A whiff of Cordite

[Ruckedtobits]

What's the detail on Conor O'Shea being appointed to a big post in the RFU? Has anything emerged from an official source? CO'S has picked some great posts in his career, often ones that nobody else even knew were vacant.

[Dave Cahill]

Eir analysis esp with Flannery has been far superior to the RTE effort, but Eir match commentary has to be avoided because of Toland. Even Tremenjus is preferable.

Tremenjus is a legend. I'd always watch whatever channel he's on – he's a very fair and obviously decent man whose love of the game is audible in his commentary. I think he's the best colour commentator covering Irish rugby by an absolute mile.

plus a squillion

[TerenureJim]

Eir analysis esp with Flannery has been far superior to the RTE effort, but Eir match commentary has to be avoided because of Toland. Even Tremenjus is preferable.

Tremenjus is a legend. I'd always watch whatever channel he's on – he's a very fair and obviously decent man whose love of the game is audible in his commentary. I think he's the best colour commentator covering Irish rugby by an absolute mile.

plus a squillion

He's worth finding a copy of the 2001 lions doc, a gent who loves and lives for the game and for ireland

[Ruckedtobits]

Oh what a vindictive and petty writer is Cummiskey. Another full page spread of exaggeration and cheap shots against Joe Schmidt and his coaching of the Irish team in preparation for and playing in RWC 2019.

His opinions are flawed and biased and one can only wonder why.

Schmidt has brought Irish international rugby to places it has never been before. His coaching flaws may be those of excessive reliance and hope that some of his best p
players could recapture the form which had crowned some of Ireland's biggest wins. Is that a sacking offense? Not for this scribe.

Another article which drives the IT closer to the destiny of the Indo in times past. Sports Journalists who think their opinions are more important than match reports have always been destined to stew in their own juices.

[Dave Cahill]

Oh what a vindictive and petty writer is Cummiskey. Another full page spread of exaggeration and cheap shots against Joe Schmidt and his coaching of the Irish team in preparation for and playing in RWC 2019.

His opinions are flawed and biased and one can only wonder why.

Schmidt has brought Irish international rugby to places it has never been before. His coaching flaws may be those of excessive reliance and hope that some of his best p
players could recapture the form which had crowned some of Ireland's biggest wins. Is that a sacking offense? Not for this scribe.

Another article which drives the IT closer to the destiny of the Indo in times past. Sports Journalists who think their opinions are more important than match reports have always been destined to stew in their own juices.

The problem is that Joe Schmidt has brought Irish Rugby to the exact same place it is every four years.

[Peg Leg]

Oh what a vindictive and petty writer is Cummiskey. Another full page spread of exaggeration and cheap shots against Joe Schmidt and his coaching of the Irish team in preparation for and playing in RWC 2019.

His opinions are flawed and biased and one can only wonder why.

Schmidt has brought Irish international rugby to places it has never been before. His coaching flaws may be those of excessive reliance and hope that some of his best p
players could recapture the form which had crowned some of Ireland's biggest wins. Is that a sacking offense? Not for this scribe.

Another article which drives the IT closer to the destiny of the Indo in times past. Sports Journalists who think their opinions are more important than match reports have always been destined to stew in their own juices.

The problem is that Joe Schmidt has brought Irish Rugby to the exact same place it is every four years.

On one line in the KPI chart. I think its safe to assume that the IRFU will not be sacrificing another 6N for a go at the RWC.

[CiaranIrl]

Cummisky over plays his point, and his crappy stream of consciousness writing style makes it worse. That said, he does have an important point in there somewhere.

Schmidt's style had some flaws, despite being excellent overall. He was incredibly controlling - to an absurd micro management level. Andy Dunne on the 42.ie podcast made some excellent points a few weeks back about wingers stressed out about whether to stand 9, 10 or 11 meters from the touchline at various moments. Even in the Leinster glory days, some excellent players didn't thrive because of that. Conway for example played within himself a huge amount and was more afraid to make mistakes than confident enough to do what he was good at.

Farrell has some lessons to learn. He needs to take the good aspects of Schmidt, which are enormous, but tone down the micromanaging. Like a lot of things in life, it's not black or white, it's a shade of grey.

[neiliog93]

Cummisky over plays his point, and his crappy stream of consciousness writing style makes it worse. That said, he does have an important point in there somewhere.

Schmidt's style had some flaws, despite being excellent overall. He was incredibly controlling - to an absurd micro management level. Andy Dunne on the 42.ie podcast made some excellent points a few weeks back about wingers stressed out about whether to stand 9, 10 or 11 meters from the touchline at various moments. Even in the Leinster glory days, some excellent players didn't thrive because of that. Conway for example played within himself a huge amount and was more afraid to make mistakes than confident enough to do what he was good at.

Farrell has some lessons to learn. He needs to take the good aspects of Schmidt, which are enormous, but tone down the micromanaging. Like a lot of things in life, it's not black or white, it's a shade of grey.

Very good post, think it sums up the situation quite well. Either coaching 'style' can work - neither Eddie Jones nor Steve Hansen are renowned for 'detail', whereas Rassie Erasmus and Schmidt (particularly Schmidt) are. There's got to be a balance somewhere.

[riocard911]

There has. Plus every successful coach needs a bit of luck on occasion - just like Napoloeon's generals ...

[John23]

I only for the first time watched RTE's coverage of RWC2019 this morning. My god Cahill as a commentator is awful. Daire O'Brien tried oh so hard to be the funny guy without doing what he was suppose to do as in facilitating the pundits . So much so that when Fez spoke he would finish up by teeing it for EOS by saying something like "as Eddie knows" or "as Eddie will tell you". All the while making Popey looking like Dolly Parton's third triplet.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

The usual shite from Kimmage where he sniffs a rat because he feels entitled to someone else's personal information but isn't provided with it is cracked. May clearly wasn't trying to hide anything, she just couldn't discuss a particular case (as should have been obvious to Kimmage even without her saying it repeatedly) and was clearly quite frustrated that she couldn't clarify the inaccuracies. It's a mess of an article, hard to know if he's doubting Heaslip's story (a bold move given Heaslip admitted something that could be very bad for his reputation when he didn't need to) or implying that the ISC were involved in a cover up, or both. In his slight defence, there is a point that I could understand him investigating in terms of who tested him, but my guess would be that Heaslip was just mistaken about when he was tested.

So this turned out to be the case, Heaslip was tested in Ireland in April.

https://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/ ... 55719.html

But Inspector Kimmage still isn't satisfied and still feels the need to be spoon fed every little bit of information because he's incapable of putting things together himself and therefore there must be something dodgy about it. What a clown.

https://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/ ... 55646.html

[TerenureJim]

Oh what a vindictive and petty writer is Cummiskey. Another full page spread of exaggeration and cheap shots against Joe Schmidt and his coaching of the Irish team in preparation for and playing in RWC 2019.

His opinions are flawed and biased and one can only wonder why.

Schmidt has brought Irish international rugby to places it has never been before. His coaching flaws may be those of excessive reliance and hope that some of his best p
players could recapture the form which had crowned some of Ireland's biggest wins. Is that a sacking offense? Not for this scribe.

Another article which drives the IT closer to the destiny of the Indo in times past. Sports Journalists who think their opinions are more important than match reports have always been destined to stew in their own juices.

The problem is that Joe Schmidt has brought Irish Rugby to the exact same place it is every four years.

I dunno I'd say we're better off financially given full houses, increased sponsorship etc that having a solid winning team for four years has delivered. Blazers probably not worried about RWC on that basis?

[Oldschoolsocks]

Oh what a vindictive and petty writer is Cummiskey. Another full page spread of exaggeration and cheap shots against Joe Schmidt and his coaching of the Irish team in preparation for and playing in RWC 2019.

His opinions are flawed and biased and one can only wonder why.

Schmidt has brought Irish international rugby to places it has never been before. His coaching flaws may be those of excessive reliance and hope that some of his best p
players could recapture the form which had crowned some of Ireland's biggest wins. Is that a sacking offense? Not for this scribe.

Another article which drives the IT closer to the destiny of the Indo in times past. Sports Journalists who think their opinions are more important than match reports have always been destined to stew in their own juices.

The problem is that Joe Schmidt has brought Irish Rugby to the exact same place it is every four years.

I dunno I'd say we're better off financially given full houses, increased sponsorship etc that having a solid winning team for four years has delivered. Blazers probably not worried about RWC on that basis?

Yeah but it’s much easier to blame the coach in hindsight, it only takes like 25 syllables or so

[blockhead]

The Rugby Paper@TheRugbyPaper
On Sunday, The Rugby Paper carried a story that Jack Kendall, former England Deaf international, had been appointed joint coach of the Portuguese national team. It now turns out this was an elaborate hoax perpetrated by Jack’s cousin... (1/2)

The Rugby Paper@TheRugbyPaper·
We apologise to the Portuguese Federation for any embarrassment caused @PortugalRugby(2/2)

Oh Dear

[blockhead]

Headline of RTE article
"Munster tint on Springboks multi-coloured triumph"
They're partial World Champions now.

[curates_egg]

Headline of RTE article
"Munster tint on Springboks multi-coloured triumph"
They're partial World Champions now.

It's extremely cringeworthy. Check this out:
https://twitter.com/jacnienaber/status/ ... 8207707136

But, hey, when you haven't won anything of significance in over a decade, I guess you'll take whatever scraps you can.

[D4surfer]

Headline of RTE article
"Munster tint on Springboks multi-coloured triumph"
They're partial World Champions now.

It's extremely cringeworthy. Check this out:
https://twitter.com/jacnienaber/status/ ... 8207707136

But, hey, when you haven't won anything of significance in over a decade, I guess you'll take whatever scraps you can.

Didn't we have a World Cup winner in Owen Finnegan at one stage? I hope their World Cup winners have the same impact.

[jimbobjoe]

Headline of RTE article
"Munster tint on Springboks multi-coloured triumph"
They're partial World Champions now.

It's extremely cringeworthy. Check this out:
https://twitter.com/jacnienaber/status/ ... 8207707136

But, hey, when you haven't won anything of significance in over a decade, I guess you'll take whatever scraps you can.

Didn't we have a World Cup winner in Owen Finnegan at one stage? I hope their World Cup winners have the same impact.

We also had the world cup winning toe of CJ van der Linde for two seasons!

[riocard911]

Headline of RTE article
"Munster tint on Springboks multi-coloured triumph"
They're partial World Champions now.

It's extremely cringeworthy. Check this out:
https://twitter.com/jacnienaber/status/ ... 8207707136

But, hey, when you haven't won anything of significance in over a decade, I guess you'll take whatever scraps you can.

Jaysus, Curate's, sure they're only having a bit of fun. There's an undeniable Munster connection in Rugby World Cup Champions' coaching ticket. I for one am not going to begrudge anyone enjoying Rassie. Leo et al's success, however vicarious.

[curates_egg]

Cummiskey suggesting Harry Byrne could move to Munster!
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/ ... -1.4078436
I hope he's just trolling.