HEC: Munster vs Saracens, Thomond Park, Sat 8th November 18.00

totallegend

People are trying to turn this into ROG v Sexton, please stop.

Rover Random

totallegend wrote: »

People are trying to turn this into ROG v Sexton, please stop.

I'd be more worried about this becoming a ROG bashing thread as this seems to be in vogue 'round these parts. The fella went out, apparently injured, and scored all his teams points as well as being industrious around the field.

You seem to have a complete lack, as do a lot of posters around here, of subjectivity regarding ROG. Sexton is brought into it to highlight the bias. His complete lack of creativity outside of a loop pass has been an integral part of his game for quite a while now but your failure, along with others, to criticise this is a glaring omission. I'm probably just being paranoid though...

.ak

Okay folks, Sexton wasn't in Thomond Park on Saturday and this is only going one place, so drop it.

val_jester

Lelantos wrote: »

Is it worth bearing in mind he was injured & perhaps his kicking from hand was affected, trajectory was quite low on a lot of them & his back would have contributed to this?

We can't keep making excuses for him, this season he has by and large been very poor in the games he has played. We know he is going to nail his kicks but there is so much more to being an outhalf than that. His kicking off the lines has dropped off hugely in distance and this has been evident in every game he has played this season, it was not just a new issue that cropped up yesterday because of his back.

He is standing much too deep, and although his passing is still excellent the fact that he doesn't offer any threat running at the opposition has seen defences lining up those outside him and nailing the ball receiver with two or three tacklers. His continued presence in the team is not really viable if Munster are going to continue to implement Penney's gameplan.

It was very noticeable in the last few games Rog has started for Munster that they are trying to avoid using Rog as the first receiver as much as possible, Earls has been turning up at 10 an increasing amount of the time. This weekend Farrell was at 13 for Saracens and Earls absolutely ghosted past him the two times he had a chance to run at him. Both of those times game when Murray bypassed Rog and passed wide to Earls to attack the 13 channel. If Keatley had been at 10, I think Munster would have gotten a lot more joy out of that channel, and they need to look at exploiting if Saracens are stupid enough to have Farrell at 13 again next weekend.

phog

Thomond Park roar astounds Sarries’ Saull

Thomond Park roar astounds Sarries’ Saull
By Barry Coughlan

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Saracens flanker Andy Saull says the Thomond Park crowd was the loudest he has ever played in front of and has admitted the noise from the stands disrupted the visitors’ game plan.

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But it is a tribute to the Thomond roar that Saracens’ players admitted it affected them on Saturday.

"Man, is it loud out there," said Saull. "You try and call moves in the backline and you can’t hear the guy next to you.

"As soon as anything goes Munster’s way, the whole place erupts. It’s definitely the loudest crowd I’ve played in front of. I wouldn’t say they are intimidating but I would say you can’t hear things and that knocks you off your stride a little bit. It was incredible, incredible fun to be out there."

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And this Sunday’s clash at Vicarage Road will be vital to both side’s hopes of progressing to the last eight, with South African No.8 Joubert insisting Saracens can only get better.

"It was a tough game," he said. "We didn’t play to the best of our ability but we were still in the game the whole time. A couple of silly errors that we made maybe cost us the game.

"But we are lucky that we can play them again next week and hopefully we can be a better outfit."

Saracens skipper Steve Borthwick is also relishing the opportunity of a rematch on Sunday.

"I think this (back-to-back game) is part of the nature of the competition, it is a rare thing in rugby that you get to play back-to-back games, this is virtually the only time you do get the opportunity so it does increase pressure. It is about 2 x 80 minutes, 160 minutes of rugby, and we need to make sure in this second 80 that we were better than we were in the first 80.

"Those bonus points are very important and I think Munster, for example, are a team that have (traditionally) always got something out of games away from home. I was very proud of the way the team in general stuck at it and kept believing right until the very end to get the bonus point. It could prove to be very important; of course, how important it proves to be depends on how well we play in the next few games."

Fireball07

Saracens

It did sound very loud last weekend, at maybe a level it hasn't been at in a while. Maybe Northampton last year.

phog

Some photo's from the game.

who_me

Fireball07 wrote: »

It did sound very loud last weekend, at maybe a level it hasn't been at in a while. Maybe Northampton last year.

You can't beat a late Saturday kick-off. A couple of pints beforehand to get you oiled, and the knowledge of many more to follow win lose or draw with a sleep-in the following day. Plus, you know... that old.. "it's an English team" thing.