Babbling 'brook

Any indications or rumours as to who is on stand-by for us, notably in front-row and at half-back? I’m hearing that Ireland have been rotating players in and out of the training squad. I heard Barron and Loughman have both been involved and it has already been reported that Conway has been training...

Earls and Stockdale didn't really separate one from the other ... that is a difficult call to make. This is the only part I would disagree with. On second watch, Stockdale has multiple positive contributions. He made a couple of errors including an absolute clanger of a missed tackle but he really ...

The URC season isn't set to start until mid/late October.

The likelihood is that we have Clarkson, Lasisi and Ala'alatoa all available for selection by the opening weekend. Hopefully Furlong and Healy are otherwise engaged for another couple of weeks.

cormac wrote: ↑May 2nd, 2023, 2:21 pm

mildlyinterested wrote: ↑May 2nd, 2023, 1:22 pm Leinster v Sharks - Craig Evans

He reffed the regular season fixture too. Seem to recall him letting a lot go.

Ryan Baird should remember him letting things go too but oddly has very little recollection of proceedings....

I don't get what players are being "rested" for. There are potentially 3 games left in the season after this. Rest enough players and there will only be one more game in the season. I reckon he should send out the strongest side available and fully fit. Rotating players perhaps to the ben...

Judging by training photos, all the starters from the weekend were given training off yesterday which suggests that they may not feature heavily this weekend nor should they, to my mind. The Sharks are going to be down Etzebeth, Kolisi, Hendrikse and potentially Bosch also. I don't particularly rate...

Would be somewhat surprised if they went for Jenkins ahead of Molony for this. Molony is far better at the work around the park, the top two inch stuff where he draws a defender either through handling or through decoy work. His smarts as a lock are the equivalent of the intelligence someone like Do...

It wasn't an issue for us last year against the best scrummaging sides we faced either (LAR, Toulouse) by the way. Porter handled Atonio fine and has handled Malherbe fine too in the recent Autumn test. The scrum was hanging by a thread against LAR and penalised a few times. LAR were dominant. http...

Leinster's scrum doesn't need to be excellent against the Dragons or Zebre or Edinburgh. The fact that our scrum has largely been fine this season is, in part, owing to the fact that we have faced very few good quality front five units. The Ospreys blew us away there. Munster had us in significant d...

My work here is done.....

Confirmed by French media that TKB has broken his hand and is done for the season, more than likely.

I was being somewhat flippant. It is a workable situation but you'd need the assistance of the domestic leagues. There would be 8 teams from each league. The scheduling would need to be done such that all 8 from each league are unscheduled on the same weekend thereby allowing them to play a league f...

A pool with 3 teams still needs 6 weekends to complete their fixtures.

Taute is a 13 despite having appeared a handful of times for Munster at 12.

I imagine Reid is being sought as a replacement for Matt Toomua who is off back to Australia and is an inside centre who can cover outhalf i.e. the same abilities and cover as Reid.

Kelleher is talented, no doubt about that. As some may recall, I'm not his biggest fan, but he's got ability. Put him together with a great coach like Lancaster, an inspirational mentor like Contepomi and standard setters like Sexton and Henshaw and he will have a good chance to fulfil his potentia...

Has he played much in the Centre? A decent amount. He has played 12 more than 10 this season for Toulouse and was also at 12 during the JWC when France won the title. He'll be comfortable enough there but his size will be an issue against Henshaw particularly given the lack of experience/physicalit...

Quickly me arse; have a look again. Why/or how on earth can you ''catch a team off guard'" who are patently not going to compete in the air; and waiting to defend the expected driving maul. The winning of the game for the Lions was going to be from a driving maul -- so; no ''trying to catch a ...

Itoje called it quickly trying to catch the Blues off guard. Best threw it once Itoje called it. The problem was the lifters were the only ones caught off guard. Sinckler never got near to getting Itoje into the air before the ball. Marler was only marginally more aware. You can see them reacting in...

LeRouxIsPHat wrote:Now that is a serious signing. I've been saying for years that we need a top class back three player with real pace and now that I'm finally happy with our back three options we bring in a guy like this

He's a lot of things, LRIP, but he ain't an out and out speedster by any stretch.

Midi Olympique (and the Indo) reporting that Madigan wants out: http://m.independent.ie/sport/rugby/ian-madigan-asks-to-be-released-from-the-last-year-of-his-contract-at-bordeaux-report-35465242.html No surprise. Once they went back to the market to sign Hickey the writing was on the wall. I'm not ...