I signed up to move over to eMobile the day they launched from 3 and i have to say so far the journey has been a terrible one.. It was October before i received my sim (actually a phone also) and November i think before they got my number ported and only after i had screamed and shouted from the roof tops and managed to find a very helpful employee within the business side of the business that knew what he was doing and got that issue sorted. Credit to eMobile though they did give me my first month free although given I couldn’t really use the service so little else they could do….

Then my problems with them really started, I was never wanting or intending to use a phone from eMobile but my iPhone which was going fine up until 2months ago then it unfortunately started to give up on me and whilst I was expecting a upgrade so early into my contract I thought eMobile would be keen to keep a customer happy and offer them some sort of middle ground to get me a new phone, and in a way they did agreeing to go 50/50 with me on the cost of a pay-as-you-go handset which supposedly could be leveraged against my land bill etc. until I was due an upgrade at 6months…

This all sounds perfectly reasonable I hear you say and I have to agree it was very good, until of course that the proposed handset cost couldn’t be offset etc. and I ended up buying a very inferior handset to tide me over the two/three months until I was told I could get an upgrade…

However this is eMobile the company that prefer to have you buy yourself out of your contract and walk away from them to a competitor because I’m now being told that I can’t get an upgrade any sooner than September/October therefore here I am stuck with an inferior handset that can’t handle the functionality I need on a daily basis and no one within eMobile seems to want to entertain keeping a customer happy outside of Steve who looks after their twitter account and I find that very upsetting given I invested trust and belief in them on the day of their launch.

The ongoing saga with eMobile, lastest update

So in last ditch attempt to continue my relationship with eMobile I requested initially via customer service to speak with the Head of Customer Service James Waghorn to let him know personally the shocking service that I’ve received from eMobile since joining them on the launch day back in September, however surprise surprise nobody within customer service would pass me onto him but said they’d have their team leader call me which as with countless other times I was told this of course the call never came and I ended up finding myself chasing them.

Now as I’ve mentioned previously the only person within eMobile that’s been of any assistance to me is a gentleman called Steve who manages the @emobileireland twitter account and to his credit he did speak with James Waghorn on my behalf and a message was relayed that he was too busy to make a call but that one of his colleagues would be calling me to discuss my grievance, progress you would think… well no the person that called me was from the cancelations team to talk about the process for closing out my account which I guess says it all in that the terrible service offered by the eMobile customer service staff comes directly down from the Head of Customer Service – James Waghorn himself who’d rather lose a customer than give them 2mins on the phone to hear out their grievance with the services received.

I’ve subsequently provisionally ordered new mobile on a 24month from 3 and given eMobile until the close of business to keep me as a customer which ironically I want to do because their coverage in my opinion can’t be beaten but I’m not holding my breath that they will do anything because they seem to be hell bent on following the path of sod the customer we don’t need you which given they are still very much a niche player in the Irish mobile market will I’m sure mean that they aren’t around for very long.

In short I guess what I’m trying to say here is that if you are considering jumping to eMobile from another service provider then do yourself a favour and don’t because I can promise you you’ll only end up regretting it like I have and facing a large bill to buy yourself out to be able to get hopefully good customer service elsewhere.

A few questions answered:

A few people asked me some questions regards the above & when I get time I’ll rewrite the blog to cover all the facts but hopefully this will answer some questions:

• Not mentioned above is how I had to make a call every day, sometimes twice for updates on the status of my number porting  in the first month because I never got  the promised call backs.

• When my iPhone gave up on me I wasn’t just expecting eMobile to just give me an upgrade so early in my contract and nor am I now I appreciate there will be some sort of trade off, and In fact I offered to buy the particular handset from the outset I wanted but was told outright that I couldn’t buy it only for it to know be available in the prepay handsets offerings.
• I also offered to sign a new 24month contract and waive any right to another upgrade for that duration but  they wouldn’t entertain it.
• I offered to convert my personal contract to a more expensive business package in order to help them help me get a new handset, they wouldn’t entertain it.
• To be honest I’d like to think that I’ve tried to meet eMobile all the way in the middle and yet the favourite word within eMobile is NO…, despite being told by some people that they can and do make exceptions on a case by case basis… I’d like to see proof of that..

During a recent survey that we ran within the Irish & UK markets with both our existing and potential clients we posed the question regards the use of agencies and the subsequent costs associated with this in the current market place and discovered some interesting facts.

As a result of the poll we discovered that 29% of companies wouldn’t use an agency at this time, 17% of companies had or where using agencies for more specialist roles, and surprisingly of all we discovered that 54% of companies would be inclined to use an agency at this time if they could stipulate the fee structure.

As a result of the feedback we gained from the poll we have decided to roll out the following offer to any new clients between now and the end of the year,  in short we are offering your company the opportunity to engage the full services of our organisation and the in return we are willing to let you the client stipulate the fee structure at which we will work on your behalf.

Now with this said there have to be a few terms and conditions to make this viable for us but these are not anything to serious and in fact the main two are :-

1. We reserve the right to choose not to work on a vacancy(s) if the fee structure proposed is too low.
2. We ask that given the lower fee structure we are willing to work for to our normal that the payment terms are 14 days from date of commencement.

If the above offer sounds like something that would be of interest to your organisation then we would welcome the opportunity to meet with your organisation to discuss this offer further.

Regards

Darren & Team @ WithU Recruitment

Setanta rugby anchor Daire O’Brien opened the show yesterday with the quote “Yesterday the country voted on Lisbon, today it’s all about internal Politics” and well after all the votes were counted it was resounding majority victory for Leinster who right now are without question rightfully standing on top of the pile as the leading lights of Irish rugby.

I could go on now and list the endless faults in the Munster game plan and the moments of brilliance shown by Leinster in theirs on the way to their 30-0 drumming of Munster but for those people that know me well many of whom I would have socialised with in Kiely’s of Donnybrook when I lived for many a year’s within a stone’s throw of the Leinster ground, you will know how hard it is for me to say the following but also how meant it is.

And therefore in closing this week all I’m going to do is tip my hat at every single one of the Leinster team and their fans alike and say that it was a great win by what clearly are a much improved team and deserving holders of the Heineken cup.

Well done one and all….

With the returns to selection of Paul O’Connell, David Wallace, Niall Ronan, Keith Earls, Jerry Flannery, Ian Dowling, Peter Stringer, Paul Warwick and Denis Leamy coach Tony McGahan really has the cream of the Munster team to select from and I don’t think anyone should be under delusions that the current Heineken Cup champions despite having home advantage are going to have it easy in anyway.

With a very impressive debut last week of Jean de Villiers and some sublime play from Nick Williams showing that Munster may well have found at long last an outstanding No8 something they were missing for some time we can certainly expect the Leinster defence to be tested to the fullest and in return a great game of rugby and more importantly hopefully we will get to see the full use of as many players as possible to give McGahan a good idea of the strongest team for the following weeks encounter with Northampton Saints in their opening game of the Heineken Cup.

Forwards: M Horan, J Hayes, T Buckley, D Fogarty, J Flannery, D O’Callaghan, M O’Driscoll, P O’Connell, D Ryan, D Leamy, N Ronan, D Wallace, N Williams, A Quinlan.

Backs: T O’Leary, T Morland, P Stringer, R O’Gara, P Warwick, J de Villiers, L Mafi, D Howlett, I Dowling,

This week saw the much needed return of the British & Irish Lions pairing of Ronan O’Gara and Donncha O’Callaghan it was also expected that Paul O’Connell would make his debut this season when he was named in the original squad but was later withdrawn due to a hamstring problem. Elsewhere in the squad the injury that Nall Ronan suffered in the Scarlets game and the continued absence of David Wallace meant that Tommy O’Donnell gets to wear the number 7 jersey with Kiwi born Nick Williams returning from a knee injury to anchor the scrum. Making his much anticipated debut for Munster was Jean de Villiers in place of Keith Earls due to a late injury sustained by Earls ruling him out, Felix Jones therefore moved to full back with Barry Murphy moving to the wing with Denis Hurley on the other flank leaving De Villiers to complete the the mid-field pairing with Lifeimi Mafi.

And what a week in the world of rugby and the introduction of some key missing players from the opening three games of the season can make to the performance of Munster, the returning Nick Williams was just outstanding in scoring three of the homes sides four tries on the day with the other coming from a fellow southern hemisphere player in Doug Howlett who scored his 11^th try since joining Munster. The debutant Jean de Villiers likewise had a very impressive opening game in front of the Cork crowd showing that Munster have the makings of a world class set up in the centre with De Villiers, Mafi and Earls forming what could be a extremely effective unit in weeks to coming and providing Ronan O’Gara with all sort of options.

Overall the home side seemed a much improved and cohesive unit than in previous weeks conceding much less penalties than in the opening games and only managing to pick up one sin-binning for Ronan O’Gara in the second half for what all-in-all was a moment of stupidest but with the big game next Saturday against old the rivals Leinster at the RDS, Munster certainly have taken the psychological advantage by picking up a bonus point 27-3 victory to place them 2^nd in the Magners League above Leinster.

I still think there is a good bit of work to be done by Munster in the coming weeks and they are certainly going to have very tough games against Leinster next week and against a much in form Northampton Saints in there opening game of the Heineken Cup a week later.

Munster: Jean de Villiers; Felix Jones, Barry Murphy, Lifeimi Mafi, Denis Hurley; Ronan O’Gara, Tomas O’Leary; Marcus Horan, Denis Fogarty, Tony Buckley; Mick O’Driscoll, Donncha O’Callaghan; Alan Quinlan, Tommy O’Donnell, Nick Williams.

Replacements: Damian Varley, Julien Brugnaut, Donnacha Ryan, James Coughlan, Toby Morland, Jeremy Manning, Doug Howlett.

Dragons: Martyn Thomas; Aled Brew, Tom Riley, Ashley Smith (capt), Richard Fussell; James Arlidge, Wayne Evans; Hugh Gustafson, Steve Jones, Nigel Hall, Adam Jones, Rob Sidoli, Dan Lydiate, James Harris, Joe Bearman.

Replacements: Duane Goodfield, Ali McKenzie, Gethin Robinson, Grant Webb, Hoani MacDonald, Shaun Connor, Danny Lee

So here we are week three of the Magners League campaign and with one win and one loss under our their Belts Munster are away facing Scarlets who with a similar starting record so far this season the visitors could do with coming away from Parc y Scarlets with a bonus point win to get them back in the top half of the table.

Off the pitch this week Munster welcomed the much anticipated arrival of Jean De Villiers and after passi9ng the mandatory medical and fitness test he will starting training with the squad this week.

The match itself got started with some excellent early signs from the Scarlets that they intended to bring it to the visitors  and that early pressure was rewarded when Priestland had the chance to give the Scarlets a 3 point lead after Munster conceded a penalty just within their own half at the breakdown after only 90 seconds however Priestland was unable to convert. Scarlets however kept on very good early pressure by the ball brilliantly recycling of the ball and earn themselves another penalty on the Munster 22 after 5mins due to some sloppy Munster play which thankful for Munster Priestland was again unable to convert.

Munster managed to mount their first offence move on 6mins after Scarlets where penalised for holding on in the tackle however this was to be short lived yet again after more sloppy play which lead to Leamy being sin binned on 7mins for going offside at a ruck. Scarlets continued to show great continuity and rightfully earn themselves another penalty in front of the Munster posts due to yet more sloppy play from Munster following which referee Alain Rolland instructs O’Driscoll to have a talk with the Munster players before he sends someone else to the sin bin, Priestland successfully converted this penalty to give the Scarlets a 3-0 lead on 11mins.

Manning missed another chance on 14mins to draw the side’s level after Munster stepped up the intensity for a few minutes but unfortunately he pushed it wide. The visitors however continued to show a little more fighting sprit with only 14 men and on the 19^th minute were rewarded when Manning converted a penalty to level the sides at 3-3.

A 14 man Munster continued to assert excellent pressure and they were rewarded on 24mins when Denis Hurley went over the Scarlets try line to add the first try of the match which Manning successfully converted to give the defending Magners League champions a 10-3 lead. Munster continued pressure was rewarded with another penalty opportunity on 27mins which again Manning failed to convert leaving the scores at 10-3.

In a unusually bad referring decision by Alain Rolland on the 28^th min Donncha Ryan was sent to the sin bin for allegedly taking out Daniel Evans in the air and for the second time in three games where reduced to 13men.  Unsurprisingly the Scarlets took very quick advantage of their numbers and on 32 min Declan Manu went across the Munster try line to ultimately level the scores after a successful conversion from Priestland at 10-10 at half time.

The Scarlets game out strong again in the second half and reclaimed the lead on 45mins when debutant Gareth Maule’s clever offload sent Daniel Evans through before Priestland’s pass and a supporting drive took skipper Jones over the line for the fly-half to convert and give the Scarlets a 17-10 lead. The following 10mins was saw equal amounts of pressure from both sides with the only real notable event being a collision between Howlett and Jones when the wing took a heavy blow to the face whilst challenging for the ball in the air which he soon recovered from.

The visitors however kept up the pressure and on the 53rd minute they were rewarded for their efforts with a try by Toby Morland after the Scarlets scrum-half was ambushed by Quinlan, unfortunately Munster where however to be denied the opportunity of levelling the scores when Manning had to suffer the indignity of seeing his simple, close-range conversion rebound off the upright to leave the scores at 17-15.

There was very little to write home about from either side in the following 20mins until with 8mins left of regular time left to go Scarlets full-back Daniel Evans punished more Munster indiscipline at the breakdown to earn the home side a penalty which he duly converted to give the Scarlets a 20-15 lead.

Munster however were far from finished and in typical Munster fashion they conjured a great score by Hurley deep into closing minutes when he rounded Manu and held off Maule before bursting over the try line for his second try of the evening and on this occasion Manning managed to add the extra points to give Munster a ultimate 20-22 victory.

I think it goes without saying though as true fan Munster didn’t deserve the win and they still have serious issues with their indiscipline and sloppy play and you have to wonder if it’s not time to bring back into the team the likes of Nick Williams, Tomas O’Leary, Ian Dowling, Ciaran O’Boyle, Alan Quinlan, Paul O’Connell, Jean De Villiers, Ronan O’Gara, John Hayes and Donncha O’Callaghan many of whom we will hopefully see enter the squad for the next week’s visit of the Newport Gwent Dragons because with only two Magners League matches left before the opening match of this year’s Heineken Cup campaign away to an inform Northampton Saints the current performances will not be enough to chase for that fourth title.

Scarlets: Iestyn Thomas, Ken Owens, Deacon Manu, Lou Reed, Dominic Day, Simon Easterby, Dafydd Jones, David Lyons, Martin Roberts, Rhys Priestland, Mark Jones (c), Jonathan Davies, Gareth Maule, Sean Lamont, Daniel Evans.

Replacements: Phil John for Iestyn Thomas (55), Vernon Cooper for Lou Reed (55), Richie Pugh for Dafydd Jones (55).

Tries: Deacon Manu (34), Mark Jones (45) Conversions: Rhys Priestland (35, 46) Penalties: Rhys Priestland (13), Daniel Evans (77).

Munster: Julien Brugnaut, Damien Varley, John Hayes, Donnacha Ryan, Mick O’Driscoll (c), Alan Quinlan, Niall Ronan, Denis Leamy, Toby Morland, Jeremy Manning, Denis Hurley, Lifeimi Mafi, Barry Murphy, Doug Howlett, Felix Jones.

Replacements: Tommy O’Donnell for Niall Ronan (40), Tony Buckley for Julien Brugnaut (46), Denis Fogarty for Damien Varley (57), Tomas O’Leary for Toby Morland (66), Tom Gleeson for Barry Murphy (72).

Tries: Denis Hurley (25, 80+), Toby Morland (56) Conversions: Jeremy Manning (26, 80+) Penalties: Jeremy Manning (20). Cards: 9: Denis Leamy – Yellow, 31: Donnacha Ryan – Yellow.

Referee: Alain Rolland (Ireland)

Attendance: 6,313

Wow what a difference in the world of Rugby a week can make with Munster bounding back from their 22–9 loss last week at the hands of Glasgow in their opening match of the 2009/10 Magners League campaign by beating Cardiff Blues 24-13 at Thomond Park their eighth successive competitive win on home soil.

Prior to the kick-off a minute’s silence was observed for Ralph Murphy, the exceedingly likeable and admired Munster Branch president of three years ago, who sadly passed away during the week.

What is more impressive from a Munster perspective is not withstanding the return of with John Hayes & Alan Quinlan they still have Darragh Hurley, Jerry Flannery, Nick Williams, Tomas O’Leary, Ian Dowling, Ciaran O’Boyle, Paul O’Connell, Jean De Villiers, Ronan O’Gara and Donncha O’Callaghan still to debut this season which makes this week’s win against a Cardiff Blues team littered with international players even more encouraging.

It would be fair to also say in the Cardiff Blues defence that Munster didn’t have the game all their own way and where on reflection still lacking seriously the much needed continuity that will land them another Magners League title and more importantly that much coveted 4^th Heineken Cup title after conceding a large number of penalties due to the changed laws at the breakdown.

The game in large also took some time to get going and it wasn’t until the 21^st minute that much of the Munster pressure was rewarded after Manning  converted a penalty to give the home team a 3-0 lead, this was to lead to a flourish of scores when only two mins later Ben Blair levelled the scores at 3-3 as a result of a penalty against Howlett for holding on,  however Manning soon had the opportunity to put the current Magners League champions back in the lead at 6-3 following another lineout steal lead in the main by the ever present Alan Quinlan and Mick O’Driscoll when Cardiff pushed up too early on the 26^th Minute. Shortly after this on the 32minute Marcus Horan barged is way over the Cardiff Blues try line to score the first try of the game which was duly converted by Manning to give the home side a 16-3 lead. This was soon countered by the Cardiff Blues however when on the 39^thminute Xavier Rush sprinted over the Munster try line to score the only try of the game for the visitors which was successfully converted by Ben Blair to leave the scores at 16-10 at half time.

Munster had their lead shortened to 16-13 on the 43^rd minute after Ben Blair successfully converted yet another needless conceded penalty from Munster for being offside. Manning however soon restored the home teams lead to 19-13 on the 47^th Minute after Maama Molitika was sin binned for a late and high tackle on Manning. Munster where then held up just short of the line as they applied the pressure once again via Buckley, Varley and Horan, however Munster were rewarded from the following scrum when they broke to the blindside and from the ensuing tackle Howlett made the ball available and Leamy reached out over his head to ground the ball on the 60^th minute for the home sides 2nd second try unfortunately Manning could not add the conversion on this occasion and the score was left at 24-13.

Following on from this passage of play the following 20mins where reasonably uneventful with the exception of Lifeimi Mafi being sin binned for kicking out the ball in the 74th minute but Cardiff Blues were unable to take advantage of their numerical advantage as they chased a try which could have earned them a valuable bonus point.

I think all in all a big step was taken in the right direction by a more comfortable looking Munster team but they are still conceding to many needless penalties which could ultimately end up hurting the against much stiffer opposition later in the season in both their Magners League and Heineken cup campaigns.

Munster: F Jones; D Howlett, B Murphy, L Mafi, D Hurley; J Manning, P Stringer; M Horan, D Fogarty, J Hayes, M O’Driscoll, capt, D Ryan; A Quinlan, N Ronan, D Leamy.

Replacements: D Varley, T Buckley, B Holland, T O’Donnell, T Morland, S Deasy, T Gleeson.

Cardiff Blues: Ben Blair, Leigh Halfpenny, Gareth Thomas, Dafydd Hewitt, Chris Czekaj, Ceri Sweeney, Gareth Cooper, John Yapp, Rhys Thomas, Taufa’ao Filise, Deiniol Jones, Paul Tito, Maama Molitika, Robin Sowden-Taylor, Xavier Rush.

Replacements: Gary Powell, Gareth Williams, Scott Morgan, Andy Powell, Richie Rees, Sam Norton-Knight, Dafydd James.

Munster named a strong squad earlier in the week for their Magners League opener which was missing many of the Lions & Ireland stars who will not feature in this seasons campaign until week four however included in the 25 man strong squad was Paul Warwick who retired with a foot injury in the early stages of the pre season warm up game against Leicester Tigers last weekend, also included where the try scorers, Denis Hurley, Damien Varley and Felix Jones,  from last Friday’s game as well as the return of Doug Howlett, Lifeimi Mafi, Jeremy Manning and Tony Buckley, all of whom had been named in the team to face Leicester the week before but then withdrew.

From the kick off Munster gave a very promising and strong start attacking the Glasgow line well and coming away with 3 points after 7 minutes thanks to a converted penalty by Jeremy Manning for their efforts, unfortunately however that seemed to be the best of what was to come from Munster on the night with Glasgow clearly still full of confidence after last week’s final warm-up win against Guinness Premiership side Wasps .

And it was really from this point on that Glasgow turned up the heat and showed good attacking flair which was started by the Argentinean full-back Bernardo Stortoni’s run from within in the Glasgow defence which they were rewarded for with a penalty at the break down which was converted by Dan Parks to level the scores at 3 all and this was to hail what would be the start of some 40mins + of domination by Glasgow with Munster failing to score during this time.

With Glasgow now holding a 6-3 lead following another Parks conversion and growing in confidence with every touch of the ball and playing a very impressive attacking game everything seemed to be going against Munster until they won a penalty at the break down to give Manning a chance at levelling the scores after 25mins from just on the half way line only for his kick to drift wide of the near upright.

Immediately following on from this however Munster where back under pressure when Parks delivered what was a wonderfully weighted cross-field kick aimed at Glasgow flanker Kelly Brown which was covered brilliantly by Munster lock Donnacha Ryan who’s 6’7” height advantage undoubtedly prevented an early try concession by Munster and kept the scores at 6-3.

With Parks missing his second penalty kick of the night just short of the 30min mark Munster had to be collectively sharing a big sigh of relief after what had been a very impressive and full on 20mins of pressure by Glasgow, however this was to be very short lived after what can only be described as a ugly but non-intentional take out in the air from the restart of fly-half Chris Cusiter by Donnacha Ryan which gave Glasgow possession again and lead to Munster being penalised on 32mins for illegally stopping the Glasgow maul and Parks made no mistake this time in converting the penalty to give the home team a 9-3 lead.

That really was to be the last of the action of the first half until on 40mins Peter Stringer was shown the yellow card & sin binned for not rolling away in the tackle affording Parks yet another easy shot at the posts which he dully converted to give Glasgow and 12-3 lead at the break.

A 14 man Munster came out strong in the second half and certainly played the better of the opening rugby in the first 5mins despite displaying some uncharacteristic handling errors which ultimately resulted in Glasgow turning over the ball deep in their own 22 and making a good break which won them a penalty on 45mins which Parks pulled wide giving Munster a little more breathing space.

With the reintroduction of Peter Stringer on the 50min mark Munster continued to defend well and attack equally as well and looked to be a more together and threatening team in the opening 12mins of the second half with what looked for a second to be a try coming for Doug Howlett, however Munster won a penalty 53mins which Manning converted to bring the scores to 12-6 and more so give Munster their first point for 46mins.

Munster continued to apply the pressure in the second half and on 55mins they made changes to the front row & scrum half with the introductions Tommy O’Donnell, Damien Varley & Julien Brugnaut which further strengthened the Munster fight back in the second half with the winning of a penalty on 58mins for Glasgow coming up in the scrum which Manning converted to bring the scores back to 12-9.

However the Munster fight back was to be short lived when a resurgent Glasgow won a penalty on 64mins as a result of Manning being sin-binned for a professional foul giving Dan Parks another shot at the post which he converted to restore a six point lead for Glasgow of 15-9.

That really seemed to be the final turning point in the match for Munster and their chances of winning with further handling errors and silly tackles being made again and the ball subsequently being handed to Glasgow more and more.  This was further compounded on 67mins when Ruaridh Jackson after only being on the pitch for 60seconds scored the game’s only try of the night which was converted by the replacement scrum-half Mark McMillian to extend the Glasgow lead to 22-9. Unfortunately for Ruaridh Jackson however the joy of scoring the try was short lived as he was taken off after he dislocated his shoulder in the process.

That passage of play was to be the end of any notable play in the second half and Glasgow ultimately game away with the win at 22-9.

Personally I think despite a few different reviews i’ve read myself this morning and as a Munster fan we have no needs for concern at losing to who on the night where the better team in Glasgow and have to take solace in the fact that we still have Darragh Hurley, Jerry Flannery, Nick Williams, Tomas O’Leary, Ian Dowling, Ciaran O’Boyle, Alan Quinlan, Paul O’Connell, Jean De Villiers, Ronan O’Gara, John Hayes and Donncha O’Callaghan still to debut this season.

Man of the Match: Chris Cusiter (Glasgow)

Attendance: 3,654

Scorers for Glasgow: R Jackson try; D Parks 5 pens, M McMillan con.

Scorers for Munster: J Manning 3 pens.

Munster: F Jones; D Howlett, T Gleeson, L Mafi, D Hurley; J Manning, P Stringer; M Horan, D Fogarty, T Buckley; M O’Driscoll, capt, D Ryan; B Holland, N Ronan, D Leamy.

Replacements: D Varley, J Brugnaut, T O’Donnell, J Coughlan, T Morland, S Deasy, B Murphy.

Glasgow : B Stortoni; R Dewey, P Murchie, G Morrison, T Evans; D Parks, C Cusiter; J Welsh, D Hall, M Low, T Barker, A Kellock (capt), K Brown, J Barclay, J Beattie.

Replacements: P MacArthur, K Tkachuk, D Turner, R Vernon, M McMillan, R Jackson, C Shaw.

I have to admit that there are extenuating circumstances that came to light during the investigation into the now notorious incident which occurred during the Harlequins V Leinster Heineken Cup tie in April when wing Tom Williams faked injury to allow fly-half Nick Evans to return to the field but these bans are just crazy and I don’t think anyone can disagree that new rules & regulations need to be introduced.

A very sad day for the world of Rugby and I’d like to send my thoughts out to Dean Richards, Steph Brennan & Tom Williams all of whom seem to have been made scapegoats in this situation.

I’m absolutely amazed that first of all that the player originally at the centre of all of this Tom Williams had his original 12 Month ban reduced to four months which essentially comes to an end on the 19 November 2009, whilst Dean Richards & Steph Brennan have essentially received a combined ban from participating in any capacity in ERC tournaments for 5 years with a recommendation that other tournaments and Governing Bodies give effect to this suspension in their tournaments.

Now I’m fully appreciative of the fact that during the hearing it seems to have transpired that on four other occasions in non ERC competitions Richards and Brennan had fabricated a wound or blood injury which is without question unforgivable but was that taken into consideration by the ERC in making their decision and if so is this how they came up with these ridiculously long bans.

The biggest part of this that however that I find interesting is that whilst the fine imposed on Harlequins was increased to 300,000 Euro which it must pay in full by 1 December 2009 opposed to the original 250,000 euro fine imposed on Harlequins, of which 50% was suspended for two years they don’t seem to have been banned from participating in any upcoming ERC tournaments which given that the ERC have essentially recommended that Dean Richards should be unemployable for three years.

Anyway to mind the bans handed down seem to be completely over the top and I honestly think that the reputation and future career of one of the most respected and influential coaches of the modern game Dean Richards has been tarnished beyond repair.

Full details of the hearings findings etc can be found on the ERC website or for further comments from Dean Richards you can find them on the Sky News Website but I’d like to hear your thoughts and comments also.