Planet Rugby

A round-up of today's other Rugby stories...

O'Driscoll senior in 'unlucky eight' 

IT'S INTERESTING to note among the statistics compiled in Saturday's match programme by Des Daly is a list of eight players who did not win caps despite playing for Ireland in an international. Included was a then young UCD centre Frank O'Driscoll - father of Ireland's current captain Brian - who played in both Tests against Argentina as Ireland visited the South American country in 1970. At that time the Pumas did not have IRB full member status so no caps were awarded.

Arguably the unluckiest was former Lansdowne and Leinster centre Paul Clinch who lined out against Canada in 1989. Caps were awarded by the IRFU when Ireland met the Canucks two years earlier at the first World Cup but not for the match in which Clinch played. Daly was not responsible for a statistic that Ulster prop Tom Court had three Irish caps to his name, which is news to everyone including the uncapped Australian-born, Irish-qualified forward.

Shannon legend passes away

IT IS with great regret that this column notes the passing of Shannon legend Frankie Flynn. The 77-year-old was well known for his rendition to the club's anthem There is an Isle, singing it the length and breadth of the country and on the occasion of Shannon triumphs. He played in the club's first senior match against Highfield in October 1953, was a member of the team that won their first Munster Senior Cup in 1960 and was the club's president from 1976-1978.

A moment of great pride came last season when his grandsons, Richie and Leonard Mullane, won Munster Senior Cup medals when Shannon beat Highfield in a neat sense of symmetry with the beginning of Frankie's career. His passing will be noted by all with whom he came in contact. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam dilis.

FORMER PLAYER, referee and press officer to the Leinster team Tom McCormack will be in a new role at the RDS on Saturday when he acts as citing commissioner in Magners League game between Leinster and the Dragons.

Hardly poetic justice in Limerick

NEW ZEALAND are justifiably celebrated for their prowess on the rugby field but the same cannot be said of recent attempts to mix rugby matters and limericks. The desire to do so was brought about by last week's clash between Munster and the All Blacks to celebrate both the official opening of Thomond Park and the 30th anniversary of the occasion on which the Irish province beat New Zealand 12-0.

This column is indebted to Helen Vaughan who is currently working for the New Zealand television station TV3. She wrote that the station led with the story of the Munster game "even though a new prime minister was sworn in the same day". Unfortunately someone thought it would be a good idea to lead the Munster rugby item with a limerick about Limerick.

For those of a sensitive disposition, look away now.

"There once was an All Black called Joe, Who with only five minutes to go, Had a moment of magic, For Munster so tragic, It was history not quite made in Limerick."

Johnson under early fire

MARTIN JOHNSON'S honeymoon as the new England coach is well and truly over after their 42-6 defeat to South Africa at Twickenham judging by the remarks of several journalists. The Guardian's Jon Henderson didn't pull his punches when he wrote. "It (the defeat) raised questions about the manager himself.

"Whether, after all, it was such a good idea to put a man in charge of the national team who has no previous experience of such a task, even at club level, and whose main role since his outstanding playing career ended in 2005 has been as a corporate schmoozer. At times the England performance was little short of clueless, for which Johnson has to take much of the rap."

England have to beat the All Blacks next week to try to snaffle a top-four seeding for the World Cup.

Lievremont lends support to Skrela

FRANCE HEAD coach Marc Lievremont tried to console outhalf David Skrela after the latter's nightmare with the placed ball that allowed Australia to escape from Paris with an 18-13 victory on Saturday evening.

Skrela landed just one of his six penalties, and missed a simple drop-goal in front of the posts, while also suffering the ignominy of being sent to the sinbin for a high tackle on Digby Ioane.

Lievremont explained: "Clearly, we put a helping hand around him. Apart from his kicking, he played a great match and we all know he is usually a great kicker. The idea is more to comfort him than to blame him. Sometimes this is what happens in rugby. It is part of the game but we had the ability to win this match. It hurts but it's like that."

O'Callaghan calls it as it is

"THERE'S A fair bit of niggle between Argentina and Ireland. Personally I don't like them and they'd probably say the same about me . . . when you play them you know it will be tough. I respect them but when you seek their players out after a match they look to keep their own company . . . Some fellas you get on with and some you don't. That builds up through games. We don't like each other. They're not totally at fault, at times we've given them reason not to like us. It's not one way, the trappiness (lippiness). We're both passionate about rugby and it's not a bad thing to have teams who care about playing for their country. But the dislike does make it more satisfying when we beat them. A few times we've been beaten they've had no problem rubbing it in. We wanted to get one up on them yesterday." - Donncha O'Callaghan