Tag: Aviva Stadium
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Progress can mean different things to different people
In the overall annals of GAA history, one wonders where the Centenary Cup resides. For Meath however, it was without doubt the spring board for the greatest era in the county’s football history. Fast forward to the present day and Westmeath will be hoping that last year’s Tailteann Cup success will similarly set them on […]
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Reserve Tanks do little to enhance their status
Ireland… 35 Fiji… 17 Anybody with the slightest knowledge about rugby for the four decades this writer has been on the go – at the very least – will surely know of the efficiency of those from the Pacific island of Fiji in the 7s format of the game. Therefore, you’d have thought that a […]
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Impressive variety but staple diet needs freshening up
Ireland…19 South Africa…16 How much store do you place on the Autumn Internationals? A passive observer would probably deem them no more than puffed up friendlies. The aficionado, though, sees them as the laying foundations and building something as the nuts and bolts of the day job kicks off for International players. My own view […]
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Parrott chimes into Kenny’s uplifting chorus
Rep. Of Ireland… 1 Lithuania… 0 Sometimes things happen in life which, with the fullness of time, emerge as a clear sign of what was to come in its wake. For example, having spent two hours on a soccer pitch in Wales practising it the week before, it was as if Sean Boylan and Meath […]
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In Kenny I am beginning to trust
Rep. Of Ireland… 2 Belgium… 2 It’s probably a fairly safe wager that when Jack Charlton was appointed manager of the Irish soccer team, his was a selection very much from the left of field. Firstly because the big Geordie hadn’t much of a managerial profile at the time. Moreover, the Irish job wasn’t exactly […]
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Mack puts the knife into Wales on impressive debut
Ireland…29 Wales…7 A very short time into his Championship debut against Dublin, Ollie Murphy palmed the ball into an empty net in front a packed Canal End. For any Meath player it can’t get much better than that. Well, at the Aviva Stadium this afternoon, shy of scoring a try, if there is such a […]
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Irish eyes smiling for different reasons
It had to happen, didn’t it? Anytime they have been required to deliver big when it mattered most, Munster have answered the call. Against the All Blacks, 1978, The Miracle Match, then defeating Glasgow days after Axel Foley was laid to rest. And again on Sunday. Yet, in ways, for this observer at least, Sunday’s […]
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Ireland issue bench warrant for All Blacks demise
Ireland…29 New Zealand…20 Don’t let anyone tell you it was ‘only’ an Autumn International. Representation always mean something. Whether it’s a Division 8 football match or this. Taking on the greatest Rugby Union team on the planet. There was a time, not all that long ago, when Ireland – and many more like them – […]