Babbling 'brook

Oldschoolsocks wrote: ↑November 21st, 2022, 1:31 am

LeRouxIsPHat wrote: ↑November 21st, 2022, 12:52 am

tackle-bag wrote: ↑February 1st, 2013, 9:26 pm McGrath aside, there are no players who look bound for a standout professional career.

Bump.

Tbf in retrospect that was a good year

Not particularly. 2012 and 2016 were good years. 2019, 2020 and 2022 were good years also and I'd say next year is shaping up to be good too.

We were well beaten by the Maori in the first match during the summer but won the second fairly convincingly. I had a look at the age profile of the squad that played SA. It might shed some light on Farrell's thinking. Of the 23 man squad 11 were 30 years old or older. The 3 youngest were 24 (Hansen...

Wales looked well off the pace. Dare I say but there's daylight between them and Ireland now. Many of their fans would disagree but the top players in the squad are mostly on the wrong side of 30. North isn't half the athlete he was which is no surprise as he's been on the go for a long time despite...

The pleasing aspect of it was a win despite being under so much pressure. I don't think ireland won 1 aerial contest which invited the Boks to keep the pressure on.

What the match did highlight was the lack of leaders in the squad. Its understandable in a way because its a young squad but there was a massive difference how much more up for it NZ were. They took the summer series defeat very personally and any opportunity they got they but in big hits. I've hear...

One of those nights the team just looked off. Give a NZ team an inch and they'll take a mile.  NZ were well up it and wanted to get revenge for the summer. I think the Irish players were stunned and couldn't get going, then tried to force things which made things worse.  ​​​​​ In hindsight a groundh...

NZ dominating the breakdown. They seem to be flooding into it killing Irelands momentum. Heres hoping they'll run out of steam in the second half.

ronk wrote: ↑November 3rd, 2022, 9:27 pm Given the amount of press devoted to bailouts in recent years in Ireland, one would imagine that most people would have known that.

Were all the provinces not bailed out for covid?

Just looking at the URC stats. Munsters lineout is 15th in the league. Ulster are 1st! I wouldnt blame the hookers for that. Munster has made the 3rd most tackles and are 1st for missed tackles. Keep giving away lineout ball and they'll have to keep defending. Munster are 16th (worst) in terms of co...

Pack looks...formidable... Backline isn't the most fearsome Bok side I've seen though. With Arendse and Kolbe in the back three I wonder might we be tempted to stick a few high balls with Keenan/Henshaw/Hansen running at them. Arendse isn't small, but he's very sleight. Not a big part of our game n...

cormac wrote: ↑October 31st, 2022, 1:10 pm Gavin Thornbury added to the Ireland A squad as a replacement for Tom Ahern. Tom Stewart and Nathan Doak will also join up with the squad.

Well deserved from Thornbury and Stewart is definitely one for the future or possibly a world cup bolter.

I only saw the second half but ecent match I thought. Ulster used their experience to pin Munster down in the last 10 minutes. It would have been interesting if Munster took the lead. It’ll be really interesting to see what Munster do with Crowley now. I’d imagine everyone on here thinks he should b...

Sharks lost 4 games last season. Munster have already lost 4. Leinster lost 5, Munster will hit that total if they lose in Belfast. Last season Munster came 6th, 11 points off the top with 7 defeats. They need to get a win in Belfast, Dublin or South Africa (and win everywhere else) to not beat tha...

Birch fairly scathing of Munsters fitness on the 42 pod. Seems the injuries are largely down to the increased training load. That being the case it seems he knew a good bit more when he said the change wouldn’t be seen until the new year. Fitness is way off id say. If I'm correct Munster have score...

You seem to be conflating the use of universities as a skill booster for players and as a training base with the use of universities as feeder teams, which is what is being suggested. Leinsters use works well, as we control our players and development. What is being suggested is something hands off...

Comparing the Croke Park semi final to anything is ridiculous. Firstly, it doesn't matter how many people want to go, we can't fit 80k into the Aviva. Secondly, the importance of that game was different level and Munster fans travelled en masse. 35-40k for a club game in the Pro/URC is a very good ...

It's harsh to say but part of the reason for the improved performance was the changes and specifically dropping Healy, JOS and JOD. That and a much improved back 3 helped. Connacht didn't create much last week but fed off munster mistakes. Harsh but realistic. Healy was playing poorly, wasn't helpi...

The collateral damage English champions Leicester have been dragged into the crisis engulfing club rugby after being left without a home fixture for seven weeks. Tigers, the nation’s biggest and best supported club, were due to play Wasps and Worcester in their next two Premiership home games. Both...

I thought it was a much improved attacking performance. There were not many linebreaks but they were really stretching the Bulls and Carbery varied up the play nicely. I'd agree that Goggin just trucked it up without passing but the weather was bad so in that context he did a good job. The bulls did...

Huge improvement from Munster. Weather was terrible but Munster handled it much better than the Bulls. I thought the Munster attack improved greatly, help by the work at the breakdown but the handling and passing was greatly improved. Carbery much better and once again Crowley lifted the team when h...