Peg Leg wrote:Fuk conferences, like seriously, they are sh!t. I no longer give a sh!t about half the teams in our league and a lot of the time im not sure which teams I am meant to give a sh!t about.
Yes, I'd have my doubts too about the direction the Pro14 is taking. The SA teams have added nothing so far and yet the talk is of further expansion.
Peg Leg wrote:Fuk conferences, like seriously, they are sh!t. I no longer give a sh!t about half the teams in our league and a lot of the time im not sure which teams I am meant to give a sh!t about.
In a combined league you wouldn't give a damn about half the teams either though. We'd be cantering to a home qf anyway even if we finished 2nd.
Grand but the other conference is a whole other webpage. I can't having with that type of unnecessary navigation. They should default to a combined league table and just have 2 different font colours.
That’s great news, I’d still take some time to develop O Sullivan over the next three games with McCarthy leaving at the end of the summer. Unfortunately I don’t see any reason for Nick to get another run out in blue unless we get stung with more injuries.
Luke McGrath on Luke Fitz's podcast was a good listen.
In other news nice to see Cormac Foley getting a start for Ireland u20 last week, another player converting from playing a different position in his final year in school(12)
Interesting to see Leinster are running Underage Scrumhalf workshops around the province with Adam Griggs involved. There was one on last night in Enniscorthy.
So Leinster approached Craig Casey to see if he had any interest in switching provinces, which I have no problem with as he is one hell of a player and if Munster are going to keep trying to take our young talent we need to keep them honest with theirs.
But I wonder what that means for our current young scrumhalves.
Great young player - and maybe this could act as a remainder to the others that raiding our cookie jar might
have consequences.
With McCarthy on his way - its hardly a ringing endorsement of HOS and Patterson though.
tingman wrote:Great young player - and maybe this could act as a remainder to the others that raiding our cookie jar might
have consequences.
With McCarthy on his way - its hardly a ringing endorsement of HOS and Patterson though.
Hard to know, both need game time to develop their decision making.. which will only happen by playing a lot and learning from mistakes.
Casey seems to be the rare young 9, whose decision making looks to be fairly developed for his age/experience while also having excellent skills.
Leinster scrumhalves next season, age as of start of next season:
Senior
Jamison Gibson Park(27)
Luke McGrath(26/St. Michaels/UCD)
Hugh O'Sullivan(21/Belvedere/Clontarf) Academy
Patrick Patterson(20/Blackrock/UCD) - Year 2
Cormac Foley(19/St. Gerards/St. Marys) - Year 1? Sub-Academy
Jack Connolly(U20/Gonzaga)
Adam McEvoy(U20/St. Marys)
Rob Gilsenan(U19/St. Michaels)
Ben Murphy(U19/Pres Bray)
wixfjord wrote:If we’re happy enough for Leo at al to target Munster academy players then I assume the same will be said when Munster target ours?
Casey would’ve been a great coup, albeit I can see why he wouldn’t want to move to be stuck behind McGrath & JGP.
Agree with you but it would be very annoying if Mathewson is allowed to extend his contract again. I still believe that Murray will end up taking a break after the world cup, thought the fact that he went off with 15 minutes to go on Saturday when the game was still in the balance said a lot. That said, his form has definitely improved.
Did you see me complaining on here when Connacht offered Doris and Connors contracts last season?
Or when Munster offered Eoghan Clarke an academy contract last season? Or when they tried to poach Andrew Porter or Dan Leavy when they were in the academy?
No.
A player who is out of contract at the end of the season is fair game.
Now the IRFU moving players mid-contract, that's another matter.
mildlyinterested wrote:Did you see me complaining on here when Connacht offered Doris and Connors contracts last season?
Or when Munster offered Eoghan Clarke an academy contract last season? Or when they tried to poach Andrew Porter or Dan Leavy when they were in the academy?
No.
A player who is out of contract at the end of the season is fair game.
Now the IRFU moving players mid-contract, that's another matter.
Cool I’m just clarifying where we stand.
Sounds like it’s open season now with all provinces targeting other team’s academy guys.
It’s good that we won’t be seeing any more complaining about it.
I'm sure some people will complain about it, but if an academy player at leinster thinks he is better off at munster then he hasn't been paying attention to each provinces record of giving game time to young players.
mildlyinterested wrote:I'm sure some people will complain about it, but if an academy player at leinster thinks he is better off at munster then he hasn't been paying attention to each provinces record of giving game time to young players.
I’m sure some people will, and I’m also sure some people will forget it very quickly when the next story of Munster ‘poaching’ comes around. Let’s hope not…
