Babbling 'brook

Toulon take Montpelier apart and hold them tryless. Montpelier now host Castres next weekend and that will be a car crash upfront. These are the circumstances of which we must take advantage. Selection for Munster and Castres must inspire the entire Squad that we have the best available 23 for each ...

Reid has played every minute of every game hasn't be? He's certainly played a lot anyway...so I have a feeling in my bones that Henshaw might be pencilled in to return next week. Big ask to make his debut in a game like that but we need to get him up to speed and he's the kind of guy who could thri...

A bit unfair to say Ruddock has had a quiet start to the season when he only came back from injury against the Ospreys. I think a sub front row of Healy, Tracey and Furlong would provide great impact against a tiring defence without weakening the scrum. We absolutely need one of Kearney or Mike Mac...

The aspects of the game that JVdF and Leavy bring are a) genuine world class tackling on both sides and b) the ability to carry and break the line by their combination of strength (leg) and speed. JVdF has a superb hand-off and Dan Leavy shows great dexterity in how he moves the ball from hand to ha...

Like most problems of Empire, it was long ago realised that HM Treasury has the capacity to solve most Imperial questions. And so it will be for the North. Guaranteed multi-annual funding to say 2025 of c. £20Bn per annum, or take your chances with whatever can be negotiated with EU during our Brexi...

Can't figure how anybody can class Leavy as a blind side flanker. We are playing two opensides, JVdF and Leavy, as left and right flankers just as the Aussies did in the world Cup. Playing each side of Heaslip against Castres, I believe they will give us our best chance of starting Europe with a win...

We should never complain about refereeing decision for the rest of the season. Blessed!

Since the Welsh TMO refused Dudley's award of a try to Leavy, Dudley has, thankfully, given one of the most one-eyed displays ever by an Irish ref - thankfully. The game has been incredibly broken up by scrums and penalties and both teams have missed copius tackles. As noted by others, our switch of...

Castres go down to Clermont. Facing Montpelier next week, then us. Perfect set-up for us. They can't afford to select soft against Montpelier now, so Espoirs to Leinster with Northampton at home after that.

it may be a very different pack but it's fairly tidy. Lots of big strong lads in there and serious depth on the bench. Will be very interested as to what game plan Leo, Girv and Stuart have devised for our very strong front five and middle five combining with an experimental back five. IMO, the sel...

Hasn't shown any great desire to use his physique and doesn't play with any ferocity - at any level he has played. Technically sound but needs a bit of dawg!

Decent win and bonus point from Connacht. Attacking intelligently but defence options really put them under pressure, because they NEVER kick out of defence. They have created so many options for themselves ats defenses push up so hard on them. O'Halloran had an excellent game in both attack and def...

Nathan was a gentleman in Leinster and his "extra value" and leadership in both Leinster and Connacht was immense. He made a huge contribution to scrum work of young props in both Provinces, particularly Jack McGrath in Leinster and Finlay Bealham in Connacht. When he was in Leinster, the ...

Just remembered their Astro 4th Generation pitch. Will this impact on selection, e.g. Ross and Dev and possibly Mike McC?

Forecast is for rain showers and that might be abenefit given the temperatures we've had in past few days, which cannot be easy for our big guys

In Gatty's post-tour report from 2013, he recommended that they take a greater number of players from the outset of the tour, as so many players were injured during the tour and had to be replaced. I'm not expecting the number taken to be as high as the 44(?) Woodward took in 2005, but I'd say it'l...

Fairly incredible decision, just when it looked like SRU was beginning to get its house in good order - Glasgow regular contenders, Edinburgh competitive and Townsend appointed to National job. Now it looks like they are heading back down the road of chaos. How do you lose an Overseas Head Coach fiv...

As previously stated, this is a National target for France as they want to get Olympics in 2024 and IOC are rumoured to have told them they need to have a "dry run" on all security aspects, ideally another international sports Tournament, before 2024. S Africa is a political basket case an...

That's more or less what Marty said in recent interview with print media. Coverage of Wasps in Aviva Highlights packages on BT Sports shows him scrumaging really well when he plays and tackling and mauling stronger than ever. Haven't seen him carry but closein defence as been excellent. Certainly co...

Only watched one Castres game so far but they're the anti-Montpellier. Very well-coached and structured, but with not such good players. A bit error-prone, but there's the bones of a really good team there. Decent defensive system that gets let down by slipped tackles, quite creative in attack but ...

cheers reckon they would play Payne at 12 if Henshaw needed an extra week in first test (which Madigan misses) rather than one of the outhalves or Cave Who is fullback then as Payne was started at 15 as he was in line for that for AI matches O'Halloran or Zebo would be contenders for 15 on the basi...