Ospreys at the RDS, Friday 19th of March, 8.15pm

[cormac]

abysmal

[Dave Cahill]

Are we watching St Michael’s playing or Leinster rugby? What a bottle this is. Not the first time we’ve these Michael’s players like Scott Penny and Andrew Smith bottle a 19-3 lead like that this.

Catch yourself on.


That was poor fare, a team who really wanted and needed it against a team that showed no urgency from the start.

[fourthirtythree]

I don't think anyone can understate the personnel problem we faced in the middle of this match. Both defence and scrum were badly affected.

Yeah, the squad is In such a state from injuries that a couple extra and it's a shambles.

[wixfjord]

Are we watching St Michael’s playing or Leinster rugby? What a bottle this is. Not the first time we’ve these Michael’s players like Scott Penny and Andrew Smith bottle a 19-3 lead like that this.

It's quarter past 10, shouldn't you be in bed?

[IanD]

dear me this is going to be a tough watch

we have the worst pair of wingers we have ever selected ( poor old cai is a poor ten/15 at this level , he's got no chance on the wing we'd have been better picking his dad!)

Our centres are good for me that's our best pairing and will do well if we get any ball, hope they don't just send Williams on the crash ball though he has good feet and needs to be running at branches not the tree as the saying goes. Watkin tackles well and is a big strong unit , good to see him in the team

Price at 10 is poor but he is a decent goal kicker, the 9 is ok and is improving

Parry decent hooker, fia ok as tight head, henry is the worlds oldest looking 21/22 year old and is really carrying weight but he did ok last game and he seems to have a bit of fight in him so fingers crossed

Davies has been good all season excellent addition but toner a diff level however davies will be ok and can be proud of his efforts this season, Ashley has been poor all season and will get man handled by your pack, frankly he needs to toughen up and start acting like the senior player he now is

Evans at 8 is ok and not a bad carrier but is mentally a bit fragile when things start to go against us and I expect him to come off injured at any time after half time if we are trailing badly . At 6 we have Griffiths and for me he is our player of the season, solid mobile and has a right go, same for morris although he is a better at 6/8 than he is at 7 these two will at least get stuck in and won't be intimidated ( I played vs morris dad making me feel old lol) they have been a credit to the region and to themselves this season

Bench Botha (yes he's ok) lake a real handful in the loose but he can be shocking at the line out however he does have the size to match up to leinster and has a good bit of steel in him , Phillips is a good young prop but not ready for this type of standard yet imo

Cracknell is average but everything is at a snails pace with him and he is a penalty machine

cross has pace but is underpowered he will be too lightweight for your back row, I'd have been tempted to play him wing

venter dear me been dreadful for us but is an older head at least that's all I can think of to be positive about him

Thomas another kid who is being rushed into games with out learning his trade so can't be too hard on him

Hawkins is a really good prospect, runs strongly and has decent size . I like him and hell go far in the game

There is a real gap in these two teams, part of me thinks we should just run it from everywhere hope for a game of glorified sevens and try to get a try bonus point but we just have no pace or real attacking threat in the back like bar the centres

Still we live in hope, cmon the ospreys

What the F$(k do you know???

Congratulations. I hope this is the first part of a winning double for you.

[blockhead]

Busby is our jinx ref. Only games we've lost this season were with him as ref.
Hope he's not on next week.
Poor effort from the lads, Leo will use this to our advantage.

[ronk]

We werent having a great game and we probably had to much attention on the bonus point.

They played well and lifted their game when they got a bit of luck. We need to respext teams better in positions like that.

[Keith]

Before we start ripping into the lads, can we take into account just how many injuries we had there. It seemed like there were players coming on and off every 5 mins. Impossible to get any sort of cohesion.

[desperado]

That's really poor reffing. Dive on MOR and no release clearly there from Ospreys 7.

Pivotal moment, and so clear and obvious.

[Laighin Break]

He did poorly for the last try, after HB's kick was blocked, but that aside, I thought Max O'Reilly had a good game overall.
Sheehan also made a good impact for a while when he came on

[Twist]

Huge personnel issues and a dead rubber game that we let slip. There’s all sorts of reasons to waive this away.

But I can’t help but feel this is a continuation of a slide in standards and imagination since the resumption of rugby. We’ve looked overreliant on overpowering teams and take too long to react when things go wrong. There’s a line between being confident and being blasè and I feel like we’re on the wrong side of it.

And yeah, I appreciate this is all very vague. Need a rewatch.

[Blueberry]

Well done Ospreys, hung in there and we seemed to go to sleep there for a bit and it all went pear shaped.....

Anyway gives Stu and Leo plenty of 'chat' material........for the battle with le Turnips.....but do bear in mind the bodies missing and the rag tag team.

Busby is a clown but not an excuse.

Going to be tough few weeks mixing and matching, the schedule coming up is nuts.

[Theleinsterlad]

Before we start ripping into the lads, can we take into account just how many injuries we had there. It seemed like there were players coming on and off every 5 mins. Impossible to get any sort of cohesion.

Agree, it’s a painful experience but it gives leocaster the opp to pick who they want for the final now. Nothing like some pain to push the guys on, plus would much rather seeing Harry learn those valuable timing lessons in a no grubber game than a knock out

[Theleinsterlad]

Huge personnel issues and a dead rubber game that we let slip. There’s all sorts of reasons to waive this away.

But I can’t help but feel this is a continuation of a slide in standards and imagination since the resumption of rugby. We’ve looked overreliant on overpowering teams and take too long to react when things go wrong. There’s a line between being confident and being blasè and I feel like we’re on the wrong side of it.

And yeah, I appreciate this is all very vague. Need a rewatch.

Disagree with you there. We have a huge injury list and Ints away and I think this game saw a lot of attrition come home on some very young and old players who have done us proud over the last couple of matches. We had a running triage centre camped on the pitch for most of the game and no generals at the end to show us the way.

[Blueberry]

That's really poor reffing. Dive on MOR and no release clearly there from Ospreys 7.

Pivotal moment, and so clear and obvious.

Yes did look like that.....

[Ruckedtobits]

Ultimately, we ran out of leadership on the pitch. Once Fardy departed, there was nobody focussing our efforts on winning the game. Luke is an absolutely key ingredient in our half-back partnerships when J10 is not playing.

Not a disaster and maybe a timely reminder that no deficit is too big if you have possession. Hope none of the catelogue of injuries is too serious.

So glad that we are getting Nick McCarthy back next season

[Blueberry]

Agree Luke would have steered that home and felt both 9's tonight were poor for us.

[Dexter]

The YC seemed very harsh. Understand what they're trying to do but for me that was penalty only,.. as it would have been in in 90% of other similar cases. In any case, I'd rather use up those calls tonight, if that's how it works!

[Theleinsterlad]

Ultimately, we ran out of leadership on the pitch. Once Fardy departed, there was nobody focussing our efforts on winning the game. Luke is an absolutely key ingredient in our half-back partnerships when J10 is not playing.

Not a disaster and maybe a timely reminder that no deficit is too big if you have possession. Hope none of the catelogue of injuries is too serious.

So glad that we are getting Nick McCarthy back next season

Think Ross is also underrated as a general for us when he plays. He has no issue directing things, but totally agree we need generals in the key positions to close games out

[Oldschool]

Well that's the sh!tty rehearsal out of the way.
We (I'm sure you'll all agree) hope.