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So Keaney back on the panel and now Tom Ryan from Limerick has transferred to Cuala/Dublin - interesting summer beckons anyway

I'd say more an over reliance on pain killers and anti inflamatories. Look I'm no chemist, nor do I have a degree in sports science. But when I see the size of these lads, the punishment they take, the pain they are in and then they just do it all again a week later, you have to wonder.

Absolutely - there's recovery and then there's "recovery"

What do our Rugby followers think of this story https://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/munster-rugby/everybody-makes-mistakes-van-graan-willing-to-forgive-munster-second-rows-doping-past-36474261.html

I'd be more with Ger Gilroy's stance on it below then the coache's tbh

"What does it say to anyone in the Munster academy when a known, confessed drugs cheat who has served a ban for taking an anabolic steroid is brought into the club?," Gilroy asked.

"What does it say to the fans? What do the Munster fans have to say about this? If you are a sponsor, are you happy to be associated with the fact that this guy is representing Munster, the province and by extension, Irish rugby, and the brands that are associated with it?

"I just don't think enough of a conversation has been had about this. I don't really feel very comfortable with the fact that Irish rugby has decided that we are going to be the ones who help drug cheats rehabilitate their reputation.

"I understand that people do a crime, serve the time and need to be rehabilitated so there is a bit of conflict in that aspect to it. Maybe if he has decided to dedicate his life to a drug-free spot, fair enough, I can see something in that but we haven't see that so far.

"More of a conversation needs to be had around this and frankly, I don't think Munster should be spending money rehabilitating drugs cheats."

France's most revered actress, Catherine Deneuve, hit out Tuesday at a new "puritanism" sparked by sexual harassment scandals, declaring that men should be "free to hit on" women.

She was one of around 100 French women writers, performers and academics who wrote an open letter deploring the wave of "denunciations" that has followed claims that Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted and harassed women over decades.

They called it a "witch-hunt" that they feel threatens sexual freedom.

"Rape is a crime, but trying to seduce someone, even persistently or cack-handedly, is not -- nor is being gentlemanly a macho attack," said the letter published in the daily Le Monde.

"Men have been punished summarily, forced out of their jobs when all they did was touch someone's knee or try to steal a kiss," said the letter, which was also signed by Catherine Millet, author of the hugely explicit 2002 memoir, "The Sexual Life of Catherine M.".

Men had been dragged through the mud, they argued, for "talking about intimate subjects during professional dinners or for sending sexually-charged messages to women who did not return their attentions."

'#MeToo witch-hunt'

The letter attacked feminist social media campaigns like #MeToo and its French equivalent #Balancetonporc (Call out your pig) for unleashing this "puritanical... wave of purification".

It claimed that "legitimate and necessary protest against the sexual violence that women are subject to, particularly in their professional lives", had turned into a witch-hunt.

"What began as freeing women up to speak has today turned into the opposite -- we intimidate people into speaking 'correctly', shout down those who don't fall into line, and those women who refused to bend" to the new realities "are regarded as complicit and traitors."

It also helped foster "this Victorian idea that women were mere children who had to be protected," the letter argued.

Some women who were strong enough to demand equal pay, it claimed, would "not be traumatised forever by a fondler on the metro", even if it is a crime, preferring to see it as a "non-event".

The signatories -- which included a porn star-turned-agony aunt -- claimed they were defending sexual freedom, for which "the liberty to seduce and importune was essential."

Oscar-nominated Deneuve, 74, is best known internationally for playing a bored housewife who spends her afternoons as a prostitute in Luis Bunuel classic 1967 film "Belle de Jour".

Deneuve has made no secret of her annoyance at social media campaigns to shame men accused of harassing women.

"I don't think it is the right method to change things, it is excessive," she said last year, referring to the #MeToo hashtag. "After 'Calling out your pig' what are we going to have, 'Call out your whore?'" she said.

"Instead of helping women, this frenzy to send these (male chauvinist) 'pigs' to the abattoir actually helps the enemies of sexual liberty -- religious extremists and the worst sort of reactionaries," the collective of women who signed the letter said.

"As women we do not recognise ourselves in this feminism, which beyond denouncing the abuse of power, takes on a hatred of men and of sexuality."

They insisted that women were "sufficiently aware that the sexual urge is by its nature wild and aggressive. But we are also clear-eyed enough not to confuse an awkward attempt to pick someone up with a sexual attack."

The spectacle of men being forced into "public confessions... and having to rack their brains and apologise for 'inappropriate behaviour' that might have happened 10, 20 or 30 years before... recalled totalitarian societies," the letter went on.

This "puritan wave" was already bringing censorship in its wake, the women insisted, claiming that some of them had already been asked to make the male characters in their writing "less sexist", and told to tone down certain scenes to "better show the trauma suffered by female characters".

Deneuve sparked an outcry last March for her fulsome support of French-based director Roman Polanski, who is still wanted in the United States for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

While his victim Samantha Geimer wants the case dropped so she can get on with her life, Deneuve told French television that "she always found the word 'rape' excessive" in the circumstances.

The French broadcasting watchdog later called her comments "retrograde".

How many here pay the second captains subscription fee ?

I do - Don 't listen to them all but think its worth it per month

Definite genius behaviour 

Shocking news alright. Condolences to his family and friends

Great Podcast from Off the Ball yesterday. Paul Kimmage, Padraig Harrington and Joe Molloy doing the sports paper review. Harrington is great, just an interesting man.

Listened to it last night - Harrington is great to listen to alright Dinny. 

I've said it before on this thread but if you're interested in how the 2016 election was won you need to watch Greg Palast's the Best Democracy Money Can Buy

Though I see Trump used the cover of this Bannon controversy to quietly disband his 'voting commission' which he claimed would prove 3 million people voted illegally for Clinton. Unlikely he'll concede there was no evidence to support his claims of voting fraud. More switch & bait.

Wasn't sure where to post this but never gets old really

I still send cards every Christmas. About 40 I'd say between Uncles, Aunts, Friends and Cousins.

+1 - a nice tradition

https://twitter.com/CBSNews

Interesting press conference from some of Trumps accusers - incredible that he seems teflon on it

 

Jesus. I thought Loma would win handily as I wasn't sure what offense Rigo could manage but didn't see him quitting like that.

Talk of injured hands or not, fight was only going one way and would have been a 12 round beat down.

Disappointing to say the least.

+1 - very disappointing

Nfl.com says the Eagles believe Wentz has tore his acl. It is a tough break for the Eagles if true. They were on course for a super bowl appearance.

Very frustrating alright. Good win but could be expensive