Leone Nakarawa scoops major award

You contradict yourself alot. Trophies matter in one post and in the same post coming second consistently makes you better. I doubt Leinster would say they have been the better team in any of the seasons you keep going on about.

I dont think Gloucester are better than Leinster. That has nothing to do with how I think Northampton could beat Leinster, and how I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened more than not.

Lets make it clear though - you are the one who went on and on about previous seasons with your deep dive into la Rochelle and Stormers etc. I just talked about Leinster and Northampton based on the last game and how Leinster are getting older.

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.