United Rugby Championship

[Oldschool]

The current Table for the URC is fairly unsatisfactory with the extreme example being the case of Sharks, one point behind Munster in 6th Place but with three games in hand.

It looks like Sharks are in a really strong position as they will play three successive games against their South African opponents in successive games (3rd Feb v Stormers, 18th Feb v Lions, 4th Mar v Stormers) and then a visit to Scarlets and hosting Benetton before they finish their regular season against Munster at home at the end of April.

The current Table presents many anomalies, not least being the position of the four teams immediate below Munster - Sharks, Glasgow, Benetton & Cardiff - all of whom are in a position to bypass the southern Province, if they win their outstanding fixtures. Ninth would look very different to fifth for even-eyed Munster fans.

Looking through the various fixtures from week 13 onwards, it appears that Benetton could be a key team in determining the top four placings and they cannot be ruled out of contention themselves, although they are outsiders at this point, in 8th place with six victories from their eleven games to date, but a very poor points difference of -39. If Italy have a good 6N and Benetton get a lift from their Italian internationals, they could climb to 6th before their last three games against SA sides.

Albeit that the disparity between games played by different teams at this stage is less than ideal, it seems very likely that the URC play-off placings will provide huge excitement in the last 5 rounds of the competition.

Very good summary.
Almost a "Quickening"

[desperado]

Benetton have 6 games left with only 2 at home (Munster and Lions) - I'd expect Munster to win. They're away to Ospreys/Stormers/Sharks... I'd expect them to lose those. They are strong at home; but terrible away from home - have only won one away game and that was against Zebre. Their other away game is v Cardiff. I think Glasgow and Sharks are Munster's biggest threats > Munster have Glasgow at home, and Sharks away. Tomorrow's game Glasgow vs Stormers v important for Munster too.

[wixfjord]

Glasgow currently beating Stormers 17-12 with 58 mins gone.

[Serb]

Glasgow score in the 79th minute to make it 22-17, should be enough to get the win (conversion to come)

Edit: Glasgow win 24-17, good result for us.

[cormac]

Glasgow win with last minute try

FT 24-17

[wixfjord]

Massive result for us.

As an aside, the commentators on Premier Sport have been brilliant. It's been a great game but unlike Hugh Cahill, these guys actually seem to want to be there and make the game better instead of talking it down.

[Ray Donovan]

Here was me thinking Glasgow’s game management in last 4 minutes was terrible (kick the peno and try to hold on) and then they score a ridiculous try.

Was an absolutely brilliant game to be fair.

Glasgow up to 5th.

[wixfjord]

We're now 11 ahead. Stormers have a game in hand against Ulster away and have to come to RDS too.

Sitting pretty to be able to rest players for the SA two game tour at end of season, which is a huge boost.

[desperado]

Great game of rugby. Huw Jones, Steyn excellent.

[Keith]

Yet another fantastic game of rugby in the URC, well done Glasgow. The best league in the world.

[Ray Donovan]

We're now 10 ahead. Stormers have a game in hand against Ulster away and have to come to RDS too.

Sitting pretty to be able to rest players for the SA two game tour at end of season, which is a huge boost.

Pretty sure we’re actually 11 ahead. Stormers have one game in hand.

[Laighin Break]

Massive result for us.

As an aside, the commentators on Premier Sport have been brilliant. It's been a great game but unlike Hugh Cahill, these guys actually seem to want to be there and make the game better instead of talking it down.

Thought the exact same. Only caught the last half hour but the commentators certainly thought it was an absolute cracker of a game. Compare that to Hugh Cahill's drivel in the Connacht game on yesterday - he described the game as putrid with <10 mins gone.

[wixfjord]

We're now 10 ahead. Stormers have a game in hand against Ulster away and have to come to RDS too.

Sitting pretty to be able to rest players for the SA two game tour at end of season, which is a huge boost.

Pretty sure we’re actually 11 ahead. Stormers have one game in hand.

Yes that's correct, plus more matches won and a much better PD which is basically another point.

[Ruckedtobits]

Here was me thinking Glasgow’s game management in last 4 minutes was terrible (kick the peno and try to hold on) and then they score a ridiculous try.

Was an absolutely brilliant game to be fair.

Glasgow up to 5th.

Excellent game and more proof that even Scotland have a lot of decent players for 6N duty.

Munster 7th with Stormers 2nd and Bulls 3rd. We're 11 clear with a game more than Stormers. Squeeze that up to 12 points and we have two wins in hand travelling down to SA.

[cormac]

We're now 11 ahead. Stormers have a game in hand against Ulster away and have to come to RDS too.

Sitting pretty to be able to rest players for the SA two game tour at end of season, which is a huge boost.

Stormers’ game in hand is at home to the Sharks on 3rd February

[Blue Man]

Lots of rugby to be played but all indications are that if we beat the Stormers in the RDS we will secure URC top seeding and can send a development side to SA in April, giving the front liners three weeks to focus on a Heineken Cup semi final.
Obviously there are a number of assumptions and risks to this (not least reaching a H Cup semi final) but this would appear to be the objective of the coaching team.
Of course, the big question that arises is would we be under cooked for a semi final? Probably better than the front liners getting E. coli in SA!

[Ray Donovan]

Lots of rugby to be played but all indications are that if we beat the Stormers in the RDS we will secure URC top seeding and can send a development side to SA in April, giving the front liners three weeks to focus on a Heineken Cup semi final.
Obviously there are a number of assumptions and risks to this (not least reaching a H Cup semi final) but this would appear to be the objective of the coaching team.
Of course, the big question that arises is would we be under cooked for a semi final? Probably better than the front liners getting E. coli in SA!

That’s pretty much how we ended the regular season last year. We needed 1 bonus point from 2 games down there to guarantee top seeding and the young guns got it. And the common refrain then was our frontliners weren’t exposed to enough high intensity games come the business end of the campaign.

Having said that I still think sending a developmental side to SA is the more favourable option.

[hugonaut]

Lots of rugby to be played but all indications are that if we beat the Stormers in the RDS we will secure URC top seeding and can send a development side to SA in April, giving the front liners three weeks to focus on a Heineken Cup semi final.
Obviously there are a number of assumptions and risks to this (not least reaching a H Cup semi final) but this would appear to be the objective of the coaching team.
Of course, the big question that arises is would we be under cooked for a semi final? Probably better than the front liners getting E. coli in SA!

That’s pretty much how we ended the regular season last year. We needed 1 bonus point from 2 games down there to guarantee top seeding and the young guns got it. And the common refrain then was our frontliners weren’t exposed to enough high intensity games come the business end of the campaign.

Having said that I still think sending a developmental side to SA is the more favourable option.

The common refrain was a load of nonsense though. A lot of people searching for a narrative, some of them honestly, some of them with an axe to grind.

With regards to high intensity games? We beat the English champions elect on their home patch in the quarter final, then absolutely hammered the French champions elect in the semi-final. We got beaten in the last play of the game away in France, to a really good French team, in front of a French crowd.

It's knock-out rugby, if you're playing a good team, they play great and you don't play great, you get beaten. It doesn't take an awful lot. It's a one-off match.

We played an obviously injured James Lowe in the European final and it wasn't far off playing with fourteen men. He had 13 carries for 105m and two tries in the semi final against Toulouse, got a bad bang on the leg in the last minute of that game and in the final he had 1 carry for 0m. We didn't pass him the ball because he couldn't run. He didn't come looking for the ball because he couldn't run. We took a risk playing him, it completely didn't pay off.

Lowe is the best try-scorer in the history of Leinster Rugby - 50 tries in 69 games. The only people ahead of him are Shaggy [69 in 203 games], Drico [61 in 186 games], Darce [60 in 257 games] and DK [54 in 178 games]. You can see why a coach would take the risk.

We didn't really even have a suitable sub on the bench, opting for Frawley at No23 – Frawley had made 13 of his 14 starts at No12 that season [the other one at No10]. We ended up not using him. Kearney was injured, Tommy O'Brien was injured, Larmour had just played his first game in 11 weeks, we hadn't picked either O'Loughlin or Adam Byrne in any of the previous games of the competition. There's a real temptation to imagine those guys [AB & Locko] at their peak and think what they might have contributed, but the reality was that their form that season had seen them passed out by pretty much every other threequarter in the senior squad.

We probably should have picked Larmour on the bench, but this is 20-20 hindsight stuff. Frawley was the form player, but he didn't really give us the coverage where we needed it. We had actually had Tommy on the bench for the QF against Leicester, but unfortunately he got injured in training before the Toulouse game.

[johng]

We're now 11 ahead. Stormers have a game in hand against Ulster away and have to come to RDS too.

Sitting pretty to be able to rest players for the SA two game tour at end of season, which is a huge boost.

Stormers’ game in hand is at home to the Sharks on 3rd February

Wow. 1st time I have ever seen Cormac make a mistake since I can remember. They are away to the sharks on the 3rd.

[desperado]

Lots of rugby to be played but all indications are that if we beat the Stormers in the RDS we will secure URC top seeding and can send a development side to SA in April, giving the front liners three weeks to focus on a Heineken Cup semi final.
Obviously there are a number of assumptions and risks to this (not least reaching a H Cup semi final) but this would appear to be the objective of the coaching team.
Of course, the big question that arises is would we be under cooked for a semi final? Probably better than the front liners getting E. coli in SA!

That’s pretty much how we ended the regular season last year. We needed 1 bonus point from 2 games down there to guarantee top seeding and the young guns got it. And the common refrain then was our frontliners weren’t exposed to enough high intensity games come the business end of the campaign.

Having said that I still think sending a developmental side to SA is the more favourable option.

The common refrain was a load of nonsense though. A lot of people searching for a narrative, some of them honestly, some of them with an axe to grind.

With regards to high intensity games? We beat the English champions elect on their home patch in the quarter final, then absolutely hammered the French champions elect in the semi-final. We got beaten in the last play of the game away in France, to a really good French team, in front of a French crowd.

It's knock-out rugby, if you're playing a good team, they play great and you don't play great, you get beaten. It doesn't take an awful lot. It's a one-off match.

We played an obviously injured James Lowe in the European final and it wasn't far off playing with fourteen men. He had 13 carries for 105m and two tries in the semi final against Toulouse, got a bad bang on the leg in the last minute of that game and in the final he had 1 carry for 0m. We didn't pass him the ball because he couldn't run. He didn't come looking for the ball because he couldn't run. We took a risk playing him, it completely didn't pay off.

Lowe is the best try-scorer in the history of Leinster Rugby - 50 tries in 69 games. The only people ahead of him are Shaggy [69 in 203 games], Drico [61 in 186 games], Darce [60 in 257 games] and DK [54 in 178 games]. You can see why a coach would take the risk.

We didn't really even have a suitable sub on the bench, opting for Frawley at No23 – Frawley had made 13 of his 14 starts at No12 that season [the other one at No10]. We ended up not using him. Kearney was injured, Tommy O'Brien was injured, Larmour had just played his first game in 11 weeks, we hadn't picked either O'Loughlin or Adam Byrne in any of the previous games of the competition. There's a real temptation to imagine those guys [AB & Locko] at their peak and think what they might have contributed, but the reality was that their form that season had seen them passed out by pretty much every other threequarter in the senior squad.

We probably should have picked Larmour on the bench, but this is 20-20 hindsight stuff. Frawley was the form player, but he didn't really give us the coverage where we needed it. We had actually had Tommy on the bench for the QF against Leicester, but unfortunately he got injured in training before the Toulouse game.

Very good points Hugo. Brings back painful memories. I seem to remember JLo almost in 'beach gear' during TV coverage of the captains run in Marseille, and taking zero part in the run out. Remember travelling over the morning of the game and most were full sure he wouldn't be playing - was so surprised when he was on team sheet. We we're minutes away from winning. The atmosphere was so partisanly French it was almost a home game for LAR. I never watched the recording I was so deflated. If I'm right Big Mike had a possible jackal latch not rewarded by Barnes as Barnes said Moloney was on the ground obstructing a clear out; other small margins like the ball brushing off JOBs shin as he tried to usher it dead. We were very very close.