GEORGE HOOK WILL offer his views on Six Nations action to the country for the final time this weekend.
The veteran pundit will bow out after the tournament finale on Saturday. But despite young pretenders like Shane Horgan, Ronan O’Gara and Conor O’Shea ensuring the future of rugby punditry in Montrose remains bright, Hook insists he won’t be watching.
“One thing, without a shred of BS,” he told his Newstalk colleague Pat Kenny earlier, “I will never watch the panel, like honestly. And the way the game is going I don’t know if I’ll watch the game. It’s not an attractive game to watch now.”
Hook expected to go out on the high of a world cup later this year but TV3 ultimately won the rights.
“It’s sayonara to the old television. I mean I’m very comfortable about that. Everybody seems to ask me will I miss it and how do I feel. I won’t. The key thing about the decision is after you make it you start to regret it, it was a pretty bad decision,” he says.
“But I made this decision two years. I went to the head of sport in RTÉ and I said look I want to go after the World Cup. We miscalculated that of course.
“But I won’t have any difficulty at all and it’s time to go. I don’t want to be nailed to the seat and some television executive half my age coming up to me and saying ‘you know would you think about retiring’.”
Hook is grand marshall at the Cork St Patrick’s Day parade this afternoon.
James French is in the academy and he was an Irish u20 international. Keep investing in youth
@Patrick O Connell: James French is also injured
@Aaron: cheers, didn’t know that
As long as Cronin stays fit they may aswell back Wycherley as cover. In a pinch, John Ryan could probably switch back across to LH if needed too.
@Johnny 5: with Archer, Roman and Knox covering the tight head
@Johnny 5: I think with Ryan likely to remain involved with Ireland, depending on 2 LHs probably leaves things a bit tight. Even if someone was brought in and they were only there behind Cronin and Wycherley it’d be the right thing to do. Even a small injury to either leaves Munster in a lot of bother.
@Jim Demps: You don’t fancy giving James French a try?
@Kevin Ryan: I’m open to correction but he switched to TH over a year ago.
@Jim Demps: I certainly don’t have info to the contrary. That’s a shame though (imo), both because of the current need for a LH, and the signing of Salanoa (in addition to Knox) of a similar age suggests it will be tough for French to break through at TH
@Kevin Ryan: I guess at the time of the move there’d have been less of a need for a LH with probably 5 guys ahead of him, 3 of whom are of a young age. On the TH side another 1 or 2 years will see archer gone and Ryan getting on so there’s plenty of room for both Salanoa, Knox and French.
@Jim Demps: French is injured anyway
Great to hear Wiggys input. So refreshing to hear a coach not use endless cliché s.
It’s great to see Munster trust their young home grown players, it will do the players and the team the world of good in the long run.