The more cynically minded among you may regard this as a coded attempt by a certain West Ham midfielder to reignite those efforts to draft him into the Irish squad.
In the manner of Francis Urquhart, a man almost as English as Mark Noble, this writer can only say that you may very well think that, I couldn't possibly comment.
Alternatively, given his rather ungainly way with the hurl, Noble could be attempting to ensure the talk of 'Noble for Ireland' is never resuscitated. His stubborn insistence on catching an impressive belt from his sparring partner in the manner of a cricketer is very telling.
West Ham are in Cork at the moment and their club website, a password protected entity, (this writer never believed he would become a member of a West Ham United.com but there you are) released a video of Noble and big Welsh defender, James Collins ingratiating themselves with the locals by bashing some sliotars about.
The first one to make a joke about Jimmy Barry Murphy wanting to take a look at them (What? Ha! Nudge, nugde, you're gas so you are...) should be up before the courts.
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