I'll leave it to everyone to make up their own mind as to the questionable nature of the headline on the article from Peter O'Reilly in the Sunday Times.

He gives out about Connacht hyping him Muliaina's arrival at Connacht? If they didn't do this I'd be asking questions. We spent a lot of money on bringing him here, that had to be justified and no amount of PR would be enough in my opinion.

He does make the point that it was a luxury signing given the issues at out half which I would agree with to some extent but these things are difficult to quantify. Leinster probably have more pressing priorities than back row when Rocky Elsom signed but he brought the leadership and belief needed to move the team up another level, likewise with the likes of Jim Williams at Munster.

He goes on about the Leinster game in December, probably the only Connacht match he was at all season where undoubtedly Muliaina was poor.

He then brings up Christian Cullen conveniently forgetting the injury prone and over the hill overpriced rubbish Leinster brought in, for example CJ Van der Linde, Owen Finnegan etc. All provinces have had their share of poor signings.

It hasn't worked out but Peter O'Reilly has consistently shown himself to be a Leinster cheerleader and had taken a very anti Connacht stance recently. He wrote another article a couple of months back on Robbie Henshaw basically saying that Leinster would be cheering the oppposition on so that we wouldn't get Top 6 and they would then be able to get Henshaw. It might be true but the tone of his article pin his colours very definitely to the mast. It annoys him that we can no longer be cast aside as the plucky men from the west giving it their all or some such condescending horse sh1t.

I was surprised by the article, Fanning has normally been decent when writing about Connacht. Nobody could have seen the events that occurred after the Glaws game coming, and their article is an excellent mix of hindsight being 20-20 and lazy condescension.

rossie wrote: If the rumours are true and robbie has turned down leinster in favour of another province that won't have gone down well in dublin media circles which might explain the change in attitude.

Would the recent signing by Ulster and Munster strengthen our hand in holding on to Robbie ?

I hadn't heard of Robbie heading North Rossie, and any move to Limerick/Cork tp play under Foley would be a backward career move in every sense of the word!

If the rumours are true and robbie has turned down leinster in favour of another province that won't have gone down well in dublin media circles which might explain the change in attitude.

Interesting to see that the Sunday times and the Sindo both ran unflattering pieces re the whole Mils episode, both more or less saying that it was a big mistake hiring him and the fact that Lam talking about his off field mentoring is merely trying to deflect from him not setting the world on fire on the pitch.

Very quick to put the knife into Mils and Connacht, also quick to nail the "Connacht PR Machine" for grinding to a halt over the Mils situation, what do they expect them to say in a situation like that ?

Sly digs and cheap shots IMO , reflects poorly on the journalists that they were so quick to put the boot in without the full facts.

The brilliant Murray Kinsella, easily the best rugby journalist in Ireland, has an analysis piece on how Robbie Henshaw shows rich promise as Six Nations star

Nice piece on Buckley

m.independent.ie/sport/rugby/connacht-ru...dation-31043798.html

Little three minute video about our Robbie, made by 3 Ireland

Robbie Henshaw to be interviewed on Off The Ball later on Newstalk

pinky wrote:

ummm, wrote: This week's Craggy Island podcast will have La Rochelle match analysis from forum regulars Droptheclaw and Pinky. Should be out later today.

The main thing to take away from this week's Craggy Island is that one should never sit beside ummm at an away game.

Mine was not to agree to be Rob's minion and end up losing the rest of the Clan for the whole night as a result! That whole McNulty's thing threw me. I missed the memo.

pinky wrote:

ummm, wrote: This week's Craggy Island podcast will have La Rochelle match analysis from forum regulars Droptheclaw and Pinky. Should be out later today.

The main thing to take away from this week's Craggy Island is that one should never sit beside ummm at an away game.

...or that you should keep your spare batteries with your recording device. Really enjoyed Ummm's Dylan Moran-esque schtick at Rob's expense.

ummm, wrote: This week's Craggy Island podcast will have La Rochelle match analysis from forum regulars Droptheclaw and Pinky. Should be out later today.

The main thing to take away from this week's Craggy Island is that one should never sit beside ummm at an away game.

KM talks to the times about his Wolfhound hopes


www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/internati...pportunity-1.2081578

This week's Craggy Island podcast will have La Rochelle match analysis from forum regulars Droptheclaw and Pinky. Should be out later today.

Muliaina compares Connacht to The All Blacks

Headline is a bit of an exaggeration

www.pro12rugby.com/news/16548.php#.VMYlg0esVg0