Saracens vs Munster, Sat 20th April, 3pm

razorblunt

twinytwo wrote: »

And in typical irish fashion, coaches contract is already renewed

I don’t have a problem with JvG’s contract, it’s Jones’ I have the issue with. This reminds me of the semi defeat to Clermont, another step to far, but Mannix was run out of town as the backs were playing woefully. At least then there was a game plan, albeit ineffectivelh, i don’t even know what Jones is attempting, you’d see better drilled backline in under age rugby.

c.p.w.g.w

Why wasn't that a red?

thomond2006

Same old. Another non- performance in a European semi-final.

Faugheen

twinytwo wrote: »

And in typical irish fashion, coaches contract is already renewed

Jones' contract hasn't.

razorblunt

Itoje tried that earlier on Beirne too, who luckily fell away from the flip.
Barrington drives, Itoje flips.

kmart6

Healy stirring it up giving MOTM to Billy V!:pac:

PhlegmyMoses

razorblunt wrote: »

Itoje tried that earlier on Beirne too, who luckily fell away from the flip.
Barrington drives, Itoje flips.

Itoje has had a few high tackles as well today.

fitz

razorblunt wrote: »

Itoje tried that earlier on Beirne too, who luckily fell away from the flip.
Barrington drives, Itoje flips.

Both deserved yellow there imo.

griffinlee

healy is such a tosspot of a commentator

uptherebels

Don't understand why they waited till the 70 odd minute to bring Matthews on.

ScrubsfanChris

Erik Shun wrote: »

But assistants are not... I think JVG is looking to bring in some fresh blood

Apart from Jerry, he should completely clear house

razorblunt

Rhodes MOTM for me before Billy.

Faugheen

The love-in for Billy Vunipola is vomit-inducing here.

'A tough week'. Piss off. He gave his support to someone who said gays are going to hell. Tough week my hole.

He probably was MOTM but the downplaying of his nonsense is a joke.

DOC keeping his mouth closed whenever it was suggested was telling in my opinion.

UnknownSpecies

Wonder why they gave Vunipola MOTM. Hardly to get a reaction :rolleyes: Farrell for me.

kmart6

POM was at nothing today. Only noticeable thing have been the penalties he has given away.

fitz

Faugheen wrote: »

The love-in for Billy Vunipola is vomit-inducing here.

'A tough week'. Piss off. He gave his support to someone who said gays are going to hell. Tough week my hole.

Actually offensive how sympathetic they're being towards him.

Hobosan

uptherebels wrote: »

Don't understand why they waited till the 70 odd minute to bring Matthews on.

More creativity here than in the Munster attack.

razorblunt

Faugheen wrote: »

The love-in for Billy Vunipola is vomit-inducing here.

'A tough week'. Piss off. He gave his support to someone who said gays are going to hell. Tough week my hole.

He probably was MOTM but the downplaying of his nonsense is a joke.

DOC keeping his mouth closed whenever it was suggested was telling in my opinion.

Selling this as redemption for Vunipola is pathetic. Is Nick Heath a commentator with them? Penny for his thoughts.

twinytwo

kmart6 wrote: »

POM has been nothing today. Only noticeable thing have been the penalties he has given away.

No one did anything today...

What will change next season? .... nothing!

Erik Shun

kmart6 wrote: »

POM was at nothing today. Only noticeable thing have been the penalties he has given away.

Rubbish

thomond2006

Munster are becoming the Mayo of the Heineken Cup. That's three seasons in a row they've been utterly dominated at this stage of the tournament.

AbusesToilets

kmart6 wrote: »

POM has been nothing today. Only noticeable thing have been the penalties he has given away.

Hardly unusual for him. Vastly overrated player, along with Stander.

BonnieSituation

fitz wrote: »

Actually offensive how sympathetic they're being towards him.

After the try:

"That was the highlight of the toughest of weeks for him"

STFU Nick!

vetinari

JVG should be let go. He's hopeless. No idea what he's adding to the team.

PhlegmyMoses

The way that the commentators are saying that it has been a tough week for Vunipola, like he somehow had no control over proceedings. If that was an Irish or Leinster player I would be ****ing livid with him as a fan. Not because I disagree with his views, I do, but because he has brought that **** into the squad going into a huge game.

kmart6

Faugheen wrote: »

The love-in for Billy Vunipola is vomit-inducing here.

'A tough week'. Piss off. He gave his support to someone who said gays are going to hell. Tough week my hole.

He probably was MOTM but the downplaying of his nonsense is a joke.

DOC keeping his mouth closed whenever it was suggested was telling in my opinion.

He shouldn't get credit for that. If he has an issue with it speak up. Instead people will associate the fact he stayed quiet as being against it, when the flip side of it is he want's to keep getting TV work.

ScrubsfanChris

vetinari wrote: »

JVG should be let go. He's hopeless. No idea what he's adding to the team.

He's only been in the job a year and a half and didn't get to choose his staff.
That will not change in the summer.

kub

vetinari wrote: »

JVG should be let go. He's hopeless. No idea what he's adding to the team.

Bad news, he only signed a new contract with Munster last week

BonnieSituation

"Behind closed doors there's been a lot of love... I believe in what I believe in."

Disgusting stuff all 'round.

troyzer

ROG needs to come home. Bring that Crusader attacking flare and bring the skills up.

There's no obvious signings to make at this point, the squad is there or there abouts. They just need better coaching

Squatter

razorblunt wrote: »

The penalty where he was resting on Beirne’s back?

Only after the turnover had been effected. :mad:

kub

ScrubsfanChris wrote: »

He's only been in the job a year and a half and didn't get to choose his staff.
That will not change in the summer.

That is a pity, jobs for boys is not a professional approach

PhlegmyMoses

BonnieSituation wrote: »

"Behind closed doors there's been a lot of love... I believe in what I believe in."

Disgusting stuff all 'round.

And if he was a fringe player the love would be a lot less. Doubt he recognises that himself though.

fitz

BonnieSituation wrote: »

"Behind closed doors there's been a lot of love... I believe in what I believe in."

Disgusting stuff all 'round.

Absolutely clear he's not one bit sorry.
He's a bigot, plain and simple.

stephen_n

Munster lack creativity from 1-15, don’t know why all the crticism lands with Jones. There is no front foot ball created for the backs to work off. No connected phase play to create space. Just truck it up, one out runners, far to easy for top teams to defend against. There is no clear gameplan to create space. Just a hope the opposition will make mistakes. Defence is excellent and enough to get them this far, but not enough to win games at the business end of the season.

That’s the second semi final in a row that Beirne’s been anonymous in. Like Munster when it comes to the big games he fades away. Think he lacks the physicality when the game steps up.

Larbre34

thomond2006 wrote: »

Munster are becoming the Mayo of the Heineken Cup. That's three seasons in a row they've been utterly dominated at this stage of the tournament.

At least they're consistent.

In all seriousness, that is their level, they know where the gap to the top is, the game played out much as I expected.

As a Leinster fan i think we'll edge Toulouse but won't beat that Saracens team, especially in England.

troyzer

Larbre34 wrote: »

At least they're consistent.

In all seriousness, that is their level, they know where the gap to the top is, the game played out much as I expected.

As a Leinster fan i think we'll edge Toulouse but won't beat that Saracens team, especially in England.

Leinster at their best is better than Saracens at their best. They match up well.

But they need a serious uptick in form.

letowski

Cant be surprised at the result today.

Two biggest problems for me is that progress and development of our attacking game has been minimal enough since we last played Saracens 2 years ago at this stage of the competition. Van Grann and Jones have simply failed to bring the team on to a new level in order to get silverware.

The other is that Munster are not producing enough high quality players, particurly in the front 5. It was basically the same team, playing the same way as it was two years ago.

Not good enough.

Squatter

vetinari wrote: »

JVG should be let go. He's hopeless. No idea what he's adding to the team.

He's mainly adding second-rate South Africans.

In which regard, is Taute injured or has he left Munster?

The Talking Bread

thomond2006 wrote: »

Munster are becoming the Mayo of the Heineken Cup. That's three seasons in a row they've been utterly dominated at this stage of the tournament.

Mayo hardly get "utterly dominated" when they fall short. Big difference between Mayo's shortfalls in finals etc and Munster getting deservedly well beaten in semi finals.

Not a great analogy

troyzer

The Talking Bread wrote: »

Mayo hardly get "utterly dominated" when they fall short. Big difference between Mayo's shortfalls in finals etc and Munster getting deservedly well beaten in semi finals.

Not a great analogy

Yeah. The problem is that Munster firmly look to be quarter final standard and haven't looked close in a semi final in years. Mayo have just been really unfortunate.

shootermacg

No shame in that game for us.
Sarries are a super team, who've just been winning and winning. The internationals in the team are game changers. Very good coaching too. The way they stepped up the pace of defence after their try.. they just know the right thing to do at any moment. They defended the narrow channels like demons.

There was space out wide on occasion, but our 12, 13 didn't manage to exploit it.

It will be interesting to see how Leinster go against them, two very clever teams.

thomond2006

Fair enough but it's a similar feeling at the end of the game watching both teams. Just can't get over the hump.

shootermacg

Haley was super though, he's my type of FB.

AbusesToilets

Farrell was the only back who stood out to me. Massive on defense and threaten the line well in attack. Needed some support runners in his shoulder.

digzy

shootermacg wrote: »

Haley was super though, he's my type of FB.

Are you serious?
Did you watch the first 5 mins?

Borders no.2

To say Munster aren't far away is quite optimistic I think. 3 semi finals on the trot is progress but in each of the 3 semis there's never been any point where you thought Munster had a real chance. Really Munster rode their luck against Edinburgh and Exeter to get this far and dropped the chance of home semi with a careless defeat in Castres.

Munster have the qualities to dominate most teams physically but when they can't they are easy enough to defend. Sometimes players don't seem to see the bigger picture attacking wise. The amount of times you see Munster using the battering ram approach when there's space if they moved the ball is frustrating. Whether that's down to coaching or whether that approach is just ingrained in the players mentality I'm not sure.

I still think Munster have a good chance in the league but in Europe I think they're a few players short.

BonnieSituation

PhlegmyMoses wrote: »

And if he was a fringe player the love would be a lot less. Doubt he recognises that himself though.

Sure the cameras were following him around after and kept cutting to him. Eugh.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I've never seen that with a MOTM. That being said, I've never been more aware of a post MOTM Walkabout bar today.

digzy

AbusesToilets wrote: »

Farrell was the only back who stood out to me. Massive on defense and threaten the line well in attack. Needed some support runners in his shoulder.

Unfortunately most of our backs are exposed at this level.

BonnieSituation

fitz wrote: »

Absolutely clear he's not one bit sorry.
He's a bigot, plain and simple.

Absolutely. There's little more that need to be added. The cretin.