PLANET RUGBY:IRELAND NUMBER eight Jamie Heaslip was voted back on to the social committee of the Ireland squad. It's not all glamour living in a hotel for over two months and so the players have to organise a little R and R for themselves.
Let’s face it, the table tennis table and dart board can only kill so many hours.
Ireland’s try scorer was initially cast out in to committee wilderness when he was instrumental in declining a private performance from a rock band that offered to play a private session for the Ireland quad.
Imagine the team’s horror when they found out that one of the coolest bands around, Snow Patrol, were politely shown the door.
The player assumed the Meteor Awards would have given the team a sufficient dose of the band and no more was required. Respect.
Jamie, we believe is back on board but is not allowed to make any executive decisions without first running them by the social committee.
Wardie knows writes and wrongs of it
MEMBERS of the fourth estate are often as ardent in their support of club, province or national team as any jersey-bedecked fan who offers undying loyalty to his or her team. Witness the press box in
Cardiff last March for Ireland’s Grand Slam win or Leinster’s Heineken Cup win in Murrayfield last season.
Fortunately for them, most rugby writers are not in the public eye like Tony Ward, who as well as commentating and writing duties is also involved in coaching the St Gerard’s Leinster Schools’ Senior Cup team.
How he can cope with watching his charges and then being asked to write a dispassionate account of their games, which would be beyond many of his media colleagues.
He should be given a teacher’s note for this week’s quarter-final between St Gerard’s and Blackrock College.
ROG cracks 500
AFTER NINE minutes and 39 seconds in Ireland’s match on Saturday, Ronan O’Gara broke through the 500 Six Nations points barrier with his first penalty. He was on 499 points prior to the match, 80 points ahead of his nearest rival, England’s Jonny Wilkinson.
O’Gara has been the tournament’s highest points scorer in the 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009 championships, while Brian O’Driscoll is the leading try scorer since 2000. He has 21 touchdowns, three ahead of Welsh flier Shane Williams.
Bon viveur Smith still very much alive
PAT SMITH, of Irish rugby and cricket fame, would like to confirm to all of his friends he is alive and well. The former Monkstown and provincial centre has appeared in Leinster programs twice but imagine his surprise when he saw the letters RIP solemnly placed behind his name on the first occasion.
His wife wrote to the branch to give them the good news he was still quaffing wine but alas, those words just kept popping up and on the second visit to the program RIP reared its ugly head again.
The sleuth in the office tells us Pat is a wine connoisseur and was at one point given an award from French Agriculture that conferred him with some letters after his name. So he became Pat Smith COMA. Perhaps this is where the mystery begins.
Is it a case of two and two make five? Pat, we are delighted to announce, is still uncorking the finest.
Carpet men roll on up after kick-off
THE IRFU are known as a welcoming organisation and extend the hand of friendship wherever they go. Could that be the reason then that after Italy had started the match and the ball had been returned in kind by Ireland the ground staff on one side of the pitch were still rolling up the President’s red carpet?
We know these days the referee takes his cue from the broadcaster and blows his whistle to start the match when given the thumbs up from the man with the headphones at the side of the pitch. But it does seem a little chaotic that three work men are still on the grass when garryowens are being lofted around the stadium and Tommy Bowe is sailing through the air.
The matchbetween the Wolfhounds and Scotland A last Friday at Ravenhill was the first since the IRFU decided to change the name from Ireland A to the Wolfhounds. There are now two Wolfhounds in existence and both of them represent Ireland and both are playing rugby. The Irish Rugby League team, for which former Munster player Brian Carney has starred is called the Wolfhounds and even has a logo with a ferocious looking dog peering out. What was wrong with Ireland A anyway?
