, even if he is fit, it's no guarantee that O'Sullivan will pick him.

Elsewhere, Wales had a slow start against a feisty Italian side, but once Tom Shanklin ran in a try from an intercepted pass, they just ran riot from then on. England had a magnificent win against France in Paris this evening, demonstrating once again that Ireland's extended run of losses to Les Bleus remains unexplained.

In my preview of today's match I stated: " I can't see another match like the extraordinary one of 2006, when Ireland came back from 43-3 down to finish 43-31." Well, I got that wrong! Like 2006, today's match, as anyone called Trevor might say, was a game of two 'alves.

It can be summed up thus - France were lucky, but Ireland weren't smart enough.

The bounce of the ball favoured France today. Indeed the bounce off the balls favoured them too. David Skrela put through a little grubber early in the second half that bounced off the O'Driscoll family jewels, and popped up perfectly for Cederic Heymans to collect and run in under the posts.

One thing I did get right was that Vincent Clerc is usually good for a try or two against us. Today, he went one better and got three before half-time.

All in all it was a vastly improved performance by Ireland, and much closer to the form they showed in last year's Six Nations than what was on offer at the World Cup. Several players showed up today. Our back row was excellent. This should be the starting 6.7 and 8 for the rest of the tournament, with Gleeson on the bench. I thought Reddan was a bit ponderous in the first half, but he improved after the break. The scrum did very well, and unlike last week, our lineout was interested in poaching French ball.

During the week, ROG gave an interview to RTE radio that showed his leadership credentials. He said that Ireland shouldn't keep trying too many power plays, but should be patient, keep chipping away, and as the game develops, the chances will come. It's exactly how Munster managed to prevail in the Pool of Sharks of this year's Heineken Cup. It seems to me that Brian O'Driscoll is Captain in name only these days. He does the press conferences and all the other shite that captains have to do.

But there is one leader on the pitch, and on his back is the number 10.

It's a cliché that gets thrown out at manys the post-match press conference - you can only play what's in front of you. When it comes to analysis and prediction, you can only go on what's behind you.

So, looking forward to Ireland's Six Nation clash with France tomorrow, I find little solace in studying the recent results. We have to go back ten matches and eight years to find our last win in Paris, and a further 29 years to find the one before that! Since 2000, we have overcome the French twice at home, in 2001 and 2003.

So here's the numbers (since 2000, including RWC):

P 10; W 3; D 0; L7; F 177; A 288

Our biggest win was 22-15 in 2001, and our heaviest loss came the following year, 44-5. The average score in the last then games has been 18-29. France have won the last six games on the trot, with an average score of 18-32.

(Incidentally, of the Irish team that started in our last win in Paris, five will start on tomorrow, and another two will be on the bench. None of the French team of that day will feature tomorrow.)

So looking at those stats, I cannot see anything other than a defeat for Ireland tomorrow. Add in a few more observations:

- Ireland haven't played well since last year's Six Nations, and struggled against a poor Italian side at home last week.
- France showed none of their frequent first-day jitters last Sunday with a convincing win away to Scotland.
- Vincent Clerc is playing, and he's normally good for a try or two against us.
- Eddie O'Sullivan is still our coach.

There are a few chinks of light, though:

- Three players will be making their Paris débuts, and you'd never know, Rob Kearney might repeat Brian O'Driscoll's hat-trick feat of 2000. (This, I readily concede, is a long shot.)
- Ronan O'Gara is back on form, and would appear to have put the nightmare of the World Cup behind him.
- The French might see Bernard Jackman's bald head at hooker and think that Keith Wood is back.

But I don't think that will be enough to save us. I can't see another match like the extraordinary one of 2006, when Ireland came back from 43-3 down to finish 43-31. I can't see where Ireland's tries will come from. Our line is too flat. Guys are taking ball on and going into a tackle one millisecond later. There is no opportunity to generate any momentum to break the tackle or to offload before the tackle goes in. It also allows the opposition line to stay on the right side of the ref's offside radar and get the tackles in early and legally. So what happens is that we lose field position, as rucks form further and further back. We need strong ball carriers to pick and go, and break the gain line, so hopefully our rejigged backrow might be able to do this.

Alternatively, ROG will use the boot, but to what effect? We got nothing from the Italian line-out last week (and coughed up a few of our own), so how are we going to turn his darts to the corner to our advantage? Those lovely cross-field kicks he put up for the winger to run on to are a joy to watch, but that's a weapon to be used sparingly.

Much as I love France as a country, I cannot stand their sodding rugby team. They are to Irish rugby what the Kerry footballers are to Mayo. You might admire their skill and their flair, but you'll never get me to like them.

The FAI come in for a lot of criticism, a lot of it is justified. A couple of years ago, everyone threw their hands up in horror as the Association hastily appointed the inexperienced Steve Staunton as national team coach.

Stan got the boot last October, and the FAI were keen not to make the same mistake again. So they set up a three-man committee to find suitable candidates to recommend to the FAI board. Bear in mind that the next competitive international for Ireland isn't until September, so it's not as if an appointment has to be made urgently.

Once again, the chatterati are in despair. "Why is it taking so long?", they ask.

Because they appointed in haste last time and made a balls of it!

Let them take their time and find the right man for the job.

Eddie has named his starting line-up for the French match, with three changes in personnel and two positional switches from the side that started in Croke Park last Saturday.

Andrew Trimble goes into the centre to take the place of Gordon D'Arcy, who fractured his wrist in last Saturday's game. Rob Kearney starts on the wing. Jamie Heaslip takes the No.8 shirt from Denis Leamy, who moves over to the blindside. The previous incumbent at 6, Simon Easterby, is on the bench. Bernard Jackman and Rory Best swap the No 2 and No 16 jerseys from last Saturday.

In the replacements, Shane Horgan comes back to the senior squad after his stint with the "A"s.

It's better than last week, but it should be borne in mind that one of those changes was brought about by injury. I still think that Easterby shouldn't even be in the squad, and his place on the bench would be put to better use by picking Alan Quinlan or Keith Gleeson in the replacements. Similarly, Shane Horgan isn't fully fit yet, and this would have been an opportunity to see if Tommy Bowe's recent run of good form for Ulster could come through when he's wearing a green shirt. His last appearance for Ireland wasn't a happy one, but there should be an opportunity for him to redeem himself, given the shocking performances by several more senior and regular internationals over the course of this season.

I didn't get to see the Scotland-France match, but by all accounts, Les Bleus look like a formidable outfit under their new coach. Given that we couldn't beat them under Laporte, probably the worst French coach in a generation, we have little hope of overcoming them under the nouvelle régime. Especially as the match is in Paris, where we have one just once since 1972.

There is an interesting parallel with the 2006 season here. Back then, Ireland struggled to overcome Italy in their opener at home. They went to Paris the next week, and got shat on from a great height for the first 50 minutes or so, conceding six tries. But then they decided to start playing as they knew they could, and ran in four unanswered converted tries and finishing 12 points behind the French.

It's good to see that O'Sullivan is prepared to make some changes for Saturday, but I don't think there is enough team spirit in the squad to do the business.

France with 20+ to spare.

Well, that was a pile of shite, wasn't it?

I can't believe I spent €70, gave up my Saturday, and practically froze me bollocks off sitting in Croke Park to watch such a dreadful performance. As suspected, no lessons have been learned from the World Cup. This was a cagey, inept showing by the Irish team. There was no creativity, just aimless punting of the ball upfield.

Our lineout was a joke. Maybe the calls were practiced in Irish, and no-one remembered that Rory Best, being from Ulster, probably doesn't speak Irish.

Last season, Ireland put eight tries on Italy in Rome in their last game of the Six Nations. Today they huffed and puffed to finish 1-1. There is no spark left in the Irish team. Their spirit seems to have been hollowed out. Contrast today's performance with Munster's win over London Wasps a couple of weeks ago. In Thomond Park, we had control, discipline and a game plan. They knew what they had to do and they did it. At one point in that game, Munster went through 22 phases of recycling the ball, and ended up with a try. Today, they never looked like completing half a dozen phases. Their control and discipline just wasn't there.

We're going to get stuffed by France next week. We'll probably lose to England and Wales too, if the brilliant match between them this afternoon was anything to go by. We might just squeak past Scotland, but then again, we might not.

I predicted Ireland finishing second or second last. After today's performance, I fear it will be the latter.

Here's another thing about Eddie's conservatism. If we fail to develop talent for the national squad, there is a good chance we could lose them for good.

Take Shane Geraghty for example. Though born in England (parents from Mayo, as far as I know), this lad played under-16 for Ireland. He's a versatile back, who can play centre or out-half. He has declared for England, and this evening was one of the Saxon players that destroyed the Ireland 'A' team. He's 21. He could have been ROG's or BOD's understudy, but he slipped through Ireland's fingers.

This could also happen to Irish-born players. We only have four professional teams in Ireland, which clearly isn't enough to accommodate all the professional-standard players coming through. So they go away to Britain or further afield in order to develop their careers. If they get overlooked by the IRFU for international potential, they could end up qualifying for their host country under the residency rule.

Girvan Dempsey (36)
Andrew Trimble (27)
Brian O'Driscoll (32)
Gordon D'Arcy (31)
Geordan Murphy (33)
Ronan O'Gara (34)
Eoin Reddan (31)
Marcus Horan (34)
Rory Best (29)
John Hayes (37)
Donncha O'Callaghan (32)
Malcolm O'Kelly (37)
Simon Easterby (36)
David Wallace (35)
Denis Leamy (29)

Replacements:

Bernard Jackman (35)
Tony Buckley (31)
Mick O'Driscoll (33)
Jamie Heaslip (28)
Peter Stringer (33)
Paddy Wallace (32)
Rob Kearney (25)

Not considered:

Jerry Flannery (33)
Paul O'Connell (32)

Above is the team selected for Ireland's Six Nations opener against Italy on Saturday. What, you may ask, is the significance of the number in brackets beside each name? That is the age each member of the squad will be in October 2011, when the next World Cup is being staged.

Six of that 24 will be 35 or over, and so will have little hope of representing Ireland in New Zealand in 2011. Another ten will be 32 or over, and will be coming to the end of their careers by then.

International rugby tends to go in four year cycles these days, starting and finishing with the World Cup. Once one World Cup is over, a new cycle begins, culminating in the next World Cup. Or so the theory goes. Except of course if it is Ireland you are talking about and the coach is Eddie O'Sullivan.

By all accounts, Ireland's World Cup campaign in 2007 was a disaster. We finished third in our Pool, and failed to qualify or the knock-out stages. That in itself wasn't the problem, as ourselves, France and Argentina were all in the top six ranked teams in the world going into the tournament. One of us had to blink, and unfortunately it was the team wearing green that did. No, the problem was the nature of how we went out. Unconvincing wins over minnows Namibia and Georgia were followed by emphatic losses to France and Argentina. There was no cohesion, no consistency and above all no flair.

But, we were told by an Eddie O'Sullivan who prior to the tournament had just signed a new four year deal as national coach, this was just "a blip." I can accept this excuse if it involved just one poor performance. But this was four poor matches on the trot. (Six if you count the pre-tournament near-miss against Italy at Ravenhill and the loss to Scotland in Murrayfield.) No, "blip" is not the word I would use. "Utter fucking shambles" would be closer to the mark.

Let's look at the team selection in detail.

Normally, I would immediately put Geordan Murphy at full back, but as we're shy on wingers at the moment, he's ok on the wing, with Girv at the back. That said, this could have been an opportunity to bring Tommy Bowe back into the fold, as he has been one of the few bright points for Ulster this season. Maybe his omission from the international set-up is a factor in his signing for the Ospreys. Luke Fitzgerald should also have a shout here.

I think it's time to shake up the centre of midfield. Individually, O'Driscoll and D'Arcy are indisputably two of the finest centres in the world, but they have played too many games together. Everyone knows how they play and they can be read like a book by now. The shimmies and breaks they got away with a few seasons ago don't work any more. I would put Trimble in with O'Driscoll for a match or two to see how they play off each other.

In the half-backs, ROG is in dazzling form at Munster, and it will be interesting to see if he can bring that form with him to the national camp, given his torrid time at the World Cup. But there is no effective short-term cover, and even more worryingly no understudy coming through. I agree with Eoin Reddan's selection at scrum-half, as he is clearly international standard and needs to get games under his belt. Hopefully we have seen the last of Isaac Boss in an Ireland shirt.

Up front, we need to start bedding in a successor to John Hayes. The Bull will be 35 this year, and is the oldest member of the squad. Tony Buckley should be starting this match, with John on the bench. The best way to see if someone is international standard or not is to throw them in at the deep end. Buckley is 27, so we need to know now if he can take over from The Bull. Five minute cameos at the end of won games won't tell us anything.

I reckon Eddie O'Sullivan was delighted when Jerry Flannery was ruled out of the Six Nations due to suspension. It would have meant a three way tussle for the No. 2 jersey, and it would have been very difficult to justify picking Rory Best. But with Flannery out of the way, it meant that he had a choice between Best and Jackman, and his blind faith in the Ulsterman was always going to trump Jackman's form.

Donncha has been on fire for Munster so far this season, and he seems to have left his indifferent World Cup form behind him in France. No argument here at No 4. But who should keep Paul O'Connell's seat warm? Sure, Malcolm O'Kelly has been playing great rugby, but he's not exactly a hot prospect for the future, is he, being 34 years old and Ireland's most-capped player? Leo Cullen deserved to be brought in from the cold here.

Back row. Eddie, Eddie, Eddie… Why, oh fucking why, is Simon Easterby at 6? He's 33, and captain of Llanelli, the team that just finished bottom of Pool 5 in the Heineken Cup with zero points. Who has been playing the rugby of his life at 6 this season for Munster? Does this well-known Irish landmark give you a hint?



Here's another hint - you have him at 8. For the love of God, put Leamy at 6, and bring Heaslip in at 8. Wallace at 7 is fine, just in case you thought I was picking on you.

It's the innate, stultifying conservatism of Eddie O'Sullivan that bugs me so much. The unwillingness to try out new players. Look at Saturday's match. We have never lost to Italy in the Six Nations. We're playing them at home, in Croke Park. They have a new coach, and are missing one or two key players. It's a good bet that Ireland will win this match, and we have as good a chance of winning with a few new caps as we have with the old stagers. If Eddie isn't prepared to experiment for this game, then we can expect to see the same old faces throughout the tournament.

A prediction for Ireland in the Six Nations? This is a tough one as nearly every other team is going through a process of renewal and upheaval. The best I can come up with is that we will either finish second or second last. We won't win because Eddie has decided that we can't beat France. Even i