Munster v Leinster St Stephen's Day 19.35 TG4

[Atlas]

We're there any comments post math from Leo about the use of the bench?

Still can't get over that only half the bench was used.

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

[mildlyinterested]

leinster are reliant on porter/sheehan to provide power in pack.

[the spoofer]

leinster are reliant on porter/sheehan to provide power in pack.

[blockhead]

https://twitter.com/stuart__mcavoy/stat ... cGEFEd5HYw
Angryface goes full Rivaldo before reconsidering.

[Blue Man]

leinster are reliant on porter/sheehan to provide power in pack.

That sounds like a general comment but suspect it’s specific to the team that faced Munster? Kelleher, Furlong, Ala’alatoa, and Ed Byrne provide good front row options. There are a few injuries there at the moment which is unfortunate.
I was delighted to see Vakh get meaningful minutes and thought he scrummager well. I would have liked to see him start, with Healy on the bench, which would have allowed for Porter coming off early. McKee will get game time but certainly appears equipped to mix it physically at the top level.

[ronk]

Leinster went into the season with 3 hookers (having dropped from 4), 1 injured and seeing limited gametime, 1 injured who just retired and 1 who's done a bit of heavy lifting. Nothing special though.

Tracey was set up for lots of gametime (with 2 internationals and Cronin gone) it just didn't work out.

Porter just did his first 80 minute stint of the season. He'll also get the time back, probably this weekend.

They're both great players who played well against Munster. There's no reason to think that we're overrelying on them.

[mildlyinterested]

[wixfjord]

When we were putting this team together, we wanted to ask some questions of the group. Even though it wasn’t perfect, there was lots of positive parts from it, and there’s plenty of things that we can certainly improve upon as well. But it’s definitely given us a good idea of what guys will be like in certain pressure situations, which is good...

...and I’m pleased for a lot of our young guys who have come through that game well. Hopefully some of those guys can kick on from here as well because it’s a proper cauldron atmosphere out there as well, and I thought guys were relatively composed.

Sometimes you can lose your head because it is quite chaotic, the crowd are in to you, you miss out on a couple of decisions and then you’re under pressure, but I thought the guys, and some of the young guys in particular, cope with that pressure well. So it’s a good learning experience for guys.

Fascinating comment from Leo post game.

I think a few of us said this before the game and it looks like it was bang on.

The selection was purposely designed to give a few guys a challenge and see how they'd react - Baird, McCarthy, Penny, Osborne, Deegan, McCarthy in particular.

There were risks, but overall it more than paid off. We got the win and I think in all of the above cases, the coaches got a very useful read, with some really stepping up and some showing they have a bit to go.

Our coaches really are brilliant at squad management.

[offshorerules]

I think it might be interesting to go through that Munster fans (Munsternut was it?) previous posts. €50 on a pattern....

[Oldschoolsocks]

I think it might be interesting to go through that Munster fans (Munsternut was it?) previous posts. €50 on a pattern....

Sounds like a waste of time to me.

His tale just doesn’t have the ring of truth to it at all, but I’m not bothered enough to bother with it…

If it’s true it’s awful behaviour altogether

[Blue Man]

I think it might be interesting to go through that Munster fans (Munsternut was it?) previous posts. €50 on a pattern....

Alternatively just watch One Flew Ove the Cuckoo’s Nest.

[RoboProp]

https://twitter.com/stuart__mcavoy/stat ... cGEFEd5HYw
Angryface goes full Rivaldo before reconsidering.

Fair f**ks to Deegan there. Beirne tried some hard man malarkey with Porter too. Didn't work. Hate this shite

[Serb]

The ref was spot on to ignore the play acting from O’Mahony. He won’t be doing that again, he fûcked around, he found out.

[Ruckedtobits]

Reading some comments from Treacy (RTE) and others in the media world about Munster "missing their chance", you'd swear that Munster came close to winning this game. They didn't. Nothing, other than the scoreboard was close.

Leinster weren't troubled in scrum, lineout or defensive maul, the three important set-pieces. Munster were capable of competing in any of these phases from time to time, but never consistently and never to the point of pressurising Leinster. Munster made a couple of line-breaks, but never looked like they had an effective plan to do so repeatedly.

Leinster's defence was very disciplined. They conceded penalties to a fussy, and sometimes incorrect, referee. But their defensive systems were good and made the task look easy.

Leinster were playing with a scratch side. Osborne, Nick McCarthy, McCarthy, Baird & Penny are all very inexperienced of fixtures of this nature but all came through very well.

Close on the scoreboard but rarely on the pitch.

[mildlyinterested]

i've seen some people say Munster had leinsters number in the scrum and other say different, certainly interesting.

[pangurban1]

I think it might be interesting to go through that Munster fans (Munsternut was it?) previous posts. €50 on a pattern....

Sounds like a waste of time to me.

His tale just doesn’t have the ring of truth to it at all, but I’m not bothered enough to bother with it…

If it’s true it’s awful behaviour altogether

Had a look at MF and one guy said to him he couldn't see a scenario were either set of fans wouldn't have said or done something.

[Blueberry]

Reading some comments from Treacy (RTE) and others in the media world about Munster "missing their chance", you'd swear that Munster came close to winning this game. They didn't. Nothing, other than the scoreboard was close.

Leinster weren't troubled in scrum, lineout or defensive maul, the three important set-pieces. Munster were capable of competing in any of these phases from time to time, but never consistently and never to the point of pressurising Leinster. Munster made a couple of line-breaks, but never looked like they had an effective plan to do so repeatedly.

Leinster's defence was very disciplined. They conceded penalties to a fussy, and sometimes incorrect, referee. But their defensive systems were good and made the task look easy.

Leinster were playing with a scratch side. Osborne, Nick McCarthy, McCarthy, Baird & Penny are all very inexperienced of fixtures of this nature but all came through very well.

Close on the scoreboard but rarely on the pitch.

The media narrative on Munster is 'they are on their way back' and 'things are looking up'. I can see some positive signs in Munster largely from a handful of young players like Coombes, Ahern, Casey, Crowley etc but I also see a side in 11th place in the URC, overloaded with over the hill average players, lacking any significant quality in the outside backs, struggling to find a reliable 10 and also flogging a handful of key players as they have no option, Beirne, Kleyn etc. The young players coming through are also being massively over hyped, Crowley for example is already being described as the next Irish 10 yet by many Munster fans yet isn't even starting a game like this at 10 so a way to go. Coombes is the second coming of Christ and Casey is stunning......but you have to ask when Casey comes on he looks better than a well past it Murray and Coombes gets the ball in 'give the big lad the ball mode' as he is their one genuine ball carrier and when he makes a couple of big carries he gets over hyped. Leinster largely dealt with him with our second choice back row. Reality for me is none of these three make a Leinster 23 at the moment and I see significant flaws in all their games which could be ironed out with the quality coaching in Leinsters but less sure it will happen in Munster.

If we had played a couple more internationals and also had a less messy ref who spent most of the match just getting in the way we could have walked away with a12 - 15 point win which is pretty much what you'd expect.

Like yourself I agree especially by the latter half of the game we looked comfortable and always looked to have the game under control.

I suspect they may lose in Belfast this weekend and it will be touch and go whether they make the Top 8 in the URC and we could be looking at the worst Munster season in a long time.

Munster fans and the media would do themselves a massive favour by just being a little more grounded and realistic about where they actually are. Next season they need to jettison a rake of players like Murray, Earls, Scannell, Zebo, Kilcoyne etc etc and give lots of URC gametime to all the young bucks and they might actually bring through some talent for the Irish pool which is really what they are meant to be doing.

The weight of expectation is a bit of a poisoned chalice.

From a Leinster perspective the game was just perfect as Leo gave a challenge to a bunch of players and they responded and ground out a result. Could we have sent down the entire kitchen sink and won by 15 yes but we learnt so much more by not doing so and grinding out a controlled but narrow win. The last 10 mins of that game were probably the most enjoyable 10 mins of rugby I have watched this season as I saw a Leinster in total defensive control pinning a side back inside their 22 knowing they could and would stop them from going anywhere safe with a 1 point lead. Controlled correct confident arrogance !! Lovely jubbly......

[backrower8]

Spot on.

Despite us not having a good record with him and us losing the penalty count (13-15), as well as having the only yellow card and penalty try against us, I still thought the referee was accurate in most of his calls. He is a bit of a conundrum to me. Technically correct most of the time but harsh on us in my view.

He looked both very uptight and yet composed, although he seems to avoid/limit engagement with Captains/ players to a large degree. That might be his way of retaining authority as he looks like he might burst into tears if required to explain his thinking too often.

The yellow card/penalty try sequence was very harsh. Deegan was thrown up marginally across the line out by a single lifter, it didn't stop Beirne winning the ball, or Munster playing from there. Then it seemed that the ensuing lineout maul fell over rather than was collapsed by Deegan, who if anything was tacklng the carrier. Two marginal calls and an ensuing penalty try + yellow card for a two score lead. Very harsh.

He does seem to stick it to us whenever we have him, but for the most part I can see the technical rationale for his decisions. He just seems to find fault more often with us than others.

[the spoofer]

Spot on.

Despite us not having a good record with him and us losing the penalty count (13-15), as well as having the only yellow card and penalty try against us, I still thought the referee was accurate in most of his calls. He is a bit of a conundrum to me. Technically correct most of the time but harsh on us in my view.

He looked both very uptight and yet composed, although he seems to avoid/limit engagement with Captains/ players to a large degree. That might be his way of retaining authority as he looks like he might burst into tears if required to explain his thinking too often.

The yellow card/penalty try sequence was very harsh. Deegan was thrown up marginally across the line out by a single lifter, it didn't stop Beirne winning the ball, or Munster playing from there. Then it seemed that the ensuing lineout maul fell over rather than was collapsed by Deegan, who if anything was tacklng the carrier. Two marginal calls and an ensuing penalty try + yellow card for a two score lead. Very harsh.

He does seem to stick it to us whenever we have him, but for the most part I can see the technical rationale for his decisions. He just seems to find fault more often with us than others.

I thought it was incredible that he didn't yellow one of their lads after we broke up the left and they killed the ball 3m from the line.

[Dexter]

Spot on.

Despite us not having a good record with him and us losing the penalty count (13-15), as well as having the only yellow card and penalty try against us, I still thought the referee was accurate in most of his calls. He is a bit of a conundrum to me. Technically correct most of the time but harsh on us in my view.

He looked both very uptight and yet composed, although he seems to avoid/limit engagement with Captains/ players to a large degree. That might be his way of retaining authority as he looks like he might burst into tears if required to explain his thinking too often.

The yellow card/penalty try sequence was very harsh. Deegan was thrown up marginally across the line out by a single lifter, it didn't stop Beirne winning the ball, or Munster playing from there. Then it seemed that the ensuing lineout maul fell over rather than was collapsed by Deegan, who if anything was tacklng the carrier. Two marginal calls and an ensuing penalty try + yellow card for a two score lead. Very harsh.

He does seem to stick it to us whenever we have him, but for the most part I can see the technical rationale for his decisions. He just seems to find fault more often with us than others.

I thought it was incredible that he didn't yellow one of their lads after we broke up the left and they killed the ball 3m from the line.

Me too, but I guess that's home advantage coming into play.