Heineken Champions Cup Final 2023

[MylesNaGapoleen]

Just moved house, got my sky boxes set up and the first thing I did was delete the f%~ker!

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

I haven't watched it yet but I think I will. Some of the rugby in that first 20 minutes was exceptional.

first 20 were sublime. last 10 minutes are very difficult to watch. we really went for it in the last 10 and should have scored a try...lots of penalty shouts for lying on the ball or off feet with hands on ball...ringrose slipped while taking a pass..there was a walk-in try outside him. frustration then leads to the stupid penalty and game over. so so difficult to watch.

Neutrals tell me it was by far the best european final they can remember...I guess it was, but, it still stings. it's a long shot but here's hoping there's another rematch in next years draw or final.

[jezzer]

I thought at the stadium that Peyper gave us nothing. But watching it on tv, he was pretty decent.

2 really blatant "in the sides" from Danty in the lead up to the Sauteni try (Danty was subtly obstructing all game) were for me the only calls that really stuck in my craw. We were lucky with a few ourselves.

[johnf]

We haven't watched any rugby. Dipped into off the ball and listened to those who shared my disappointment and pain. Avoided all the other media and hype and those who delight in our disappointment. Hope I can get motivated for new season. It will probably feel like a short season as Leinster player's away for world cup so probably won't see first team untill November.

[LeinsterLeader]

Interesting statistic from the ECPR. The team who gave away the most penalties in this years tournament (averaging 10.5 per game) ........ drum-roll please...... the Winners, LAR.

Now there are 100 ways you can look at that statistic but If I was coach looking to win next years tournament, I would consider that stat very very carefully.

[artaneboy]

Interesting statistic from the ECPR. The team who gave away the most penalties in this years tournament (averaging 10.5 per game) ........ drum-roll please...... the Winners, LAR.

Now there are 100 ways you can look at that statistic but If I was coach looking to win next years tournament, I would consider that stat very very carefully.

Who had the average least penalties per game?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[hugonaut]

I thought at the stadium that Peyper gave us nothing. But watching it on tv, he was pretty decent.

2 really blatant "in the sides" from Danty in the lead up to the Sauteni try (Danty was subtly obstructing all game) were for me the only calls that really stuck in my craw. We were lucky with a few ourselves.

Peyper was grand. We lost the penalty count 8-12, but were under enormous pressure in the second half and all refs typically reward the team with the ball and going forward. Out scores were surgical and came with very few breakdowns and relatively few tackles. La Rochelle found themselves down on the board without having either done much wrong or lost much energy defending.

Peyper lets quite a bit go at ruck time, but he always has. It's a final and everybody wants to see the players throw themselves into it. We were as guilty as La Rochelle with regards to ruck offences if you wanted to officiate it by the letter of the law ... and if you wanted to do that, about 80% of breakdowns would have resulted in a penalty for somebody doing something.

With that said, thought that Robbie was harshly done by when penalised for having his hands on the ground when rucking through the middle. He literally made no attempt to play the ball - he was actively not playing the ball – and if you are going to penalise a player in the ruck for having his hands on the ground, you are going to penalise an incredibly high number of players in a game. Every time a player goes into guard position he either has his hands on the ground or his hands on a downed player [same thing in the laws].

[Ruckedtobits]

I thought at the stadium that Peyper gave us nothing. But watching it on tv, he was pretty decent.

2 really blatant "in the sides" from Danty in the lead up to the Sauteni try (Danty was subtly obstructing all game) were for me the only calls that really stuck in my craw. We were lucky with a few ourselves.

Peyper was grand. We lost the penalty count 8-12, but were under enormous pressure in the second half and all refs typically reward the team with the ball and going forward. Out scores were surgical and came with very few breakdowns and relatively few tackles. La Rochelle found themselves down on the board without having either done much wrong or lost much energy defending.

Peyper lets quite a bit go at ruck time, but he always has. It's a final and everybody wants to see the players throw themselves into it. We were as guilty as La Rochelle with regards to ruck offences if you wanted to officiate it by the letter of the law ... and if you wanted to do that, about 80% of breakdowns would have resulted in a penalty for somebody doing something.

With that said, thought that Robbie was harshly done by when penalised for having his hands on the ground when rucking through the middle. He literally made no attempt to play the ball - he was actively not playing the ball – and if you are going to penalise a player in the ruck for having his hands on the ground, you are going to penalise an incredibly high number of players in a game. Every time a player goes into guard position he either has his hands on the ground or his hands on a downed player [same thing in the laws].

Agreed with regard to that penalty but the Doris penalty was just plain wrong. He put his hands onto the ball, not onto the ground. This would have been another turnover instead of a continuation of the LAR pressure leading to the almost inevitable try.

[LeinsterLeader]

Interesting statistic from the ECPR. The team who gave away the most penalties in this years tournament (averaging 10.5 per game) ........ drum-roll please...... the Winners, LAR.

Now there are 100 ways you can look at that statistic but If I was coach looking to win next years tournament, I would consider that stat very very carefully.

Who had the average least penalties per game?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

From the ECPR website. I assume they are only counting teams who made it into the knockout stages:

PENALTIES CONCEDED

Stade Rochelais 83
Exeter Chiefs 80
Stade Toulousain 73
Saracens 71
DHL Stormers 71
Leinster Rugby 67
Ulster Rugby 65
Gloucester Rugby 65
Ospreys 65
Vodacom Bulls 62
Montpellier Hérault Rugby 61
Leicester Tigers 59
Munster Rugby 58

[artaneboy]

Interesting statistic from the ECPR. The team who gave away the most penalties in this years tournament (averaging 10.5 per game) ........ drum-roll please...... the Winners, LAR.

Now there are 100 ways you can look at that statistic but If I was coach looking to win next years tournament, I would consider that stat very very carefully.

Who had the average least penalties per game?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

From the ECPR website. I assume they are only counting teams who made it into the knockout stages:

PENALTIES CONCEDED

Stade Rochelais 83
Exeter Chiefs 80
Stade Toulousain 73
Saracens 71
DHL Stormers 71
Leinster Rugby 67
Ulster Rugby 65
Gloucester Rugby 65
Ospreys 65
Vodacom Bulls 62
Montpellier Hérault Rugby 61
Leicester Tigers 59
Munster Rugby 58

Thanks


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[hugonaut]

Interesting statistic from the ECPR. The team who gave away the most penalties in this years tournament (averaging 10.5 per game) ........ drum-roll please...... the Winners, LAR.

Now there are 100 ways you can look at that statistic but If I was coach looking to win next years tournament, I would consider that stat very very carefully.

Who had the average least penalties per game?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

From the ECPR website. I assume they are only counting teams who made it into the knockout stages:

Correct. And La Rochelle were below average for all the teams in the knock-out rounds.

PENALTIES CONCEDED

FINALISTS
Stade Rochelais 83/8 - 10.4 pens/game
Leinster Rugby 67/8 - 8.4 pens/game

SEMI FINALISTS
Exeter Chiefs 80/7 - 11.4 pens/game
Stade Toulousain 73/7 - 10.4 pens/game

QUARTER FINALISTS
Saracens 71/6 - 11.8 pens/game
DHL Stormers 71/6 - 11.8 pens/game
Leicester Tigers 59/6 - 9.8 pens/game
Cell C Sharks 56/6 - 9.3 pens/game

SECOND ROUNDERS
Munster Rugby 58/5 - 11.6 pens/game
Harlequins 51/5 - 10.2 pens/game
Ulster Rugby 65/5 - 13 pens/game
Gloucester Rugby 65/5 - 13 pens/game
Edinburgh 53/5 - 10.6 pens/game
Ospreys 65/5 - 13 pens/game
Vodacom Bulls 62/5 - 12.4 pens/game
Montpellier Hérault Rugby 61/5 - 12.2 pens/game

Average: 11.2 pens/game

LEADERBOARD

01. Leinster [F]: 8.4 pens/game
02. Cell C Sharks [QF]: 9.3 pens/game
03. Leicester Tigers [QF]: 9.8 pens/game
04. Harlequins [2R]: 10.2 pens/game
05. Stade Rochelais [F]: 10.4 pens/game
06. Stade Toulousain [SF]: 10.4 pens/game
07. Edinburgh [2R]: 10.6 pens/game
Average: 11.2 pens/game
08. Exeter [SF]: 11.4 pens/game
09. Munster [2R]: 11.6 pens/game
10. Saracens [QF]: 11.8 pens/game
11. DHL Stormers [QF]: 11.8 pens/game
12. Montpellier Hérault Rugby [2R]: 12.2 pens/game
13. Vodacom Bulls [2R]: 12.4 pens/game
14. Ulster Rugby [2R]: 13 pens/game
15. Gloucester Rugby [2R]: 13 pens/game
16. Ospreys [2R]: 13 pens/game

[heno]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/ ... t-letter/

Johnny Sexton’s World Cup preparation could be impacted as he faces EPCR investigation

Sent from my SM-A528B using Tapatalk

[Dave Cahill]

How will we cope with Johnny only playing the bare minimum of matches instead of as few matches as possible!

[PeteIRL]

Damn. Cant believe we may not see Johnny play in warm up games literally nobody cares about.

[hugonaut]

How will we cope with Johnny only playing the bare minimum of matches instead of as few matches as possible!

Hahaha!

[Keith]

This may be completely irrelevant but seeing Man City struggle in the champions league final, despite their vastly superior resources, kind of puts into perspective how tough it is to win a final.

[Dexter]

This may be completely irrelevant but seeing Man City struggle in the champions league final, despite their vastly superior resources, kind of puts into perspective how tough it is to win a final.

I'm in North America at the moment, Denver have just won the NBA, for the 1st time I think, but all the local TV channels are saying they've been the best team for the last 4 years and it's a mystery how they've only won now.
The Stanley Cup final is also on between Vegas, who finished 5th best for the regular season, and Florida, who finished 17th of 32 and only barely qualified as a wild card. Boston Bruins were by far the best team in the regular season, but were beaten in the playoffs by Florida, 4 games to 3 after leading 3-1 and having a home game to seal it. Nobody could understand it.

Trophies are really, really hard to win.. and the best team doesn't always win it.

[Flash Gordon]

This may be completely irrelevant but seeing Man City struggle in the champions league final, despite their vastly superior resources, kind of puts into perspective how tough it is to win a final.

I'm in North America at the moment, Denver have just won the NBA, for the 1st time I think, but all the local TV channels are saying they've been the best team for the last 4 years and it's a mystery how they've only won now.
The Stanley Cup final is also on between Vegas, who finished 5th best for the regular season, and Florida, who finished 17th of 32 and only barely qualified as a wild card. Boston Bruins were by far the best team in the regular season, but were beaten in the playoffs by Florida, 4 games to 3 after leading 3-1 and having a home game to seal it. Nobody could understand it.

Trophies are really, really hard to win.. and the best team doesn't always win it.

These points are so true. The media broadcast a narrative that we were favourites and some of the commentary from other teams seemed to think that it was a cakewalk - all the nonsense about Leinster being the best club side in the world with unfair advantages etc but I'm sure the team never bought all of that. Winning the European Cup is the biggest club challenge in the world, the few have won it worked hard, played well and probably got a bit of luck along the way. As you say, it's bloody hard.

[Observingprop123]

This may be completely irrelevant but seeing Man City struggle in the champions league final, despite their vastly superior resources, kind of puts into perspective how tough it is to win a final.

I'm in North America at the moment, Denver have just won the NBA, for the 1st time I think, but all the local TV channels are saying they've been the best team for the last 4 years and it's a mystery how they've only won now.
The Stanley Cup final is also on between Vegas, who finished 5th best for the regular season, and Florida, who finished 17th of 32 and only barely qualified as a wild card. Boston Bruins were by far the best team in the regular season, but were beaten in the playoffs by Florida, 4 games to 3 after leading 3-1 and having a home game to seal it. Nobody could understand it.

Trophies are really, really hard to win.. and the best team doesn't always win it.

Ah, as someone who follows the NBA quite closely, Denver hasn't been the best team in basketball in the last 4 years by any real metric. The 7 games series in Basketball, Baseball, and Ice Hockey make it easier for the better team to win as there is less variance~ A poor team is hitting every shot in a basketball game and a Great team is missing those shots leading to a loss, but still 3 more opportunities to win.

Leinster and Man City are a great comparison over the last 5 years. Dominate in the league and both had a big goal of winning the European cup. Get to the latter stages of the competition and then get undone by a team that doesn't dominate across the year. Even tactically Pep Guardiola and Leinster have a lot in common by approaching the latter stages of the tournament a lot more conservatively than a typical game. Which I'd argue has resulted in less success for both teams. However Man City were lucky and got outplayed in the champions league final and still got it over the line.

[5starfan]

Regarding the NBA, Denver have been one of the top sides, however Bucks after a long 82 game regular season were dumped out in the 1st play off round by 8th seeded Miami.

Peaking at the right stage of season is so important in modern sport. Given what we done to Gloucester in 2 games, how did they come within an injury time try of defeating LAR on the same day we beat Ulster in Aviva. Similarly, Munster found a rich vain of form on the run in to win the URC.

[Dexter]

This may be completely irrelevant but seeing Man City struggle in the champions league final, despite their vastly superior resources, kind of puts into perspective how tough it is to win a final.

I'm in North America at the moment, Denver have just won the NBA, for the 1st time I think, but all the local TV channels are saying they've been the best team for the last 4 years and it's a mystery how they've only won now.
The Stanley Cup final is also on between Vegas, who finished 5th best for the regular season, and Florida, who finished 17th of 32 and only barely qualified as a wild card. Boston Bruins were by far the best team in the regular season, but were beaten in the playoffs by Florida, 4 games to 3 after leading 3-1 and having a home game to seal it. Nobody could understand it.

Trophies are really, really hard to win.. and the best team doesn't always win it.

Ah, as someone who follows the NBA quite closely, Denver hasn't been the best team in basketball in the last 4 years by any real metric. The 7 games series in Basketball, Baseball, and Ice Hockey make it easier for the better team to win as there is less variance~ A poor team is hitting every shot in a basketball game and a Great team is missing those shots leading to a loss, but still 3 more opportunities to win.

Leinster and Man City are a great comparison over the last 5 years. Dominate in the league and both had a big goal of winning the European cup. Get to the latter stages of the competition and then get undone by a team that doesn't dominate across the year. Even tactically Pep Guardiola and Leinster have a lot in common by approaching the latter stages of the tournament a lot more conservatively than a typical game. Which I'd argue has resulted in less success for both teams. However Man City were lucky and got outplayed in the champions league final and still got it over the line.

I honestly don't know anything about NBA, I was just repeating what I saw pundits saying on TV here. But I think the point still stands.
I do watch NHL and what happened to the Bruins was as freakishly unbelievable as what happened to Leinster. Being consistently good and consistently better than everyone else only gets you so far in a competition with a KO end game.