Babbling 'brook

I'd be more excited about Scott Buckley if he was a Leinster player. Some of that is unconscious bias, but part of it is that when a player doesn't develop in an environment that isn't good at developing players I tend to default to blaming the environment for failing the player rather than the play...

Munster took long shot bets on players when there was neither a short term need in the squad or a particularly compelling risk of them developing to first choice. I think that weakened their case for being trusted to pick a more expensive hooker. Not backing Scott Buckley more probably also isn't he...

Remember, this is only true when it's about O'Gara going to work for Munster https://extra.ie/2021/12/17/sport/rugby/ronan-ogara-munster-return The quote today about being too big to accept an assistant coach job isn't a particularly good look. He's also speculating publicly about another coach gett...

If they look like finishing 9th or lower I might get interested.

Much too early to pay attention.

While I see your point, I would be surprised if there were a lot of fans doing that before they knew who was in the finals. No? As long as that figure is more than zero then it would be a really shitty thing for EPCR to do considering they've been advertising the KO time for several months. fair en...

I like seeing Munster suffer as much as the next man but still think they should be able to sign a NIQ hooker. If we are down to Barron or Scannell for Ireland then we are in serious bother anyway. Munster have signed hookers for each of the last 3 seasons. They have a decent panel of hookers. If t...

Seems kinda a shame that if people wanted to upgrade to premium seats that Leinster couldnt/wouldn't take their money.

Doing anything major with boxes and corporate seats for 1 year only isn't all that likely, not at the level where you'd turn down season tickets.

JvG wasn't a bad coach, he was one who didn't fit that well into the provincial setup. I don't think enough weight was given to that when hiring some coaches but it's something that Leinster nailed through having a backroom team who properly understood it. We all learnt that lesson the hard way, us ...

Moving the kickout time doesn't really benefit a lot other than TV audiences who'd watch both or people looking for a better selection of sports bars It's gonna take up your day if you're going. London can take a few big games and the police were happy for the event to stay the same time. It's not i...

The big names have a much smaller affect on the budget than is generally given credit. The academy lads are on buttons. It's the middle tier where the damage gets done, quietly. Everyone thinks about the star getting half a mil, it's the 4 players quietly getting €200k without doing all that much mo...

He hasn't played this year, missed the RWC. If I recall correctly there's special salary cap treatment for players who are injured for a long enough part of the season, so maybe it was easier/cheaper to release him. Exeter are 7th so maybe they don't figure he'll have much impact for the rest of the...

New season ticket holders will be ahead of the general public when it comes to getting season tickets in the new RDS.

If you want a chance at one of the new seats you pretty much will need to have one.

JvG was a political master. It was never his fault. He had a first season, then he needed a full season with preseason, then he had new assistant coaches and they needed time. There was a clearout or two along the way. Next thing you know he was there 6 years and it was still give him time to see if...

Connacht pay fairly low salaries apparently.

So there probably isn't that big a difference between academy and squad for some lads.

Still strikes me as funny that Illo skipped academy and is a senior player for 3 years. He played U20s with Boyle and Lasisi who did 3 years in the academy.

A lot of those players came later in his stint and were maybe more reactive.

Some of these players looked a lot better after he left. Not all, some did better. He tended to pick limited players with competitive spirits, akin to MOCs picking AIL ahead of raw youth.

Players were recruited to fill slots on the depth chart that don't exist anymore.

It'll be a while before we know for sure whether the academy success rate has changed or that was a blip.

GT having a go at fans and atmospheres again, shocker.

Cheers Neil. I guess the risk was a tradeoff to make other things fit.

It's fortunate that I'm not in the audience affected by this.

It'll be sad to see Ed Byrne going, but it's probably the right call given the way the age profile worked out. He's been an underrated player so hopefully he lands somewhere he's valued. He'd easily slot into the Munster or Ulster squads and he has a brother playing for Newcastle. I thought Cosgrave...

Don't rent a car.

The tourist stuff at the Vatican is closed on Sundays.