Tag: Thomond Park

  • Rowntree’s shock departure leaves a sour taste

    Rowntree’s shock departure leaves a sour taste

    A deceased Irish rugby legend once said to yours truly in a tent at the Punchestown Festival “Rugby, my friend, is a game for thugs played by gentlemen, whereas soccer is a game for gentlemen played by roughens”. Whether you agree with the actual nuts and bolts of his views or not is immaterial. At…

  • Pursuit of ‘keeper trio underlines the competition

    Pursuit of ‘keeper trio underlines the competition

    Never is, I think, one of those trick words put into the English language that none of us like using but not doing so is quite literally impossible. To put a degree of context on the rest of what will appear, many moons ago, it would have been said in this corner that there were…

  • What was once a fortress now has swinging saloon doors

    What was once a fortress now has swinging saloon doors

    MUNSTER… 17 BEYONNE… 17 If there were any positives, let’s get them out of the way first. Which, you suspect, is exactly what Graham Rowntree will be doing when the debrief begins. If he hasn’t got the paint stripper out already. So here goes. Even though it was the French side who put the first…

  • Moyles and Ronan to assist at Regionals

    Moyles and Ronan to assist at Regionals

    Brady’s Garage have come on board as sponsors for the Meath Regional Football Championships, details for which were announced earlier this week. Last year’s inaugural incarnation of the competition – in which teams compete for the Richie Barry Cup – was extremely well received by clubs, players and fans alike with – fittingly – the…

  • Carlsberg don’t sponsor Munster…but if they did…

    Carlsberg don’t sponsor Munster…but if they did…

    Hans Christian Andersen, you may stand down sir. For those who produce fairytales to rival anything ever penned by yourself did so again on Saturday evening in some far flung corner of South Africa. Though I don’t think anybody in the celebrated writer’s works ever endured as much heartache and disappointment between pots of gold…

  • Statements in Manchester and Munster, now it’s over to Meath

    Statements in Manchester and Munster, now it’s over to Meath

    Before the cat jumps all the way out of the bag of its own accord, let’s provide the last nudge. I have returned to meaningful involvement with my local GAA club after a 15-year-hiatus. Part of which was enforced, another element thereof is old ground which doesn’t need to be ploughed up again. There may…

  • Moral victories aren’t even written on paper

    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…

  • Would You Like To Buy My Books?

    Would You Like To Buy My Books?

    Over the last couple of years I have written and published two books – “Heroics And Heartache” and ” Rolling Down Memory Lane”. Details about both and how you can purchase them are contained within.

  • Irish eyes smiling for different reasons

    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…

  • ROLLING DOWN MEMORY LANE

    ROLLING DOWN MEMORY LANE

    ANNOUNCEMENT It gives me great pleasure and no little pride to announce that my second book Rolling Down Memory Lane is hot off the presses and available to pre-order now. This book is the product of the first Covid-19 Lockdown of March 2020. With the world at a standstill, something had to be done to…