ALL IN THE SCRUM:Bronson Ross – even the name sounds intimidating. Granted, the Ireland qualified Kiwi tighthead prop (yes, another one) has only played club rugby in Scotland, Gernika – The Basque region's European Challenge Cup side – and most recently Coventry, but he might be worth an investment by an Irish province until the next generation of home grown props mature.
We patiently await the IRFU’s announcement of a national scrum coach. Any day now.
It may be a lowly club in a city immortalized by a Pablo Picasso painting but the YouTube clip of Ross, Bronson not Mike, at work looks promising.
He’s 26 and, as mentioned, can have an Irish passport at the drop of a hat.
Anyway, decide for yourself: www.youtube.com/watch?v=shun3tjAOko
Timely try for Fitzgerald
It was a timely try for Luke Fitzgerald. The talented Leinster back has played just twice in the 2012-13 season and scored once against Llanelli Scarlets at the weekend.
Fitzgerald is well up in the Leinster try-scoring stakes having touched down 18 times in the league and eight times in Heineken Cup for a 26-try tally.
Brian O'Driscoll's 56 seems a long way off and Shane Horgan's record number of 69 even further. But the former Blackrock player is sneaking up on number eight Jamie Heaslip, the only forward in Leinster's top 10.
Currently on 28 tries, Heaslip is in seventh place in front of Fitzgerald and former St Mary's man, 22-try John McWeeney.
It was a timely try for Luke Fitzgerald. The talented Leinster back has played just twice in the 2012-13 season and scored once against Llanelli Scarlets at the weekend.
Fitzgerald is well up in the Leinster try-scoring stakes having touched down 18 times in the league and eight times in Heineken Cup for a 26-try tally.
Brian O'Driscoll's 56 seems a long way off and Shane Horgan's record number of 69 even further. But the former Blackrock player is sneaking up on number eight Jamie Heaslip, the only forward in Leinster's top 10.
Currently on 28 tries, Heaslip is in seventh place in front of Fitzgerald and former St Mary's man, 22-try John McWeeney.
Close to warm-up
If you noticed some commotion in the bottom right corner of your television screens before Leinster's match against Llanelli Scarlets on Saturday it's the trending pre-match ritual for home fans to accumulate there. The team are out on the pitch behind the goal and fans are close enough to almost touch them as they go through pre-march drills.
It's a unique position, especially for kids who are lined up along the fence at the back and to the side of the try line and able to see the outsized shapes of the players up close. On Saturday the eight were put through match-aggressive scrummaging just a feet away from the small gathering. Few were left in any confusion as to why the frontrow players need the necks that they do and in turn why the backs need the physiques they do to stop those tug boats of the game.
