Tag: Johnny Sexton
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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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Big Pete’s procrastination threatens to ruin the time of his life
Some people cannot equate the situation whereby a person can be an animal lover and still enjoy hunting and/or fishing. Yet for a huge number of people – including some very close to home – the two facts co-exist without so much as a whim. On foot of same, I ended up being in a…
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Casualties likely to be Cullen’s main concern
Leinster… 43 Stade Francais… 7 Just how far does Leinster’s strength in depth actually run? Is a question I’m sure many of their adversaries have long pondered. Well, unfortunately for Leo Cullen et al, they might be getting a bit closer to finding out. Certainly at fly half anyway. Obviously, the retirement of Johnny Sexton…
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A game for the ages but ‘only’ an ordinary win
Ireland… 13 South Africa… 8 One of the strange curiosities of the four match saga between Meath and Dublin in the Leinster SFC of 1991 was, after all the hype and coverage had subsided, it was only a first round encounter. The victors still had several hurdles to cross before they could even contemplate silverware.…
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Another decent score with plenty to work on
Ireland… 59 Tonga… 16 A connection currently in France at the rugby said to me the other day, with a tinge of sadness attached, that it was unlikely Keith Earls would be seen in an Irish jersey again. I wouldn’t be so sure. In the reverse of what often happens in this space, let’s go…
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They do it however they have to
Leinster… 53 Leicester Tigers… 24 When the Dublin football team were in peak unbeatable mode under Jim Gavin, the manager repeatedly spoke about everyone in the camp ‘trusting the processes’. Watch their matches during that era and you can see it playing out. There was one signal in particular – where the player in possesion…
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World’s best show just why they are
Ireland… 29 England… 16 The phrase ‘Impressionable kids’ is one you often hear in use. Then there’s the fact that it’s said first impressions are lasting ones. Now read on… Andy Farrell’s grandkids obviously copped on fairly quick that his team was better than that of their dad – England fly half Owen. Hence their…
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No major surprises in Ireland Six Nations squad
The inclusion of Leinster’s uncapped centre Jamie Osborne is the only occurrence of note in Andy Farrell’s Ireland squad for the forthcoming Six Nations Championship announced this morning. Some would no doubt lament the exclusion of Joey Carbery as equally newsworthy but, in the opinion of this writer, sooner rather than later the Athy man…
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Ireland crumble in Fortress Eden
Ireland… 19 New Zealand… 42 You might think that scoring three tries against the All Blacks – especially at Eden Park – represented a commendable day’s work. Don’t be fooled… This was a classic case of ‘come into my web, said the spider to the fly’, before the resident takes a choke hold of the…
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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…