Tag: Leo Cullen
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Byrne keeps it in the genes as old menu tastes best for Leinster
LEINSTER… 25 LA ROCHELLE… 24 For the Byrne brothers, it must have felt two vessels passing in the night. Ross, who departed the home paddock looking for greener pastures but found himself outside the grazing platform on the day in question. Meanwhile, brother Harry was summoned from the bench after both Ciaran Frawley and his…
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Meath Football Championships Update
And breathe! That was some weekend of club championship action in the Royal County. In the interest of fairness and transparency, it will be stated that, due to having to deal with some very trying personal circumstances, I was unable to get to any of the matches, but, thanks to the media miracles that are…
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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…