Amlin Challenge Cup Final Preview A few weeks after the “One More Year” chant echoed around the RDS the announcement finally came that Irish rugby’s Great One had granted his supporters’ plea. But no Brian O’Driscoll in the squad for the Amlin final due to the back injury suffered against Glasgow last week. Such has life been in the Leinster camp this year. Forced to ... »
Photo by Diarmuid Greene/Sportsfile Two weeks ago, around forty minutes after Connacht’s loss to Ulster, Eric Elwood walked through the back door of the Sportsground’s Clan Bar, where he was greeted by a larger than normal crowd for so late in the evening. Joining the cohort of fans who’d hung on to catch a glimpse of the playing heroes – Tommy Bowe was quite popular, unsur... »
Gavin Grace makes the case for the defence… He may have just led Ireland to our worst ever Six Nations performance, but you’ll have to excuse me from joining in the apparent party following the decision not to renew Declan Kidney’s contract. I’m certainly in the minority, judging by the reaction on t’internet, but with no clear succession plan in place, this could be ... »
From GUBU to FUBAR The Italian band’s funereal rendition of Ireland’s dirge, which elicited barely a mumble from the Irish fans, set the tone for a dire afternoon for Irish rugby. Injury and ineptitude in equal measure resulted in defeat to the Italians for the first time in the six nations and the real possibility of the wooden spoon. (I’ve checked, and it goes to the team in last place ev... »
‘Much Better Than I Feared’ As Freddie Michalak recklessly kicked the ball dead and the dashing Steve Walsh blew for the end of the match, the overwhelming emotion was one of disappointment. Having controlled the game for large periods, Ireland had thrown away a 10 point half-time lead to draw with a below par French team. However, on reflection, this was a fine performance by an Irish... »
Analysing Declan Kidney’s decision to SUFTUM and how how this Ireland team featuring 5 Ulstermen will fare against the Jocks In the 10 days after the England game, I assumed that Deccie would live up to is conservative reputation and pick his PBC prodigy at out-half, move BOD to inside-centre and play Earls at 13. I thought dreadful thoughts about the man who brought us our only Slam in the ... »
Here’s a province-by-province breakdown of the players most likely to break out as Ireland internationals enjoy a Six Nations break. The Six Nations period has been good to Munster over the past few seasons. With internationals away fringe players can get a run in the team and get a shot at establishing themselves for the season run in. Two years ago Connor Murray got an extended run ... »
Paddy Logan examines where Ireland lost yesterday’s match, and what lies ahead in the coming weeks for Kidney and co.: Well that was a horrible game to watch. Ireland had the beating of England, no question, but made way too many simple mistakes. England were hardly flawless but did the simple things much better. Injuries to key players certainly didn’t help. Losing Zebo early was hugely dis... »
50 hours from now, we’ll have a pretty decent idea who’ll be winning the 2013 Six Nations – and whether Declan Kidney will be leading Ireland into the 2015 World Cup. To do the occasion justice, we enlisted our Rugby Nerds to preview the weekend’s big action. Paddy Logan surveys the battlelines between Ireland and England. There’s been an enormous amount of chat about the s... »
Well that was fun, eh? That stormcloud that hung over the Ireland team has been blown away after an incredible Saturday afternoon in Cardiff and it now seems that the sky is the limit. With a potential championship decider seven days away, two of our Rugby Nerds look back on the weekend that was. First off, Gavin Grace looks back at a madcap weekend and ponders what is to come next weekend: In his... »
Ahead of a mouthwatering, and possibly wide-open Six Nations, the Balls.ie Rugby Nerds have produced a suitable epic preview of rugby’s most EPIC competition. Everything hinges on tomorrow afternoon for Ireland. Paddy Logan looks forward to Wales v Ireland and says it’s time for a bit of payback It’s time for some payback – in fact, that time passed long ago and the pain is becoming un... »
One of the biggest rugby weekends of the year is upon us, and beautifully the weather acting is up. With so much at stake for Leinster, Munster and Ulster this weekend, our Rugby Nerds hashed out their expectations for the weekend’s Heineken Cup action. Andy McGeady has extensively broken down all of the weekend’s permutations on his website. Here’s a condensed version of ... »
Ahead of another intense weekend in the Heineken Cup, our Rugby Nerds parse the big issues for the Irish provinces ahead of the critical penultimate weekend in the group stages. Munster fan Ronan Murphy reflects on Sunday’s crunch match at the Murrayfield mausoleum. “It’s our season. It’s everything, 80 minutes of rugby to have the chance to have 80 minutes more. Otherwise it’s over.” ... »
After the heights the Irish provinces hit a week ago, this weekend’s Heineken Cup was a bitter comedown. The Rugby nerds come through in both good times and bad and here is their analysis of the weekend that was. Ulster nerd Paddy Logan comes to grips with an unusual occurrence- Ulster defeat. All good things must come to an end, but that doesn’t stop it hurting. It was a bad night at the of... »
