Babbling 'brook

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.

We like to beat ya, but no one else is allowed.

Most Leinster fans support provinces when they're not playing another province.

Even if we didn't we still want a financially strong Munster that contributed loads of players to the Ireland team.

Yeah, it was hugely frustrating. All the more so as Munster shifted to putting more and more resources into the meat grinder. The best next step that Munster could take is focusing on getting players prepared for the national team. There's no glorious future built on guys like Coombes,O'Donoghue and...

We got away with some better results than expected sending weakened teams to SA but it was always a risk. When it goes wrong it goes properly wrong. There was some good play but it only takes a little loose play when the opposition are in a clinical mood. We were lucky last year coming back against ...

Japanese Rugby thread

I've never known a huge amount about what goes on over there but I hadn't realised quite how many stars they had over there until I saw this article: https://www.rugbypass.com/news/ardie-sa ... sour-note/

I thought it was only a few marquee players.

PeteIRL wrote: ↑April 22nd, 2024, 10:18 am Ah, I see. Yeah, the Carbery one in particular seems to have been an unmitigated disaster. I thought Curate's post was referring more to stuff since he left Ireland.

Carbery was by far the biggest success of those moves, and it was still a wheelie bin on fire being carried away in a flood.

Joe Schmidt had conversations with Carbery, Jordi Murphy and Jack McGrath where while says he didn't tell them to move but they went straight of those meetings and immediately arranged moved. Ross Byrne and some others came under a lot of pressure but pushed back. I have no issue with Schmidt wantin...