Video Highlights : Lions V South Africa Third Test July 4th 2009

Video Highlights:Super 14 Final 2009 -Bulls V Chiefs

The Bulls captained by Victor Matfield won their second Super 14 title in three seasons when they crushed the Chiefs on a scoreline of 61-17 at Loftus Versfeld before a crowd of 52 000. The Bulls scored eight tries in this game.

Video Highlights of Super 14 Semi Final:Bulls V Crusaders played at Pretoria

Video highlights of a Rugby Union classic played at Pretoria on Saturday last.

Video: Super 14 Rugby Union Round 13 Highlights-2009

France: Rugby Union Top 14 - 2009 (10 of the best tries)

Video of Leinster tries against Munster in Heineken Cup semi-final at Croke Park Dublin-2/5/09

Video: Super 14 Rugby Union Highlights Round 10 (2009)

Video Clip Rugby Union: Ireland v Wales March 21st 2009 -Scores and some highlights

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Rugby Union-Congrats to Ireland:Grand Slam Six Nations and Triple Crown Champions

Ireland 17;Wales 15

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Video: Rugby Union Super 14 Pick of the Week Tries - Round 5

This video features some of the best tries from round 5 of the Southern Hemisphere's Super 14 Rugby Union competition. This is champagne rugby from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Rugby Union: Video Highlights Ireland V France-7/2/09

Video:Basic Rules of Rugby Union

A collection of superb Irish tries over the last number of years

Rugby Union at the Millennium Stadium: Heineken Cup Final-Munster defeat Toulouse in a Titanic Struggle

Munster displayed skill, grit and panache to secure their second Heineken Cup triumph in three years, defeating a wonderful Toulouse team by 16-13.
This game -attended by 80,000- was an epic and epitomised everything that is best in Rugby Union. It was a wonderful advertisement for the game.

The atmosphere was electric. The intensity was far greater than that of the Southern Hemisphere’s Super-14.

Toulouse dominated the opening quarter and exerted extreme pressure on Munster.Yet the men from the South of France had very little to show for their efforts. Elissalde missed an early penalty kick but scored a drop-goal after eight minutes. He failed with a second drop goal attempt.It is arguable that Toulouse’s failure to register more scores in this period cost them the game. Byron Kelleher was caught with his hands in the ruck. Munster now launched a ferocious attack, which went through many phases. Denis Leamy went close to scoring but the TMO ruled correctly that he failed to touch the ball down.In the resulting scrum the Munster forward power came to the fore. Toulouse buckled and Leamy was driven over the line for a try. O’Gara now converted. Sustained pressure for about eight minutes from the Munster pack had yielded dividends.
O’Gara converted a penalty. Elissalde converted a penalty for Toulouse just before half- time -Quinlan having infringed.

In the first five minutes of the second half Paul O’Connell twice saved Munster. He stole a line-out metres from his own line. He also stole a ball from a maul as the Toulouse juggernaut trundled towards the Munster line. Today O’Connell answered his ill informed critics in no uncertain manner. Doug Howlett crossed the Toulouse line but the score was disallowed for a forward pass.
Fabien Pelous was sent to the sin bin for a kick to Alan Quinlan’s backside.
O’Gara kicked the penalty and Munster now led by seven.

Toulouse now rose to the challenge and Cédric Heymans took a quick line-out throw to himself inside his own half and instigated a wonderful move. Heymans crafted a beautiful chip, which he gathered and then outwitted two Munster backs before kicking. Yannick Jauzion kicked the ball forward. Donguy finished this stunning move by touching down for a try. After 62 minutes a fine Toulouse move broke down when Elissalde kicked the ball over the Munster goal line. This was a seminal moment as Toulouse had come forward in waves and looked likely to score. After 65 minutes O’Gara scored a penalty. The Munster forwards maintained the high intensity level required. Toulouse- the team of all the talents- was beaten.

All Munster players were heroes. O’Connell, Quinlan , Denis Leamy, Rua Tipoki, Lifeimi Mafi and Ian Dowling in particular stood out. Cédric Heymans was man of the match for Toulouse.
Declan Kidney, Jim Williams and the backroom staff have masterminded another stunning success.

Rugby Union Six Nations-France defeats Ireland in cliffhanger

This was a much-improved performance from Ireland. The infusion of new talent has rejuvenated the side. Jamie Heaslip was outstanding. Hopefully Eddie O’Sullivan will persist with this policy. He must also introduce a genuine open side flanker into the team.

In the first half Ireland had most of the play. France punished turnovers in the first-half mercilessly with Vincent Clerc scoring a hat-trick of tries. France continuously attacked Geordan Murphy's wing with a great deal of success. Some of the Irish defensive tackling left much to be desired.
With the score 19-6 at half time, Ireland appeared dead and buried.

Cedric Heymans' try appeared to drive the final nail in the coffin. The score now stood at 26-6. Welsh referee Nigel Owens awarded a penalty try to Ireland in the 58th minute. This was the signal for the Irish revival.
In the 61st minute David Wallace crossed the line for an Irish try. Unfortunately O’Gara missed the conversion.
The French now led by 26-18.
A Brian O'Driscoll pass failed to find a teammate when a try seemed on.
O’Gara scored a magnificent penalty with six minutes to go.
Ireland attacked the French line in injury time but failed to secure the all-important try.

In the second half the Irish pack hammered the French into submission. However this may be explained by the decision of over confident French coach Marc Lievremont to replace prop Lionel Faure and hooker Dimitri Szarzewski with William Servat and Julien Brugnaut early in the second half. This completely destabilized the French scrum. Nevertheless the Irish pack has performed strongly against Italy and France.

The second half performance will undoubtedly boost Irish confidence. This team is capable of defeating Wales, Scotland and possibly England. There are some shortcomings in the lineout. These must be addressed. Defensive tackling leaves much to be desired. O’Sullivan must continue to introduce new talent and select a genuine open side flanker.

Rugby Union-Poor Irish team defeats Italy 16-11

This was another lack lustre performance by Ireland. It was compounded by poor passing. The line out was beset by problems. In the scrums Ireland performed reasonably well. Nevertheless the Italians were superb at the break down. Geordan Murphy made several errors whilst Simon Easterby was sin binned for a professional foul.

It took vintage performances from scrum-half Eoin Reddan and out-half Ronan O'Gara to avert disaster. Reddan oozed class. O'Gara is now back to his brilliant best as evidenced by a superb chip over the Italian defence for Girvan Dempsey's try. He contributed 11 points of Irelands total. (3 pens and 1 conversion)

O'Sullivan is quite simply too conservative as a coach. He is risk averse. His selection today should have included Bernard Jackman, Tony Buckley, Jamie Heaslip,Rob Kearney and Tommy Bowe from the start. He is obviously under pressure as the IRFU guillotine hangs over his head. Nevertheless he should have gone for broke. In fairness he did introduce Kearney and Jackman in the course of the game. It is time to reconstruct the Irish team and prepare for the 2011 World Cup. It is also time for the IRFU to take International Sevens Rugby seriously.

France and England have now gone down this route. England may have surprisingly lost today against Wales but nevertheless this short term pain is necessary for long term success.
Most of the current Irish team will have retired by 2011.
Fortune favours the brave. Ask Warren Gatland. Today he chose a Welsh team largely composed of Ospreys players and confounded the pundits. Undoubtedly Shaun Edwards played a major role in the Welsh success also.

Next weekend Ireland faces a newly reconstructed French team. The omens are not good.

Rugby Union-Jake White may be the next English coach

According to Stuff.co.nz World Cup-winning Springboks coach Jake White has started some astute lobbying for the international job he covets the most – the No 1 role with England................
Jake White has not reapplied for the position of coach of South Africa. Great credit is due to White who overcame a tempestuous relationship with the SARU to guide South Africa to victory in the World Cup. South Africa was successful in spite of the SARU.

South African rugby may be about to go into sharp decline. Political interference and attempts to impose racial quotas are the straw which may break the camels back.
We will now have a form of reverse discrimination against white players as politicians insist on a fixed quota of coloured players irrespective of ability. This is a recipe for stagnation and mediocrity. Some ANC leaders probably wish to destroy Rugby Union-a form of retribution for its former links to apartheid. These individuals live in cloud cuckoo land and are blinded by ideology and hatred. Perhaps they would like to drive out all whites and create a second Zimbabwe. South Africa needs white capital to develop the economy.

It is to Jake Whites credit that he stood up to political interference. The next coach will be more amenable to the wishes of politicians and may drive South African rugby over the cliff. A flood of the best white talent will head North driven out by racial hatred and the lure of a stable Sterling.
The portents are not good.

Rugby Union World Cup-Irish expectations were unrealistic.

Amongst some elements of the media and supporters there was a belief that Ireland was a credible World Cup contender.

These expectations were built on a foundation of sand. Sure Ireland won the Triple Crown in 2006 and 2007. But it is worth remembering that the English team has been in free fall since 2003. The present English team is but a pale shadow of the World Cup winning team of 2003.

Scotland is in decline. Wales during this period had injury problems. So winning two Triple Crowns in successive years probably masked some glaring inefficiencies in Ireland's game.

Much is made of the fact that Ireland defeated South Africa and Australia in Autumn Internationals. Both South Africa and Australia sent experimental sides. They were more concerned with developing strong squads for the World Cup. This was the correct approach and is in marked contrast to the ill-advised policy pursued by Eddie O Sullivan.

A disappointing tour of Argentina and a shockingly poor performance against Italy in a warm up match ought to have sounded the alarm bells.

Rugby Union-World Cup

One of the most encouraging aspects of the pool stages is the performance of the minnows such as the USA, Canada, Namibia, Georgia and Samoa. On the African continent Rugby Union is growing in popularity. The game is becoming a truly world wide sport.

Ireland's performance against Namibia was abysmal. Todays laboured victory against Georgia was scarcely much better. Ireland fielded its strongest team whilst Georgia introduced eleven new players. The part timers from the French second division outfought the Irish full time professionals.

On the field of play Eddie O Sullivans conservatism is smothering flair. In the course of games he is slow to alter tactics. Since he was appointed coach he has tended to use a safety first approach and has failed to blood sufficient new talent. In many cases there is an absence of real competition for places. In addition I suspect that some players are more concerned with the European Cup than the World Cup. Most of their income comes from club rugby. There appears to be an absence of hunger in the squad.

Georgian players are using the World Cup to showcase their talents. Undoubtedly some of them will secure lucrative contracts with European clubs. Their scrummaging tackling and line out work tonight were excellent. They dominated possession for much of the game and deserved at least a draw.

Ireland now face France. The omens are not good. Hopefully the team shakes off the conservative shackles and plays with flair.

Rugby Union World Cup -Impressions

Ireland's performance against Namibia has been labelled a horror show and a shambles. These descriptions are probably too mild.




A full time professional Irish side struggled to defeat a Namibian side with just six professionals in its ranks. The 32-17 scoreline flattered Ireland. Jerry Flannery scored a late controversial try. The decision to award the try was incorrect. The Irish forwards fared badly. This does not augur well for the games against Argentina and France. Irelands back play is too stereotyped and lacking in originality. It is too easy to defend against. Nick Mallett and Alan Solomons and Robbie Kempson played a role in the coaching of the Africans. This performance will improve their career prospects.

Many of the Namibian players will use the World Cup to showcase their talents. Essentially they are hungry for contracts in Europe. The Irish players appear to lack hunger and some may be more concerned with avoiding injury. European Cup rugby is now their bread and butter. Club may be more important than country.

The lack of competition for places is probably a contributory factor. I dislike the conservative approach of Eddie O'Sullivan.
England's performance against the USA was unconvincing. Brian Ashton has inherited a mess. English club rugby may be strong but its strength is increasingly dependent upon an influx of players from the Southern Hemisphere.
Home grown talent is neglected. A similar position is developing in France. The situation will deteriorate further with a new influx of New Zealand and South African players post the World Cup. This will impinge strongly on the strength of International sides.

It is time to limit the number of foreign imports to two per club. This would aid the development of indigenous talent and help maintain the strength of European International sides.