How 'no fluke' Italy will look to combat France and their 7-1 bench

Ans: Obv not.

No twisting of words involved. No mention of nefarious but competence can be reasonably called into question.

That “head start” hasn’t happened by accident and there’s plenty of potential to develop the same in Ulster. How many pro community/schools coaches would Slimani/Snyman/Barret’s/Nienaber’s contracts cover, just as an example? Belfast is the next biggest city in Ireland and has enough fee paying/grammar schools to work with but there appears to be no appetite for that in favour of chasing (and failing) to get a 5th star.

And I’m very well aware of how private schools rugby works, it certainly doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to get started on the right lines. First and foremost what it needs is talented coaches. Find those and you’re well on your way, the kids are a captive market and the schools are a reasonably open door. The part that does cost is keeping the talent in the professional academy while they’re developing!

Covid and cost of living have wrought financial havoc on rugby across England, wales and Scotland, but not, it would appear, in Dublin. Go figure.

Predictable.

Or Cardiff’s, Scarlet’s, Osprey’s, Dragon’s, Bennetton’s, Zebre’s, Glasgow’s or Edinburgh’s. Not to mention a few GP clubs too…

Your comments seem to imply that Leinster have been given that head start by nefarious means, which is not true.

So I’d like to know from you where you think the extra investment will come from, or how it can be redistributed at the level we’re talking [schools]?

I don’t follow enough football to really comment on who the best team is at present, but I think that over the 2022-2024 period Leinster were better than Toulouse and la Rochelle. If you think that trophies are the only thing that matters, then would you commit to saying that Leinster were a worse team (over that 3 year period) than Stormers, Glasgow, and Munster? If you want to talk football, would you commit to saying that Blackburn Rovers have had more success in the Premier League than Tottenham Hotspur have? Trophies matter. They matter a lot. But so does winning games. So does making finals.

You said that Leinster got knocked out in the CC because they met a team better than them (Northampton), and yet Northampton finished the year with zero trophies and Leinster finished with 1. Northampton finished 8th in the prem because they got beaten by multiple teams, including by Gloucester twice. Do you think that Gloucester are a better team than Leinster?

Hope he goes well.

Yes, I 100% disagree with your second point. Let me see if I understand what you’re saying though by comparing to another sport - football. Arsenal finished second in the league in the last two seasons. Does that mean they are better than Man City or Liverpool over the two seasons because those two didnt have the same consistency? Thats what your argument is saying to me.

Glad you cleared up the hate point. Thanks.

“In each of those seasons they did meet teams who were better than them, thats why they lost those matches.”

(1) I don’t really agree, as you can’t judge who is better than who purely on the basis of one match. I guess you’d say that Northampton are better than Leinster bc they beat them, but would you also say that Gloucester are better than Northampton, because they beat them twice and finished higher in the league? Who do you think is the better team, Leinster or Gloucester?

(2) fwiw I didn’t claim that Leinster were the best team in any one season (prior to this one). In 2022 and 2023 la Rochelle were better, but they were pretty poor in 2024 (definitely not top 5; probably not top 10), so I think over the period 2022-2024 Leinster were better overall. In 2024 Toulouse were better than Leinster, but they weren’t in 2023 or 2022, so I think over the period 2022-2024 Leinster were better overall. You’re welcome to disagree, but do you?

“I didn’t say I hated Leinster either so not sure why you felt the need to mention hate.”

I was using “hate” more as a synonym for “being negative about” rather than meaning the actual emotion of hatred. Sorry if that confused matters.

Could be a serious amount of line breaks and metres gained off these two workhorses.