Ex Players in the News...

Munster confirm Downey switch

Thu, Feb 02, 2012

Rugby: Munster confirmed today that Northampton Saints centre James Downey will be joining them at the end of the current season on a two year contract.

The 30 year, who previous played with the province for one season (2006-2007) moved to the Saints from Munster and now has agreed to make the return journey. He was highly regarded at Franklin’s Gardens, making 135 appearances and scoring 12 tries.

A Churchill Cup winner with Ireland in June 2009 he began his career in Leinster before moving to Connacht for two seasons and now returns to Munster on a two year contract. Coach Tony McGahan enthused: “James is a quality player who has been on our radar for some time now.

“We’ve seen at first hand, on several occasion in recent times in the Heineken Cup exactly what he has to offer and believe that his style and his attitude can only enhance our squad.”

© 2012 The Irish Times

tweet by sean croinin
i think this tweet is disrepected to connacht, 'handed off 10' more so than the rest.

Its true , Brad thorn kicked off in the A game 2day, he caught de kick off,handed off 10,scored in d corner nd den back heeled d conversion

Your looking for stuff that's not there swift. That's harmless

simpleton wrote: Your looking for stuff that's not there swift. That's harmless

jerry flannery retires, not to much of a shock but unlucky boiiiiiii.

sad to see this, same happened with us with matthews

Very sad for him. Best lineout thrower I've seen...

Wish you well in your future jerry. Thanks for the memories.

i know you will be back involved somewhere before long.

Sad news - a great player. The last couple of years must have been especially hard, coming back from injury only to break down again straight away. As far as I can tell without actually knowing him personally, he seems like a sound man, so I'm sure he'll make a few quid in the media if he chooses to go down that path.

A great player. His memory is slightly tarnished for me because of all the times DK picked him when he was unfit or hadn't played a game yet still went straight into the starting XV but that's not the players fault its the coaches.

I'd actually like him to go down the coaching route. Some lads I know were at Galwegians when he was up in Connacht and he did a few sessions with the younger lads (them). They raved about how good his coaching was when it came to line-outs and set pieces. Wouldn't be surprised to see him at some AIL club's coaching staff in the near future.

Sad news, was a great servant for Ireland, Munster and showed the way at Conancht for other players, he left Connacht a much improved player from when he came, still had to wait too long for the breakthrough at Munster though which is a recurring theme in this country.

fingers crossed jamie hagan is not to injured and will be playing again soon. looked like he was in pain. get well soon

Really starting to wonder when Hagan's going to get a break....

(from today's Indo)

"Jamie Hagan did okay on his introduction to the game and has something to build upon, while there was good news for Leinster and Kidney on Saturday with the possibility of Irish-qualified tight-head Michael Bent arriving from New Zealand to replace the Connacht-bound Nathan White."

sea_point wrote: Pretty incredible the Bent signing, some message that the IRFU are sending out to Irish Props. Question is though if White wasn't already coming this summer, would be thinking about Jamie coming back West..?