A round-up of other rugby news
Chasing the Lions in South Africa
HECTOR Ó HEOCHAGÁIN and Risteárd Cooper are chasing the Lions again as they head for South Africa to bring their unique insight into the upcoming British and Irish Lions rugby tour. Following the success of Chasing the Lions in 2005 and Chasing the Blues (2007), the dynamic duo will bring, exclusively to members, daily on-line broadcasts from South Africa with all the latest breaking stories, interviews and rugby coverage.
The price to join them online is a one-off subscription of €25 and those interested should log on to www.chasethelions.com. Chase The Lions TV will complement the traditional game coverage, but provide an insight into what is happening on the ground in South Africa.
Using their mobile studio, "The Lion Chaser", Hector and Risteárd will share the fans' perspective, reveal how the players are managing and also profile the opposition, what makes them the world champions and what are the most eye-catching match-ups. Also exclusive to chasethelions.com will be the duo's sketches and comic creations.
Leinster fans begin their hunt for precious Edinburgh final tickets
THE SCRAMBLE begins. Most Leinster fans have been to Edinburgh before and not always departed with a smile (two seasons back there was grumblings about Michael Cheika's future after defeat in Scotland saw them fail to make the knock-out stages).
Not that this matters anymore. The concern now is flights, accommodation and a golden ticket. 7,500 tickets go to the Leinster Branch for distribution (more info, no doubt, later today) with the ERC only holding 15,000 for the finalists after selling out the rest of the 67,400 Murrayfield back in January.
No doubt, the Red Army will be looking to offload their pre-emptive purchases in the coming days.
Watch this space. Or just check out the bidding war on eBay.
Another milestone for O'Driscoll
BRIAN O'DRISCOLL capped a great day at Croke Park on Saturday by becoming only the third player to reach the ERC elite milestone for tries scored in the competition.
His 62nd minute lung-bursting sprint from his own 22 to touch down under the posts marked his 25th try in the tournament.
He follows in the footsteps of former Welsh wing Daffyd James (29) and Toulouse's Vincent Clerc (28). O'Driscoll will receive an official presentation from ERC.
Incidentally team-mate Shane Horgan is just one try away from joining him on that mark. O'Driscoll's try also took him to the top of this season's tournament try- scoring list with five; this comes on the back of the fact that he was joint top try scorer in the recent Six Nations Championship which delivered the Grand Slam.
Rare distinction
DEREK McGRATH, chief executive of the ERC, was, we suspect, one of a tiny minority in Croke Park at the weekend. The former Cork Constitution player, who also played for UCD and Old Belvedere in Dublin actually played for both semi-finalists during his rugby career. When he was in Cork he togged out for Munster and on moving back to Dublin, he was selected to play for Leinster. He didn’t say who he was supporting over the weekend.
Versatile Lewis keeping busy
IMAGINE YOU are Alan Lewis. Tee off in Portmarnock at 7.40am Friday morning. Play 14 holes to win match-play competition. Fly across town to rack up 122 runs in YMCA’s defeat of Cork County in the first round of the Irish Senior Cup at Claremont Road in Sandymount. Take a breather. Catch a flight to Cardiff for the Heineken Cup semi-final between the Blues and Leicester Tigers where you are a match official.
Referees rarely get high praise but this column felt Lewis deserved a mention. The 35-times Irish cricket captain won’t mind us revealing his age either (45 years young) or that YMCA beat his father’s old team by 158 runs.
We thought of the Ben Bradlee line in the movie All The President’s Men: “You guys are probably pretty tired, right? Well, you should be. Go on home, get a nice hot bath. Rest up. Fifteen minutes. Then get your asses back in gear.”
Cúpla focail music to Luke's ears
THE ANNOUNCER in Croke Park brought a little bit of the GAA to Saturday’s final between Munster and Leinster. He may have startled a few rugby fans by beginning his messages in Gaelic, perhaps for the first time in the European competition.
There were fans who didn’t know what he was saying but Leinster’s Luke Fitzgerald certainly did. The Leinster wing is a fluent Irish speaker and is a regular contributor to TG4.
“I think it’s really important,” said Fitzgerald. “It’s a shame it isn’t used more regularly in daily life. I always have a lot of time to do interviews in Irish because I feel it’s important to let people out there know that there are people who speak it and who are passionate. We (Luke and father Des) are both a bit nationalistic and we see it as an integral part of our culture and being Irish.”
