Rugger

8th in the world....sweet! While as a Munsterman and subsequently an Irishman, 8th place is akin to being a big loser, its something the Irish rugby fan must be greatful for as it means we are not seeded as 'Shitty filler material' when the draw is made for the Rugby World Cup sometime whenever.
In yesterday's big fight, Ireland and Argentina beat the tar out of each other in what is now becoming a tradition in world rugby. Screw watching that Ricky Hatton jesse prance around a ring with a padded helmet on, Croke Park was where the action was.
In between the scuffles, handbags and punches, Ireland scored more points than Argentina and according to the rules won the game. We added a bit of sheen to the score with 2 tries but this was far from attractive rugby. We shan't moan as we have the win we needed and we get to shout even more abuse at Felipe Contepomi whenever he looks at a Rugby ball.
In what was a good day for an Irish rugby fan, the comical Welsh lost with their usual bad grace to the All Blacks, fans boo-ing Dan Carter as he lined up penalties and conversions. Bad form.
Enger-land where just short of atomised by South Africa in a welcome return to form for the World Champions.
Scots beat Canada well done and I am delighted to say that Australia beat the frogs in Paris last night so I'm pretty damn content.
While the Six Nations is still far away, I am pleased with Declan Kidney's start as Irish manager and I hope he can bring to Ireland some of what he brought to Munster.

Back from the honeymoon

I have a confession....I didn't watch it. Much as I love supporting Ireland at anything mildly competitive the soccer team fails to ignite my passion enough to go to the pub to watch it(Mr. Murdoch wants me to pay to see them). Not a bad game but not a classic either from what I've read and heard.
Croke Park is usually a home venue for Ireland but with the estimated 150-300 thousand Polish folk living in Ireland, this fixture was going to be neutral at best. Old Piotr at the bar served the sausage rolls and beers with an air of smugness at half time as Ireland went in behind and Sascha at the parking let Irish fans out beeming from ear to ear as those in green trudged home.
If those wearing red and white worked anywhere as hard as the Poles do on serving us breakfast rolls and building our houses, we were going to have our work cut out.
Damien Duff was once again hard at it and Keith Andrews made his debut with a goal. In the end we still lost and we can be greatful it was not world cup qualifier.
Kudos to the FAI for showing some sort of thought in their choice of friendly opponents. Filling a stadium the size of Croker for a friendly game is impressive and will be sure to do the coffers some good in these uncertain times.

Thomond Park: The Arena of Rugby Gods past and present!

Wow. Wow.......wow. I can't remember when I have ever felt so proud to be a Munsterman and the last time I enjoyed a game of Rugby so much. For Thomond Park's grand opening, there could have been no greater opponents: the mighty All Blacks. Fanfare and spectacle in the build up to kick off: dancing girls(clothed given the cold night bless them), fireworks and the helicopter that the Air-Corps leases to Munster for transporting Tony Buckley hovered over the middle of the pitch and a few soldiers jumped down on zip lines to deliver the ball.

The build up climaxed with the four kiwis wearing red performing the haka before their fellow country men. While it did not instill fear in the All Blacks, Doug Howlett, Lifemi Mafi, Rua Tipoki and Jeremy Manning's display inspired the unfamiliar faces brought in to replace those in Dublin with the Ireland squad.
80 minutes of Rugby never passed so quickly. So much energy, passion and drama. The new 26,000 seat Thomond rumbled with the cheers of the red army and the rest of Munster rumbled at home with envy at those in the red cauldron.
18-16 to the visitors who described it in their national press as the match of the tour. I love New Zealand for their modesty despite their other worldly abilities, a world apart from England and the smug swagger of Australia and those terrible losers the Frogs.
A re-match is uncertain in the near future but we can always hope. Our attention turns to the crucial match on Saturday against those marauding pirates Argentina. Dr Contempomi, the tosser, is thankfully out this leaves a small question over their set piece kicking but as we now know, thats not all they have to bring to rugby.
Lets hope the memories of '78 and now '08 will inspire even the Leinster players wearing green on Saturday and that we show the world and the smug south americans what Irish rugby is really like.

'God-like' beats 'spirited'

As the dust settles and the blood dries on Croke Park, Ireland can say they only conceeded 22 points to the supreme overlords of rubgy, 7 of those shouldn't have stood because well...it shouldn't. In a dreadful assortment of officials, Ireland got rough deal most of the time with the referee's eyesight and intellect being called into question by Eddie Butler on countless occasions.
Ireland could have got to 10 points if not for Marcus Horan's fine pass to an old lady in the crowd instead of a short simple one to a not-half-going-to-fucking-score David Wallace a few feet away. The whole of Ireland(except for the plebs watching SPL) called their innocent televisions all sorts of names but despite this and Ireland's attempts, the All Black returned to their celestial plain victorious and knowing that if they really wanted to, they could have played rugby using us as the ball.
Big thumbs up to Drico who played to his Leinster best(about 25% of Munster best) and to Tomás O'Leary who made his real debut with lots of promise.
Thumbs down to Rodge who was crap in his kicking and took NZ's abuse like a bitch.
Roll on Argentina!