Tag: Craig Casey
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Patchy performance won’t cover all the cracks
IRELAND…22 ARGENTINA…19 Dermot Morgan – Live At The Olympia – April 16th 1994: “People’s walks tell an awful lot about them. At Lansdowne Road, the main sports stadium in the country after the Gaelic football and hurling headquarters at Croke Park, you have two different types of walks as both the soccer and rugby internationals…
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Plenty of problems but a shortage of solutions
Sport never loses its ability to amaze. No matter how much of it you look at. In fact, maybe the more of it you observe, the more confusing it becomes. How else to explain Manchester United holding Liverpool to a draw? At a time when the form of the two sides was about as polarised…
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Moral victories aren’t even written on paper
Leinster… 20 Munster… 19 You often hear it said that certain things “Aren’t worth the paper they’re written on”. Well, moral victories aren’t even written on paper. If they were, it may as well be used toilet paper. Even the most ardent Munster fan must surely be sick of patronising platitudes at this stage in…
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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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Snyman comeback tops typical Thomond turnaround
Munster… 34 Stormers… 18 As debuts go, rupturing your ACL in the early stages thereof and missing the rest of the season thereafter fairly stinks. Yet the giant RG Snymann had shown enough in that maiden outing to leave Munster fans in no doubt as to what they’d be missing for the remainder of last…
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Sideline Cuts – 15
Does anybody else remember 7/11 Supermarkets? Whoever was behind the business was certainly well tuned in from a marketing perspective. Not only do the numbers rhyme, in a sporting context at least, they are and for a long time have been seminal digits. Most notably at Manchester United, where the almost inevitable – and merited…
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Zebo homecoming a timely boost for stagnant reds
Johnny Sexton’s early departure from Leinster’s victory over Exeter last weekend for yet another Head Injury Assessment (HIA) enabled Ross Byrne to deliver his best and most important performance yet in the blue jersey. Whilst not in any way seeking to construct the rugby obituary of the former World Player Of The Year just yet,…
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Black and Blue Saturday
At a point in the early 1980s when Meath football would have required promotion to be considered in the doldrums, the Meath Chronicle ran a front page depicting a coffin with the words ‘Meath Football R.I.P.’ inscribed thereon. Obviously, to the betterment of generations of us, the prophecy was certainly debunked and then some. However,…
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Two red corners on very different paths
Easter Saturday, 1993. The talented but luckless David Hirst gives Sheffield Wednesday a very early lead at Old Trafford. On a day that, if Manchester United won, they would virtually have one hand on their first League title in over a quarter of a century. Having blown a similarly promising position previously against Leeds United,…
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Strength in depth trumps bravery and faith any day
Munster…… 10 Leinster…… 13 It was another case of shoulda, woulda, coulda for Munster last night as their wait to eclipse their great rivals has now reached a half dozen games. In this typically attritional arm wrestle, the outcome boiled down to the fact that Leinster’s strength in depth was always going to trump their…