Babbling 'brook

The plan of developing the old stand is depressingly boring and unimaginative. I know they need to be able to move the stands at each end for the horse show but surely it is not impossible to build a proper stadium. We are one of the best teams in Europe but we are falling behind on facilities when ...

Yeah feels like we will lose a few alright. Hard to call who, but I’d guess something like: Dooley or Ed Byrne Sean Cronin Maybe Dev Toner (but replaced with NIQ lock) One or two back rows (would guess Deegan / Connors) One or two centres from Conor O’Brien, O’Loughlin, Hawkshaw So between five and...

That was fun. It was a toss-up for the first 20 minutes and I could see it being one of those games until they found the rest of the gears. Hansen is great to watch going forward but a lot of work to do on his defense. I think the battle between the 10's shows why one is in the Ireland squad and the...

Interesting piece. There is a problem here of sports fighting for kids and not wanting to share them. The FAI had a recent document which told clubs that kids from 12 should only be playing soccer. The research shows that the majority of kids should not specialise until 16 at the earliest and that p...

ROG was talking nonsense (as in there's no way I'm telling Leinster what we planned) when referring to targeting Conan and Henshaw. He knew exactly what our weakest position (neither Conan or Henshaw fit that criteria) was and so it panned out, It's been our problem position for quite some time now...

That's a broad-based Squad, even with the list of absentees (and there's a few more that could be added to it). The fundamental problems are that this generation are at the period of significant S&C development but totally deprived of any rugby experience, unless they're in a formal Academy str...

Might go well with allowing the ref to add a little time back to the clock for deliberate slow play and messing at scrums. Don't think I would shorten the games.

There will always be things that need improvement and a desire for bigger, faster more skilled squad members. However I don't think there is that much of an issue. I believe it came down to the yellow card. Their size was causing us difficulties but we were managing until we went a man down. We then...

However all of those are specific and I was thinking generally. So here goes.... I was thinking about the time suck that penalties and other stoppages cause and was thinking if we need to look at the clock being stopped more often. One of the HC quarter finals had no tries and lots of penalties. If ...

Good point we'll made. I will crawl back under my rock and order some glasses.

I could not find another topic discussing current or possible changes.

OTB has been embarrassing over the past few days. Firstly, leading with the ‘O’Gara vs Leinster’ nonsense (ignoring the fact that O’Gara is number 2 to a guy who coached Leinster for 6 years, which is a much better story for the educated, the non-tabloid rugby follower. Then today they were talking...

There’s still no official confirmation that we get the walkover - wonder if they’re trying to get it rescheduled. With it being a bank holiday weekend is there a chance it could be moved to Monday - which would be 5 days from the initial positive test. That will be a really hard turnaround for next...

My selection would be whatever Leo and Stuart think.

I am getting confused. How many NIQ guys will they have next year and were there no Irish qualified alternatives in their own ranks.

We ran at Carbery whenever we could yesterday, just like Ireland ran at Ford whenever they could against England. Old-fashioned, but endlessly pragmatic. was hoping we would. great to see.. I think Munster fans may get restless for Healy/Crowley at 10 if Joey doesn't perform upto expectations over ...

This will be a tough one for munster to get over. They were far less disrupted by the 6 nation's and were much closer to full strength. I did think they would get closer for those reasons. The worrying thing for them is they need to be humming and have use under strength to be competitive. Not good ...

Farrell in for Ringrose Dillane in for Ryan Larmour in for Lowe (Kearney would be a better option) What I’ve heard (not from my usual source, so might be wrong) is that Lowe is being retained, Farrell in for Ringrose, Beirne back to second row and POM in at 6. I can understand keeping Lowe but not ...

A good squad player but I never got the impression he was going to be in the running for the big games without a lot of injuries. He may see a number of bodies ahead of him and lots of talent coming up behind. He only has a few years to make some money for his future and his impact on Ealing might b...

It is of course great to see leinster winning the league on a regular basis but we have now reached the point where it is a devalued prize. We have reached a point where we expect 5 points from the majority of games. Hopefully the SA teams will help. I do think that a second division with relegation...