The Bull surveys his field

I was lucky enough (thanks Alan) to get along to Croke Park on Saturday, 22nd December to see Ireland take on Argentina in a friendly international (although there was, and is always an edge to matches against the Puma’s due to the recent history between the two teams). Here are some photo’s from the match…

I must admit that the match was a little underwhelming after the excitement of the Munster — All Blacks match on the previous Tuesday. It was an ill-tempered match, due to the recent history between the two teams, Argentina suffered the loss of two of their most influential players before kickoff. After 60 minutes of a slug fest, Ireland opened up a lead in the last quarter to win 17–6. Here are some more shots from the match:

And finally, here is a panorama created from 14 shots. I originally tried this in Photoshop CS3 but found too many “merge” artifacts. I then tried Microsoft Research ICE (Image Composite Editor) and it did a fantastic job on it. This is the small size, the full size one is 56 megapixels!

You can also check them out on Flickr here.

ROG lines up a penalty for Munster against the Glasgow Warriors

“To the Brave and Faithful, Nothing is impossible”

Munster Rugby made a winning return at Thomond Park last Saturday night after its reconstruction. What a beautiful stadium! Still a few issues to sort out (need more score boards, screens, and the sound system needs tuning), but there was a huge crowd and great atmosphere, as the boys beat the Glasgow Warriors in the Magners league to start a new era of “Fortress Thomond”.

See more photo’s after the break…

All photo’s were taken with a Canon EOS 20D at either ISO 800 or 1600. I used two lenses, a Canon EF 70-300IS and a Sigma 12-24HSM.  I manage (and upload to Flickr) with Adobe Lightroom.