The Dew Drop Inn Virtual Rugby Pub

First topic message reminder :

Welcome to the Virtual Rugby Pub - a place where you can come in for a sly beverage and discuss whatever's on your mind, or just eavesdrop on the regulars if you fancy a break from all the rugby chat.

The only rule in this pub is one of mutual respect for everyone in it, oh and no defacing the pictures of Tommy Bowe, Ryan Jones, Dan Newton and birthday boy Prop above the bar.





Last Pub: https://www.606v2.com/t23758p1000-the-dew-drop-inn-virtual-rugby-pub#970282

luckless_pedestrian wrote:But without the contributions of Contepomi and Elsom, would the foundations have been laid that enabled Leinster to go on to win those Heineken Cups?

Exactly Lucky. I would say Nacewa has been a more outstanding player but the influence overall from either of Dr. Phil or Rocky has been greater.

A valid point lads. Does than make John Langford the best ever Munster signing?

Sorry Stag, mixed him up with Langford.

Contepomi was a fantastic player, who summed up where Leinster were in their development at that time. A Carlos Spencer type mercurial player, made a bags of things at times but was a genius in other games. Elsom was massive for nearly a year and we wouldn't have won the cup without him, but he can't be greater than Nacewa because Nacewa is giving us what Elsom never did, his long term commitment. Elsom was my mistres but Nacewa is my wife.

Our best imports:

1. Íosa
2. Dr. Phil
3. Rocky
4. Stan Wright
5. Hines
6. Le Roux
7. Whittaker
8. Holwell
9. Strauss
10. VDM

The influence of Rocky? More like the barnstorming display by Rocky, the cheque and the boarding pass back home.

Dr. Phil was the Nacewa of his day. But as soon as the doctorate came in he flew the coop! The rascal.

Nacewa is a living God - proven! Just ask Dawkins who had to rewrite a whole host of stuff when he first witnessed Nacewa play.

That's why we call him Íosa...

......

LEINSTER MIDWEEK BONUS

........

Listened to an interveiw with Nacewa on newstalk on the way into work today. Wonderful man, he said he really wanted to retire with Leinster, he said he has 3 daughters who are more Irish than Kiwi or Fijian and he feels at home here. The new rules that the IRFU are bringing in are a big concern to him but he's still got at least 15 months on his current contract and will play to the peak of his abilities while he's here.

Fixed that for you.

Stag NO WELSHMEN!

On his theme though:

15 Dusty Hare
14 Ieuan Evans
13 Ray Gravelle
12 Sella
11 Campese
10 Jonathan Davies
9 Jonathan Griffiths

1 Stuart Evans
2 Dai Fox
3 Craig Dowd
4 Phill May
5 Ian Jones
6 Mike Teague
8 Wayne Shelford
7 Michael Jones

Folk heroes, local lads and world class stars, but all men who fired an 8 year old's imagination.

Our best import....


Tommy Bowe of course!

Bikkies,

No CJVdL?

SecretFly wrote:Nacewa is a living God - proven! Just ask Dawkins who had to rewrite a whole host of stuff when he first witnessed Nacewa play.

He's certainly a few steps further along the rugby evolutionary chain anyway! Genius!

Hi all. On my way back from Exe, sitting in the quiet carriage, and had to wade through a lot of, err, non-rugby chat back there.

Then in amongst it came this...

"You shall not covet your neighbor's...ox or donkey"

Sheep, chickens and goats are fair game though."




I got a fair few funny looks.

How's Cari and rodders and Glas (and Rava and Rev cos sure as eggs is eggs they will have appeared by the time I've finished typing this and then be offended if I haven't mentioned them!)?



Hound snuck in!

Hiya

Here's a question in jest and in not so jest.....! (forget about the grammar!)

Do we think Nacewa wouldn't mind playing for Ireland if the laws were quickly changed to allow ONE player per International side, who had already played International for another side.

Okay so it's a quickly written law to effect God joining us in green - at least I'm honest

Hello MrsP.

Fly - although it can't happen, every single Leinster fan (and a fair few others) are bound to say yes to that question. If only because they would want to believe that Nacewa would readily want to wear the Ireland shirt.

What would your response be if someone said no?

Evening all, hope all is well with you and yours.

On the Nacewa question, I'd say he'd rather play for Fiji, they've got a decent record against Wales.... ..... ........

Hound_of_Harrow wrote:Hello MrsP.

Fly - although it can't happen, every single Leinster fan (and a fair few others) are bound to say yes to that question. If only because they would want to believe that Nacewa would readily want to wear the Ireland shirt.

What would your response be if someone said no?

After the jokes...I'm a realist, and to tell the truth I'd never put the question to him. He's a Fijian by heritage, a Kiwi by birth. He knows his bloodline... and right now I think Leinster is the only 'foreign' side he needs or wants.

Fair enough. But it is an interesting question if you ask "Which foreign national who has played in your country in the last 10 years, but is ineligible, would you like to have seen play for your country?"

I think I would have to draw up a list of candidates and then carefully think about their various merits and what they have helped their team(s) achieve.

Fionn Carr again showed his class on the weekend. I would love it if the Scarlets could sign him.

[quote="Glas a du"]

.

Stag NO WELSHMEN!

Glas, the first Welsh player to impress me was Gareth Thomas. It was genuinely 2007 or even 2008 before I properly realised how good Shane Williams was.

Hound - to be honest I love guffawing at something like that and trying to keep it to myself. I had that watching an episode of Fr Ted on a plane back from Ghana.

Glas a du wrote:Fionn Carr again showed his class on the weekend. I would love it if the Scarlets could sign him.

Is he better than Simon Zebo, Dave Kearney or Craig Gilroy - two of them I would say are out and out finishers like Carr.

I know. 1990-2004was a fallow period for Welsh rugby on the whole, with the occasional blip.

The first Irish players to make an impression on me were Ollie Campbell and Noel Mannion.

Which two Stag? Theyre all good finishers.

Hound, England could have done with Nick Evans I'd say!

15-9 Kearney, Carr, Bowe, McFadden, Zebo, Madigan, Murray

Now that's a back line to warm the cockles of your heart.

I haven't seen much of Gilroy, but on Friday he was awful in the Cardiff Arms Park.

Kearney doesn't look a "finisher" per say. He appears to be a footballer as well as an out and out try scorer.

On the other thread I put this down as a Lions backline:

09 Mike Phillips
10 Ian Madigan
11 Tim Visser
12 Jonathan Davies
13 Manu Tuilagi
14 George North
15 Leigh Halfpenny

What you think Glas

Glas a du wrote:I haven't seen much of Gilroy, but on Friday he was awful in the Cardiff Arms Park.

I think he is suffering second season blues Glas. Has shown in patches what he is capable of but if truth be told isn't anywhere near the finished article yet. I think having played these few games in the company of Terblanche will stand him in good stead. He's still learning his trade and should further develop in the coming year or so.

That said I would have him any day ahead of Carr.

Mickado - Evans immediately sprang to mind, but Quins haven't achieved much, aside from last year's Amlin win.

I'll be back on this one.

red_stag wrote:Kearney doesn't look a "finisher" per say. He appears to be a footballer as well as an out and out try scorer.

On the other thread I put this down as a Lions backline:

09 Mike Phillips
10 Ian Madigan
11 Tim Visser
12 Jonathan Davies
13 Manu Tuilagi
14 George North
15 Leigh Halfpenny

What you think Glas

I think you have a temperature. Have you been taking your vitamins?

It's an excellent back line Stag, size, power, pace, finnishers, destructive tacklers, and a play maker ten. 1/2p is a decent kicker. If Visser isn't up to international rugby, Trimble, Cuthbert or an English wing, even Lamont could slip easily into that berth.

Rava wrote:

Glas a du wrote:I haven't seen much of Gilroy, but on Friday he was awful in the Cardiff Arms Park.

I think he is suffering second season blues Glas. Has shown in patches what he is capable of but if truth be told isn't anywhere near the finished article yet. I think having played these few games in the company of Terblanche will stand him in good stead. He's still learning his trade and should further develop in the coming year or so.

That said I would have him any day ahead of Carr.

Something wasn't right Friday. I can't put my finger on it, but he didn't seem entirely happy if that makes sense. Is he bulking up too much and losing that natural edge?

Carr is my type of winger, completely specialist, one dimensional open field runner, poetry in motion.

Glas I like it anyway I have to say. Hope it doesn't deviate too much from that.

To be blunt, if you can't pick a Madigan or Carr for the Lions, then Rugby has lost something. Townsend was immense in SA in 97. He was given free reign to be absolutely creative. The quality of players around him allowed that.

I dont think it has Glas. We saw the likes of Keith Earls and Leigh Halfpenny head down as baby faced assassins on the last Lions tour. They barely had any international game time.

In fact I think Keith Earls was uncapped?

Earls was uncapped aye. Think halfpenny had his first 6n under his belt.

Hey, there's the rest of this and next years 6N to go before then. Which revelations will crop up in the meantime? Hanrahan? Navidi? Gray Jnr?

Glas thats a good point.

I've been hitting the gym quite a bit of late too...

Perhaps if you trained in it instead of hitting it...

Earls (tied with Worsley on 5) played the most games on that SA tour.

OK, my foreign choice to play for England would be Luke McAllister. Mainly because England's main problem, since Greenwood retired, has been at centre.

Patience Hound.
I think a young centre paring of Farrell and Manu will in time allow you to forget the lean times since Will.

+1 or Barritt and Manu in the long run.

Glas a du wrote:

Rava wrote:

Glas a du wrote:I haven't seen much of Gilroy, but on Friday he was awful in the Cardiff Arms Park.

I think he is suffering second season blues Glas. Has shown in patches what he is capable of but if truth be told isn't anywhere near the finished article yet. I think having played these few games in the company of Terblanche will stand him in good stead. He's still learning his trade and should further develop in the coming year or so.

That said I would have him any day ahead of Carr.

Something wasn't right Friday. I can't put my finger on it, but he didn't seem entirely happy if that makes sense. Is he bulking up too much and losing that natural edge? .

Neil Doak syndrome. If you watch Doak at games, he'll scream and swear at any player who makes a mistake. So players who look good in their first season slowly have their confidence undermined... I'll be very glad to see the back of him to be honest.

My big issue with Barritt is that he appears to struggle to come to terms with international defences; and there are bigger tests ahead. His only answer seems to be to commit defenders (and yes, he normally takes some bringing down), but he is not aware of opportunities outside, or inside, him. Tindall without the experience.

He would probably thrive (a la Jamie Roberts on the Lions tour) with a mentor, and communicator, alongside him like O'Driscoll. That's the type of player we haven't got atm.

I read back and noted the comments about Flood bottling that dropped goal against Sarries*, but he was putting his players into gaps with pop passes inside and outside (esp Allen) whenever Leicester had possession. It was his vision that saw Tuilagi released for a run that, 26 phases later, set up the winning score.

I would have Flood back for Wales because he is a better all round distributor than Hodgson, and varies the point of attack. Scotland had Wales all over the place by doing similar, but were hugely undone by their sin binnings.

* Flood did not bottle that drop goal (guilty of not standing far enough back maybe). He was definitely going to be charged down, and rather than risk Sarries bagging 7 points, chose to set up another set of phases. Drop goals are not Flood's forte.

Fair play to the captain for giving it a go and succeeding though.

Pancake day. The one day in the year when I eat my own body weight in eggs, flour, butter milk and sugar.

Had a dream it was Friday. Needless to say I was extremely disappointed when I woke to Tuesday.



Your sincerely



The Viper

Happy Pancake Day! Although it is just another day

Happy pancake day!

Stag, Earls was capped against at least Canada and Fiji before the Lions tour.

I hear Nathan White is off to Connacht. Munster offer Borlazy and we give them White.

Earls played against Canada in 2008 in thomand park, it was a horrid day and I got absolutely soaked to the bone. He scored as well

Actually you’ve just reminded me Hughie. The Fiji game was in 2009. But he at least played Canada before the tour.

We won 55-0 and I had us to win by 51-55 points with the bookies. Can’t remember how much I got but it can’t have been that much.

Bore da pawb / good morning all. I had a cracking night's sleep last night, the kind that makes you more awake the next morning. Grand.

Can I have some shroves, please? Whatever they are.