u/Bane_of_Balor — reddlx

So a few years ago, I bought a H&S Infinity CR Plus 2-in-1 kit (pre 2024 version) which you may know came with a 0.15 nozzle upgrade, which clogs far to often to be useful for my purposes (miniature painting).

I ended up almost exclusively using the 0.4mm nozzle, but it's not quite fine enough for some purposes.

I was looking to get a 0.2mm kit, and I now have two options: the 0.28mm kit (detail), or the 0.25mm kit (uberdetail) with the titanium nozzle. I might be wrong, but I assume that the 0.25 is the newer of the two, since it explicitly mentions the titanium nozzle, but I believe that both are compatible. I can't imagine that the 0.03mm makes any noticeable difference, but the 0.25 is ~€20 more expensive.

So my question basically boils down to this: is the titanium nozzle worth the ~40% upcharge over the older 0.28mm kit?

We've had a pretty turgid time of it these past 2 or 3 years. Munster last year, Ulster & Leinster this year. Connacht seem to go through big injury spells every season or so.

I don't watch club rugby outside of the provinces, but when I watch the European games, it seems as though most teams can field their key guys most of the time, but that just might be a bias on my part.

Is this fairly standard, a reflection on the age of our current best crop of players, or something systemic in Irish rugby?

The French and English teams give nowhere near as many player protections for internationals as we do, but their players seem to actually spend less time injured. Is it a case of just their larger playing pools meaning only guys that can stay fit end up getting selected, or are the rest periods potentially hurting our players? Looking at the guys who actually play the most, they tend to get the least amount of rest. Doris, Conan, Beirne, Crowley, JGP all tend to put in massive shifts for club & country, but are rotated less frequently. (And yes, I know that "of course they play more games when they're fit more often", my point is though that some other guys get rotated even though they're fit, and appear to het injured more often). Even looking at the likes of TOB, who was riddled with injuries for years, but as soon as he starts getting regular game time, he's virtually injury free.

Of course, that could all just be bias too, and we aren't always told why players are being rested, it could be because they're at risk of injury, but I don't recall the lists of injuries in Irish rugby ever being this long. Some guys seemed to play almost year-round save for the odd extended injury. Now it feels like guys are getting injured, returning to play, having their minutes watched, only to get injured again.

I don't fully believe anything I've written above. It's just been a recurring thought I've had. But I'm also increasingly struggling to reassure myself that this is just an exceptional injury period in Irish rugby, and worry that this is the new norm, with virtually no provinces able to field their best 23 for more than a few games per season.

If there are any S&C people, people with more awareness of rugby outside of Ireland, or people with just more knowledge about rugby in general, what are your takes? Is this normal? is it an exceptional period? Or does it indicate something more systemic?