ALL IN THE SCRUM:A rugby miscellany
NOT ONLY is Ronan O’Gara far ahead of the pack as the player to have kicked most successfully in Heineken Cup matches with 1,165 points before this weekend’s series of matches but yesterday his Munster team-mates also contributed to another Heineken Cup landmark as members of the Elite 50 Club.
Of the players who have gotten over the 50-match mark, the top five names are all from Munster.
Leading the pack is the legendary prop John Hayes who played his 96th match yesterday with team-mate O’Gara in second place with 94 games.
Scrumhalf Peter Stringer (87 games) is in third place, Anthony Foley on 86 games in fourth and David Wallace, who scored his 15th Heineken Cup try yesterday, moves into fifth place on 82 matches.
Baying home crowd do not intimidate lion-hearted Lewis
LION-HEARTED Alan Lewis didn’t mince his words during Perpignan’s home game against Leicester on Saturday. The Irish referee ignored the baying crowd in what was described as a one-time bull ring and yellow-carded two home players in the first half.
Centre David Marty was the first to the sin bin when he interfered with play from an offside position. But in a closing first-half sequence of scrums, Lewis sent off the two hookers, Leicester’s George Chutter and Perpignan’s Marius Tincu, for consistently popping up. Normally the props take the flack for scrums going awry and the shared wisdom was that both hookers being shown the yellow card for an enforced rest was indeed a rare occurrence.
However, not everyone agreed with the former Irish international cricketer.
“To send them both off was just ridiculous,” said former All Black captain Seán Fitzpatrick at half-time, who like Lewis was not mincing his words.
Plymouth have plenty of names to whet local tastes
THE BRITISH and Irish Cup game involving Leinster ‘A’ and Plymouth Albion, eventually played at Greystones after Friday’s abandonment at Skerries, had a broader interest than you might have imagined. Far from this being an English team arriving over looking for an Irish scalp, Plymouth had plenty of names to whet local appetites.
Plymouth winger Johnny Coleman is a former Ireland Rugby League international, while St Mary’s Wexford-born lock Robin Copeland is also in the squad. Ruairi Cushion is a scrumhalf from Old Belvedere and Leinster ‘A’, while captain and outhalf Kieran Hallett hails from Ulster. Limerick-born Fionn McLoughlin is formerly from Shannon, while hooker Gavin O’Meara has done the rounds with London Welsh, Barking, Rosslyn Park and Leinster.
MUNSTERestablished a structure towards the end of 2010 whereby they undertook to actively support three nominated charities in the course of the 2010/2011 season. Following consultation with players, management and the Munster Branch, three charities were selected, Suicide Aware, TLC4CF (Cystic Fibrosis) and Unicef. To date each charity has had the use of a corporate box for their own purposes at Munster games staged in Thomond Park and on January 1st, the Munster v Ulster Magners League game has been designated the Munster Rugby Charity Match. The club will donate €1 from every match ticket sold, including season tickets. Fundraising throughout the day will also go to the three causes. Donations can also be made through, hht://.mycharity.iedonate charityIndex.php?charityID=477.
Rugby coach hailed a hero
A RUGBY coach has been hailed a hero for grabbing the wheel of his out-of-control team bus as it veered across a busy motorway.
Players and officials from Otley Rugby Club, in West Yorkshire, said Mark Luffman could have saved many of their lives when he leapt into action on the M1 near Sheffield yesterday.
Club secretary Marc Lawrence said the coach veered across all three lanes of the motorway when the driver collapsed.
Lawrence said Luffman, the forwards coach, was sitting at the front and immediately recognised the danger. He managed to steer the bus along the central reservation for about half a mile and slow it down.
The driver eventually came round and was able to help Lawrence bring the coach to safety before being taken to hospital.
GIVING VENTER
NEVER FAR from controversy, South African doctor and Director of Rugby at Saracens Brendan Venter added to his cargo of memorable moments after his side’s defeat to Racing Metro on Saturday. In the Sky television interview afterward the match Venter showed his disgust at the ERC authority by simply repeating the questions he was asked by the Sky reporter and remarking that he would have to think about the match deeply. Venter has a huge fine hanging over him, having clashed with rugby officials several times and is leaving England for South Africa for ‘personal reasons.’
