Leinster v Connacht Friday 2nd KO 7.30pm

juvenal

Hennybug wrote: »

O'Driscoll on for Keogh

I was delighted to see him on the bench for a rest - there's enough talent in the Leinster squad to ensure a proper rotation of players.

Hopefully he can make a difference and come through unscathed - London in two weeks is a cup final of sorts.:o

Steyr

juvenal wrote: »

Yeah the stream link is dead

Live on Radio on Galway Bay FM, 95.8

Stev_o

This is why i dont want a Leinster midfield for Ireland, just a bunch of names and nothing else. Bloody hell Gaffney get your act together, im starting to think maybe Knox might have been right with his comments seems to be EXTREMELY accurate

“I have watched Ireland for three years and it’s been the same every time, nothing different. No variety, no attacking runners coming around the back of the man on attacking runs. And the personnel hasn’t changed, either. Horgan’s best position is wing yet they picked him at centre when O’Driscoll and/or D’Arcy was injured. They had no-one else. But they never put any pressure on the guys in the team."

Hennybug

Another Keatley penalty - 18 - 14 to Connacht!

Stev_o

BOD stop kicking have you not learned from Castre >_<

galwayrush

Hennybug wrote: »

Another Keatley penalty - 18 - 14 to Connacht!

Hopefully we'll hold it, can't see it on TV, but i'm starting to feel on edge like at the Sports grounds a few weeks ago.

Stev_o

galwayrush wrote: »

Hopefully we'll hold it, can't see it on TV, but i'm starting to feel on edge like at the Sports grounds a few weeks ago.

Try Kearney =/

sock puppet

Try Kearney:D. They have to win it now

Hennybug

Try from Kearney, conversion missed by Contepomi, Leinster back in the lead 19 18

galwayrush

Speechless:eek:

Stev_o

Forward pass try useless Ref hopefully wont be seen for a while after his performance tonight

Hennybug

B*****s try from Fitzgerald 24 - 18 - looked like a forward pass as well :mad:

sock puppet

C'mon go for the bonus point. Though they don't deserve it really.

Stev_o

Great im sure Gaffney is thinking that his backline is doing a great job and so it ll work well with Ireland :rolleyes:

Hennybug

FT 24 - 18

dreamer_ire

Ref had a shocker... some of those decisions were woeful. Think Leinster might have shaded it anyway but not much of a game to watch thanks to the ref.

sock puppet

Sounds like Connacht put up a good fight again. Hopefully they'll be able to perform as well against non-irish opposition in future.

galwayrush

Looked good for a while.

Stev_o

Btw hope Fogarty gets a fairly lengthy ban for being a back alley etc etc file in the blanks no need for that when someones defencless

IRFU no send Fitzgibon a rule book for Christmas? Funds that tigh ehh .... *sigh*

Dave Joyce

Well I didn't think Paddy Fitzgibbon was that bad BUT that dickhead of a linesman was a wankbagg!! When Stan Right (was correctly) sin binned, that dipsheet linesman was asked and said he saw no 2 (Fogarty) throwing punches and the other one said he saw no 3. When Fitz asked if his recommendation was correct the Nordie bollacks chickened out of ALSO red carding chicken sheet Fogarty. Then he completely missed the obvious forward pass for Fitzgeralds try and told Fitzgibbon, pass was fine and NOT forward:eek::eek:

However, some dreadful attempts at tackling AGAIN from a Connacht prospective. Fionn Carr had a dreadful game and was the cause of Kearney's try with his weak ass pussy attempt at a tackle instead of hitting Kearney full force and trying to put him into touch. He also made a lot of mistakes during the game and was hardly involved unlike previous games!

RuggieBear

just back from the match. another tedious game. don't know which was more pathetic leinster's creativity or the ref. I'll have to catch a replay to get a proper feel for waht was going on in the scrums but the ref made a complete balls of the game.

Stev_o

RuggieBear wrote: »

just back from the match. another tedious game. don't know which was more pathetic leinster's creativity or the ref. I'll have to catch a replay to get a proper feel for waht was going on in the scrums but the ref made a complete balls of the game.

Be honest Ruggie did you count Keatley's squats?

RuggieBear

Stev_o wrote: »

Be honest Ruggie did you count Keatley's squats?

nah but tbh the game was so boring and he takes so long to take his kicks i was very bloody tempted....:o

Stev_o

RuggieBear wrote: »

nah but tbh the game was so boring and he takes so long to take his kicks i was very bloody tempted....:o

Ah here, one day in Croke 80,000 people will count to 6 together in unison i can see it now.

sm.org

Winning ugly is part of any winning season, having said that Leinster will do well to win anything this season.

juvenal

Sounds like the victory was more down to inept officiating and a few missed tackles rather than good play from Leinster. I popped out for ten minutes when it was 18-14 to Connaght, and I figured when I came back it would be all over and Connaght would have another scalp!

I should be happy with the win from a Leinster pov, but from what you guys are saying, it sounds like there are more questions than answers in the Leinster camp after this performance.

The folks are heading over to the Wasps game, I hope there's a large, and consistent improvement by then.

Were there any standout performances on either side?

phog

RuggieBear wrote: »

just back from the match. another tedious game. don't know which was more pathetic leinster's creativity or the ref. I'll have to catch a replay to get a proper feel for waht was going on in the scrums but the ref made a complete balls of the game.

I wouldn't bother if I was you, the game just never took off, it was hard watching it once but to have to watch it again is penance.

phog

juvenal wrote: »

Sounds like the victory was more down to inept officiating and a few missed tackles rather than good play from Leinster. I popped out for ten minutes when it was 18-14 to Connaght, and I figured when I came back it would be all over and Connaght would have another scalp!

I should be happy with the win from a Leinster pov, but from what you guys are saying, it sounds like there are more questions than answers in the Leinster camp after this performance.

The folks are heading over to the Wasps game, I hope there's a large, and consistent improvement by then.

Were there any standout performances on either side?

I don't know really, poor officiating for the try and the punch up but other than that Leinster were the only team that looked like scoring a try.

barnesd

Leinster were poor for about 65-70 minutes of that, but still had the territory and possesion and scored 3 tries to Connachts none. Connacht never looked like getting near the try line. Leinster were the better side (though both were fairly awful) and deserved the win.

I thought the ref was shocking, for both sides. He gave loads against Leinster. Scrums were pot luck. In the first half you had a case of 3 Connacht players flying over the top off their feet, resulting in penalty Connacht, next ruck a Leinster player is off his feet, penalty Connacht again. There was no consistency in his decisions at all.

Sangre

My god the backline are going backwards. Every player receiving the ball at a stand still. Why is Fitz taking so many crash balls, waste of talent.

Wtf happened in scrum to set off Wright and Fogarty?

Gelio

Just back from the match, I was in the south stand and I had some Pr!cks sitting behind me who were "supporting" Connacht. Very annoying.
Anyway the match wasn't great but the Leinster supporters around me were good so there was a decent atmosphere around me. The last 10-15 minutes were good.

[Jackass]

I wish I had posted it, but on 12 minutes I turned to my dad and said a kick at goal has cost us a bonus point as it's a typical trait of Leinster. No where near ruthless enough when it counts. it was 5 meteres out, we had just scored a try, we had just had keogh in at the corner and we were on there 5 yard line, they were under serious pressure.

I don't understand this mentality that you should only take chances in the last 10 minutes. Clearly, if you don't take chances during the first 70 minutes you may have to in the last 10 - and run out of time - which we did.

Same thing happened against Castres at home, a fair bit infront (9+ iirc) with a penalty on their 5 metre line and they hadn't set foot in our half or threatend in any way and we took 3 points. Another bonus lost. (which would leave us just needing to avoid 4 trys in London to have the group in our hands going up against Edinburgh - now we need min losing bonus point and avoid 4 trys).

That bonus would have left us 2 points off the top of the table with Munster to play tomorrow.

Another thing was our complete lack of patience from 5 yards out with 10 minutes to play in the Connacht 22, we threw around a messy pass, lost possesion for 8 minutes then had 2 to salvage it and rocky appeared to have a clear run in and passed it to somebody (McCormack? I didn't see it) who knocked it on.

It's these silly lost oppertunitys that cost competitions and places and qualifications. No street smarts and no leaders. And I'm reffering to the coaching ticket too.

Also when we ran from deep tonight we did serious damage (3rd try?) yet we insist on playing flat, receiving the ball static and crashing ball everytime as therewe dont give our backs a single yard to build up pace or change direction to find gaps.

If you offered me Knox back as a coach and Gaffney get on a plane I'd bite your hand off! He may have been a clown, but he was a good backs coach with a bit of invention and was able to have a plan B.

Are we really still going to pretend that these up and unders are the way forward? On the 10 yard line in our own half everytime up and under for a 50/50 ball that will gain us 10 - 15 yards? What's the point??

I'd like to know how many phases Leinster average per period of possesion, becuase I wouldn't be surprised if it was 2 to 3 phases on average before we kick the ball away (and very poorly - no one seems to be able to ping the corners - up and under is only solution) or it goes to ground from sloppy, over eloborate back line play to try and force gaps that aren't there - as the player is receiving the ball half a yard away from the tackler.

There is so much wrong with this team, and I hate to be critical as Leinster have received so much of late, but we're half way through the season now, are we seriously keeping faith with this game plan?

Also, we still don't know what position half our players play...

IF WE WANT to accomodate Leinster and not Irish rugby and also Cheika, our best backline is:

9. A new scrum half - anybody but Whitaker or Keane
10. Contepomi
11. Kearney
12. D'Arcy
13. O'Driscoll
14. Fitzgerald
15. Nacewa

Personaly I would prefer Kearney at 15 - but that is probably the most practical.

Contepomi is the best at controling from 10, that back 3 is full of pace and invention given the space and time to run back at players and the midfield is as solid as it comes and have been know to work a bit of magic together in their time.

Then you have impact/backup players of Horgan, Sexton, Dempsey & Keogh. In fact Keogh can count himself unlucky not to be in that backline.

The pack needs more grunt. I still think we lack an out and out 7. At 6 we have cover of O'Brien, Rocky & Jennings - At 8 we have Heaslip & O'Brien - at 7 we have Jennings and O'Brien, but neither are out and out imo. If only we still had Gleeson and Hickie we would be lethal. Or even if we held on to Ronan and Keatley a lot of our problems could be solved

Sorry, this has turned into a complete rant, but we also miss Cullen, CJ & Jackman big time. I think the best pack is:

1. Healy
2. Jackman
3. CJ
4. O'Kelly
5. Cullen
6. Elsom
7. Jennings / O'Brien
8. Heaslip / O'Brien

Tough calls at 7 & 8. Anyway feel bad posting this, don't want to be over critical and you have to show respect to Connacht who also put up an excellent performance and did themselves proud. They remind me of old school Munster back in the day. Very hard team, physical, a good 10, maybe don't have the quality out wide, but are very good at putting the phases together and can eek out wins. That's the way they're headed anyway hopefully. A real grafting team and fair play to them.

Just a mid-season rant. Sorry

A win is a win is a win. As long as we keep winning there wont be any problems.

Gelio

[Jackass] wrote: »

I wish I had posted it, but on 12 minutes I turned to my dad and said a kick at goal has cost us a bonus point as it's a typical trait of Leinster. No where near ruthless enough when it counts. it was 5 meteres out, we had just scored a try, we had just had keogh in at the corner and we were on there 5 yard line, they were under serious pressure.

I don't understand this mentality that you should only take chances in the last 10 minutes. Clearly, if you don't take chances during the first 70 minutes you may have to in the last 10 - and run out of time - which we did.

I couldn't agree more. All this taking three points when its trys that are needed.

Same thing happened against Castres at home, a fair bit infront (9+ iirc) with a penalty on their 5 metre line and they hadn't set foot in our half or threatend in any way and we took 3 points. Another bonus lost. (which would leave us just needing to avoid 4 trys in London to have the group in our hands going up against Edinburgh - now we need min losing bonus point and avoid 4 trys).

That bonus would have left us 2 points off the top of the table with Munster to play tomorrow.

Another thing was our complete lack of patience from 5 yards out with 10 minutes to play in the Connacht 22, we threw around a messy pass, lost possesion for 8 minutes then had 2 to salvage it and rocky appeared to have a clear run in and passed it to somebody (McCormack? I didn't see it) who knocked it on.

Yep another example being the drop goal effort

It's these silly lost oppertunitys that cost competitions and places and qualifications. No street smarts and no leaders. And I'm reffering to the coaching ticket too.


Maybe a new captain needed?



Also when we ran from deep tonight we did serious damage (3rd try?) yet we insist on playing flat, receiving the ball static and crashing ball everytime as therewe dont give our backs a single yard to build up pace or change direction to find gaps.

If you offered me Knox back as a coach and Gaffney get on a plane I'd bite your hand off! He may have been a clown, but he was a good backs coach with a bit of invention and was able to have a plan B.

Are we really still going to pretend that these up and unders are the way forward? On the 10 yard line in our own half everytime up and under for a 50/50 ball that will gain us 10 - 15 yards? What's the point??

I'd like to know how many phases Leinster average per period of possesion, becuase I wouldn't be surprised if it was 2 to 3 phases on average before we kick the ball away (and very poorly - no one seems to be able to ping the corners - up and under is only solution) or it goes to ground from sloppy, over eloborate back line play to try and force gaps that aren't there - as the player is receiving the ball half a yard away from the tackler.

There is so much wrong with this team, and I hate to be critical as Leinster have received so much of late, but we're half way through the season now, are we seriously keeping faith with this game plan?

Also, we still don't know what position half our players play...

IF WE WANT to accomodate Leinster and not Irish rugby and also Cheika, our best backline is:

9. A new scrum half - anybody but Whitaker or Keane yep
10. Contepomi yep
11. Kearney Nacewa
12. D'Arcy O'Driscoll
13. O'Driscoll Fitzgerald (for now)
14. Fitzgerald D'arcy (for now)
15. Nacewa Kearney

Personaly I would prefer Kearney at 15 - but that is probably the most practical.

No I think we need Kearneys kick

Contepomi is the best at controling from 10, that back 3 is full of pace and invention given the space and time to run back at players and the midfield is as solid as it comes and have been know to work a bit of magic together in their time.

Then you have impact/backup players of Horgan, Sexton, Dempsey & Keogh. In fact Keogh can count himself unlucky not to be in that backline.

Couldn't agree more about Keogh

The pack needs more grunt. I still think we lack an out and out 7. At 6 we have cover of O'Brien, Rocky & Jennings - At 8 we have Heaslip & O'Brien - at 7 we have Jennings and O'Brien, but neither are out and out imo. If only we still had Gleeson and Hickie we would be lethal. Or even if we held on to Ronan and Keatley a lot of our problems could be solved

Sorry, this has turned into a complete rant, but we also miss Cullen, CJ & Jackman big time. I think the best pack is:

1. Healy
2. Jackman
3. CJ
4. O'Kelly
5. Cullen
6. Elsom
7. Jennings / O'Brien
8. Heaslip / O'Brien

Tough calls at 7 & 8. Anyway feel bad posting this, don't want to be over critical and you have to show respect to Connacht who also put up an excellent performance and did themselves proud. They remind me of old school Munster back in the day. Very hard team, physical, a good 10, maybe don't have the quality out wide, but are very good at putting the phases together and can eek out wins. That's the way they're headed anyway hopefully. A real grafting team and fair play to them.


No comment about pack, not my area


Just a mid-season rant. Sorry

A win is a win is a win. As long as we keep winning there wont be any problems.

Exactly, but will we beat big teams with preformances like that?

.

anonymous_joe

I paid 30 bills to sit there freezing my bóllocks off watching that. You want to know what real fans are? Us tools who go through that. :pac:

That performance was pretty diabolical. The backs are sooooooooooooo bad. I mean, awful. Every aspect of the back play is shít. Whitaker takes unbelievably long to get the ball out, then the attacking line is flat, and they run awful lines. It's so fúcking terrible.

psicic

I'm not a rugby expert, just someone who enjoys the game and is a Leinster STH. Always loved to watch Leinster play - even when we were losing, we were losing playing positive and/or inventive rugby. In recent times our efforts to grind out unconvincing wins have left me flabbergasted and disappointed. I was surprised to see your post, Jackass, which mirrors a lot of what I was thinking myself.

Maybe I'm slightly bile-filled at the moment, but I left the match ranting to my dad about Gaffney's negative effect. Knox may have been a mouth, but something has seriously gone wrong. (I'm not saying the problems are all down to the 'new' man - or even that they started this season - I just question his effectiveness to date in dealing with and taking ownership of the problems that have arisen.)

It seems for all our elaborate play, the basics have started to slip; poor passing decisions are the most obvious to my untrained eye. Players seem dedicated (instructed?) to play the one tactic over and over. And this reliance on speculative garryowens instead of kicking for position - is our lineout - once one of our strong points - so weak?

I can understand the benefit of hindsight and the pointlessness of coaching from the terraces, but for all the modern touches - and pointless flourishes - that remain in the Leinster game, a lot of the team's moves seem very 'traditional' and easily countered - e.g. choices of which lines to run or how to mark your man.

I have had faith there was a strategy at play - maybe all the fumbles due to flat passes at speed were because they were 'flatter' than they appeared to my eye; maybe these switch passes were part of a pre-rehearsed set-play; maybe we were handing away the ball so we could dictate the terms on which our defence was tested. Sadly, I think each of the above possibilities have been discounted by performances like tonight.

Also, at times different types of leadership have raised its head on the pitch - the goforward dedication of Jackman or the ball-hugging...um... self-interest of Kearney. I despair when players like these aren't firing or there to spur the two players nearest them on to action. (*note - not aiming this at Stan, by the way, who is one of the more positive players out there in my opinion)

A-win-is-a-win, I suppose - this is probably just me wanting to have my cake and eat it - and Munster (not slagging) have been very good and successful at grinding out wins in a similar style. It just doesn't appeal to me.

Shelflife

I watched the game last night and felt that connaught were robbed of what could be a crucial bonus point by the officials,

1. while lyne was the bigger culprit of the two, wright wasnt binding either, the ref gave 3 pens against lyne from which 1 try and 2 pens were scored , he then compounded the problem for binning him when he could easily have penalised wright
in the 2nd half he penalised wright 3 times in the scrum yey no card-- consistancy?

2.the linesmen clearly pointed out that blue 2 and blue 3 were culprits, blue 2 clearly raining 10-12 punches on a prone player yet the ref only carded wright, now clearly the linesman should have corrected him but both should have gone to the bin yet the ref blew it as with 2 players short it would have won the game for connacht.
fogherty should have got red imo and if hes not cited then there is no justice.

3. the last try , even i was embarrassed for the officials, that was a disgrace.

4. leinsters achielles heel, they give away too many pens , they gave away atleast 12-14 pens yet were never threatened with a card.

the better team(just) won, but if the officials did there job properly connacht would have at least got a bonus point and if cheap shot foggie has got the red he deserved then they would have won.

the underdog never seems to get a break in rugby from the officials.

leinster have serious problems at 2 , 9 and 10 and the muched talked about hard edge in the pack is still missing, they dont control games and they have no leadership on the pitch AT ALL. they have no tactical nous off the pitch either and its a pity to see that much talent operating in 2nd gear all the time.

barnesd

I hate to say this, but I'm beginning to think Fitz at centre could be one of the main problems with the backline this year. He scored loads of tries from the wing, try Nacewa or D'Arcy at 12 next week.

Overall, that pack was way off our best. I know some was injury enforced but it contained our 2nd choice hooker, 4th choice prop, 4th and 5th choice locks, and whatever choice Stephen Keogh is at 8, but I'd say no better than 3rd. Even Healy, Toner and O'Brien at 8 would have made a big difference imo. We need a first choice pack starting next week, the Irish Times said Cullen should be back so I'd like to see something like:

1. Wright/Healy
2. Fogarty (Jackman still out I think)
3. CJ/Wright (Not sure if CJ will be back, I hope he is. Not really getting our value for money here are we?)
4. MOK
5. Toner (with Cullen to get 30 mins if he's fit)
6. Elsom
7. O'Brien (because it's hard to pick between himself and Jennings, and Jennings started against Connacht)
8. Heaslip

9. Whitaker
10. Contepomi
11. Fitz
12. Nacewa
13. BOD
14. Horgan/D'Arcy
15. Kearney

Zzippy

[Jackass] wrote: »

I'd like to see John Fogarty get a 4 - 6 week ban, maybe more, completely outrageous attack on the defencless Connacht hooker who was still bound in the scrum, fogarty landed about 8 clean digs to his face. Stan Wright sin binned for punches also.

This is the single worst refereeing display I've seen in my life by the way. You'd swear the ref was picked up from an under 8's girls blitz competition on a saturday afternoon, clueless.

Amen.

Was at the game last night, bitterly disappointed for several reasons:

1. Our scrum disintegrated. Jeez we dominated Munster in the scrum last week and this week we completely went to pieces.
2. The ref. Fitzgibbon is an awful ref, hate seeing him appointed to any of our matches in the ML. He bottled the one big decision of the night - Fogarty should have seen a straight red card. Might not have made a difference to the result, but who knows?
3. Not getting a losing BP. Thought we deserved that at least. The third try was clearly from a forward pass - I was in the Anglesea Stand at the far end of the pitch and we could all see it was forward, how did the touch judge miss it from 5 yards away?
4. Not threatening the Leinster line - we need to start scoring a few tries, can't rely on Keatley winning games with penalties.

On the plus side the pints in Crowes were nice :pac:

Stev_o

barnesd wrote: »

I hate to say this, but I'm beginning to think Fitz at centre could be one of the main problems with the backline this year. He scored loads of tries from the wing, try Nacewa or D'Arcy at 12 next week.

Overall, that pack was way off our best. I know some was injury enforced but it contained our 2nd choice hooker, 4th choice prop, 4th and 5th choice locks, and whatever choice Stephen Keogh is at 8, but I'd say no better than 3rd. Even Healy, Toner and O'Brien at 8 would have made a big difference imo. We need a first choice pack starting next week, the Irish Times said Cullen should be back so I'd like to see something like:

1. Wright/Healy
2. Fogarty (Jackman still out I think)
3. CJ/Wright (Not sure if CJ will be back, I hope he is. Not really getting our value for money here are we?)
4. MOK
5. Toner (with Cullen to get 30 mins if he's fit)
6. Elsom
7. O'Brien (because it's hard to pick between himself and Jennings, and Jennings started against Connacht)
8. Heaslip

9. Whitaker
10. Contepomi
11. Fitz
12. Nacewa
13. BOD
14. Horgan/D'Arcy
15. Kearney

This is not a attack on Fitz but he is useless at centre playing a flat line where he is caught on not having the best hands when it comes to serious pressure. He isnt big either which means he struggles going forward with the line being so flat it just isnt his style. He is not a threat when Leinster are playing flat but when they are deep, the faster D'arcy is moved to 13 the better for Leinster.

Interesting to note that all of the tries really came from Leinster playing with depth ( Though its iffy for Kearneys) thats when Leinster really caused problems but when they decided to play it was dire stuff.

One huge example of how backwards the backline has gone is one incident where Kearney took a great up and under just ouside Connachts 22. 5 phases later Leinster were pack in there own half??? Seriously attacking rugby isnt easy to understand, get over the gain line and things will fall into place how the hell are Leinster supposed to do that when they are constantly going backwards in attack???

phog

Zzippy wrote: »

Amen.

Was at the game last night, bitterly disappointed for several reasons:

1. Our scrum disintegrated. Jeez we dominated Munster in the scrum last week and this week we completely went to pieces.
2. The ref. Fitzgibbon is an awful ref, hate seeing him appointed to any of our matches in the ML. He bottled the one big decision of the night - Fogarty should have seen a straight red card. Might not have made a difference to the result, but who knows?3. Not getting a losing BP. Thought we deserved that at least. The third try was clearly from a forward pass - I was in the Anglesea Stand at the far end of the pitch and we could all see it was forward, how did the touch judge miss it from 5 yards away?
4. Not threatening the Leinster line - we need to start scoring a few tries, can't rely on Keatley winning games with penalties.

On the plus side the pints in Crowes were nice :pac:

That was the TJs decision, the ref asked him was he happy with the yc for Wright and the penalty and both TJs agreed even though one of them said he saw Fogarty punching.

Serenity Now!

Zzippy wrote: »

2. The ref. Fitzgibbon is an awful ref, hate seeing him appointed to any of our matches in the ML. He bottled the one big decision of the night - Fogarty should have seen a straight red card. Might not have made a difference to the result, but who knows?

He's one of the best refs there is in this country :rolleyes:

Fogarty will be cited.

Bit desperate to be clutching at straws by blaming the ref for not sending off a player. Why not bemoan inability to pentrate a defensive line when in possession? Or the amount of penalties given away due to insistance on cynical ruckplay?
Thats what I saw was Connacht's problem anyway. All very well getting psyched up and running on a head of steam when you encounter a rival province but you've got to use possession instead of constantly squandering it. Some maturity is definitely required by the key players in that pack.
How many times did those two packs yesterday enter rucks off their feet and not through the 'gate'?

Woeful game to watch.

tubbsie

Was at the game last night some of those call's by the ref seemed questionable, does anybody know when or where a replay on tv will take place.

Goodluck2me

Another example of a good decision by Keatley and Carr to move I think, as neither would have been playing tonight had they not.
I'd rather be in Keatley's than Sextons shoes at the moment, look how much more experience they are getting over their rivals.

goodluck2me

goodluck2me wrote: »

Another example of a good decision by Keatley and Carr to move I think, as neither would have been playing tonight had they not.
I'd rather be in Keatley's than Sextons shoes at the moment, look how much more experience they are getting over their rivals.

I would imagine sexton wil leave after this year,he is 24 and simply not up to it.
There are more promising stars in the academy like O'Malley who can play 10,that can replace him as 3rd choice out half.

Paulw

Likewise, was at the game. Very disappointed with how the ref handled the game. He really should have taken control of the scrum early on, and cut out the issues.

Cheika said after the game that he was disappointed with the time taken for scrums and penalties, and how it took away from the game. There was clearly an edge to the game, but it seemed to be causing a lot of problems in the scrum.

But, a win is a win, so Leinster won't be unhappy, even being allowed a clearly forward pass for that try.

barnesd

If he sees something at the scrum I'd be much more in favour of just giving a free-kick after the first scrum goes wrong and getting on with the game rather than reset after reset followed by giving a penalty completely at random.

sm.org

April Raspy Ax wrote: »

I would imagine sexton wil leave after this year,he is 24 and simply not up to it.
There are more promising stars in the academy like O'Malley who can play 10,that can replace him as 3rd choice out half.

And go where?? Connacht in a swap for keatly maybe but there'll hardly be a queue for his services.

sm.org

sm.org wrote: »

And go where?? Connacht in a swap for keatly maybe but there'll hardly be a queue for his services.

England or retire.
He could be a journeyman or he could develop into a better player.If he is told he isnt good enough,no doubt he will question his future in the sport.

Im not being hard on him for no reason.Considering his age,I cant see a major improvement tbh.

He can be very good sometimes but he is average or poor in to many games.Im sure cheika wishes he could play him more but every time he does the teams performances suffer.

psicic

tubbsie wrote: »

Was at the game last night some of those call's by the ref seemed questionable, does anybody know when or where a replay on tv will take place.

Sunday evening at 6.30pm on Setanta Ireland (the free one)

Serenity Now!

Paulw wrote: »

Likewise, was at the game. Very disappointed with how the ref handled the game. He really should have taken control of the scrum early on, and cut out the issues

He did take control. He warned the front rows and penalised infringements when foul scrummaging occurred.
Its not a ref's job to coach a team. That would be the erm...coach's job