Ireland Get 6 Nations Back On Track

By Alastair McDermott | February 28th, 2010

England 16-20 Ireland After a disasterous visit to Paris and a very disappointing performance against the French, Ireland have got their 2010 Six Nations campaign back on track with a hard-fought victory in Twickenham. It was by no means a classic performance, made more of grit and determination rather than a champagne performance. A huge [...]

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Matt Williams Leaving Ulster Rugby

By Alastair McDermott | May 20th, 2009

Breaking news – it appears that Matt Williams is leaving Ulster Rugby! A shock and total surprise. Sad news for Ulster and Irish rugby, Matt is a gentleman and a superb coach and will be greatly missed. Sources: last few minutes of the Ruggamatrix podcast, transcribed by mikerob over on the UAFC board:

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Turn about is fair play

By Alastair McDermott | May 6th, 2009

Leinster beat Munster 25-6 in the 2009 Heineken Cup Semi Final, a reversal of the 2006 result What a win! What a glorious, glorious win! Here’s some pictures from the wonderful occasion, and it certainly was a massive win for rugby and Ireland, as well as Leinster. After my previous post being a humorous response [...]

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Mauls saved – ELV update

By Alastair McDermott | March 31st, 2009

The IRB conference (with coaches, refs, administrators and reps from all the major unions) spend the last 2 days reviewing the ELVs. Conclusion: most have been approved and sent on to be ratified, but vitally the maul collapse rule has been rejected (woohoo, that was always a bloody stupid idea), and the “sanctions” rule, which [...]

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6 Nations Final Day Predictions

By Alastair McDermott | March 21st, 2009

Coming to this a bit late – I’ve missed the first game of the day where France predictably did a demolition job on Italy. For England – Scotland, I think this is a close game, if Scotland perform like they did in the first half against Ireland then they have a change of winning this [...]

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Renaming Aviva Stadium to Nivea Stadium

By Alastair McDermott | February 17th, 2009

I think Irish rugby will benefit from rebranding Lansdowne Road to something more meaningful than Aviva Stadium, so let’s call it Nivea Stadium, eh? Man-bags are a great place to carry a couple of extra hipflasks and a few cans of beer.

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