fighting irish

To say they were thrashed, is at best amateurish journalism, at worst a scurrilous slur. I was proud of our blokes. It was a match, they never stopped trying and managed to score a couple of tries. Let's just keep building the game in Wales. I watched two new clubs playing each other last weekend, so if we can keep adding amateur clubs, schools and colleges, as we go along, we will continue to produce more players of international class, down the line. It's a slow process, but a joy to be involved in.

Staring you right in the face.

Maybe they should give her a few quid to wander around the town telling everybody else too.

Yes mate, she's playing Anne in Richard III starting on June 23rd, and later she plays Helena in All's Well That Ends Well. I rowed her around the lake in a boat on a sunny day. It made me feel young again. It was lovely.

It's very nice there isn't it. I was there a couple of weeks ago, in the pub opposite the theatre called the Black Swan. Theatre goers and cast members call it the ''Dirty Duck''. My daughters playing there in a couple of weeks time.

They think that producing a fixture list that fans can pick up at the club shop is enough.

What were you doing at the RSC?

Wales were too strong for the Italians, who were very game but overpowered. Don't know the final score, I left before the end, with it 32 - 0 at about half way through the second half. The ground is a really idyllic setting surrounded by steep sided, tree covered mountains. The nice weather made it a joy to be there and a good partisan crowd cheered on the foneddigion.

Do you mean the game is postponed as far as you know? Or do you mean the game is going to go ahead?

I'll tell you what I find interesting about it Mike, it's those blokes wearing it.

Great show Eddie. Good to see them doing well so early in their existence. Keep it up lads. I went to watch the Fighting Irish defeat the Black Dragons in the Welsh RL comp, this afternoon. Very enjoyable day out. A fiercely contested match, with a good crowd of about 120 or so. It's early days for both teams (only our second outing) but both have a lot of potential and already display a lively capacity to entertain.

Between you and I Eddie, they are hopeless. They haven't got a plan, they haven't got any staff, and no money. For me, BARLA or some other body should be running the game (all the clubs) and they should let the circus (pro-clubs) look after itself. The remit should be to efficiently administer the existing game (maintain the status quo) and their prime focus above all else, should be on promoting increased participation(forward movement or growth). We should all say a silent prayer of thanks for the likes of Bob Brown of Hemel Hempstead (and countless others) for their initiative, energy and dogged determination to establish clubs (in the wilderness) and keep on growing. People like them are the real heroes of our game. So far, this Dean Buchan seems like a storm in a tea-cup, all bluster and no substance. I'm prepared to give anyone with a bit of initiative the benefit of the doubt, but sooner or later, you've got to do the business. Come on Dean, the balls in your in-goal area.

We've had more than our fair share of promisers, fools, chancers, rebels and charlatans. In some respects, it's a good argument for not supporting (financially) any new start-ups. The offer of ''help'' draws the hopeless, the incompetent, the dishonest and the downright fraudulent. I can remember meeting Maurice Oldroyd and Tom Keaveney to discuss joining BARLA and after the introductions Tom said ''it's £50 to join''. ''Fair enough Tom'' said I.

Are they selling seats in the new stand yet? Like a debenture sale.

Keep up the good work.

Here we go again, another blo....dy schism. Is it true that the RFL are giving financial backing to the All Golds? If so, why?

I was commenting on my knowledge of the ground down there Harry. It's a lesson for their marketing department isn't it? Next time, they'll have to ''offer'' an upgrade and see how many take up the offer, rather than assuming that an upgrade will be universally welcomed. This would be a two stage process though, rather than their original idea. So to give away upgrades will take more work (twice as much) than they thought it would.

Well it's probably a long way off but a very real possibility if it caught on over there. We don't have the natural defences against asset stripping that the Premier League Soccer clubs have.

It's four minutes in, if anyone is put off by the prospect of having to listen to it all, to find the quip.

Read it again.

Well I didn't make any of the claims you are attributing to me here, go back and look, so what's your game? Nor am I fevered, sitting here in my air conditioned room. I think it's far more likely that your outrageous and unsubstantiated implications are merely your own unconscious cognitive biases, rooted in some unacknowledged prejudices you have about me. Nothing new there then.

Dear me.

Joyo!

I support him wholeheartedly. I just wish he'd stop whining. If you don't want the gift, don't take it.

Fair enough, but I'm determined to enjoy it anyway.