London Irish sign an Irishman!

Tomas O'Leary to be precise:

http://www.london-irish.com/news/Irish84186.ink

Good signing for LI. With Hodgson moving on they needed a scrum half with a bit of experience and a decent defence. Nice piece of business.

Celebrate good times, come on!!!!!!!

The jokes on you Ozzy. He's your problem now!!

Will Marshall be ahead of him now.

Not a good signing for London Irish.

He has been dire in the games I have seen him play this year. On his part I think he realizes that his International ambitions are over. I can't imagine he was a cheap signing for them either.

On the plus side he will be available all season for them.

Change of club, change of scene and manager often gives a player a new lease of life. Sometimes it just takes a bit of change to reinvigorate a player, so let's just see what happens.

I'm with Bathite on this. In 2009 he was touted as starting 9 for the Lions before getting injured. Since coming back his game/career has stagntated. This move could be just what he needs to kickstart his career.

I am cautiously optimistic about his signing.

Genuine guy. Decent footballer. Think the AV will suit him.

I really hope so Ozzy

The best moves are win-win-win

Good for team selling him
Good for team buying him
Good for player himself

Really hope we see it.

Does this mean Strings goes back up the pecking order at Munster?

Submachine,

Next season he will probably be 3rd choice.

HEC - Conor Murray
Rabo - Duncan Williams
Reserve: Peter Stringer
Youngster: Cathal Sheridan

red_stag wrote:I really hope so Ozzy

The best moves are win-win-win

Good for team selling him
Good for team buying him
Good for player himself

Really hope we see it.

Agreed, it is pretty common place in rugby I think. There are plenty of examples of players who had gone a touch stale before 'becoming good again' at another club. Class is temporary and all that. He may have suffered a bit for form in recent seasons, but doesn't mean he is now rubbish. I'd also imagine that to be at the top of your game as a SH, you need to be playing regularly, so your pass is zipping and you know where your 10 is, so you don't need to be looking for him and/or taking that extra step and second that ruins quick ball for the team and also your confidence is high, so you can snipe around the ruck and be a threat.

Using my team as an example, we have had Caldwell come in this year, he was touted as a card machine, way down the pecking order at Ulster. All fans were nervous and underwhelmed, but he has been our player of the season, a real bargain and has been open in the press about how grateful he is for getting his career back on track and how settled he is in Bath.

Don't see what Irish have to lose really, much lower risk than signing an unknown or overseas, at least he is proven quality. I'd imagine he didn't get a pay increase, maybe even a slight decrease and the opportunity to live in a new city and get regular first team rugby.

ps. Isn't Stringer at Newcastle next year / now?

Stringer is at Newcastle now but I think he's only there on loan. He was only on loan at Sarries. I'd presume that he will go back to Munster and be pushing the young guns for a starting berth. If that doesn't work he might go out on loan again but I think he's under contract so should still be at Munster in some form.

Bathite,

He is only there til May. It has always been agreed that he will return to Ireland in May.

Ozzy3213 wrote:I'm with Bathite on this. In 2009 he was touted as starting 9 for the Lions before getting injured. Since coming back his game/career has stagntated. This move could be just what he needs to kickstart his career.

I am cautiously optimistic about his signing.

Ozzy,

In certain aspects your right and in others I think you could be mistaken.

In 2009 TOL was fantastic and was one of the best 9's in Europe and was probably in line to start or bench for the Lions.

Injury.

When he came back he had a few things to overcome.

1) Injury
2) Other scrumhalves who hadn't been injured
3) The game laws changed

TOL was always good because he was defensively very strong and he was a threat off scrums and the tail of the lineout due to his physicallity. Munster and Ireland had a decent set piece and a good kicker to push teams back as well as strong defences.

When the tackle laws changed and attacking became the name of the game he was never going to be anywhere as near up the pecking order as he had been. The thought of TOL being a Lions starter now is near comical and it is because while a fantastic athlete and physical sportsman he doesn't have the brain and/or skill set to play top rugby in such a pivotal position

TOL is a very good signing for LI. All TOL needs is a bit of a confidence boost and I think he will get that in LI. He is a tremendous attacking SH when on song.

Regardless of what the previous poster has said (he is clueless) the job of a SH hasnt changed much and when TOL was at his height in 09 he was untouchable in IReland and totally outplayed Philips for example on about 5 occassions. If LI can get him back to that level he will be a great signing.

I reckon he'll shine at Premiership level - the pace should suit him down to the ground.

By the way

Quick pronunciation lesson for LI fans

Tomás is pronounced tuh-MAWSS

not TOE-mas as Stuart Barnes is wont to say

DOD wrote:TOL is a very good signing for LI. All TOL needs is a bit of a confidence boost and I think he will get that in LI. He is a tremendous attacking SH when on song.

Regardless of what the previous poster has said (he is clueless) the job of a SH hasnt changed much and when TOL was at his height in 09 he was untouchable in IReland and totally outplayed Philips for example on about 5 occassions. If LI can get him back to that level he will be a great signing.

DOD-
You're quite the fool. Those red glasses really are stuck on tight.
TOL was good in 09, that is unquestionable, eh would have started for the Lions IMO.

The fact you say that the job of a scrumhalf hasn't changed much since 09 and we are talking about TOL really makes you seem thick. All you have to do is look at TOL post and prior to the law changes.

09- defences ruled. Kicking games were vitally important. Set piece attacks were how most teams scored points. All these suit TOL.

10 and onwards- quick ball is gospel. Good game management and getting the ball to the reciever. Being creative and seeing space for yourself and for others. TOL is good at none of these.

Just think back a week to him versus England. Two kicks out on the full. Scrum conceeded in goal. 3 passes didn't find their mark. And he was on the pitch for -30 mins.

He is an awful scrumhalf.
Wish there was a smiley of a gavel slamming down!

he has had a poor few years but is still relatively young. he is very effective on his good days on his bad days you will pull your hair out.

he is fast powerful a good cover defender. a bit of confidence and he could do a good job. On form he is a better scrum half than Paul Hodgson

Jez buachaill,

Being right has never been a defence to acting like a nice try. Seriously, there are ways and means of proving your point, and when it comes to showing how bad TOL has been, you're talking a two foot tap-in.

Chill.

Haha. Censored! Good stuff mister autobot mod

^^ ".....acting like a James Blunt....." ^^

Apologies,

I've just been around this bend far too often with this particular poster and when he calls me clueless no matter how stupid I can be I still find it ironic.

Fingers crossed London irish unlock something in him for their and his sakes. I wish both parties all the best I just think TOL is a very poor player.

A very good athlete but a poor rugby player.

Pete, no worries, thought it was a touch strong but if there is history, then who am I to judge!

As for TOL, agreed he is a good athlete and I have seen him be a good rugby player. In the 2008-2009 season, he filled in at 10 away to the Ospreys and practially won a game on his own that Munster should never have been in. And while he has never approached that form since, since returning to Munster he was getting back to some level of consistancy. Then Saturday happened. No excuses, just an awful awful 30 miinutes of SH play. No redeeming features whatsoever.

Ah Pete you clearly have a case of blue assed fly syndrome. But in fairness a lot of your posts are clueless at best...ok maybe that's a little strong. They are fairly amusing ( and clueless)

All my LI mates will love him (because he is Irish) so he should feel wanted - assuming he fully recovers his style might well go down well in the AV -

Alright dod enlighten me with your opinion what makes tol a good scrumhalf?

Few parameters for you:

1) since 2010 no point judging the guy on different set of rules
2) remember for a 9 passing is the most important asset

This should be good

Personally with regard to his appearance in an Irish shirt last week - last Saturday wasn't his fault - if the Irish management ever selected players on the basis of reality he wouldn't have been there - given the amount of injury he's had he needs a bit of recovery time - and - perhaps a new set of coaches to get him off in the right direction

New coaches will help I'm sure but you can't really say that he hasn't had match practice. He played quite well for the wolfhounds a few weeks before and his Munster form has been ok.

The two box kicks out on the full aren't great and the carry into dead ball area wasn't good but can't be completely blamed on him in fairness but he made 2-4 passes that hit the ground before they reached a target or were above the players head

HI I am sure you are more up to date on him that me - I guess I remember his good days - also that he seemed to be one of Kidney's undroppables (with the likes of Leamy) -

My memories of him are that he is a lot better in a team that's going forwards - he maybe hasn't the technique when under pressure (didn't he come th to the game a bit late?)

Anyway - I have a weird feeling he might do OK especially in high scoring open games - whatever he's better out of the Ireland set up while he gets his game together