Second Captains Part II

What ever happened to Emmet Malone? He used to be a fairly regulator contributor at one stage especially around Ireland games

Very surprised they had Souness on as there seemed to be a bit of an edge any time he was on previously.

Pity he didn't turn up for international duty, seems to have made a very swift recovery from his so called injury

From the post-match press conference... check out Simon's question at the 12 minute mark and Andy Farrell's response 😬

I'm not sure what kind of answer Simon was hoping for...

Hahaha, up yours Eddie Jones 😛

Heard a good few folks in pub after the liveshow a bit underwhelmed with it. I think they were expecting bigger mystery guests than Paul Kimmage, Souness & the dulcet tones of George Hamilton. Unless they pulled Roy Keane out of a hat, I don't think you'd have pleased that sort really. I enjoyed it myself, Kimmage really was excellent, worth going just seeing him even. Sadlier, O'Carroll, Simon, and DOD's (minor) part were all grand too. Though thought it was weird that Ken disappeared off stage for large parts of the proceedings.

I'm guessing that was about the RWC?

Sounded very rude to me. No need for him to be having a go like that.

possibly so but seemed very strong words for the rugby World Cup. But I guess I’d believe he’d go that OTT

In my opinion, Kimmage is the best sports journalist in the country. He'd fall out with his own shadow tho.

He seems devoid of empathy to me, in that he appears incapable of seeing things from the point of view of other people. He’s 100% right and everyone else is wrong.

He might be right. I certainly suspect that there’s a lot more doping in rugby than is officially acknowledged. On the other hand, I’ve never seen him acknowledge the attempts made by cycling to improve things since the Lance years.

To be honest though I find his obsession with doping wearying. There’s no point in following sport if you’re only going to focus on the negative aspects. I read Rough Ride which is a great book but he’s become so much more dogmatic since then.

And my comment about the lack of empathy was motivated by his falling out with David Walsh, with whom he had been best friends for 20 years but was apparently angry that Walsh didn’t support him enough when he was **** canned by the Sunday Times. What did he expect Walsh to do, resign in sympathy with him?

Talking about Kimmage reminds me of the scene from in Bruges. Kimmage is basically a **** but he's good at what he does although he constantly seems to be excessively angry over everything. It can't all be real at least part of it must be performative.

Even with all the doping that is still in cycling, I would have more time for cyclists than for elite golfers. I don’t know why he regards them so highly. And I would suspect that it is another sport that is not squeaky clean when it comes to PEDs.

Anyway I don’t disagree with your general point. I think at his best Kimmage is a brilliant journalist but I think he damages himself with his negativity and anger

Apparently Murph got his legal team involved and an injunction was issued.

Presume with the upcoming book launch he didn't want the negative publicity.