Who will win ML?

Diamondmaker

Marshy wrote:

No better team to blow it when it matters. Horgan's chip was horrendous for cardiffs 4th try.

True true. Count on one thing with them and thats you can count on nothing.

I genunely feel that Horgan is a mistake in the centre made by club and country over and over and over again.

what has he done there...ever?

JH double tackle though made me smile!:)

Royale with Cheese

Cmon you Ospreys!!!

I'm a half assed Ospreys fan myself

Erin Go Brath

Leinster are chronic bottlers i'm afraid!

Horgan is having an absolute nightmare. He always looks like a fish out
of water in the centre.
Stick him on the wing, there has to be someone else they can
put in the centre???

Diamondmaker

Ok when is this RWC???

At least no injuries!

I stopped watching at half time. Final score, or dare I ask?

madds

27-11...bonus point for Cardiff. Horgan looked like he wanted to be subbed. Started to rub off on Darcy then. Give them a rest, inject some new blood with the new signings, get BOD fit, off we go again next season with high hopes.

Sandwich

madds wrote:

Give them a rest, inject some new blood with the new signings, get BOD fit, off we go again next season with high hopes.

.....which gradually deflate once we hit the spring, as we realise, yet again, that some things just never change.

But someone has to support bottlers too, so we'll keep doing it.

EdgarAllenPoo

Did Connacht win or lose, it says two different things on the RTE website.

RuggieBear

GDM wrote:

Did Connacht win or lose, it says two different things on the RTE website.

lost 19 10 according to bbc

Diamondmaker

GDM wrote:

Did Connacht win or lose, it says two different things on the RTE website.

For all you ML needs...

http://www.magnersleague.com/

Leinster 3, Ulster 5, Munster 6, Connacht...well they were above Borders; who incidently, only got 2 wins.....eh hem, Leinster!

Welsh 1,2,4

Scotland F*cked!

Sandwich

Sandwich wrote:

But someone has to support bottlers too, so we'll keep doing it.

Thats the same logic the All black supporters use

NotWormBoy

Most frustrating team ever. Could've had this league sewn up several times. Against the Ospreys. Against ... Glasgow, was it?

Sure, we have mobile forwards, but a mobile forward isn't automatically a good forward. Horgan ain't a centre thats for sure. Should've left him on the wing where he does his best work and stuck someone else in centre. Felipe also tried to take too much upon himself at times, maybe he felt as captain he had to lead by example, unfortunately his example got nowhere. He's definitely someone who needs the spotlight to be on someone else to play at his best.

In a word, Argh!

daveirl

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RuggieBear

daveirl wrote:

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nah he was grand. Scary to think that he is probably the best ref in the magners league (well defo in leinster's case as all the irish refs have a vendetta against us).

Tbh, i don't think it's been a bad season for Leinster at all. As far as i'm concerned we have over achieved again....and been in the hunt for the magners league right till the end despite a lightweight pack, some incredibly inept refereeing and the loss of the most important player in Ireland. Leinster looks clueless with out BOD and Ireland also struggle.

Diamondmaker

daveirl wrote:

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I agree, I thought the ref was excellent. I was disapponted by the LM as I pointed out above. Of course he did not see a number when questioned, hes welsh!;)

I thought the other fella was not gonna give Horgans try for a sec.

the comp cannot go on with this spectre of doubt hanging over it for crunch games, any professional games. Obviuosly it effects all teams equal to a degree but the doubt should be omitted all together its a professional comp a livlihood and bread and butter for the competitors.

zAbbo

Looking forward to next season (as always)

Diamondmaker

RuggieBear wrote:

Tbh, i don't think it's been a bad season for Leinster at all. As far as i'm concerned we have over achieved again....and been in the hunt for the magners league right till the end despite a lightweight pack, some incredibly inept refereeing and the loss of the most important player in Ireland. Leinster looks clueless with out BOD and Ireland also struggle.

yeah I have to agree, Phil does the job in the home games against teams weakend by 6N, he is strong enough and gifted enough to just make tries for himslef when needed.
When the pressure is on and the teams are stronger he continues the one man band approach and just cant break the line with the same freqency and our off load in the tackle seems non existent these days.

Horgans ineptness ( harsh but true ) at centre spreads around him likme a plague and none of these gifted backs can even do a simple back line move since and including wasps.

Its amazing how much Leinster need him (BOD), unfortunately after the Perpignan away group game some time ago Hooke said what would Leinster be without him. well we have our answer.

It also spreads to Ireland unfortunately too, no team can live without him but its amazing to see how far Leinster deteriorate with what should be a decent bunch if guys without him.

hats off to JH worked all season, I think bringing proven leaders of Jennings and Cullen will help us for these BODless days. There is no leader in that squad apart from him and I see Cullen being vice captain or perhaps jennings immediately. Maybe more so Jennings no2 in England!
( top 2 in england foriegn but thats another thread )

RuggieBear

bit worried that Cheika/knox persist with horgan in the centre...it's almost pathetic to see the man struggle to make decisions. Fantastic on the wing but just cannot pass or make the right call when at 12.

Royale with Cheese

All hail the Ospreys. Champions of the greatest league in world sport.

Marshy

Lucky win for the ospreys in the end, the borders fought admirably.

Sad for the borders, their supporters were cheering them on till the bitter end. Was good to see, dont think you'd see many other sets of fans do likewise in that situation.

Royale with Cheese

Yeah whenever it's a Welsh club it's lucky and sure it's loike always the ref's fault whenever Leinster lose.

The fans may have cheered their team on to the bitter end but if there weren't so few of them maybe the Borders would be around next season.

Marshy

Royale with Cheese wrote:

The fans may have cheered their team on to the bitter end but if there weren't so few of them maybe the Borders would be around next season.

Well in fairness its hardly the most densely populated part of the world. It would have taken a lot more than a few more fans to save them I think.

Sandwich

Royale with Cheese wrote:

Yeah whenever it's a Welsh club it's lucky and sure it's loike always the ref's fault whenever Leinster lose.

Agree with you on both points.

Welsh clubs, and their international team, do seem to have got the rub of the green a lot in recent years, but that usually even out in the longer term.

Why refs are biased against Leinster is hard to explain fully. Possibly, refs find it easier to keep up with the play with less expansive, more forwards oriented teams, and tend not to give the benfit of the doubt when they are further away from the ball. Most refs prefer to err on the side of blowing the whistle too much, than to be caught not blowing when they should have. A tendency that probably disadvantages Leinster line breaking and speed in the backs.
It could also be a tendency by refs to expect higher standards from Leinsters world class players, where as they will give more leeway to lesser teams to try to help the game flow. This would be a small subconscious tendency, rather than a deliberate bias. Its the same effect as you will see refs being far more lenient on minor infringements when refing Junior or underage players.

Marshy

Sandwich wrote:

Agree with you on both points.

Welsh clubs, and their international team, do seem to have got the rub of the green a lot in recent years, but that usually even out in the longer term.

Why refs are biased against Leinster is hard to explain fully. Possibly, refs find it easier to keep up with the play with less expansive, more forwards oriented teams, and tend not to give the benfit of the doubt when they are further away from the ball. Most refs prefer to err on the side of blowing the whistle too much, than to be caught not blowing when they should have. A tendency that probably disadvantages Leinster line breaking and speed in the backs.
It could also be a tendency by refs to expect higher standards from Leinsters world class players, where as they will give more leeway to lesser teams to try to help the game flow. This would be a small subconscious tendency, rather than a deliberate bias. Its the same effect as you will see refs being far more lenient on minor infringements when refing Junior or underage players.

I hope you're being facetious with those comments. Otherwise I'd be fairly worried.

By the way I think Royale was being sarcastic with the original points.

Royale with Cheese

I've been a Welsh rugby fan living in Dublin my whole life (Welsh Dad). There is and always has been some strange superiority complex and begrudgery towards Welsh rugby, and to some extent Wales in general, in Dublin.

Don't talk to me about about success going to the Welsh heads, you should have heard the shíte most Irish fans in Dublin were coming out with when the team managed to win... a triple crown!!! Even before they had any sort of mild success as of late, the general fan's opinion of the Irish team was ambitious to say the least.

Marshy

Yeah people perceive the welsh as cocky people. Look at jonathan davies, people see him as the epitome of the cocky welshman.

I myself dont think its fair but the likes of gavin henson dont help that image.