Tom Savage
Hi Tom, the 12 contract announcements earlier in the week really struck me as good business, especially with how quickly Earls, Murray, Kleyn, Farrell and others were wrapped up earlier in the season. But I have to say that I was a little surprised when compared to the ‘drama’ of previous seasons. What was different…
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Perspective can wait. In this sports media game, I’ve learned that looking too far ahead of yourself can lead to a joyless experience. It wasn’t long after Ireland’s Grand Slam win over England – in Twickenham of all places – that talk began to take a turn to “yeah, but what about the World Cup?”.…
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Rugby is a game where everyone talks about respect when there’s a live mic or a reporter around. When there are no mics or no mouthy reporters around, the “respect” changes a little, into something a little more coarse. If you’ve ever been in a rugby changing room, you’ll know that the way you talk…
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“He wouldn’t get too carried away. Each game is a learning experience for him – because you kind of forget how young he is – so he knows that every game he plays is bigger than the previous one. He’ll take advantage of every opportunity but he knows himself there’s stuff to work on.” The…
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The headlines are Rory Scannell’s, and rightly so. Kicking the winner with the clock gone red from forty-five metres out against your biggest in-conference rivals is the kind of stuff you dream about doing when you’re a kid (and a back). The images of Scannell’s kick and the resultant celebration are the ones that’ll be…
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“Munster’s best performers on the day both came from outside the province. Tadhg Beirne … what are the other Munster pack members doing when this guy is doing his stuff?” – Neil Francis, Irish Independent. If you bought the Irish Independent on Sunday you’ll have seen the above in the aftermath of Munster’s win over…
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“Feck off Scrumcap, you’re no good,” bellowed the man in the red woolly hat into the cold Cork night air. His friends chuckled. Everyone else in the terrace shifted awkwardly. Duncan Williams had just knocked on the ball at a ruck and the crowd had gone silent – after the groans, that is. Every stadium…
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I played at #7 for most of my days slogging in rugby so it’s safe to say that referees and I don’t really get along all that well. There’s respect for them, sure, in so far as if they send me off I’ll leave the field, or award a dodgy penalty against me I’ll walk…
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It’s the time of the year for overreaction. Whenever Munster play Leinster, a fever seems to descend on the rugby press of this great nation of ours and, all of a sudden, what has become a fairly commonplace annual loss in Dublin in early October morphs into something more “significant”. I throw those air quotes…
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Sport is fun – Try to enjoy it
Not every rugby game is good but there’s something good in every rugby game. I wrote this stupid little sentence down in my t-shirt ideas pad a few years ago and disregarded it because (a) it’s twee and (b) not one single soul would part with their hard-earned euros to buy it. It’s an Instagram…
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