Munster V Castres H/C Rnd5 - Sat 14th @ 15:40

thomond2006

Poor pass to Zebo.

thomasm

Anyone else have a real jumpy picture on sky

eyeball kid

Earls seems to be limping

.ak

Earls limping there...

Clegg

Munsters backplay is absolute rubbish. Holland needs to go and Munster need to find a competent backs coach.

irishbucsfan

Munster making this team look a lot better than they are.

What happens when they bring on some first team players?

Munster pack has been superior, would like to see more from O'Mahoney though.

Benny Cake

Ordinary enough from Munster, quite poor in protecting the ball at the breakdown, we need to commit more numbers or we won't score 1 more try let alone 3!

bleg

Clegg wrote: »

Munsters backplay is absolute rubbish. Holland needs to go and Munster need to find a competent backs coach.

Eddie O Sullivan!

GerM

Wouldn't worry, very similar against Northampton and they capitulated. Once Castres' legs get heavy they won't be interested and I can see the BP coming in the last ten minutes. They're going to need it the way things are shaping up but I've full confidence in them.

irishbucsfan

Clegg wrote: »

Munsters backplay is absolute rubbish. Holland needs to go and Munster need to find a competent backs coach.

It's tough to do much out wide when Mafi and Earls are your centers though.

Benny Cake

POC's a freak, some performance from him today!!

irishbucsfan

If Castres fancy it they might bring on guys like Murray, Kockott and Bai in the2nd half and really have a crack at Munster. I would still expect Munster to win this though.

bleg

DOC back to his penalty machine best.

thomond2006

Another poor pass to Zebo from Earls, ffs Kidney are you watching this?!

yeraulone

pass it earls ffs

ray jay

thomond2006 wrote: »

Another poor pass to Zebo from Earls, ffs Kidney are you watching this?!

Yeah I've seen him throw a few passes much too high in the last couple of matches.

bleg

Mafi can't or won't pass.

yeraulone

yeraulone wrote: »

pass it earls ffs

I take it back earls, dont pass it.

GerM

That's awful from Earls. Playing him in centre destroys his confidence. Him getting the ball on the wing in that position in his 22 and he'd run at them and scare the hell out of teams. Instead he's trying to draw and pass which is not natural to him whatsoever.

ambid

That's at least three shocking passes from Earls. One above Zebo's head, one along the ground behind him, and another along the ground in front of him. In only one of them was he under real pressure when making the pass. So much attacking play is breaking down when Earls has to pass.

Very worrying for the six nations.

GerM

On a minor note, ROG's kicking for touch at penalty time has, generally been superb. Getting every inch.

danthefan

Game beyond doubt now but Munster have been fairly awful imo.

GerM

Still think they could squeak the BP. Castres heads will drop en masse now.

CIARAN_BOYLE

I need another 4 points from Munster for Munster to beat the handicap and make my wallet happy

SomeFool

would like to see Keatley tried at 12, I think it make a difference to have another genuine playmaker there instead of Mafi. Both centres are probably more suited to being on the wing.

leonard7

i hope kidney has watched earls' less than convincing match today...anonymous imo

CIARAN_BOYLE

Horan and Fogarty on for WDP and Varley

JustinDee

One of my biggest bugbears in rugby union is players a metre or two away from the next feeling the need to release ball with a hard spin pass. Just flip the bloody thing and he's through.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Botha and o'gara off for Archer and Keatley

GerM

leonard7 wrote: »

i hope kidney has watched earls' less than convincing match today...anonymous imo

I disagree. He has been very noticeable! :pac:

A-Train

Earls should be no were near the Ireland 13 jersey after today's game!

Munster terrible back line play today.

bleg

Coughlan or O Connell were my MOTM

A-Train

bleg wrote: »

Coughlan or O Connell were my MOTM

O'Connell motm for me

bleg

Another street fight, 5 from 5 and first qualified for 1/4 finals. Scrum is a real weapon.

Clegg

I agree with the lads on here that say Earls has been terrible.

He's practically nailed on for Ireland at 13 and I almost feel sick at the thought of it.

JustinDee

Watch Zebo in defence. Ball-watching and easily drawn in the contact area. Covering wing in defence for him on last three drives were O'Connell twice and Varley.
Video duty calls.

irishbucsfan

A win is a win, Munster fans will say.

Keith Earls should be on the wing. Why waste him in a position where he is this crap?

leonard7

GerM wrote: »

I disagree. He has been very noticeable! :pac:

for all the wrong reasons

Anatidaephobia

Poor game. The passing today was crazy.
One of the biggest positives from last week (it might have been the week before), was the amount of offloading, which wasn't happening today. Even Hurley, who's usually always looking for the offload, wasn't doing anything today.

Earls had a complete disaster, he threw a ridiculous amount of useless passes, either too high, in front of, or behind the man. Mafi solved this problem by not passing, which butchered several overlaps.

There were numerous incidences around the field where other players made ****e passes as well, which crippled us in attack.

Benny Cake

On the whole it was a very disappointing performance. I've no idea how Munster have managed to win 5 from 5 playing like we are...
Murray & Earls were particularly poor, I actually thought TOL changed the tempo when he came on and looked more impressive than Murray. With todays performance, Earls looks to have sealed his fate from an Irish point of view, he didn't look anything like the international 13 I hoped he would become.
Ronans loss will also hurt us as we are getting extremely thin at backrow.

On a more positive note, POC & Ryan were immense, with O'Mahony having another good game.

SomeFool

5 from 5, qualified for the quarters, lot's of room for improvement though. It will be interesting to see if the coaches & players can step up now to the next level and make the improvements needed to be successful in the knockouts. The likes of wally and jones due back is a help as is the ever improving set piece.

GerM

Ryan was class and is full of intensity and controlled aggression. POC was very good but his desire got the better of him. I think I counted him being singled out on 3 different occasions for penalties, particularly coming around the side at mauls. His block for the Murray non-try was needless. Bit smarter play and Munster could have bludgeoned their way to the BP.

Coughlan, couple of knock ons aside, was class. His footwork going into contact was superb. If he was 5 years younger, he'd be a real contender for Irish selection.

messi1985

will a losing bonus point gets us a home 1/4?? 21 points should be enough.. however, can imagine that northampton are gonna go all out next wkd, even a losing bonus point seems a lot now after today!

Tox56

GerM wrote: »

Ryan was class and is full of intensity and controlled aggression. POC was very good but his desire got the better of him. I think I counted him being singled out on 3 different occasions for penalties, particularly coming around the side at mauls. His block for the Murray non-try was needless. Bit smarter play and Munster could have bludgeoned their way to the BP.

Coughlan, couple of knock ons aside, was class. His footwork going into contact was superb. If he was 5 years younger, he'd be a real contender for Irish selection.

That's the huge difference between Ryan and DOC.

irishbucsfan

messi1985 wrote: »

will a losing bonus point gets us a home 1/4?? 21 points should be enough.. however, can imagine that northampton are gonna go all out next wkd, even a losing bonus point seems a lot now after today!

Very unlikely. 21 will be an away QF unless Edinburgh lose at home to London Irish I think.

Munster should beat that Northampton team, but if they don't I fear an away QF would be too much for them.

Cpt_Blackbeard

So, other than Keith Earls, how did the other 22 players play? I didn't see much the match and it would be great if the Earls-bashing could be left to the 3 threads already dedicated to it.

Quint2010

messi1985 wrote: »

will a losing bonus point gets us a home 1/4?? 21 points should be enough.. however, can imagine that northampton are gonna go all out next wkd, even a losing bonus point seems a lot now after today!

By my reckoning there are six teams who can all still get to 22 points-Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leinster, Ulster, Saracens and Toulouse. Leinster, Cardiff and or Edinburgh, Toulouse and probably Saracens are all likely to get to 22 (and beyond) so Munster are probably going to have to win next week (or maybe only draw/lose and score 4 tries) to get a home QF

DeDoc

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Very unlikely. 21 will be an away QF unless Edinburgh lose at home to London Irish I think.

Munster should beat that Northampton team, but if they don't I fear an away QF would be too much for them.

Yep. However, I think a bonus point will probably get Munster a QF in Cardiff. Lack of one could mean a trip to Toulouse

Quint2010

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Very unlikely. 21 will be an away QF unless Edinburgh lose at home to London Irish I think.

Munster should beat that Northampton team, but if they don't I fear an away QF would be too much for them.

Thought Northampton played well today-be very tough for Munster to beat them the way they are playing

Tox56

Murray made some very good breaks, but he is still so slow at the breakdown, and made a few mistakes as a result. I'd say he's a work in progress.