Today Gerry Thornley blames the poor ticket sales for the Autumn Internationals on the Munster Leinster rivalry. He's like Goebbels this last year or so. I don't believe he really said that. I know he has become a greasy haired parody of himself but even Thornley couldn't have that little respect f...

I'm struggling to see much of a role for Spence in the Ulster squad. He doesn't look to have the footballing skills or smarts in the centre that Wallace, Cave, Marshall and Farrell have. Bowe, Trimble and Gilroy are all clearly ahead of him on the wing. Payne is a versatile player who could play cen...

And who decides what players get central contracts? The aforementioned blazers at the IRFU? God knows, there is plenty of criticism that can be directed in Kidney's direction, but blazers meddling with team selection in the background is a shambles. It wouldn't surprise me if the meddling has increa...

Fair enough; if a Leinster ST is the same price as an Ireland ST, there's only one winner. By my calculation to attend all of the Irish home games would cost you over twice as much. So is the gap even wider for an Ulster or Munster ST holder? That is, factoring in additional costs to go to an Irela...

Actually scratch that, it's out early Ulster (15-9): P Nelson; C Gilroy, J Payne, C Farrell, C Cochrane; P Jackson, B McIlroy; (1-8): C Black, N Annett, A Macklin, J Muller (c), N McComb, M McComish, S Doyle, R Diack; Replacements: R Herring, R Lutton, J Afoa, L Stevenson, A Birch, M Heaney, N O’Co...

Lads, got bored here and have been trying to sort out which counties our players are from to see the spread, there are no players in the Ulster squad from Donegal, Fermanagh or Cavan and is hugely dominanted by players from Antrim and Down. Are the other provinces more spread out? NIQ Afoa Muller W...

My experience of a couple of Cycle Surgeries (but I haven't used that particular branch...) is you need to book things in advance to get them to do anything.

Hmmm. Any recommendations for such a shop in the City or nearby? :) Pretty well all the bike shops I know in the city are chains (Evans and Cycle Surgery) There is a very traditional bike shop called Bikefix (www.bikefix.co.uk) in the Holborn/Chancery Lane area and if this is handy, I'd try them. T...

I'm thinking this can't be good but not too sure what to do about it. I assume that loosening all the spokes and starting again will result in disaster, given my non-existant wheel-trueing skills and lack of equipment. There are bike shops fairly near my work who would presumably true it - the near...

One would think that if the tyre came off that it'll go back on. Sounds silly but are you wedging the whole tyre on at once or one side at a time? With the tire half on (one side in and one off the rim) I can't get the side that is on across the tube without resorting to extreme force. Maybe take a...

yup, I live near Ravenscourt Park and work on Tooley Street. First few days of the diversions has lots of problems finding a route that didnt invlolve the middle of Victoria and certain death, but have actually found swinging round the Palace and up Birdcage Walk to pop out at Westminster to be bet...

Mikerob, sounds like you do a pretty identical route to me. I live in Chiswick, work near Tower Bridge so my normal route is Chiswick High Rd, King St Hammersmith, Hammersmith Rd, High St Ken, Hyde Park, Constitution Hill, The Mall, Trafalgar Square, Embankment, Upper & Lower Thames St. Lots of dis...

Apposite - some roadbike tyres, particularly the ones with extra puncture protection, are absolute cnuts to get on. There is a brand called Schwalbe Marathon Plus that are notoriously difficult and if you search youtube a number of people have posted videos showing how to fit these tyres but the tec...

SCR-ists on the Embankment are really just a subset of the riders and they are appreciably quicker than everybody else who isn't SCR-ing. I'm in with "everybody else" with my panniers, 28c tyres and steel bike so the SCR-ists are just riders whizzing past as far as I am concerned. I know what you me...

Unlike that writer I'm not a softfanny, so I enjoy the cut and thrust of silly commuter racing in London. However, she's right about some of the idiocy on display from those who can't best an opponent through fair means, and have to resort to risky filtering or RLJing to win dubious 'victories'. Sh...

Wait, Williams hasn't any caps and played for Munster for 2 years. Unless his Junior All Black caps bind him to NZ (was the maori not their 2nd team until recently) he will become IQ after 1 season. Not too bad if thats the case. Can someone check? I'm at work Think residency has to be continuous? ...

Uncovering one gem of a player from Donegal would do massive things for the profile of the game in the province, look at Tommy and Monaghan. I agree, but Tommy went to Armagh Royal, an established rugby playing school across the border from Monaghan so his route to professional rugby through Ulster...

This is the situation with HEC qualification: - if Ulster or Leinster win the HEC, Connacht qualify for next season's HEC - If Edinburgh or Clermont win the HEC, Wasps qualify for HEC as highest ranked non-French team not already qualified - winner of ACC determines the 7th French team to qualify. B...