Some so-called pundits who should know better need to cop on, writes Brendan Grehan…
WHAT IS IT about pundits and bile?
In the wake of Leinster's hard-fought victory over Exeter Chiefs in Sandy Park, I was astonished to hear that one former player on his Monday night slot with his Lee-side buddy was telling the nation that "Leinster didn't look as fit as a few years ago".
I know that the former player and leading rugby intellectual did play the game at the highest level. He was a highly-talented schools player and by all accounts is a good egg but could he for once stop talking rubbish. Does he have access to Leinster's strength and conditioning programme?
Is he in the gym while the players are practising their powercleans and dead lifts. The thing that really annoys me about the pundit in question is that he seems to have a problem with the normal player who trains hard. Given that he himself was a player with incredible talent, did he ever live up to it. Yes he wore the green jumper with pride but he never won a European Cup or a five or six nations. He never won a grand slam and he never played on a lions tour. Given that he has described the current England coach as "a nobody" and launched streams of vomitous bile at other hard-working players, I think it is time to shout stop.
Any chance you could have an ounce of cop on as a former player who straddled both the amateur and professional era.
To be fair, another former player, who was also on Monday's panel was quick to check on the intellectuals outburst. He is an excellent pundit snd was at the heart of the Leinster team in the late 90's. No surprises that he is a Limerick man. What is about that jewel by the Shannon that produces so many great players and great people. Since I was a child, I have had a deep affection for the county and city as the gateway to Munster, the greatest of the four provinces, the greenest of the four, the most hospitable of the four and the loveliest of the four.
The pints taste sweeter down there too, not like the gold-coloured swill that they are currently serving in the RDS. At €5.80 a pint, one would expect a pilsner of the highest quality served by a Wagnerian maiden with blonde ringlets. What is it about Ireland that we must always stiff the punter. Leinster Rugby should really look into their pricing policies because the last time I checked cans of lager are not being sold in the RDS. There seems to be an awful lot of people drinking them.
Are you allowed to bring cans into the stadium? I come to watch the game, not to drink.
Some former Leinster players do rather make bilious pundits. One in particular, who should know better, spent many a year heaping barbs of bitter vitriol towards his former team. I never understood it. Again, he played the game at the highest level during an era when Ireland weren't very good. After leaving politics, he has gone to the dark side and we seem to hear little of him. He seemed to have a particular problem with Michael Cheika.
Cheika was instrumental in Leinster winning the Heineken Cup and one could argue that there would not now be three stars above the Leinster crest without Cheika's groundwork.
A true servant of the game, Cheika will coach a world-cup winning team. Success breeds success.
Leinster may have bowed out of the Heineken Cup but there is always the Amlin. It is a good cup to win and good teams usually win it. The blue army need to pick themselves up. Real fans support their team through the ups and downs.
As Guy Clark sang in "Stuff that Works":
"I got a pretty good friend who's seen me at my worst. He can't tell if I'm a blessing or a curse. But he always shows up when the chips are down. That's the kind of stuff I like to be around".
Here is Houston's Jack Ingram singing. No protunes, no lipsync. Just one man and a guitar.
Brendan Grehan is a journalist
facebook: Brendan Grehan
Twitter: @brendanxavier
