Munster – Leinster clash in Limerick set for a day when all the pubs are closed

Them and us, but not just in sport. The sheer irrelevance of people like George Hook, Tom McGurk and Ryle Nugent.

Heart, balls, guts and brains

Lions win final Test. Commentators lose the plot.

Springboks choose cynical strategy

I know that Limehouse Dick is a rascal.  I know he’s an incorrigible corner-boy and dodger.  I realise old Scrotum can’t stand him, and yet, for all his uncouth manners, his shuffling, mumbling shiftiness and his surly manner, he has always responded well to a sound thrashing and a small bag of sovereigns.
This time is [...]

Hasn’t it been some transformation?  Isn’t there some difference between the Ireland team of today and the overtrained, squabbling, factional rabble who crashed and burned in France during the 2007 World Cup?
Now we have a team that hangs together, with players who fight for each other instead of trading punches in the dressing room.  For [...]

Forget Bertie Ahern.
Forget Iraq.
Forget global warming.
Forget the banking crisis.
Tomorrow, Munster meet Gloucester in a make-or-break crunch game that will either see us progress to the semi-finals or crash out of the competition.
Already, we’re wondering why Tomás O Leary is in and Peter Stringer is out.  Why there’s no place for Shaun Payne.  If Paul O [...]

We’re going (as I told you) to the game in Dublin.  Ireland versus Scotland in Croke Park.
Myself and the Bullet.  Off to see the rugby, and to stay the night with Wrinkly Paddy.  And to meet Wrinkly Joe.
And to get shitfaced in Dublin pubs.
Well, me to get shitfaced, and Bullet to stand around looking [...]

John Barclay is out of Saturday’s game.

Apparently he was badly cut when a friend sat on a glass he was holding.
Eh, sorry?
He was holding this glass when his friend …
No. Sorry. That picture doesn’t work for me. Let’s try again. He had a glass in his hand, very close to his friend’s arse, and …
Nope! [...]