skinny word: March 2010

Monday 29 March 2010

Good Friday Awaits

Went to TP on Friday night to see half the Scottish Team play half the Irish Team. Overall a good win and a good performance by Munster.

Clearly the Scots' resources are thinner than ours. Glasgow brought back almost all their internationals from the win over Ireland but clearly they were very tired. Parks kicked well but O'Gara (one opening penalty miss aside) matched him, including a superb touchline conversion to make the game safe. The famed Killer Bees were good but not at the level that they showed at Croke Park.

One slightly worrying note was the scrum. Franno made the point that Kaplan seemed to have decided to police the Irish scrum very closely against the Scots and penalised Irreland unduly. Friday night was similar with Munster being lectured to constantly - and penalised readily. Glasgow went to town on this and caused even more disruption with scrums being reset and free-kicks awarded. The slow hand claps in the second half from the knowledgable, but increasingly impolite, attendance told it all. It was very disappointing to hear jeering (no matter if by a small few) of Parks at penalty kicks.

JDV was pure class,and Mafi will be hard to drop, but Earls is needed at 13. I see an outside chance that Warwick will be dropped to play Earls at FB; Warwick's confidence level looks very low and his kicking to touch was hopeless.

Our back row played well, they forced some excellent turnovers in the second half and even though two of them were replaced, continuity was not a problem. Unfortunately for Glasgow, and this is where their resources are thin, they struggled to integrate their subs as effectively as Munster.

Leinster await, let's hope its a good friday for us.

Sunday 21 March 2010

Where Ireland are at

I had some texts with Colin in Christchurch after the last Irish match in the Six Nations, which Scotland won 23-20, thanks to a man of the match performance from Aussie Dan Parks.

Too be fair, that's about where Ireland are. An ok team that the likes of Scotland can take on a good day with a shit ref.

We'll see how they fair down here in June, we'll know where we are at then.

Friday 12 March 2010

Ireland Triple crown hopefuls

Ireland can pass Scotland this year at the foot of the all-time triple crown ladder, if they win their 11th Triple crown. Wales have won 19 and England 23. It would be Ireland's 5th triple crown in 7 years. Didn't we have an awful record before the Naughties.

Go David Gillick!

David Gillick, 26, has qualified for the World Indoor world championship final tomorrow in Quatar.

Gillick equalled his PB of 45.52 in his heat, the second fastest time in the world this year, so is in great form. He has done well indoors in the past, winning the European Indoor Championship in 2005 and 2007 before failing in the tree-peat when he fell at last year's European Indoors.

He finished sixth in the (outdoor) 400m at the World Championships in Berlin last summer. His outdoor PB is 44.77 which he also set last summer.

Men's 400 Metres Final Sunday 14 March 2010 15:05

Wednesday 10 March 2010

Blue Sky Friday

For the record: Friday 5th March - Dave rode from his house, up the Wicklow Way to "Fairy Castle", and home via Three Rock. Ride time: 1h 28m; distance 18km; ascent 436m.

This is a spin I've done variants of upwards of 50 times I would guess. A bit of a climb on the road gets me into Kilmashogue Forest and it's all off-road from there. I'll let the photos do the talking.