I was just saying over on the boards.ie Rugby board that I think that a backs captain has an advantage over a forwards captain.

The backs captain doesn’t have his blood up 99% of the time like a forward – there’s more time to be logical and analyse what’s going on.

(I give this opinion from the position of hooker and having captained a couple of teams so I’m not some Brylcreem laden centre shooting off at the mouth) :)

Re: killing teams off – lets see 60 points against Italy and make sure we don’t lose the damn thing on points again!

Cheers,
Al.

Wanted to clarify one thing on the POC /captaincy / mental strength front. I think this team has top class mental strength and have proven themselves to be clinical and professional in killing teams off, winning tight and ugly. It’s great to see.

The POC bit I’m not convinced about is his decision making at crucial times. He has made, imho, bad tactical decisions as captain for both Munster and Ireland. As such an immense forward, leading by example he is brilliant but sometimes I think that forward motion and desire to get stuck in clouds his judgement to the wider options i.e. kicking for points as in the second half against France x3. O’Driscoll as Irish captain reads those situations better.

Yeah, as a Munster fan, it’s a hard admission. I just hope it’s a blip and would like to see O’Gara and Stringer take more responsibility as senior players in those types of situations ‘cos POC has everything else needed to be a great captain.