Welcome to Whiff of Cordite, the rugby nerd’s blog.
We are:
Egg Chaser is a Dublin-based Belfast-born Ulster and Ireland fan. He spends a lot of time reading, watching and pontificating about rugger with Mini-Egg (born Novemeber 2010) and their dog, Tommy Bowe, while Mrs Egg tires of the constant references to Matt Banahan’s hands. Egg enjoys seeing rugby played and debated with intelligence, verve and honesty. He prefers to see players in their natural positions, and has an aversion to converted forwards in the back-line. Egg’s rugby heroes include Stephen Ferris, Stephen Larkham, Den Caddah, Ronan O’Gara and Stuart Barnes.
Palla Ovale is a North Dublin-dwelling Leinster and Ireland Rugby fan. A season ticket holder at the RDS, he can regularly be seen at the ground roaring loudly and fearing the worst, with Mrs Ovale and Little Ovale. Palla’s rugby heroes include Sergio Parisse, Maxime Medard, David Wallace, Jamie Heaslip and His Bodness. He has a bias towards passing scrum halves, hookers who can throw and backs who can catch, pass and run. Stick around, and follow us on Twitter @WhiffofCordite and on on our Facebook page.
Whiff of Cordite 
Pat
/ April 2, 2012Hi Egg Chaser / Palla
Just a quick comment about your new layout:
The right-side of the vote buttons are being overlaid by the first 2 letters of their text (viewed with IE 8 on XP). Maybe the question-text just needs a bit more padding/spacing?
(I can send a screengrab if this is not clear.)
Keep up the good work – you guys, the Mole, 99, Talking Rugby podcast are the only things that make this dire season for Ireland bearable through the disappointing WC/6N!
Thanks
Pat
whiffofcordite
/ April 2, 2012Hi Pat – thanks for that, it’s happening for me too. Looks fine on Firefox and iphone but not so much on IE8 at work. We’ll try and get to the bottom of it.
And thanks for your kind words, we’ll try to keep it up!
PO
John Reid
/ February 20, 2013Up until the previous three weeks I had been a huge fan of the work and publishings of this website.
Have to say with regards to the recent articles written and general correspondence I’ve read over the last few weeks, the bias nature and views that lean towards Ulster / blatant favoritism for them to be selected in the national team have made me decided to stop following and reading your blog.
I don’t understand how you can question Gerry Thornely correspondence with snide comments on twitter with regards his views.
whiffofcordite
/ February 22, 2013Sorry to hear that John. One of the two us is from Ulster, and we don’t hide that we are first and foremost rugby fans, so while we try to be objective, it’s probable that some bias will creep into our work now and again! We’re a bit perplexed though; this week we wrote at length about our favouring of Madigan over Jackson for selection, and the only selection calls we’ve been vocal about in recent times regarding an Ulster player is the peculiar treatment of Tom Court, who has gone from out of the squad straight into the 15, and Chris Henry, who most accepted was very unlucky to miss out; though we were quick to acknowledge that O’Mahony merited his place after the Wales match. We also called for Fitzgerald ahead of Gilroy, and we still think that would be a better pick. But there you go.
Ulster fans (never shy about campaigning for their men to be picked in green!) have been vocal about the claims of Cave, Trimble and Henderson but their names have not featured on our pages.
sportiseverything
/ March 17, 2013Hello,
Richard Barrett here, I’m currently launching a sports website in Ireland called Sport Is Everything and we are looking for contributors for our rugby section.If possible could you send me an email at sportiseverything@hotmail.co.uk. Thanks.
John
/ February 5, 2015quick question for you if you don’t mind…..how many turnovers did Peter O’Mahony win in last years six nations I think 8…..the wife’s company (who sponsor part of the 6Ns is running a competitions). Thank you in advance John
whiffofcordite
/ February 5, 2015Yes indeed. And Chris Henry had 7, one and two in the tournament
John
/ February 5, 2015Thank you…..Chris Henry was immense wishing him a complete recovery he’s gonna be needed 9 months time.
Carol
/ September 22, 2015Hi Guys,
I hope you’re all well.
My name is Carol Hurley and I work for the O’Brien Press. We have a new Irish sports book coming out that we think might interest you. For more information you can email me at carolhurley@obrien.ie.
Thanks!
whiffofcordite
/ September 22, 2015Sounds interesting … who is the author?
Tom
/ February 2, 2016Hi
I am an expat living in Rome and have seen the groundswell of support for Rugby grow and grow since Italy were made part of the 6 Nations Rugby tournament.
With every year that passes, the Italian sympathy and love for Rugby increases. I don’t know whether you know or not therefore that the Commune di Roma (Rome’s city council) has announced that fans travelling to the Stadio Olimpico for this years 6 Nations Rugby can get free entry into many museums and galleries by presenting their match ticket.
I wrote an article about it here if you would like to repost it or reference it on your blog.
http://eternalcitytours.com/news/2016/02/02/we-love-six-nations-rugby-in-rome/
Anyway, keep up the good work!
Tom
Graham Ross
/ March 25, 2016Hi guys,
First up, I’m an avid reader of the blog & follower of yours on Twitter. Love the work.
Second up, I’m involved as a co-founder in an exciting new Irish high performance sports start up called PSA Academies (www.psaacademies.com) with an old rugby college friend Ian Lewis and his friend Philippe Saint Andre. Our main focus for 2016 is the Tignes Rugby Academy and as a taster for this (and a dry run for the coaching team under Philippe), we’re holding an Open Training Day in conjunction with http://www.rugbycamps.ie, in RACE, Kildare Town on Saturday 9th April (https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7dsl26oacpbt2xa/AAAyyLhZ8rt3FQMCKJ_TCeyKa?dl=0). I was hoping to maybe invite you guys along so if you can email me on grahamross76gmail.com, I can send you on more details.
Yours in rugby,
Graham
Graham Ross
PSA Academies
https://www.linkedin.com/company/psa-academies
whiffofcordite
/ April 1, 2016Hi mate – thanks for the kind words. You have read some of the stuff we said about PSA right? 🙂
Sounds very interesting mate, but I’m actually at the Clontarf minis blitz that day unfortunately. But do keep in touch, hopefully we can do something in the future!
Thanks
johnrcash
/ June 1, 2016Have yiz stopped writing since mid April or were the last few games in the Pro 12 not worth mentioning?