BlindMelon – Member
McGrath is a LH, Moore is Th but I think he will see a lot of game time. They will ship Ross off around the 45 min mark. Good point about Toner and the line out, I’d say you are right there.

Sorry I meant Martin Moore, great to see so many young Irish props given where we were 2 years ago

I think Mcgrath will start instead of Ross and Toner instead of McCarthy to combat Scots lineout, otherwise probably spot on, harsh on some of the Ulster backs

Go Wolfhounds, I’m sure Freddie Burns is a decent player I have just never seen it.

A lot depends on how you like it cooked, if you like your steak rare then rump is very good, rib eye needs to be medium rare at least otherwise you have a raw fat taste, fillet you can do anything to it and it remains tender. sirloin is chewy if you go past medium rare.

unsweetened peanut butter and oat cakes for me, 2 are remarkably filling

Indeed it is. Great to see someone with the inventiveness and guile that smaller players bring to the game. Yes, there’s a place for the massive bruisers on the wing (North/Cuthbert etc), but I still have a great liking for the little wizards, a la Shane or Zebo.

The sad thing is that Zebo is supposedly (according to Munster team profile) 1.88 meters tall (over 6’2″) and weighs 94 kg, he only looks small because the rest of the players are monsters. Agree about the wizard bit some of his play on Sunday was magical.

If incompetence is the rule in teaching I must be very very lucky, three school aged kids and only of them has had what could be called a poor teacher for 1 year. I have however seen 3 very poor deputy heads. Dep Head seems to be schools version of the Dilbert Principle[/url]

Well done Ulster, great game hung in there and took their chances. Munster in your home semi maybe?

How long will SoB last? What that boy puts himself through every time he plays is something else. What is he, Late 20’s?

A lot longer in Ireland than France given the number of games he will be required to play, they way things are going he might have no HCup, No league games next season just inter provincials and internationals.

SOB signs a new deal with IRFU that keeps him at Leinster until 2016!
will be interesting to see what Heaslip does

I suspect the media will build up the whole Gatland V BOD thing before the match, I would hope BOD has moved on.

Ireland’s problem is we still haven’t got anyone who is clearly better than him. He has become a bit on a penalty machine with Southern Hemisphere refs but calls seem to go the other way for him in 6N and HCup. Ulster have a few decent centers, Munster have none and he is still at 13 for Leinster when fit. Lots of people hoping Jared Payne the answer but I have only seen him at 15.

Irish squad is almost every fit Irish qualified player who plays for Ulster, Munster and Leinster with a few extras, so doesn’t tell us much.

I’ve only seen Copeland is a couple of times but he has looked very good in the H Cup, he was MOM against Glasgow away and carried well again at the weekend in a well beaten Cardiff team. Hard to say if he is international class or not but I am looking forward to having him at Munster next season. Kieran Marmion the Connaught SH is a serious talent and I expect him to head to Leinster soon.

So Munster have won one more than us many moons ago.

I like to think that Munster have won 1.5 more European Cups than Ulster, given the lack of English opposition the year Ulster won it, also 3 league titles to your one. I do think however both of us would agree that Leinster are probably stronger than both of us at present.

As for DOC on the wing, no defending that one!

I did a lot of research when I bought mine and tested a fair few including Enigma, Vab Nicholas and Lynskey. I ended up buying a Cube Ti which is not in the range any more but if the Kinesis had been available it would have been a top contender. I owned a couple of their Maxlights and one road bike over the years and always liked them. fat birds[/url] is a good place to start as they have a great range and are very good people to deal with.

Used to put helmets on my two when we went on the road, not sure if they would have been any use if we were tail ended by the E2 bus but it didn’t seem to do them any harm. Hardly did any exclusively off road rides so this meant they almost always had their helmets on in the trailer.

as long as you know it is snake oil, boots sell it

Think it’s a load of tosh but if they have to give them to sports people they should wait until the retire. Murry could have 8 years left competing that’s a long time to have commentators referring to him as Sir, would they put it on the score boards for his matches & would the umpire have to start calling him sir? total anachronistic rubbish

Ireland unlikely to have trouble finding enough back row forwards, Chris Henry is likely to be fit again, at 22 Jordi Murphy looks like the real deal at Leinster and one of the the reasons they decided to reduce the salary on offer to Heaslip which may prompt his move to France. SOB a massive loss though.

The dish originates from Burgandy so Pinot Noir is what it should be, in many places they collect the remainder of your tasting glass (not the spits) and used the jug of wine for the dish. Avoid anything too oaked like aged Rioja or Bordeaux or most italian wines as they are too acidic.
Pinot is normally very expensive though so any light New World wine would be fine

Foie Gras – Fortum & Mason are one of the few shops still stocking this!

Runs & hides

We have this one also, it is pretty good 7/10 is about right. You must read the instructions and keep them close at hand, descaling is a pain but only needed every 3 months or so depending on use, there is no ignoring it when the light comes on it literally stops working until you run the 30 min program.

I would say £300 is at the cheap end for a bean to cup machine,

Not sure I can say I hate any old managers or players… but my god we’ve had our share of useless wallies both on and off the pitch.

George Graham & Sol for most Spurs fans I know.

As a Liverpool fan El Haj Diouf, delighted when Glasgow Rangers signed him, they were made for each other. I also have to confess not to be totally delighted about Suarez

No one should be surprised that the English Premier League are trying to restrict countries access to their players. There is a power struggle going on between the Unions and the Clubs at the moment which is at the root of the H Cup issue. Owners like Nigel Wray at Sarries are trying to take control of the game. They see a future more like football where club competitions like Premiership & Champions League take pre eminence and the national game slides into insignificance.

As for penalty machines BM is right about the Claw and DOC but could have added in any of 6 or 7 other Munster forwards over the last 12 years especially Alan Quinlan. I

Just read the article about the All Blacks white board, one of the most insightful phrases into their motivation was – “We are playing England – this is about history, about human nature.”

Accumulator on the football, pick teams at home who are playing low ranked southern teams facing a long trek north on wintry days days. I had a friend who claimed this strategy made him a fortune. Disclaimer I have never tried it though

as others have said Natural History & Science Museums are fantastic and free, as a treat the ice cream parlour in Harrods is brilliant as is the Pizzeria, Magicians in the Ice Cream parlour and Opera singing chefs in the Pizzeria (they are next to each other) are fantastic. Shard and London Eye are also good if the weather is good but again not cheap. Monument to great fire worth a detour as likely your 8 year old will be covering it at school this year and kids tend to enjoy the trek to the top.

I have a similar distance, you may not want to do it but the best thing might be to take Wednesday off. It will allow you to maintain high intensity on the 4 days you do the commute and adapt on the days off. If I do every day the cycle home on Thursday is usually a killer and 5 days in a row doesn’t make me feel like doing much at the w/e

Have you tried your local councillor, they are normally happy to help move things like that along. it’s not normally illegal to pull up on a double line anyway to allow your kid hop out, clearway or double red are a different story.

Opro do a pretty large range, is it hard or soft? With 3 kids playing Rugby and Gaelic football we have tried almost all of them. The soft bright coloured ones work best, the hard ones are a waste of time. If your kid has his permanent front teeth then it is work getting a custom one. Opro visit our club for this and charge £40.

who would benefit by knowing her name? we could have a tabloid witch hunt if you like but I for one have no interest, either way she is likely to be a pretty damaged and vulnerable person

Manic Street Preachers – their songs tend to start out like they are going to be good but then deteriorate into painful drivel

Own brand John Lewis one, think it is a Bosh in disguise but comes with a 5 year warranty

Security guard wouldn’t let me bring push my bike into Decathlon to buy a bike lock despite the fact they will let kids take bikes for test rides around the store.

As someone who hated running with a passion but have always cycled, I found the issue to be in my head, when I was running there was always a voice in my head telling me this is ridiculous you should stop. I started out my target was run between lamp posts then walk to next one and repeat. It took a couple of weeks to build up to even running 1km. It took a long time however before I could ignore that voice although music helped.

Check out Edinburgh Cycles own brand Revolution range, there are a couple of options just below £300, one even has mudguards and a rack, I used to own the courier race but that is unfortunately above your budget. Evans have the Pinnacle Lithium at exactly £300 and the Giant Escape is also in budget.

I did something similar using train to help with Logistics, stared in Winchester and went to Amberley, lots of options to go further if you are feeling strong and use London as your starting point for train journeys.

Mostly I don’t, although I have taken a load of abuse from a pensioner who saw me stay on the bike for the 10 feet between the road and where the bike rack is outside the local tesco metro at 8am on a Sunday morning, I was also stopped on a path crossing a green by 2 community police men and threatened with a fine, must just be unlucky I guess