A whiff of Cordite

[riocard911]

While I find it hugely entertaining that ROG does this much media, I find it utterly bizarre that he continues to do it right up to the cusp of big games etc.

It is a bit invidious the way he uses it to push his own agenda, but it is what it is I guess.

Feel like OTB kind of threw James Tracy under the bus in that segment too.

Funny, I don't. It looked to me like they lined up the JT clip and hit RO'G for six with it. He was fuming and you can see and hear it. The giveaway was Quinny at the end, praising RO'G with a laugh and "Well done, kid, you didn't bite". Course he fuppin' did - he nearly coughed up his muesli or whatever he was eating out the bowl. He wasn't a happy camper by the end of it at all. Best OTB clip I've ever seen.

[mildlyinterested]

ROG had seen the clip before this "interview"

Adrian Barry says so during it.

[yellabelly1961]

Shane Hannon is one of the most clueless, off-key, flow-killing excuses for an interviewer I've ever heard.

That out of the way, ROG doesn't like it up 'im. Was given 4 or 5 chances by Adrian to address the dark arts question and he drew more attention to it by his nervous and cranky responses than if he'd just addressed it and killed the point.

Couldn't agree more, up his own a**e, who cares if he scored a goal for his team during the week, he's there to do a job- and does it very badly- bring back Eoin Sheahan!

[Ruckedtobits]

Joining this late, so had to go and listen to JT piece before I could assess the response of RO'G. Thought he reacted as though he hadn't heard it before. Thought he handled it OK and once again was amazed he's prepared to do Irish media stuff so close to a big game in Dublin. I presume at this point that he has contractual obligations with OTB, which are approved by LAR management.

His message, to me, was very clear. We have bigger and stronger players than Leinster. We are going to target certain aspects of Leinster's game from which we can gain advantage. It doesn't bother me what someone with knowledge of the Leinster camp says about how we play. Our objective is always to play as effectively as possible and we'll certainly be trying to do that on Saturday week. Talking about how a game in the past was referreed is irrelevant. What's relevant is how the next game will be played and how we, and Leinster, adapt to the circumstances of the day.

It's not the sort of interview that Leo would do. But if these points came up with him, I'm fairly sure that he'd give a comparable response.

Interesting listen, but we learned nothing new.

When I say there was nothing new, I don't do so in a disparaging way. RO'G made his points clearly:

1. We've got bigger and stronger players (by name) than Leinster;
2. We believe we can impose our game, through those players, on Leinster when we have possession;
3. We've got a player with unique poaching skills in Botia. Opponents and referees have analysed his technique and it stands scrutiny. We'll use him, and our hooker, to get turnovers when Leinster have the ball;
4. I don't acknowledge we do things illegally at breakdowns. I don't accept what we do are "dark arts". I recognise that some opponents or media may allege we do things illegally but don't accept it;
5. Leinster are a very talented and skillful team, playing at home. We will have to play our game, at our highest standard, to beat them;
6. We have reviewed Leinster's play and consider we have identified some weaknesses we can target and we hope to do so;
7. Overall, the game will be won by the team which can best impose it's 'style' on the match.

Nothing in that list is new. Nothing in that list is controversial or unusual. So, interesting, but nothing new.

[Twist]

My take on OTB's rugby coverage is you can pick and choose which contributors you want to listen to because from Monday morning to Friday, the talking points are the same. This is what happens when, in a 16 team tournament, there's only discussion or debate on 2 teams. If they gave 7 rugby segments a week, you can skip at least half of those and not be missing out on much.

You can do that because the exact same talking points are on RTE (Jackman +1) and the42. Sometimes I forget what I've been listening to because it all sounds the same.
Of OTB's weekly stable...
Alan Quinlan Monday. Skip.
MNR (Thornley and Hayes). 50/50 on whether to skip.
Janes Tracy. Listen.
Keith Wood. Listen.
BoD. Skip.
WNR (O'Connor plus 1). Listen (unless there's another "Grand Slam winner").
Alan Quinlan Friday. Skip.
RoG. 50/50.

I will listen when they call in outsiders like Chris Jones of the BBC. They're usually the most interesting segments and I feel there isn't enough.

Yeah you couldn't be listening to them 'Grand Slam winning' (in inverted commas for some reason) women talking about men's rugby anyway.

She's so Munster focused (yes, she's a Munsterwoman but she needs to be an unbiased pundit) and doesn't generally offer anything insightful despite having more rugby experience than a lot of her media colleagues.

I would avoid Keet Wood for almost the exact same reasons. He's got nothing to offer anymore.

Frankly, I generally prefer listening to the journos (ROC and GT).

I can never hear Keith Wood. He’s so bloody quiet you’d think there was a baby asleep in the corner of the room.

[Twist]

That second one is a perfect example of standard Joe Molloy question as well - a question in 16 parts, heavily laden with his own views, opinions etc, where by the time he eventually runs out of breath and stops talking for a moment, the person he's asking the question of has absolutely no idea what the question even was.

I know what u mean, but Joe is an absolute pro in general. Best Irish sports "anchor" bar none.

Cantwell by a mile. She is so professional and informed.

She does the opposite thing to Joe Molloy; she keeps her own opinion out of the conversation. She did a good interview with Colm Parkinson last year where she talked about it. She said something along the lines of “no one wants to know what I think, my job is to draw out the panellists opinions.”

By the way she won an All Star in football before her career took off.

Joe Molloy is grand. Far too good for OTB

[riocard911]

I only listen to OTB at all out of necessity i.e. when Dave, John and Jason are having one of their time-outs. But I'm fecked if I'm gonna listen this week; I wouldn't be able to bear the gushing over giant-killers Munster and the rugby Yoda that is Rodge. Any chance of BTTV episode this week to get us - me in particular - by?........

[Bigdickenergy]

I know what u mean, but Joe is an absolute pro in general. Best Irish sports "anchor" bar none.

Cantwell by a mile. She is so professional and informed.

She does the opposite thing to Joe Molloy; she keeps her own opinion out of the conversation. She did a good interview with Colm Parkinson last year where she talked about it. She said something along the lines of “no one wants to know what I think, my job is to draw out the panellists opinions.”

By the way she won an All Star in football before her career took off.

Joe Molloy is grand. Far too good for OTB

Have to disagree on Cantwell. Countless times she’s butted in and offered her unwarranted opinion during GAA coverage. Jacqui Hurley, on the other hand, is excellent.

[suisse]

Discussions around the media are always fascinating. We all have different opinions about who's good and who isn't.

For me, Joe Molloy is comfortably the best. I don't mind presenters expressing their opinions. Sometimes that triggers a debate or an argument worth listening to. I don't know Molloy at all but I don't think he courts spotlight at all. He strikes me as someone who could drop sports altogether and move into presenting something entirely different.

The contrast between his relaxed but informative style versus the morning clown show is striking. Gilroy is the presenter equivalent of fast fashion. Construct a random but controversial talking point from thin air on Monday morning, ask every guest about it until Friday, plug it all over their social media channels, then drop it and never return. Construct something new next week.

Ger "is there a world in which...." Gilroy.

Also, if he reads this site. Please Ger. You're far too old to be sitting in your sports man-cave with memorabilia on the shelves behind you. This isn't Wayne's World. Time to grow up! The guy next to him is tragic. I remember them interviewing Paddy Agnew about his 5 "you had to be there" moments. Hannon is a PL fanboy. Talks about Man United likes he 7. Anyway, his one question to Agnew about Turin in 1999 was about Man United's fan support that day. That game is worthy for many things. Man United's fanbase isn't one of them.

[The Doc]

I see the bould Stephen Jones had an article today giving out about the 7's tournament last weekend in Twikkers and what a waste of time it was.

That would be the tournament that's happening next weekend



Sent from my LE2123 using Tapatalk

[D4surfer]

I will not be watching Against the Head tonight. Neither EOS or Tremnjus are on, but I still couldn't face it.

[Dexter]

I will not be watching Against the Head tonight. Neither EOS or Tremnjus are on, but I still couldn't face it.

Oh god no way. Stay well clear of that.

[riocard911]

In the42's "Rugby Weekly Extra" we have Birch's post-mortem: "I didn't see any massive issue with the refereeing". The key word in that sentence being, of course, "massive"............

[Caliphi]

Noticed that Franno never featured in the last two Sunday Times.
Wonder who dropped who.

[Dave Cahill]

Noticed that Franno never featured in the last two Sunday Times.
Wonder who dropped who.

Franno was dropped a couple of weeks ago for writing an article that was, shall we say, untroubled by facts

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2023 ... t-article/

[Caliphi]

Maybe a good time time for Franno, Kevin Myers and George Hook to start a new newspaper together.

[Fireworks]

I probably missed it somewhere but I am still waiting for a balanced report on our loss last weekend. We gambled with a weakened team and lost to a decent Munster team. However listening to some of the reporting you might think this was a big turning point for Munster.

Does anyone think we wouldn't have won comfortably with our first team on the pitch. Good luck to Munster in the final but I would worry for them.

[Oldschoolsocks]

I probably missed it somewhere but I am still waiting for a balanced report on our loss last weekend. We gambled with a weakened team and lost to a decent Munster team. However listening to some of the reporting you might think this was a big turning point for Munster.

Does anyone think we wouldn't have won comfortably with our first team on the pitch. Good luck to Munster in the final but I would worry for them.

Pointless exercise imho.

Not for a second do I believe would a full strength Munster side beat a full strength Leinster side, doesn’t matter though ‘cause that’s not how it panned out. We gambled on an understrength side and came up second best.

I wouldn’t waste time worrying about Munster, they’ve enough of their own to be doing that.

[the spoofer]

Does anyone know is that Stephen Wall w&%ker on Twitter a real person or a troll?

[PeteIRL]

Does anyone know is that Stephen Wall w&%ker on Twitter a real person or a troll?

Real person, apparently. He was a part of the42 WhatsApp chat group until he was booted out of there. Seems to be a thoroughly unpleasant person from what I've seen.