Babbling 'brook

When Tupou was fully fit, the Wallabies scrum was generally rock solid. A huge unit/athlete and an abrasive ball carrier as well. A step up from Big Mike realistically. He is a very good player and is still only 27/28. I think it's a good bit of business, have him and Snyman hopefully as 'finishers'...

It's a sign of our growth as a team and a wider rugby nation than we can react to a second successive championship win in a muted/critical way. The criticisms are deserved, but still. I grew up watching the team of the 2000s agonisingly miss out on 3 or 4 champioships; we need to catch up on the his...

France unbelievably bad at the end there. Scrum power won penalties but they couldn't win a line-out or catch the ball. The effortless physical superiority that England/France have at this level thanks to demographics and more diversity makes it hard for us to compete. We ultimately paid for one iff...

If it rains they could win. The Grand Slam decider last year was much closer than the scoreline suggested, and two years ago it looked like they were going to beat us until the last 15 minutes, when they played with 14 men for the whole match. They were absolutely robbed in the world cup semi-final ...

Paddy Mc doesn’t look 115kg. I do think he has the upper body frame to add more size. Would be good if Leinster had credible player profiles, refreshed annually Paddy's build would make him seem more suited to being an explosively powerful, athletic, but not particularly big hooker. Of course, neit...

Absolutely shocking TMO call against Scotland. No bottle or courage from MacNeice to take responsibility and go against the ref's original decision. Ass-covering. Show me an angle that clearly, definitely and definitively shows the ball on the ground in goal. Because if you can't, the referee's on-...

Absolutely shocking TMO call against Scotland. No bottle or courage from MacNeice to take responsibility and go against the ref's original decision. Ass-covering.

Why are France nearly always on the beneficial end of these kind of calls?...

The 6N is a strange competition. You have the decider on the opening game. On that basis, Ireland for the grand slam at a canter. Leaving aside of course the fact that Ireland were sublime, and France were shell-shocked. The 6N is a very strange competition. If you were designing a competition with...

6'8" 145kg Polynesian freak show is injured, so bring in another 6'7" 138kg Polynesian freak show. He might be injured now too, but conveniently there's another 6'4", 149kg Polynesian freak show who can come in instead. Oh and this one's 19 years old and his name's Tuilagi. That all w...

Blue Man wrote: ↑January 20th, 2024, 5:10 pm Kelleher has to sort out his darts

You give people the benefit of the doubt for quite a long time, but this is clearly a serious problem in his game at this stage. Real pity as he has all the physical attributes.

Leinster probably need a good young centre more than any of the other provinces, ironically (especially if Ngatai leaves). If Kelly can't make it with England in the next 1-2 years, could see him moving. His only England cap was in 2021, if I understand it correctly, it means he could switch to Irel...

Was Porter ever a backrow? Would be funny if our two real success stories are players that always played TH Prop rather than converting from 8 when they're 16/17. Porter was a back in his early days in school. Very slight guy until his mid-teens and then he got into the gym...and yeah...was squatti...

A player with athletic ability anywhere close to Dupont would be moved to 10 or wing in the Irish schools game. They almost never pick athletes at scrum-half. And in the Irish approach to the game, the 10 is the decision-making playmaker; in France, it's usually the 9, which is partly why they're us...

If they got Lee Barron or McKee (not Kelleher), Deegan, Milne, and maybe Tector (NOT Frawley), it wouldn't be an absolute disaster. Milne would be the biggest loss out of that group - higher ceiling than Ed Byrne and while J.Boyle and P.McCarthy are very good prospects, they're still very raw. Deega...

Any player I have known personally or anecdotally (particularly back 3) who played with that flair and game breaking potential style tended to gravitate to a type. Their personality matched their ability. They tend to be laid back, less regimented, maybe took life a bit less seriously. Look at Lowe...

Schools rugby teams play risk-averse rugby for the most part, at least in cup matches. It’s knockout rugby and focusing on eliminating errors and putting pressure on the opposition is usually unfortunately the best way to increase your chances of winning. Offloads are actively discouraged by most to...

Worth pointing out that comparing house prices between the eighties and today, always seems to omit the fact that 80's houses were (and are) absolute dogshit when it comes to build quality ..... useless thermal insulation, single glazing, inefficient back boilers etc If we want 1980's prices (relat...

It’s all great having people cite the other ways things were shite in the 1980’s, but it is objectively and mathematically significantly more difficult to purchase a house today. It doesn't make a difference. To accept it would force people's perspective to change and they'd have to choose between ...

80% of 25-30 yr olds nationally living with their parents (probably higher in Dublin); home ownership amongst 25-35 year olds gone from 60% to 27% since 2013 (https://www.euronews.com/2023/07/06/irelands-housing-crisis-millennials-a-generation-sacrificed); rents out of control; it's absolutely terri...

^^ Pure ignorance 😂😂. They absolutely are, the average age of first-time buyers is going up and up and the percentage of 25-35yr olds who own a home has more than halved in a generation…one way out for a minority of people is if they are a couple where they both have very good jobs, and they might e...