Leinster's Drive for 8-0 vs Munster buildup

phog

molloyjh wrote: »

I wasn't sure about the Ospreys as I hadn't seen them, but they were decent against you guys those last few minutes aside. It'll be interesting to see how they do over the course of the season.

Glasgow are the team to beat this season though.

Osprey's looked good but they were there for the taking, we left 3 points behind us that night. We need a major improvement for Saturday. I'm hoping we were holding back a few movements from set pieces or it could be a long night for us.

molloyjh

phog wrote: »

Osprey's looked good but they were there for the taking, we left 3 points behind us that night. We need a major improvement for Saturday. I'm hoping we were holding back a few movements from set pieces or it could be a long night for us.

Who live since heard from a separate source that Rob is injured and Mads is starting at FB. Not sure how trustworthy the source is though yet. Robs been doing the media stuff so it would seem to be untrue, but if wouldn't be the first time someone was out in front of the press despite not being in the match day squad. If we lose him on top of Healy, SOB and Kirchner that changes things.

A back line of Reddan, Gopperth, Darce, Macken, Fanning, McFadden and Madigan isn't a great back line.....

jimbo94s

jack mcgrath strauss out and kearney in the bench...bent in mads to 15 macken 13

ssaye2

Hmmm would make game v tough maybe it's a combo of dont rush back or aggrevate with Europe coming up

When are the teams announced?

thomond2006

Sean O'Brien

Deleted User wrote: »

When are the teams announced?

Midday as usual I imagine

Fingers crossed that POM is fit

former legend

Deleted User wrote: »

When are the teams announced?

Leinster at noon, Munster often a bit earlier.

lotmc

former legend wrote: »

Donal Lenihan was cracking me up on the RTE podcast this week.

Hugh Cahill: How come Munster are getting less than 10,000 to their games but Leinster can attract 40,000 to the Aviva?

Donal: It's obvious to me anyway, all the Munster people live in Dublin.[/QUOTE]


Simple solution to Munster's problems - enter into a pitch-sharing arrangement with Leinster at the RDS. Sorts out the Cork V Limerick row.

LostArt

jimbo94s wrote: »

jack mcgrath strauss out and kearney in the bench...bent in mads to 15 macken 13

don't see much point in kearney benching, he's either fit to start or not

gypsy79

Pretty much how I see it too

Staggering to think that so many of us believe SOB would beat O'Mahoney in a fight even with only one arm!

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

Staggering to think that so many of us believe SOB would beat O'Mahoney in a fight even with only one arm!

ssaye2

Weird one from indo hack


"Interesting to see what Leinster and Munster teams will be given the ongoing Ireland injury crisis...IRFU may reserve right to omit 1 or 2.."

thomond2006

Sean O'Brien

ssaye2 wrote: »

Weird one from indo hack


"Interesting to see what Leinster and Munster teams will be given the ongoing Ireland injury crisis...IRFU may reserve right to omit 1 or 2.."

In a nutshell: no

You can rest them next week when both provinces have easier matches (Scarlets at home and Zebre away respectively).

thomond2006

Sean O'Brien

Munster: Felix Jones (Capt.), Andrew Conway, Andrew Smith, Denis Hurley, Simon Zebo; Ian Keatley, Conor Murray;
James Cronin, Duncan Casey, Stephen Archer; Dave Foley, Paul O'Connell; CJ Stander, Tommy O'Donnell, Robin Copeland.

Replacements: Damien Varley, Dave Kilcoyne, BJ Botha, Billy Holland, Peter O'Mahony, Duncan Williams, JJ Hanrahan, Gerhard van den Heever.

POM IS IN!!!!

ssaye2

thomond2006 wrote: »

Munster: Felix Jones (Capt.), Andrew Conway, Andrew Smith, Denis Hurley, Simon Zebo; Ian Keatley, Conor Murray;
James Cronin, Duncan Casey, Stephen Archer; Dave Foley, Paul O'Connell; CJ Stander, Tommy O'Donnell, Robin Copeland.

Replacements: Damien Varley, Dave Kilcoyne, BJ Botha, Billy Holland, Peter O'Mahony, Duncan Williams, JJ Hanrahan, Gerhard van den Heever.

POM IS IN!!!!

strong team and bench

thomond2006

Sean O'Brien

Big vote of confidence in Andrew Conway after VDH's performance last week. That's probably the only real surprise in the team, I thought VDH did enough to justify selection.

budhabob

Sean O'Brien

thomond2006 wrote: »

Big vote of confidence in Andrew Conway after VDH's performance last week.

He'll have a point to prove, he was also very active chasing every kick which will likely be a tactic.

ssaye2

15. Rob Kearney
14. Fergus McFadden
13. Gordon D'Arcy
12. Ian Madigan
11. Darragh Fanning
10. Jimmy Gopperth
9. Eoin Reddan
1. Jack McGrath
2. Sean Cronin
3. Mike Ross
4. Devin Toner
5. Mike McCarthy
6. Rhys Ruddock
7. Dominic Ryan
8. Jamie Heaslip CAPTAIN

16. Bryan Byrne
17. Michael Bent
18. Tadhg Furlong
19. Kane Douglas
20. Jack Conan
21. Isaac Boss
22. Steve Crosbie
23. Mick McGrath

ssaye2

Happy enough with that RK and McGrath back is huge

thomond2006

Sean O'Brien

ssaye2 wrote: »

15. Rob Kearney
14. Fergus McFadden
13. Gordon D'Arcy
12. Ian Madigan
11. Darragh Fanning
10. Jimmy Gopperth
9. Eoin Reddan
1. Jack McGrath
2. Sean Cronin
3. Mike Ross
4. Devin Toner
5. Mike McCarthy
6. Rhys Ruddock
7. Dominic Ryan
8. Jamie Heaslip CAPTAIN

16. Bryan Byrne
17. Michael Bent
18. Tadhg Furlong
19. Kane Douglas
20. Jack Conan
21. Isaac Boss
22. Steve Crosbie
23. Mick McGrath

Challenge accepted

former legend

Nooooooo. Madigan at 12 again.

No sign of Strauss which is a shame.

thomond2006

Sean O'Brien

Munster A:
Johne Murphy; Ronan O'Mahony, Ivan Dineen, Rory Scannell, Luke O'Dea; David Johnston, Cathal Sheridan;
Alan Cotter, Kevin O'Byrne, Rory Burke; Donncha O'Callaghan, Sean McCarthy; Shane Buckley, Barry O'Mahony, Jack O'Donoghue (Capt.).

Replacements: Max Abbott, Eusebio Guinazu, John Madigan, Ryan Murphy, Jamie Glynn, Dan Goggin, Alex Wootton.

I'll be watching Scannell closely, he could be pushed to senior action pretty soon given the injuries. No Holland, must be still injured.

Playing DOC in a game like this? Really?!

ssaye2

thomond2006 wrote: »

Challenge accepted

But will he play

awec

#12 in both teams is an area of weakness.

former legend

thomond2006 wrote: »

Playing DOC in a game like this? Really?!

Strange one alright; somewhat against the ethos of a Leinster A v Munster A friendly?

molloyjh

So Fanning has to contend with Conway rather than VDH? Fair enough, I'll take that. Not too happy with the centre combination though. Is Macken still injured? And where is Strauss? I thought he was due back for this? And what's the story with Moore does anyone know? Has he genuinely been overtaken by Furlong already?

Still I'm happy enough with that Leinster squad. Think we should be able to win this...

ssaye2

molloyjh wrote: »

So Fanning has to contend with Conway rather than VDH? Fair enough, I'll take that. Not too happy with the centre combination though. Is Macken still injured? And where is Strauss? I thought he was due back for this? And what's the story with Moore does anyone know? Has he genuinely been overtaken by Furlong already?

Still I'm happy enough with that Leinster squad. Think we should be able to win this...

Always thought furlong as good as moore coming through.

Strauss being out for ages give him Zebre to get back up to speed.

With all our injuries im not too dissappointed

thomond2006

Sean O'Brien

former legend wrote: »

Strange one alright; somewhat against the ethos of a Leinster A v Munster A friendly?

I don't think DOC needs pitch time anyway, he has started 2 out of 4 matches and will probably be involved next week vs Scarlets.

ssaye2

Someone just said Strauss A game that would be intersting

havent seen starting yet but that team could be tasty

thomond2006

Sean O'Brien

Just noticed that Archer is starting! Big selection.

ssaye2

thomond2006 wrote: »

Just noticed that Archer is starting! Big selection.

yeah some bloke on MF got that team bang on yesterday from training

its like your first front row is the subs

thomond2006

Sean O'Brien

Is it too much to say Munster's bench looks a lot stronger than Leinster's?

Aside from Williams and probably Holland too, there are some serious impact players there.

former legend

thomond2006 wrote: »

Just noticed that Archer is starting! Big selection.

Shouldn't you be doing the match thread instead of jabbering on about Stephen Archer?

Is it too much to say Munster's bench looks a lot stronger than Leinster's?

First time in a long while this has been the case but yeah, I think so. Putting Botha, Hanrahan and VDH on the bench behind (IMO) inferior players in Archer, Hurley and Jones is a bit of a gamble, but if the game is still in the balance after 60 mins, as it usually is in Leinster v Munster, it gives Foley a lot of options.

LostArt

former legend wrote: »

Nooooooo. Madigan at 12 again.

No sign of Strauss which is a shame.

Think we might be looking at this centre combination one more time with Europe in mind

thomond2006

Sean O'Brien

former legend wrote: »

Shouldn't you be doing the match thread instead of jabbering on about Stephen Archer?

Tonight FL, tonight...

ssaye2

thomond2006 wrote: »

Is it too much to say Munster's bench looks a lot stronger than Leinster's?

Aside from Williams and probably Holland too, there are some serious impact players there.

Fit yes much, not match fit starts to slightly even out still stronger

Sure Leinster have a savage 15 injured

.ak

Yeah Leinster bench looks a bit callow. But you've got guys like Furlong, Douglas, Conan and McGrath all chomping at the bit to get out there and tear lumps up. In particular I reckon Conan will impress if he gets on.

Major pressure on Madigan and Darce to preform in midfield now.

jm08

thomond2006 wrote: »

Just noticed that Archer is starting! Big selection.

Archer, Sherry & Killer started against Leinster this time last year (against Healy, Cronin & Ross.

ssaye2

.ak wrote: »

Yeah Leinster bench looks a bit callow. But you've got guys like Furlong, Douglas, Conan and McGrath all chomping at the bit to get out there and tear lumps up. In particular I reckon Conan will impress if he gets on.

Major pressure on Madigan and Darce to preform in midfield now.

Win in the scrum early before there bench front row comes on

Kick all our points.

Kick intelligently and limit mistakes

All easier said than done, another game someone is getting a LBP

Leinster by 5

Fireball07

Sean O'Brien

thomond2006 wrote: »

Munster: Felix Jones (Capt.), Andrew Conway, Andrew Smith, Denis Hurley, Simon Zebo; Ian Keatley, Conor Murray;
James Cronin, Duncan Casey, Stephen Archer; Dave Foley, Paul O'Connell; CJ Stander, Tommy O'Donnell, Robin Copeland.

Replacements: Damien Varley, Dave Kilcoyne, BJ Botha, Billy Holland, Peter O'Mahony, Duncan Williams, JJ Hanrahan, Gerhard van den Heever.

POM IS IN!!!!

1. Great to see POM back! But will he have much of an impact from the bench, with no match fitness against a pretty good Leinster back row?

2. I really don't understand Jones as captain tbh.

3. Don't know VdH isn't starting, he was our best player against the Ospreys easily. Conway has done okay this season, but don't think he's been better than ROM either.

4. Keatley & JJ aren't starting together. Boo.

5. Harsh on Dougall to lose out completely, but I guess it does make sense. Our starting back row need to have a big game.

6. I would definitely have started Botha, and went for our strongest scrum for 60 mins... Archer needs to have a good game, as does Cronin.

7. Great to see Varley back too.

8. Good impact on the bench with Killer, Varley, Botha, POM, JJ, VdH....

9. I am reasonably optimistic, I don't think the Leinster team is actually better than ours.

MattD

JJ and VdH not starting are definitely pluses for Leinster for me. The midfield and behind the line could be tested by some dynamic runners. I have faith in Fanj to deal with Conway ok.

That would be a fantastic back row to test Conan against. Now we may actually see what he can do instead of constantly going on about him and that Cardiff match

ssaye2

Tox56

Not confident at all, but we usually do enough to pull the win out somehow.

Most interesting part of the whole thing will be seeing how the likes of Byrne, Furlong, Crosbie, M McGrath and particularly Conan handle the occasion if/when they get on. Byrne/Furlong will be up against a fresh international front row if they come on, so maybe they can get a bit of a pass, but I would really like to see Conan and maybe M McGrath do some damage off the bench

Also, obviously, #JusticeForLukeMcGrath

ssaye2

Game plan get far enough ahead now that their bench cant make an impact.

We need an early blitz.

Mahatma Geansai

Odd team selection from Munster. If we are close going into the last 20, we should be able to pull away for the win; Six of the players benching are better than the lads starting ahead of them. The Munster backrow is engineered for carrying, so hopefully we don't get dragged into a bout of trench-warfare.

The addition of Hanrahan (Keatley to 12) and VdH from the bench should add huge pace to the game. Hopefully we can use our superior pace to attack the defense weaknesses of Kearney/Madigan, and the defensive unfamiliarity/pace of D'Arcy at 13, we should be able to create some good opportunities.

Neil3030

As worried as I am about this match, it's great to see a coach (Foley) with a clear gameplan involving his bench. Leinster won't have full potency at the breakdown, so he can afford to be a bit more carry oriented with his back row, then inject pace, pashun (POM), and superior proppery later on.

Munster +7 is looking like great value.

former legend

I call shenanigans on that.

thomond2006

Sean O'Brien

Leinster -7 looks like great value.

ssaye2

thomond2006 wrote: »

Leinster -7 looks like great value.

You mean +7 for yourself no?