Babbling 'brook

Not sure I'm on the France bandwagon yet. I watched the match against Wales and with 60min on the clock there were 8 points ahead and Wales missed a few chances. Wales were not very good at all. The French looked shaky under the high ball and conceded a lot of penalties, many for being slow to the b...

14 starters came through the academy. JVG has gone from being very conservative on selections to being very brave this season. Must have got a bang on the head (from Nucifora). Josh Wycherley to make his debut. I'll be watching his progress with interest from an ireland point of view too. We need t...

Munster 15. Mike Haley 14. Calvin Nash 13. Dan Goggin 12. Rory Scannell 11. Darren Sweetnam 10. Ben Healy 9. Craig Casey 1. James Cronin 2. Kevin O’Byrne 3. Stephen Archer 4. Fineen Wycherley 5. Billy Holland (capt) 6. Jack O’Donoghue 7. John Hodnett 8. Gavin Coombes Replacements: 16. Rhys Marshall ...

If Stockdale plays next week (particularly at FB) we're screwed. He as good as told the French coaching ticket, come and exploit me and they will. Galtiere, Ibanez and Shaun Edwards, enough said. They'll exploit Sexton inability to react as quickly as he once could. The French defense are just goin...

If Stockdale plays next week (particularly at FB) we're screwed. He as good as told the French coaching ticket, come and exploit me and they will. Galtiere, Ibanez and Shaun Edwards, enough said. They'll exploit Sexton inability to react as quickly as he once could. The French defense are just goin...

Most enjoyable rugby from an Ireland team I've seen for a long time. Sure Italy are not the best and some kicking has been poor but they look fluid in attack and we don't see the war of attrition that we've seen in recent years. Good stuff.

If Dan Sheehan has solid darts then he will go far. He looks an impressive unit around the pitch and showed nice handling in the loose.

It is an amazing stat though, munster#1. Only POM and Murray from the Munster academy and they're over 30. Munster have obviously worked hard in underage development and we're starting to see the fruits of it now but it will take a while for that to transplanted to ireland. Same with Ulster, both pr...

Laighin Break wrote: ↑

October 20th, 2020, 9:38 am

[Paraphrased from a comment on The42]
It will be heads up rugby as they are constantly looking up in the air at Murray's box kicks!

That's probably true.


I don't mind kicking but like everything else, it needs some variety instead of just box kicks.

There's been a bit of talk from within the squad about playing heads up rugby. It's good to hear that. Farrell commented last week about the players needing to take more responsibility. I wonder are they trying to stop the over reliance on Sexton running the show. I'm hoping to see a more fluid atta...

The clock said 79.51 rather than 79.57 at the end. Dunno why the timekeeper wasn’t listening to Nige, he was very clear. Anyway Im glad Exeter won. Racing aren’t cheats like someone we could mention, but their success is built on a rich man’s chequebook like Toulon before them. I just don’t want to...

One good thing about the SA potentially coming on board is it will make the Welsh less relevant. Just the other day I heard some welsh commentators talking about how the Aviva premiership is "miles better" and others asking if Nick Tomkins will be as good now that he's playing in a lower standard le...

During a break in play the camera was looking at a bunch of cardboard cutouts of all hardcore munster fans and there in among them was Reggie Corrigan. He's out of the closet!

Salanoa looking like exactly the kind of explosive power athlete we could do with. That bit of chicanery will stick in the craw for a long time He got lucky in the scrum near the end though. That's his bread and butter. To be fair, Edinburgh had a bigger pack and were on top before he came on. He d...

McHenry is another who has some 7s experience. Looks to have good hands, quick feet and fairly fast.


It will be a tough game to win but I'm looking forward to seeing all the new lads. Great to see Crowley on the bench along with Hodnett.

McCarthy very good player. Likes the physical stuff and looks powerful already at 19.

Thornley's squad - Hookers: Dave Heffernan, Rob Herring, Rónan Kelleher. Props: Cian Healy, Jack McGrath, Ed Byrne , Andrew Porter, John Ryan, Finlay Bealham. Locks: Ultan Dillane, Iain Henderson, James Ryan, Ryan Baird , Tadhg Beirne. Backrows: Will Connors, Caelan Doris , Jack O’Donoghue, Peter O...

“I’m about 113 (kg) and that’s where I see my optimum weight. Usually I’m about 112 so this period has allowed me to put on a small bit of size” https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/break-allows-james-ryan-to-rest-bulk-up-and-study-history-1.4254409 He'd have to gain about 10 kilos to be the same...

Tom Farrell is one of the most underrated players in Irish rugby imo. Would love to see him get a chance with Ireland.

Seems that quite often a team that has NZ in the pool stages gets to the final, so I'd actually quite like us to draw NZ, play them first up and irrespective of the result avoid them in the QF. Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk That's because they get a favourable schedule. For instance in the l...