Sharks v Leinster Sat 5.15pm TG4

[hugonaut]

The instant yellow for Josh Murphy for minor and innocuous contact in the air in the line-out was a farce. Very home-biased ref.

It wasn't though. We were on a warning and it was a blatant penalty.

Yes it was definitely a penalty but the contact was minor and a safe landing came after.

Yeah, the ref gave the card not for the particular act but as a result of the number of penalties we were conceding in defense, particularly against their lineout maul.

There's a pretty finicky argument that you can make against the decision. The laws in question are below:

Repeated infringements

8. A team must not repeatedly commit the same offence.
- It was the first time that we conceded a penalty for that infringement.

9. A player must not repeatedly infringe the laws.
- Murphy had not conceded a penalty since arriving on to the pitch.

10. When different players of the same team repeatedly commit the same offence, the referee gives a general caution to the team and if they then repeat the offence, the referee temporarily suspends the guilty player(s).
- The offence that we had been repeatedly penalised for was collapsing the maul Law 11a: "Players must not:Intentionally collapse a maul or jump on top of it", not interfering with the player in the air – the latter comes under Law 17 Dangerous Play: "A player must not tackle, charge, pull, push or grasp an opponent whose feet are off the ground." So while we had been cautioned for repeatedly pulling down the maul, we hadn't been cautioned – or even penalised – for playing a player in the air.

https://www.world.rugby/the-game/laws/law/9

To be honest though, I have no complaints about us getting yellow cards in that game. We couldn't deal with their maul and if the circumstances had been switched, I would have expected yellow cards on the other side.

[hugonaut]

Brilliant performance by the lads, Agree with majority of posts hear couldn’t have asked for more from them all. McKee was great and looks like another great hooker for us. Frawley TOB rhys all were superb, think some posts are being harsh on Porter and McCarthy, ports is still only coming back from injury and I thought he put in a shift as he always does. Nick had one error and I too was annoyed with him for that kick that resulted in the penalty that led to a try. But he at least twice made try saving tackles as well as having pretty decent kicks throughout the game. This game will stand to him too

I thought Nick played very well in tough circumstances. He saved us a seven pointer with a brilliant open-field tackle on Werner Kok, a guy who has been World Rugby's Sevens Player of the Year and whose stock in trade is open-field running.

I have thought for a long time that this board in general is overly harsh on scrum-halves. They are always going to make some mistakes in possession, because they have the ball so often.

Agree that McKee was impressive. Mbonambi is a hell of a tough opponent, and to live with him on debut is a very strong start.

[blockhead]

Very emotional evening here in Durban. After the floods where 300 of people lost their lives and many more lost their homes etc. Also a late end to covid down here. This was the first game where they were allowed 50% capacity.

I thought the over commercial matchday experience was a pain in the hole with music every break in play and even during kicks etc. The yank type chyte like "kiss cam" and scantily clad cheerleaders etc.

However after the game. The crowd took to the field. The players did signings and selfies with the crowd and there was a great band on for a few hours. It became a super night.

Great that the sharks got the win. They needed it after all Durban has been through and also their position in the table

It took 7 springboks Inc their captain (legend of a man in fairness) to beat our 3rds. And if the ref hadn't stopped play to look at a possible try we would have won. They were gased.

Very proud of the lads.

scantily clad cheerleaders

Wow! They were sooooooo Hot! More of that please. Thought the Saffers did a really good job bigging up the game.
Very proud of those lads getting a LBP and nearly winning. When I saw the team before the game I thought we could be in for a right hosing.
Frawley is a cool customer. TOB has gears.

[Theleinsterlad]

On McKee I’m sure if ulster was watching last night they would be miffed that he is with us and not them with the quality he showed, does anyone know the circumstances why he ended up in our academy and not ulsters? Ps great bit of business by us to get him

[Experimental]

Didnt think McCarthy and Porter went too bad tbh. McCarthy hasnt had a lot of gametime at this level, he definately grew into the game

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I only thought of this the morning but shouldn’t it really have been a penalty try for us at the end? The no arms tackle was the only thing stopping the try.

I really think the narrative of us being plucky underdogs who gave it a good shot would be very different if that decision had been given even though the performance would have been the same. We had a pretty strong side out and the refereeing contributed to our issues in the scrum and maul, the yellows were harsh on us based on not actually infringing all that much, and it was ridiculous that the ref didn’t card them just after he’d given a warning. It was a tough game and a good contest but I think we deserved to win.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

On McKee I’m sure if ulster was watching last night they would be miffed that he is with us and not them with the quality he showed, does anyone know the circumstances why he ended up in our academy and not ulsters? Ps great bit of business by us to get him

IIRC they wanted him to play prop but himself and his father saw him as a hooker? Not sure how much college was a factor but I think that’s right.

[Theleinsterlad]

On McKee I’m sure if ulster was watching last night they would be miffed that he is with us and not them with the quality he showed, does anyone know the circumstances why he ended up in our academy and not ulsters? Ps great bit of business by us to get him

IIRC they wanted him to play prop but himself and his father saw him as a hooker? Not sure how much college was a factor but I think that’s right.

Well our gain then

[Keith]

Very emotional evening here in Durban. After the floods where 300 of people lost their lives and many more lost their homes etc. Also a late end to covid down here. This was the first game where they were allowed 50% capacity.

I thought the over commercial matchday experience was a pain in the hole with music every break in play and even during kicks etc. The yank type chyte like "kiss cam" and scantily clad cheerleaders etc.

However after the game. The crowd took to the field. The players did signings and selfies with the crowd and there was a great band on for a few hours. It became a super night.

Great that the sharks got the win. They needed it after all Durban has been through and also their position in the table

It took 7 springboks Inc their captain (legend of a man in fairness) to beat our 3rds. And if the ref hadn't stopped play to look at a possible try we would have won. They were gased.

Very proud of the lads.

scantily clad cheerleaders

Wow! They were sooooooo Hot! More of that please. Thought the Saffers did a really good job bigging up the game.
Very proud of those lads getting a LBP and nearly winning. When I saw the team before the game I thought we could be in for a right hosing.
Frawley is a cool customer. TOB has gears.

Love what the Sharks are doing with the matchday experience and it seems to be working as the commentator mentioned they had sold around 20k tickets for the game. To be honest a lot of clubs should look to follow suit as to my eyes crowds have been dropping for years. I've no data to back that up and could well be wrong, but the fact that I struggle to find attendance figures for URC games now, suggests it is the case.

[Blue Man]

Great effort from a much changed side with some very inexperienced players.
As soon as I saw the final play I (and two others in the bar) shouted for a no arms tackle, I wonder could Rhys have flagged it to the ref?
Before the match, I thought we were in trouble, as on paper, there looked a gulf in class between the sides. Looking back now, it feels like one we should have won. Certainly a better work out for the pack in particular thank against Dragons or Zebre but I thought the Saffas would bring more to the URC.

Agree with most of the comments on this board:

McKee looked good which is important as Kelleher and Shanahan will be spending a lot of time with Ireland.
I thought Clarkson hung in well and will have learned a lot.

I didn’t think Dunne would make it as a professional rugby player as I worried about his grit but he was immense yesterday, I just hope there’s a resign clause in his Exeter clause. Deeny was quiet yesterday but he’s only back after a long time out so hopefully he’ll develop.

Agree with all of the praise for Rhys, Penny and Tommy O’B.

I don’t rate Nick McCarrthy and though he was poor (noting there was one excellent try saving tackle where he seemed to grab the guy by the balls!). He was slow to the breakdown, ponderous in his decision making, his execution of the pass often was bad and his kicking was erratic. I thought Foley added a bit more zip when he came on although he didn’t have the confidence to dictate to the pack that he was going wide at the end where there was a clear overlap.
I also have been frustrated with Deegan this year. A massive number of dropped balls and needless turn overs and it feels like games pass him by. I really hope he can regain some form as before the injury he was excellent.

Harry Byrne is another concern for me, so much hype, nice skills but he’s miles off his brother and I think that Frawley (my MOTM yesterday) looks a much better 10 and even at 12 he was the player pulling the strings for us.

I have a new found optimism for the Stormers next week, it would be great for confidence if this experimental side claimed a win in SA.

[OTT]

If you go through our 23 I think this would be a fair reflection of where the players stand in our squad in that position (except I might have been generous on one or two positions where someone would be moved over before them eg in the Backrow). There was a good bit of experience around the team but that is down to how Leinster manage their squad so again fair play to the management and it’s made us stronger as a squad getting these guys more playing time.

You can gain more experience, improve skills and ability, improve decision making but these boys played like absolute warriors last night. Well done to them all, playing hard for the jersey we all love, what more could fans ask for.



15. Undeterminable
14. Third
13. Second
12. Second
11. Second
10. Third
9. Third

1. First
2. Fifth
3. Third
4. Seventh
5. Sixth
6. Second
7. Third
8. Second

Replacements:

16. Sixth
17. Third
18. Second
19. Fourth
20. Undeterminable
21. Fourth
22. Fourth
23. Undeterminable

[OTT]

.

[hugonaut]

If you go through our 23 I think this would be a fair reflection of where the players stand in our squad in that position (except I might have been generous on one or two positions where someone would be moved over before them eg in the Backrow). There was a good bit of experience around the team but that is down to how Leinster manage their squad so again fair play to the management and it’s made us stronger as a squad getting these guys more playing time.

You can gain more experience, improve skills and ability, improve decision making but these boys played like absolute warriors last night. Well done to them all, playing hard for the jersey we all love, what more could fans ask for.



15. Undeterminable
14. Third
13. Second
12. Second
11. Second
10. Third
9. Third

1. First
2. Fifth
3. Third
4. Seventh
5. Sixth
6. Second
7. Third
8. Second

Replacements:

16. Sixth
17. Third
18. Second
19. Fourth
20. Undeterminable
21. Fourth
22. Fourth
23. Undeterminable

I was just doing something similar myself, and I think you're very close to spot on. I agree that for an exercise like this you can't have [for example] Doris as both first choice blindside and second choice No8.

With regards to the second rows, I would rank Molony, Baird, Murphy on the LHS of the second row and Ryan, Toner, McCarthy on the RHS of the second row ahead of the lads we started, though it's close between McCarthy and Dunne.

For fullback, I would say Cosgrave is fourth choice behind Keenan, Jimmy O and Max O'Reilly.

[riocard911]

Was just reading a quite substantial thread on FB - the URC page I think -, where the posters, mainly Saffers, were arguing about the pros and cons of their media this weekend bigging up the Northern vs Southern Hemisphere aspect of things as if the Boers were under siege by the Brits again. Some people thought it was over the top. Most thought it was grand. Others said they were fans of one of the four Saffer teams in our league and would never support the other three regardless of who they were playing against. Whether or which the upshot seems to be that the TV viewing figures are reaching or above the commercial expectations and that the URC in the latter stage of its first season is generating huge interest amongst the Springbok supporter base. Great stuff! That's what our provinces need and wanted.

[Theleinsterlad]

Was just reading a quite substantial thread on FB - the URC page I think -, where the posters, mainly Saffers, were arguing about the pros and cons of their media this weekend bigging up the Northern vs Southern Hemisphere aspect of things as if the Boers were under siege by the Brits again. Some people thought it was over the top. Most thought it was grand. Others said they were fans of one of the four Saffer teams in our league and would never support the other three regardless of who they were playing against. Whether or which the upshot seems to be that the TV viewing figures are reaching or above the commercial expectations and that the URC in the latter stage of its first season is generating huge interest amongst the Springbok supporter base. Great stuff! That's what our provinces need and wanted.

Do u have a link?

[riocard911]

Was just reading a quite substantial thread on FB - the URC page I think -, where the posters, mainly Saffers, were arguing about the pros and cons of their media this weekend bigging up the Northern vs Southern Hemisphere aspect of things as if the Boers were under siege by the Brits again. Some people thought it was over the top. Most thought it was grand. Others said they were fans of one of the four Saffer teams in our league and would never support the other three regardless of who they were playing against. Whether or which the upshot seems to be that the TV viewing figures are reaching or above the commercial expectations and that the URC in the latter stage of its first season is generating huge interest amongst the Springbok supporter base. Great stuff! That's what our provinces need and wanted.

Do u have a link?

Here you go:

https://m.facebook.com/groups/186763601 ... 123849467/

[the spoofer]

Just by the way but the penalty against Deegan for a no arms tackle was proper mental decision.

[Peg Leg]

Harry Houdini

[Blueberry]

Just by the way but the penalty against Deegan for a no arms tackle was proper mental decision.

agreed utter nonsense.......basically penalised him for absolutely nothing......

[Blue Man]

Just by the way but the penalty against Deegan for a no arms tackle was proper mental decision.

I remember that, it was a terrible call! A few went our way too, there were a couple of scrums where they seemed to be straight and going forward but we were awarded a penalty.