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There was a time when I spent more time in Edinburgh than Dublin. At least that's what my tax returns said.....Donny B. wrote:Eh....which one? There's been a few!wixfjord wrote:Have been to very few away games, due to my student status, but my first, and one that sticks out, was that Edinburgh away game that we lost and how annoyed I was afterwards.
That one was bad, but the game we lost 29-10 the next season was even worse as we were effectively out of the tournament before Christmas.wixfjord wrote:Haha sorry, the 25-24 that was mentioned above in the thread where Hodge scored the DG at the end.
That, Castres and Leicester away have to be three of the worst moments for me as a Leinster fan, but as as a famous band once said "Don't Stop Believin" and by God we've got there in the end!
Perpignan? Leicester quarter final?Donny B. wrote:That one was bad, but the game we lost 29-10 the next season was even worse as we were effectively out of the tournament before Christmas.wixfjord wrote:Haha sorry, the 25-24 that was mentioned above in the thread where Hodge scored the DG at the end.
That, Castres and Leicester away have to be three of the worst moments for me as a Leinster fan, but as as a famous band once said "Don't Stop Believin" and by God we've got there in the end!
My own personal worst was the defeat to Wasps in the quarter-final in Wycombe. The support before the match was just amazing but the team didn't deliver at all. Never felt so angry after a match.
I remember that, being on the crappy terrace behind the goal and Eoin Reddan who gave a complete masterclass that day, taking revengeful pleasure(and naturally enough after the way he'd been treated by Irish rugby up to that point) in scoring the kill-off try right in front of us.Donny B. wrote:That one was bad, but the game we lost 29-10 the next season was even worse as we were effectively out of the tournament before Christmas.wixfjord wrote:Haha sorry, the 25-24 that was mentioned above in the thread where Hodge scored the DG at the end.
That, Castres and Leicester away have to be three of the worst moments for me as a Leinster fan, but as as a famous band once said "Don't Stop Believin" and by God we've got there in the end!
My own personal worst was the defeat to Wasps in the quarter-final in Wycombe. The support before the match was just amazing but the team didn't deliver at all. Never felt so angry after a match.
Honestly, none was as bad as Wasps. I was convinced we'd win before the game but we just completely bottled it in the second half when Wasps turned up the pressure. I was so pissed off, I didn't speak to anyone for about an hour after the match. When I saw some pissed assholes in Leinster jerseys (I wouldn't call them fans) having a great laugh only minutes after the final whistle, I really wanted to deck them!Flash Gordon wrote:Perpignan? Leicester quarter final?Donny B. wrote:That one was bad, but the game we lost 29-10 the next season was even worse as we were effectively out of the tournament before Christmas.wixfjord wrote:Haha sorry, the 25-24 that was mentioned above in the thread where Hodge scored the DG at the end.
That, Castres and Leicester away have to be three of the worst moments for me as a Leinster fan, but as as a famous band once said "Don't Stop Believin" and by God we've got there in the end!
My own personal worst was the defeat to Wasps in the quarter-final in Wycombe. The support before the match was just amazing but the team didn't deliver at all. Never felt so angry after a match.
Wasps was bad though. Seeing that bastad Dan Leo gloating and taking the pish at the end didn't help either. Worse still, you come out of the ground and are struck by the realisation that you're in an industrial estate in High Fockin Wycombe!!!
A reasonably good night in Reading? You're really talking that trip up aren't you?Donny B. wrote:Honestly, none was as bad as Wasps. I was convinced we'd win before the game but we just completely bottled it in the second half when Wasps turned up the pressure. I was so pissed off, I didn't speak to anyone for about an hour after the match. When I saw some pissed assholes in Leinster jerseys (I wouldn't call them fans) having a great laugh only minutes after the final whistle, I really wanted to deck them!Flash Gordon wrote:Perpignan? Leicester quarter final?Donny B. wrote: That one was bad, but the game we lost 29-10 the next season was even worse as we were effectively out of the tournament before Christmas.
My own personal worst was the defeat to Wasps in the quarter-final in Wycombe. The support before the match was just amazing but the team didn't deliver at all. Never felt so angry after a match.
Wasps was bad though. Seeing that bastad Dan Leo gloating and taking the pish at the end didn't help either. Worse still, you come out of the ground and are struck by the realisation that you're in an industrial estate in High Fockin Wycombe!!!
The one good thing about the trip was that we didn't stay in Wycombe, and had a reasonably good night in Reading afterwards.
yeap - high wycombe was awful - cr@p ground, cr@p place, cr@p performance and the jeering WASPS fans made it even worse! the only saving grace was I ordered a coffee in the bar opposite the train station on the way back and then a brady to go with it and the lady said i looked so sad she gave me both on the house!Donny B. wrote:That one was bad, but the game we lost 29-10 the next season was even worse as we were effectively out of the tournament before Christmas.wixfjord wrote:Haha sorry, the 25-24 that was mentioned above in the thread where Hodge scored the DG at the end.
That, Castres and Leicester away have to be three of the worst moments for me as a Leinster fan, but as as a famous band once said "Don't Stop Believin" and by God we've got there in the end!
My own personal worst was the defeat to Wasps in the quarter-final in Wycombe. The support before the match was just amazing but the team didn't deliver at all. Never felt so angry after a match.
We were just happy to get away from that kip Wycombe. Reading was okay. Met some right characters in the Purple Turtle.Flash Gordon wrote:A reasonably good night in Reading? You're really talking that trip up aren't you?Donny B. wrote:
Honestly, none was as bad as Wasps. I was convinced we'd win before the game but we just completely bottled it in the second half when Wasps turned up the pressure. I was so pissed off, I didn't speak to anyone for about an hour after the match. When I saw some pissed assholes in Leinster jerseys (I wouldn't call them fans) having a great laugh only minutes after the final whistle, I really wanted to deck them!
The one good thing about the trip was that we didn't stay in Wycombe, and had a reasonably good night in Reading afterwards.
Bad day at the office, Whits steps and Phil's head couldn't play the Wasps rush defence.
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I swear if that DJ had played one more request for the Ulster supporters there'd have been troubleCRAZYDAVE wrote:V Cardiff 03 - Pissy wet December night. Darce sliding in from the 22 (can't remember if he was given the try). Bommer slotting a fantastic kick from 45m out. Sam's bar afterwards
CRAZYDAVE wrote:V Bath 2005 - the great escape. Missing the end (left early) queue string of jokes. Mal flopping over for what I though was a consolation score.
Did Bath '05 teach you nothingCRAZYDAVE wrote:Double Post - Note to self, must be more patient
Was at that game remember being surrounded by Bristol City/Rovers soccer fans in a shed/terrace thing, they sang "Who ate all the pies" every time B O'D got his hands on the ball.Taffy Dub wrote:As I'm bored and there's a few months to kill until next season I thought I would try and get people to think about when they were first bitten by the away game bug.
For me it was January 2003 Bristol Shoguns v Leinster when the good Doctor was playing for them outside Pichot! (Which also makes me think that what has happeneed to Bristol is very sad!)
The group of us Leinster fans huddled on the terrace behind the Leinster dugout singing our hearts out! "you are my Girven, you're always swirvin..." and someone from the Leinster branch handed out little Leinster branch badges to us at half time.
This was definitely no where near the best away trip but a great memory!
I wouldn't be too suprised if the teams had a few scoops at half time, nevermind the amount of smokes that would have been going around the dressing room back in those days.Spartan wrote:Donnybrook, 1996, when we lost 40-45 against Munster. I went as a student on a drinking day out and the game was amazing, possibly booze assisted (me, not the team). I still think we should have won that day. It was a non-stop, cracking game of rugby. That was when I was bitten by the leinster bug
Leinster soar highest in bluest of blue days
GERRY THORNLEY Rugby Correspondent at Murrayfield
HEINEKEN CUP FINAL Leicester 16 Leinster 19 : THE NAYSAYERS have been silenced for good. This was Leinster’s day. Rocky’s day, Brian’s day, Jonathan’s day – and all those with a vested interest in the harp, from every foot-soldier in the Blue Army to all those who have played and toiled for the province and its clubs. This was the bluest of blue days.
And when they tell their grandchildren about it they can have the complete and utter sense of satisfaction of knowing they earned it.
Having beaten the reigning champions and new Magners League champions in the grandmother of all semi-finals, they beat the other two-time champions and newly-crowned English champions.
The team that played the better rugby deservedly won. If it may not always have been champagne rugby from the supposed champagne team, the bubbly would have tasted all the better for that.
You have to hand it to Leicester. They’re not Tigers for nothing. This illustrious club, in which winning medals is seemingly passed down through generations as if part of their DNA, have had better teams. But they’re as gritty, competitive, spoiling and nasty as any of their predecessors.
At times they’re hard to like, as when Martin Castrogiovanni patted Stanley Wright on the head as he made his way to the sin-bin; or Alesana Tuilagi, eh, checking on Shane Horgan’s well-being after running through him; or Craig Newby slapping a prone Jamie Heaslip on the back after his knock-on; or Julien Dupuy’s sledging, and so on. Why do referees allow this stuff?
But, playing their fourth knock-out match on consecutive weekends with a largely unchanged team, Leicester were put on the back foot of a ferociously full-on collision by the superior forward control and kicking games of Jonathan Sexton and Isa Nacewa, who outkicked their counterparts.
But when they cranked it up to punish Wright’s missed tackle on the excellent Dan Hipkiss and his ensuing yellow card with that 13-point salvo either side of the break – the championship minutes – they also threw down the gauntlet.
They made Leinster dig deeper than they’ve perhaps ever dug this season. Bernard Jackman, virtually from the off, Horgan (after that rumble by Tuilagi) and O’Driscoll, after landing heavily on his shoulder, and the blood-stained Rocky Elsom were obvious examples of those who played through the pain barrier.
And, while there were hardly any weak links in their chain, Leicester lacked truly outstanding players, men of the calibre of Elsom and O’Driscoll, who, fittingly, came up with the big plays that turned the game in their favour to earn the mantle of European champions.
It didn’t help Leicester’s cause that the classy Geordan Murphy soon departed with a hip injury, although it was his two kicks to the omnipresent Elsom which helped kickstart the comeback. From the second, Elsom rounded Tom Croft, dummied Tuilagi – see you later – and handed off George Chuter.
That 47th-minute rumble re-energised the team. From there the slightly new O’Driscoll model of this season, the experienced winner mixing pragmatism with brilliance, put in a perfectly weighted grubber toward the touchline, as he has done so often this season, but especially since the turn of the year. Gordon D’Arcy tackled Scott Hamilton.
Once again it was a bit like watching Ireland crank it up, utterly determined and sure of their belief in each other and themselves to go and win the match – whatever it took – except this time the kick was into one of the many throngs of blue flags.
The ensuing time-out for Murphy’s slow departure, the chants of “LEIN-ster”, were seminal moments. The psychic energy was flowing with them again.
Elsom (who else) took the lineout and on and on they went through the phases. Wright, paying back in full his earlier indiscretion, the outstanding Cian Healy, O’Driscoll, Shane Jennings, Elsom again, Wright again, O’Driscoll again and Sexton took it on.
As important as anything was the way the hard-working Horgan, Isa Nacewa, Fitzgerald and then Leo Cullen and Malcolm O’Kelly secured the ball. It was slow ball, but with a little help from the selfless Jennings, Jamie Heaslip ploughed through Ben Kay and Newby for the try. The force was with Leinster now, and somehow you knew they’d go on and win.
Teams have to get down and dirty to beat Leicester, it usually isn’t pretty, and again, the dirty work was as important as anything. Chris Whitaker and Wright contrived to wrestle turnover ball, some bloke called Elsom put them on the front foot and on Leinster went through another eight phases. O’Driscoll danced past Tuilagi and Sam Vesty, Matt Smith played the ball at the bottom of a ruck and Sexton sealed the deal, albeit with a penalty that was initially off course before curling inside the far post.
Cometh the hour, the boy rose to the challenge. Augmenting O’Driscoll’s drop goal with his own monster effort from half-way, and a 25th-minute penalty when Nigel Owens enforced the offside law for one of the few times in the game, Sexton’s enthusiasm and self-confidence fuelled the team throughout.
They just couldn’t pull away. Leicester’s midfield pushed up hard, forcing Leinster back inside. “Hands away green” could have been set to music. In that 10 minutes before half-time their intensity and organisation in defence was tested, but they regrouped and saw out the final quarter with an unrelenting effort, Healy stepping up out of the line to nail Marcos Ayerza.
Ultimately Leinster had to do hard yukka to get there, but so be it. European champions alright.
