Search results

I've spent some time living in Japan and plan to move there on a permanent basis next year. Domestic rugby isn't in that great a state there. My fiancée who is Japanese worked for a major Japanese company who have one of the major club rugby teams. The company would "encourage" employees to go...

I think we'll see a reaction for the Ireland squad and we'll put in a performance for about 50-60 minutes of the game. We've never beaten the ABs and that's not going to change tomorrow. With the mental block Ireland have against the ABs I think you could put the entire Highlanders team in All...

On the game itself I thought Australia did well. You took your chances very well and defended well at key points during the game. Although Scotland were technically still in it they never looked like scoring a try and Lilo's poor performance from the tee kept them in touch. Scotland were very...

We've seen probably the 3 worst surfaces in the NH in action during this series of games. The pitch in the Stade de France has been terrible for a long time. The Millenium stadium has problem with the grass there due to the design of the stadium. At Murrayfield they have a problem with turf...

France have done really well this November for a team without confidence and a flyhalf. If they can find both they'll be one to avoid in the RWC come the knockout stages.

For me it's 2 separate issues. First, did Kuridrani deserve the length of ban he received? Absolutely yes. Second, is the whole citing and judicial system a godawful mess that has needed major reforms for a very long time? Absolutely yes.

If that's the case then the Spanish, Portuguese and Romanians who currently play in the Challenge Cup won't be shunted into obscurity as was the plan under the Rugby Champions Cup. I'd prefer if the RFU entered teams from the Championship instead of the Premiership clubs for a season. But the...

Very interesting development. If they do bring all of the French clubs back into the fold and bring the Welsh Regions back on board then the English clubs are in a bit of a pickle. I imagine that if the English clubs do ask to be allowed back in there will be some concession they'll have to...

Nice typo in the 2nd paragraph of the article. Would be a pretty strange bench with 4 props on it. Some would say it would be a sin not to go out for a few drinks in Dublin the night before your day off in the lead up to a game in the Guinness series of November Internationals. But I guess...

I prefer how things work with the new laws regarding the TMO. The Ref is the ultimate power and the TMO now operates like one of his assistants running the line. If the Ref has no way of seeing something then he relies on his assistants and the TMO to advise him on what happened. But if he has...

No complaints about the result, well done Australia. You were better than us in ever facet of the game today. Glad to see things finally looking up for Ewen and the Wobs, pity it came against us though. As for Ireland that was a totally abject performance with zero intensity. All the defensive...

Wob wingers must be getting pissed off with having to take the "reserved for Henry Speight" stickers off the jerseys before they run out onto the pitch.

I'm really looking forward to the game now, getting really excited already. Both teams are in a very similar place. Previous coach had one really good season where they achieved something that hadn't happened in a long time. But after that the team went into decline. Both underperformed in...

Zebo is currently out with a foot injury and he'll be out for another 5 or 6 weeks. Craig Gilroy & Keith Earls are also out injured hence McFadden being in the starting team.

No the first part is just an honest assessment. A better team than that Samoa team (including their full strength side) would have scored tries from the breaks they made. The 2nd part is just an observation on Irish fans. Most are OK with losing as long as we gave it a go. These are the same...

Absolutely agree with you on Dusatoir and the same could be said about a lot of top quality players in Rugby from either side of the equator. The lack of knowledge in the rugby community, especially amongst pundits and rugby writers, is astounding. Most seem to presume that outside of tests time...

I wouldn't be as complimentary about our (Ireland's) performance against Samoa as some others on the thread. In the first half the only real positives were our scrum went really well, with Jack McGrath on debut at loosehead and the impressive driving maul for our first try. Defesively there...

Ireland went well in the 2nd half. 1st half was very scrappy and the scrum was the only real positive with Jack McGrath putting in a MOTM performance on his debut. In the 2nd half we improved and pulled away from Samoa. But Samoa were without some of there regulars and lost more to injury...

Thankfully this isn't soccer, so Link should get at least until after the 2015 RWC.

Turns out London Irish head coach knew about the meeting with Toulon ahead of time and was fine with it. He's been talking about how the Exiles still hope to sign JOC (James O'Connor) for longer after his 3 months are up, despite this interest from Toulon.