Babbling 'brook

Three business stories broke this morning, all worthy of some good investigative journalism and some names. The AIB & Building Society fine by the Central Bank. Biggest fine in Irish business history. But not one mention of the key executives who made these policy decisions within either instit...

Shame about the injuries but in a way it's good. Those players have proved themselves already so now another group get to. I don't see them winning any match but hopefully they will put in a good showing. Yeah, there's a silver lining. If this was a JWC, it'd be really disappointing - the Grand Sla...

Just to ruin Hugo's evening, Conor Nash has extended his deal until 2024. If we hadn't already done so then I think we can officially put that one to bed. From what I gather he turned the corner at the end of last season and is doing pretty well for Hawthorn this season. I believe he has changed po...

I'd guess that the back injury affected fitness and has needed management. Sometimes a few games are what is needed once you reach a certain stage of recovery. He lost out hugely with that injury, it was timed incredibly badly. Aungier left and things were looking good, Salanoa suddenly left and he...

Really looking forward to seeing Clarkson get better in the coming season and Abdeladze being backed to start a few games, there’s no point keeping him around all these years otherwise. Vakh has been in the Leinster system for a long time. He did three years in the sub-academy before going into the...

Fair play to Nick, and glad to hear that the response from his team-mates and all at Leinster has been positive.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2022/0616/1305229-new-tmo-sweeper-system-aiming-to-speed-up-rugby/ New Sweeper system to help speed up the game. Good, getting a bit sick of the TMO stoppages. Very sick of them. There are just too many stoppages and long pauses in contemporary rugby. We play a fast-p...

I think there's every reason to be excited about Baird at blindside. He has already played international rugby at second row, so it's a viable option for him in the future, but Andy Farrell going out of his way to name him as a backrow for the NZ tour [plus the emergence of McCarthy, which keeps cro...

I think the lads heading off to Connacht will give us a hard time in the Sportsground. Connacht will benefit from them. I think Dooley and Murphy will impact from the outset. I have to say though that I am optimistic about the make-up of the pack going into next season. Joe McCarthy has been incredi...

I have to say that losing those two matches at the end of the season has really sharpened the appetite for next season! We brought a lot of really successful elements into our play this season that I hope we keep looking to use. Some of the blowout victories were gaudy scores, which I am a huge fan ...

Dave Cahill wrote: ↑June 15th, 2022, 6:18 pm The list is basically all the affiliated unions, their next senior teams, the Lions and (bizarrely) the PIRA team.

I thought the PIRA team had been decommissioned?

Ba-dum tish!

I'm here all day, ladies and gents.

Its a very good squad I think. The only players who could feel a wee bit hard done by are Ross Byrne and Nathan Doak I reckon, but I can see why they aren't there. Yeah, I think it's a pretty good squad. The biggish number is enough to get people's hopes up, both players and fans. Obviously it's to...

I am only going to say this 100 times: bring back the drop goal off a free kick.

Drop goals are a dying art; free-kicks are underpowered and practically useless. Remedy two issues with one solution by bringing back an original law. We'll find out soon enough why it was struck out in the first place.

Think Byrne fortunate to go and bringing Healy the wrong call. Healy looks jaded, flogging him makes no sense. A summer off DJing at the festivals to recharge his batteries would have been the better option IMO. Molony has had a better season than Treadwell, his lineout work and passing at a differ...

Any word on how long Kelleher is likely to be out injured? Haven't heard anything. Going on previous players, I reckon it's an operation for him and a good bit of time off. I cannot emphasise this enough though: I'm not a doctor, and that is just speculation based on limited information. He injured...

A pretty good appointment, I think. Obviously it will be tough to replace Felipe's charisma and the knowledge he brought from playing at the very highest level for so long, but once he decided to take up the Argentina role we had to replace him, and I think Goodman is a reasonable choice and will be...

I see Frawley going on this one.

I could be reading something into this that's not there, but ... Leinster get Ala'alatoa, Porter moves from tighthead to loosehead. Leinster get Ngatai, Frawley moves from centre to outhalf.

Toulouse win Top14 quarter-final with all eight forwards replaced in second half. Racing 92 beaten in Top14 quarter-final as they only replace seven forwards in second half. The game has changed but the French League has made a mockery out of the fifteen-a-side game. Could not agree more. The eight...

We lost that game purely and simply because our lineout was appalling. Can only remember us winning three clean lineouts and we scored off two of them. Just rewatched it on the TG4 player and you are not wrong. 27:25, 62:15, 63:55 - three pennos to 5m lineouts which we lost cleanly. That is going t...

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the team and management for the journey they've taken us on this season. There have been lots of great and elevating moments for us to to enjoy thanks to them all. 100%. Always tempting to be too high when we're up and too low when we're down. This has bee...