Magners League (2nd November 2007)

zAbbo

Friday, 02 November 2007
Glasgow v Ulster, 19:30
Leinster v Connacht, 19:30

Saturday, 03 November 2007
Munster v Edinburgh, 19:30

Thoughts?

Heading to the Leinster game myself, some rotation means we're starting without a placekicker (Sexton on bench).

Crash

Yeah i'll be at the leinster game - gotta go out and pick up my tickets for that and the leicester match cus the tickets got lost in the post

changes are -
Warner for sexton
Wright for Knoop
Fitzgerald for Kearney
Gleeson for Jennings

that all of em?

cruiserweight

I might go to the Ulster game undecided at this stage, I see that Humphries starts for them this week.

RuggieBear

i'll be at the leinster game....

expecting to somehow contrive a loss from the jaws of Victory.

I think warner is a decent enough player but i'd rather have an irish player in there. (especially since sexton can kick)

Marshy

zabbo wrote: »

Heading to the Leinster game myself, some rotation means we're starting without a placekicker (Sexton on bench).

Can't work that out at all I have to say. I remember a couple of times last season they tried that and Dempsey and Darcy were quite hopeless when they both had a go at the kicks. I suppose against Connacht they'll expect to rack up the tries but still its a strange one.

Crash

Peadar, any idea where the ticket collection point is located at the RDS?

wixfjord

Is it me or does cheika make some very strange decisions espec when it come to magners league games. Cant see the logic behind this at all, I mean its a derby and connacht shouldnt be treated lightly. Warners a go forward ball type of player but connacht have good forwards (good enough to match leinsters anyway:rolleyes:) so he may not even get this

RuggieBear

çrash_000 wrote: »

Peadar, any idea where the ticket collection point is located at the RDS?

not sure. sorry.

Paulw

çrash_000 wrote: »

Any idea where the ticket collection point is located at the RDS?

There is a ticket point on Simmonscourt Road. Not sure if that's the one you need, but it's one.

Should be a tight enough game tonight, but if Leinster can spread the ball around then the backs should do well.

Hopefully it will be a good game.

fuse

Do you need to have a ticket?
Or can you just pay in to the grounds?

Paulw

I don't think you can pay at the gate. Ticketmaster are the sellers, so try giving them a call and see about tickets. There is a ticketmaster van outside, but maybe that's only for ticket collections.

RuggieBear

A limited number of tickets can be purchased for tonight's match Leinster v Connacht (KO 7.30pm).

Tickets will be available at the ground, from the box office on Angelsea Road (opposite Herbert Park Hotel) and Simmonscourt Road.

They can be purchased from Spar Donnybrook and the Leinster Rugby Store Donnybrook.

You can also buy online, you can print your own ticket so you are sure to get it in time.

Click here to buy now

They can also be purchased from Ticketmaster outlets around Leinster, see below for full details.

Stev_o

Honestly if Leinster dont go out and win tonight by at least 20 points then god help them next week when they face Leicester cause it wont be pretty. For the life of me i cant understand that they have subbed Sexton when if you look at most of their matches he's the man who's either kept them in it or at least kept the score board ticking. Im only hoping that this means they will run everything or how else are they going to get points? Madness complete madness

zAbbo

A strange decision, but lets see what happens.

Everything will be run tonight

johnnyboy4711

hopefully we can match the money team up front and if we can anything can happen!
watch out for drop-goal donnelly!!!
slan
john
were 6/1 btw
we are not that bad! are leinster that good?
hopefully there will not be an IRFU ref,let it be 15 v 15!

RuggieBear

johnnyboy4711 wrote: »

hopefully we can match the money team up front and if we can anything can happen!
watch out for drop-goal donnelly!!!
slan
john
were 6/1 btw
we are not that bad! are leinster that good?
hopefully there will not be an IRFU ref,let it be 15 v 15!

you do know that the IRFU refs have a vendetta against Leinster?

Sabre0001

Big game for Munster with Stringer and O'Gara expected to line out...Need a boost here to be set up for the upcoming Heineken Cup fixtures! Really need the RWC Irish to shake off the rustiness and get back in form.

johnnyboy4711

RuggieBear wrote: »

you do know that the IRFU refs have a vendetta against Leinster?

I saw half a dozen games last year where irfu refs let various infringements go against us,should have been penalty after penalty plus sin-binning,starting to happen again this season!!!
nothing given!
So you reckon refs have an agenda against you guys?surely you have the class to beat anyone in Ireland at least.(even with the ref on their side)no offense!
hope its a good game.
might give our guys a squeak as the ref is from munster!
Hee Hee!!!

phog

My predictions for the week-end matches are;
Leinster to win with the BP.
Glasgow to win with Ulster to get a losing BP.
Munster to win.

johnnyboy4711

connacht cannot buy a try and thats our problem this year!
leinster finally got out of 3rd gear to put us away!
Also when you have a kicker that cannot kick 3/7 i think! and the ref (for once)letting us away with offside infringements we couldnt do anything with the ball except go lateral,its worrying!
john:o
i think the irb should change the game time to 70 mins then we might have a chance!

RuggieBear

johnnyboy4711 wrote: »

connacht cannot buy a try and thats our problem this year!
leinster finally got out of 3rd gear to put us away!
Also when you have a kicker that cannot kick 3/7 i think! and the ref (for once)letting us away with offside infringements we couldnt do anything with the ball except go lateral,its worrying!
john:o
i think the irb should change the game time to 70 mins then we might have a chance!

just back from the game...god that was awful. leinster stole two late tries to put a tiotally unfair slant on the score board.

csk

Leinster v Connacht... wasn't a great game...leinster deserved the win. They will have to up their game...

Crash

Leinster were a disgrace. only thing that saved us was really the last ten minutes when leinster upped their game slightly, and connacht just collapsed.

Christ next saturday could be dire.

EdgarAllenPoo

In the words of Eartworm Jim "they're dooooommed, doomed I tell ya." I blame powerade, it's the only thing all the teams have in common so that explains why all four provinces are so bad they couldn't find $#!T€ in a pig pen.

Stev_o

Something i have witnessed twice tonight. Peter Stringer sniping not doing a great job of it but still its Stringer sniping maybe he's thinking he has to up his game now that Reddan is in place to take it

EdgarAllenPoo

Of all the provinces Munster have put forward the best showing this weekend (so far).

RuggieBear

yep...and i reckon Edinburgh are the best team any of the provinces have fanced this weekend.

Stev_o

Bad news for Leinster fans Leciester thrashed Cardiff 43-20

RuggieBear

tbh the bad news for leinster was seeingt how piss poor the team were last night

Jackz

Ref meet the grass by Mafi there. Nice.

EdgarAllenPoo

Nice tackle on the ref by Mafi, I've been very impressed with him in past games and Dowling seems to be flying as well. ROG is getting back to normal I think.

toomevara

Leicester were quite impressive today, Leinster will have their work cut out. All the Murphy's exceptionally good and a superb forward display. Absolutely splintered the cardiff scrum.

EdgarAllenPoo

If Ulster keep playing the way they are they'll be joining Connacht in the Challenge Cup.

Jackz

Shouting for Munster tonight, but in fairness that guy that just got sin binned was being choked by O Driscoll.

Jackz

Dowling playing great stuff.

bleg

munster played well tonight except when they got into the opponents 22. o driscoll ****ed up 2 try scoring opportunities. rog wallace leamy quinlan mafi and dowling had good, solid games. thought lewis was a bit selfish as was hurley, who also ****ed up a try scoring opportunity. the backs need more time to gel and we need o connel back, o driscoll is definitely past it. nice to see a bit of youth about the team too

Trojan

Jeez, Munster were desperate tonight. Had 90% of possession against a poor team and couldn't score in a brothel with a fistful of fifties.

Only good signs are a) a win despite themselves, b) ROG found his form (about 10 weeks too f***ing late, ya muppet).

bleg

Trojan wrote: »

Jeez, Munster were desperate tonight. Had 90% of possession against a poor team and couldn't score in a brothel with a fistful of fifties.

Only good signs are a) a win despite themselves, b) ROG found his form (about 10 weeks too f***ing late, ya muppet).

or perfectly timed for the heineken cup;)

Trojan

bleg wrote: »

or perfectly timed for the heineken cup;)

Given his whinging about preferring Munster crowds to Ireland crowds in "The Brave and Faithful" I wouldn't be surprised.

Paulw

I really worry about the current standard of Irish rugby. Basic skills like ball handling and passing seem to have gone down hill.

But, they know they need to improve.

At least Leinster won the game, with some great kicking from Warner.

toomevara

Didn't see the game (Munster V Edinburgh), anyone any thoughts on how the Munster midfield went? Looked like an interesting prospect....

Jilm

toomevara wrote: »

Didn't see the game (Munster V Edinburgh), anyone any thoughts on how the Munster midfield went? Looked like an interesting prospect....

Mafi tried hard at 12 but the guy's a wing not a center. I don't know why Tipoki didn't play last night, I didn't see anything about an injury. Lewis didn't convince either, though Murphy should be back soon.

The backrow was poor, on the plus side ROG and Dowling played very well. Hopefully Munster can pull something out of the hat against wasps next week.

toomevara

Here's hoping, Wasps form not great at the moment so reckon Munster might be able to catch em cold. Dissapointed Tipoki didnt get a run out, had assumed he would...

Marshy

The pack still doesn't seem to be at the races though. O'Callaghan and O'Driscoll were especially poor last night. Just as well ROG looks to have found some form or they'd be in real trouble.

Zzippy

RuggieBear wrote: »

yep...and i reckon Edinburgh are the best team any of the provinces have fanced this weekend.

Thats not saying much. Was at the Edin-Connacht game last weekend and saw them vs Munster this week - they are a poor side going forward, aggressive defensively and have a good full back with a massive kick that gets them out of trouble a lot, but they should be pinged way more for offside - its playing offside so much and refs not pulling them for it that makes them look better than they are. Magners League referees are a disgrace tbh
Connacht should have beaten them last week, dominated the game in the second half but were suffocated by offside defence. Munster should have waloped them this week, but the same offside defence and unforced errors meant they made it look like hard work...

Erin Go Brath

Munster played well, but didnt convert chances. I think we're overly reliant on o'garas boot for scores right now. Thankfully he's recovered his form and deservedly got MOTM, although Dowling was close to getting that accolade i suspect. Mafi had a pretty good game (tackling referees aside ). Dowling looks really sharp, and made some really good ground making breaks, Hurley was a safe pair of hands at full back. Theres a good bit of talent in the backs this year with Tipoki to come in, and I think we're going to be less reliant on the forwards than we've been before.

Overall the performance was an improvement, still I don't feel we're going to be able to beat Wasps next weekend. Too much errors, and not clinical enough finishing didn't deny us the win, but Wasps away I fear the worst.

nacho libre

Good to see some of the Irish players "rediscovering their form" as one writer put it.:rolleyes:
More likely their showing was attrituable to the quality of the opposition in the Magners League.

We'll caertainly see come the HC games against Wasps and Leciester.

Paulw

It will certainly be interesting to see how Leinster do this Saturday. They need to perform like they did in the 2nd half against Connacht - run in some tries and take all the penalties they can, while remaining strong in defence.

Time will tell.

Stev_o

Paulw wrote: »

It will certainly be interesting to see how Leinster do this Saturday. They need to perform like they did in the 2nd half against Connacht - run in some tries and take all the penalties they can, while remaining strong in defence.

Time will tell.

Honestly if Leinster play anything like they did against Connacht Leicester will have a field day. The only thing i see Leinster have a clear advantage is that if Tuilagi is not playing Horgan has a easy marking of either Varndell [smallest man on the pitch but also the fastest mind you] and Johnny Murphy.

I can honestly see Leinster scrum falling apart at the hands of Castro and White probably end up with a penalty try.

Things look bleak to say the least

RuggieBear

Stev_o wrote: »

Honestly if Leinster play anything like they did against Connacht Leicester will have a field day. The only thing i see Leinster have a clear advantage is that if Tuilagi is not playing Horgan has a easy marking of either Varndell [smallest man on the pitch but also the fastest mind you] and Johnny Murphy.

I can honestly see Leinster scrum falling apart at the hands of Castro and White probably end up with a penalty try.

Things look bleak to say the least

I think you are being optimistic!:D:(

Stev_o

RuggieBear wrote: »

I think you are being optimistic!:D:(

The joys of being a Leinster fan i guess Oh well i support the tigers in the premiership so its not all bad :P Still should be a cracker of a match even its going to be one sided