Craig Chalmers' son tests positive for steroids. Hardly a lone wolf?
And I see Jonny Sexton is having his "nearly crashed my Range Rover" moment.
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Craig Chalmers' son tests positive for steroids. Hardly a lone wolf?
And I see Jonny Sexton is having his "nearly crashed my Range Rover" moment.
And I think we can see the cracks appearingt in the PRL-Top14 plan...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/24577584Quote:
1126:
RUGBY UNION
European champions Toulon will not take part in the proposed Anglo-French tournament.
Toulon will instead remain in the Heineken Cup as a protest against the French league's plan to limit the number of foreign players.
That Irish team performance today was pure muck ..... scrum was crap against a so call weak scrum - irish media again talking through it's ar** - and next week will be a disaster altogether!!!!
Bad as I've seen Ireland in over a decade.
and the Aussies had been drinking beforehand too!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/24983640
http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/1118/487...gby-world-cup/
Aviva, Thomond and RDS obviously, an expanded Ravenhill and maybe even Musgrave. But what other places are going to make up the 12 or 13 neccesary to host this event? Smallest capacity in NZ was 15K, and all other Rugby grounds in country would have to more than double in size to get that much. Must be banking on GAA playing ball.
I believe the GAA have already said in principle that they'd let their grounds be used as part of a bid.
They have. Was mentioned last year when Off the Ball pushed for this to happen.
Didn't even know they'd made that declaration. What kind of stadium pre-requisites will RWC require regards seating/terraces/covered stands/general condition if any?
Edit: GAA Congress gave its central committee authority to let GAA grounds be used, but I assume the actual arrangements for such a deal are yet to be hammered out. GAA could hold out for a lot.
None really apart from having 4 major stadia to host the big games which will probably be Croker, Aviva, a redeveloped Casement Park - (which looks fairly inpressive http://www.u.tv/Sport/New-design-for...6-ec8cf247bef2) and 1 other GAA ground from Cork / Killarney / Thurles etc - throw in the regional rugby stadia and you will more than match what New Zealand had to offer in 2011.Quote:
Originally Posted by NeverFeltBetter
Terracing etc is no problem as regards rugby games and some grounds in NZ had the temporary type stands you would see at the olympics / golf tournaments so id imagine that sort of thing could be utilized here as well.
Biggest problem I see is that I'm fairly sure South Africa are going to bid for this tournament as well, probably Italy as well. We would be behind both in terms of stadium infrastructure even with the GAA.
Its a great idea I think though - and if we provide a robust enough bid I'm sure we will get to host a tournament somewhere down the line - if not in 2023 then 2027 or 2031.
I thought as Sexton lined up for that penalty I might be seeing an iconic moment in Irish sport but once the ball went wide, I feared the worse. One score ahead of the All Blacks would not be enough with 5 minutes to go.
Another heroic failure. How many of them have we seen in Irish sport over the years? I am not a rugby fan but I really felt that defeat but if you don't score in a half against World Champions, it's inevitable plus compounded by the stupidity of the early charge of the kicker for the conversion. A draw would have been something at least. I think Ireland got very close in New Zealand during the time of the Euros and then had a peno awarded against them late on by the same ref I think and lost. They were then trounced in the next game.
Very little consolation as a non-rugby fan in the performance when the result was so close. It reminded me of my friend Laughing Bill O'Herlihy saying at the end of the Henry French game that it was a "night for celebration" because of our performance. Devastation I'd say not celebration. My signature is my motto.
I'm not a rugby fan, so I just couldn't appreciate the apparent magnitude of what happened yesterday. Appearances would make it look like a glorified friendly, but people acted like it was the equivalent of Ireland/Spain 2002.
Some nonsense talked after the game though. Ireland "didn't deserve to lose" despite not scoring for 46 minutes, missing a game-killing penalty in the last ten and giving possession away with 30 seconds left on the clock.
I don't think a draw would have mattered. The context was that Ireland had never beaten the All Blacks in 108 years. Those players would have had a lifetime of after-dinner speaking opportunities had they won. Only in on one sense is it "just a glorified friendly" - the win was of as much real consequence as was the loss to Australia - but Test rugby has way more context than any football friendly, especially against the best and considering our record against NZ. Those players would have played that game like a big RWC match. I don't think many football friendlies would ever have that degree of commitment.
Sexton took too long with that penalty. I reckon he had half an eye on running the clock down, but I reckon he also psyched himself out in the process. Would the ref have been within his rights to pull him up? The kick was taken nearly 90 seconds after the award. I thought the rule was 60 seconds. Sexton also limped away after the kick suggesting he was injured going into it, so should he have even been on?
All told, too many daft mistakes. Giving away the penalty on 79:30 (McGrath?), Toner giving away a stupid penalty, Sexton's missed kick and so on. It makes you think just how lucky we were that Stephen Jones missed a very kickable last-kick-of-the-game penalty in Cardiff in 2009 that would have cost us the Grand Slam.
I think it was a gripping contest though, rugby union at its very best. The end will teach me to laugh at England in the rugby league when NZ did virtually the same thing in Saturday's WC semi final.
I suppose the difference between the rugby and the footy is that had that happened in the footy (as it has on umpteen occasions in my lifetime) I'd have been sick. Austria this year hurt like hell but I had got over the rugby soon enough. The Ashes first test had already made my sporting day.
Toner mistake but just dumb - if i was coach - he be off straight away and would never play again! - if he was playing for the all blacks - that what would happen .....
The crowd had just started to shout at Sexton as he began his run-up too, out of impatience/worry I would assume, which might have thrown him off just a bit as well. Plenty of a bandwagoners in the Aviva, who were booing the NZ conversion kicker a few minutes later.
A draw would have prevented NZ winning all their games in a season and after the hurt of the last minute try, Ireland would at least have come away with something.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
I saw the rugby league as well. Almost identical scenario although in League you have to surrender possession after 5 tackles so NZ always had a chance there. We couldn't hold on to the ball for another 20 seconds in the rugby without giving away the penalty. Yes I also recalled the Grand Slam penalty in Cardiff when it happened. That was almost another self-inflicted wound.
Cricket is the one sport where I follow England (Ireland didn't have a team playing test cricket) and I stayed up to 3.00 am to watch some of it on Saturday evening. When I heard Botham the flag waver predicting a 5-0 series win for England, I knew they'd be in trouble. The Australians are terribly arrogant and graceless once they win something (I know this from personal experience) and I hope England fight back. Trott has gone home with depression I heard as well. These tours are a long time to be away from families.
Was that penalty kickable? it was from the half way line, it was a triple crown kick, but all the pressure was created by O'Gara's drop goal. Imo, there was no luck involved. Whilst it was kickable, it was an outside chance. Had Jones ever converted such a pressure kick from the half way line before?Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Sexton had a relatively straightforward kick from the 25, bread and butter at this level, Ireland were already ahead, some pressure but not the pressure of a kick to win the game at that stage.
A conversion would surely have put the game beyond the AB's.
As for the other crucial mistakes, they will happen, players on both sides made stupid mistakes especially when tired, but the out half should be almost perfect.
Obviously the missed penalty proved crucial, but there were other poor decisions in the last 10 - the box kicks from Murray and Sextons cross field kick (too much time hanging with O'Gara ;) ). The last penalty was probably a bit harsh, given what both teams were getting away with up to then. Gutted when they went over, even if it felt a inevitable after the penalty miss. Sexton was clearly carrying an injury, but there has to be a certain amount of personal responsibility to call yourself as unfit at that level, imo. I would add the caveat that because of various injuries we weren't able to make the changes when we wanted too. Who knows what impact some of the subs might've made introduced later.
The Kidney era, after his first season, was littered with one off great performances in the midst of rubbish. Schmidt's real task is to make it the standard for every game.
Was it a triple crown kick for wales?Quote:
Originally Posted by geysir
Regardless, he made a kick from the exact same distance earlier in the game, so I think it was very kickable. It was ten-metre line rather than half-way, no? Most Test kickers have it in their range to kick from 40-45 metres, and Jones is a proper Test kicker who shouldn't have been that phased by the pressure.
Edit: just checked, yes it was a triple crown game for wales and it was about 3 or 4 metres into Ireland's half, so further than I remembered.
I'd say there's a world of difference between a kicker converting a 50m kick during a game and a high pressure 50m kick to win the game at the death.
Isn't Jones the Welsh player who appeared to bottle out of a last ditch pressure drop kick against France at WC 2011? One could say he was susceptible to doing the odd bottle.
Whereas you could say Ireland were fortunate in another game against Wales. The ref gave Wales very little chance to take advantage of a (deliberate?) knock on inside the Irish 25, followed by O'Connell (barely trotting) winning the ball from the 25 drop out and O'Gara having a pop, a mishít drop kick from distance with the ball summersaulting/spinning out of control, its way over the bar. I think all that happened in the same game in the last few minutes, but I could be mixing memories.