A whiff of Cordite

[alanair]

At least Francis ( or the Sindo) has at last realised that writing about sport is NOT. His forte .. and instead was given a full page assignment as to the antics of Peter Caviston ...

Def stick to this Neil , and leave the sports writing to those that can

[Schumi]

The usual rubbish from Cummisky in the Irish Times match report - describing Leinster fans as 'the horsey set' and 'the Heino brigade'.

I got to exactly that point and thought "oh, this is a Cummisky article" and closed the tab. Literally unreadable rubbish.

[curates_egg]

The media seem to be relishing the prospect that Munster, with their two high profile signings, may at last be able to re-assert their former ( ten years ago) dominance over Leinster.

Fourteen years ago. Twelve if you’re being kind.

[johng]

Someone told me today that Leinster have played Munster 27 times since and including Croke park and won 20 of them.

[paddyor]

Someone told me today that Leinster have played Munster 27 times since and including Croke park and won 20 of them.

The commentary team said that since the 2009 QF they'd played us 15 times in Dublin and lost 14 of them so that sounds a bout right

[cormac]

Someone told me today that Leinster have played Munster 27 times since and including Croke park and won 20 of them.

Correct

[Up Wexford]

^^ He is an extraordinarily poor writer, no idea how he got/holds onto the gig.

He is so so bad. Extraordinarily so. I can only assume he keeps the gig due to old boys network and contacts for team leaks.

[Up Wexford]

Evergreen post but the pro Munster coverage before during and after the game is bizarre. Sexton and Ringrose produced fantastic performances, and there was a fleeting mention of it. Absolutely no analysis of Sextons tackling game which was immense. Conan uses Hanrahan as a doormat and J10 tackled Stander (?) and two of the goon squad to hold up a maul and win a penalty single handedly. The Munster players must feel patronised and pitied with this fawning in defeat. I imagine DDA and Snyman, proven winners, will have a job on their hands turning the attitude around.

I could go on but Tolands description of Earls's try as "simply world class" was like I was listening to someone on mushrooms. He ran over 2 scrum halves, one badly caught out of position, against 14 men. Like, it was a nice dart down through contact? Thats it!

Again, to echo the above, the Cavistons romp by Francis was laughable if it wasn't so true. Blackrock rugger legend Franno puts a full page article about his local restraunteur smack bang in the middle of derby day coverage in the Sindo. No offence to Caviston, a great article and a great man, but at least put it in the LIFE section. As with much in Ireland these days, you couldn't make it up.

[riocard911]

The commentary for the Connacht vs Ulster match was far superior to that the day before. Birch, as co-commentator, knows what he's talking about and imparts it well, as opposed to just spoofing like Toland. The gall of him referring to "the influence" Farrell had on the game when awarding the Munster 13 MOTM - to a guy who let his opposite number in for a try, was skinned by Luke McGrath for a 40 meter charge upfield, got choke-tackled thereby by leading to the Lowe try and dropped a pass from The Player formerly known as Double Jesus with the Leinster line a couple of yards away looking at him.

[Laighin Break]

I gave Cummiskey's drivel a read there. Obviously we could spend hours discussing its demerits but his last line really stood out.
"The game effectively ended on a Dev Toner intercept. Far too real for ya." What does he mean by that?!

[LeRouxIsPHat]

The commentary for the Connacht vs Ulster match was far superior to that the day before. Birch, as co-commentator, knows what he's talking about and imparts it well, as opposed to just spoofing like Toland. The gall of him referring to "the influence" Farrell had on the game when awarding the Munster 13 MOTM - to a guy who let his opposite number in for a try, was skinned by Luke McGrath for a 40 meter charge upfield, got choke-tackled thereby by leading to the Lowe try and dropped a pass from The Player formerly known as Double Jesus with the Leinster line a couple of yards away looking at him.

The only commentary I remember from yesterday's game was when Sullivan made a great break and Conor Morris went off on a random tangent with some prepared bit of info and ignored the exciting break that was happening until it had just about ended.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I gave Cummiskey's drivel a read there. Obviously we could spend hours discussing its demerits but his last line really stood out.
"The game effectively ended on a Dev Toner intercept. Far too real for ya." What does he mean by that?!

I had no idea what that meant either

joooooe nailed it with the Hunter S Thomson comparison, he tries to be cool and edgy but just comes across as bitter and cringey. In his defence I do think he comes across far better on podcasts etc instead of in print or on twitter. I can't remember what it's called but the collection of short articles he does in the IT on a Monday is painful to read and often laced with bitterness, and it looks particularly bad compared to Mary Hannigan's football version which is always brilliant.

[Dave Cahill]

You are showing your age chaps. Its a line from a song by popular beat combo, Fontaines DC (no relation) from last years best selling long player, Dogrel.




I would heartily recommend both Dogrel and this years follow-up, A Heros Death - two magnificent slabs of post-punk marvelousness

[joooooe]

I gave Cummiskey's drivel a read there. Obviously we could spend hours discussing its demerits but his last line really stood out.
"The game effectively ended on a Dev Toner intercept. Far too real for ya." What does he mean by that?!

I had no idea what that meant either

joooooe nailed it with the Hunter S Thomson comparison, he tries to be cool and edgy but just comes across as bitter and cringey. In his defence I do think he comes across far better on podcasts etc instead of in print or on twitter. I can't remember what it's called but the collection of short articles he does in the IT on a Monday is painful to read and often laced with bitterness, and it looks particularly bad compared to Mary Hannigan's football version which is always brilliant.

Mary Hannigan is a wonderful writer. I have found myself on occasion reading hockey reports just to see what sly quip or weird analogy she'll drop in. "All In The Game" is the name of the column and it is essential reading every Monday. Cummiskey got his equivalent column ("The Offload") green-lit a couple of years ago and it has just been a weird opinion piece for him to rant about his perceived injustices. For example, he has a few paragraphs today on the fact that he disagrees on MoTM.

[wixfjord]

Mary Hannigan is a wonderful writer. I have found myself on occasion reading hockey reports just to see what sly quip or weird analogy she'll drop in. "All In The Game" is the name of the column and it is essential reading every Monday. Cummiskey got his equivalent column ("The Offload") green-lit a couple of years of ago and it has just been a weird opinion piece for him to rant about his perceived injustices. For example, he has a few paragraphs today on the fact that he disagrees on MoTM.

You're absolutely bang on with this analysis.

Mary Hannigan is funny and charming.

Cummiskey is just a bit weird, is not a good writer and comes across as a guy who really dislikes the game/fans.

(Beyond that, he just makes loads of errors that don't get flagged by a sub, which totally diminish his credibility).

[Laighin Break]

You are showing your age chaps. Its a line from a song by popular beat combo, Fontaines DC (no relation) from last years best selling long player, Dogrel.




I would heartily recommend both Dogrel and this years follow-up, A Heros Death - two magnificent slabs of post-punk marvelousness

Ah the lads who's song features on The42 rugby podcast. Haven't heard of them otherwise

[Avenger]

OTB is trash. It went precipitously downhill after the Second Captains lads left. They’re unbearably smug, and never stop to consider a viewpoint other than their own. Joe Molloy isn’t too bad but Ger Gilroy, Richie McCormack and Eoin Sheahan are just awful. Do they know they’re meant to be just reporting sports news instead of talking about themselves?

I've just listened to a podcast of Sunday's OTB with Sheahan and Johnny Murphy discussing the game. All the focus was on Munster but every time I hear Sheahan I just think there's a village somewhere missing its idiot!

[JohnB]

Someone told me today that Leinster have played Munster 27 times since and including Croke park and won 20 of them.

I notice that in the 26 matches we played against them prior to the 2009 HEC semi final, for which I can find details, we were quite a bit more competitive against them than the existing media narrative about us would have allowed for. Of the 26 games, we won, 9, drew 2 and lost 15 which is a 34% win rate for us. That stands up very well against Munster's 25% win rate since 2 May 2009. Of course, I should know better than to bring up stats that don't support the soft underbelly/lady boy narrative we had to endure for so long. But, there you go!

[Serb]

You could also spice up the narrative by flipping it around the other way and saying Munster won 58% of games, whereas we’ve won 75% in a similar period.

[Twist]

OTB is trash. It went precipitously downhill after the Second Captains lads left. They’re unbearably smug, and never stop to consider a viewpoint other than their own. Joe Molloy isn’t too bad but Ger Gilroy, Richie McCormack and Eoin Sheahan are just awful. Do they know they’re meant to be just reporting sports news instead of talking about themselves?

I've just listened to a podcast of Sunday's OTB with Sheahan and Johnny Murphy discussing the game. All the focus was on Munster but every time I hear Sheahan I just think there's a village somewhere missing its idiot!

I heard it too. Awful stuff.