Heineken Cup Weekend (9th/10th/11th November)

cruiserweight

Ulster and Leinster have named their teams for this weekends games

Ulster: B Cunningham; T Bowe, A Trimble, R Dewey, M McCrea; D Humphreys / P Wallace, I Boss, J Fitzpatrick, R Best (Capt), B Young, J Harrison, C Del Fava, M McCullough, N Best, R Wilson.

Subs: N Brady, D Fitzpatrick, R Caldwell, K Dawson, K Campbell, D Humphreys/P Wallace/ N O'Connor, M Bartholomeusz

Leinster: G Dempsey, S Horgan, B O'Driscoll (Capt), G D'Arcy, R Kearney, F Contepomi, Chris Whitaker, O le Roux, B Jackman, S Wright, L Cullen, M O'Kelly, K Gleeson, S Jennings, J Heaslip.

Subs: B Blaney, J Francisco Gomez, C Jowitt, K McLaughlin, C Willis, C Warner, L Fitzgerald

Any thoughts, insights or predictions? I am considering going to Edinburgh to see Edinburgh vs Toulouse

tHE vAGGABOND

Going to see Leinster tomorrow, tbh I cant see them beating Leicester - but you never know

RuggieBear

ditto

pyzon

does anyone know where you can see these matches on tv other then sky sports and highlights in the daft hours of the morning?

Tks

MikeHoncho

Going to the Leinster match tommorrow. Im going to give them the benefit of the doubt as its the strongest line up we have seen all season but would be sceptical at their chances.

Scrum half should be a big battle tommorrow as Whitaker is coming under alot of criticism and Murphy is fairly inexperienced but impressing.

Not sure about Gleeson at 6 either but saw it coming a mile off.

Front row battle should be interesting also. I dont think the Leinster scrum will be nearly as crippled as people believe it will be.

Did anyone read the RTE.ie Leinster province preview. He suggests Leinsters best backline might be to have Contepomi at inside centre with sexton at OH and Darcy moved out to wing. Its an interesting point as Darcy is getting swallowed up way to easily at 12 but given a bit more space on the wing he could be devastating.

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Munster have named their team as well

15: Shaun Payne
14: Brian Carney
13: Rua Tipoki
12: Lifeimi Mafi
11: Anthony Horgan
10: Ronan O'Gara (capt)
9: Peter Stringer
1: Marcus Horan
2: Jerry Flannery
3: John Hayes
4: Donncha O'Callaghan
5: Mick O'Driscoll
6: Alan Quinlan
7: David Wallace
8: Denis Leamy

REPLACEMENTS:

16: Frank Sheahan
17: Tony Buckley
18: Anthony Foley
19: Jake Paringatai
20: Tomas O'Leary
21: Paul Warwick
22: Ian Dowling

Jigsaw

I am going to the Ulster v Gloucester game tonight. I can only predict crushing defeat for Ulster. Bottom of Magner's League versus top of the Guinness Premiership.

I think that Danielli must be injured. There can surely be no other reason for his omission from the squad.

Stev_o

Jigsaw wrote: »

I am going to the Ulster v Gloucester game tonight. I can only predict crushing defeat for Ulster. Bottom of Magner's League versus top of the Guinness Premiership.

I think that Danielli must be injured. There can surely be no other reason for his omission from the squad.

Man bring a camera and photo Lesley Vainikolo one of the oh so many players to be like Lomu [ i know they aren't so dont go complaining to me] He ll score all night long me finks

zAbbo

Volcano certainly looks savage, it's on Sky Sports at 8pm as well.

Stev_o

Gloucester cutting Ulster to pieces man i love watching them with ball in hand they play one of the best rugby you'll ever see

Stev_o

Scary thing is that the Volcano can be playing for England this 6 Nations dear god....

Erin Go Brath

A bunch of grannies down the bingo would defend better than this Ulster team.

That Volcano is some animal alright. Wouldnt fancy him running at me full speed and having to take him down :eek:

razorblunt

Ulster look so bad its ridiculous, Matt McCullough shouldn be anywhere near a professional team never mind starting out of position.

He just went and scored ha ha!

Erin Go Brath

A bit of a comeback by Ulster. 15 points down is not bad considering they've conceeded 5 tries. Still Gloucester look like they can turn it on at will!

phog

Erin Go Brath wrote: »

A bunch of grannies down the bingo would defend better than this Ulster team.

That Volcano is some animal alright. Wouldnt fancy him running at me full speed and having to take him down :eek:

What's he like in defence? Sometimes these guys have only one string to their bow or have ulster even tested them?

Stev_o

phog wrote: »

What's he like in defence? Sometimes these guys have only one string to their bow or have ulster even tested them?

Tackling well he's like any pacific islander you ll know about it. Though he has given opposition gaps to run at

remus808

Just saw this poll on the ERC official site... LOL

"Who will top Pool 6?
Munster (47%)
London Wasps (22%)
Llanelli Scarlets (19%)
ASM Clermont Auvergne (11%)"

Stev_o

Leinster are defending extremely well but Tigers still up to there old tricks of slowing the ball down in the red zone and getting away with it, lets see how long the ref allows it. Tigers are probably also kicking themselves that Tom Varndell isnt able to play thanks to the stupid RFU and the fact that their other sharp knife Hipkiss has the flu. Im still confident that they ll get a penalty try from a scrum as the Leinster scrum is in all sorts of problems and that ll increase when Castrogiavanni comes on

Laslo

Great victory for Leinster. GO ON!

Stev_o

Ill tip my hat off to Leinster they defended Leicesters plan A which was to over power them and it paid off in the end. They defended superbly really set a example. As a Leicester fan im sure many people will be demanding why Tom Varndell wasnt allowed play by the RFU and Hipkiss sickness. That said they ran out of ideas and couldnt form a plan b and fair play to Leinster im sure Cullen and Jennings are grinning from ear to ear

accensi0n

Gwan Leinster!

cruiserweight

Glad I put £20 on Leinster, but disappointed that I didn't get to the pub to see the game or to Edinburgh to see the Toulouse game. Had to listen to a combination of RTE and BBC Radio Leicester. BBC commented that Leinster seemed to disrupt the Leicester line-out quite well, put it down to Leo Cullen knowing a lot of the Leicester calls.

Marshy

Great win for Leinster. It was their defence that won the game for them. Leicester made it into their 22 7 times I think and came away with only 3 points to show for it. They couldn't find a way through when they got close to the line and Leinster deserve immense credit for that when you think of the quality they were up against.

Hoping Munster can match that type of performance later on. Probably unlikely though.

dc69

Stev_o wrote: »

Ill tip my hat off to Leinster they defended Leicesters plan A which was to over power them and it paid off in the end. They defended superbly really set a example. As a Leicester fan im sure many people will be demanding why Tom Varndell wasnt allowed play by the RFU and Hipkiss sickness. That said they ran out of ideas and couldnt form a plan b and fair play to Leinster im sure Cullen and Jennings are grinning from ear to ear

tbh varndell is rubbish(need more than speed in rugby) and hipkiss is nothing special,wouldnt get on leinster team,so i dont think they would have made a difference,the only good backs for leicester imo are tualangi and rambini and murphy.
Their fowards however are immence and i cant believe how leinster stopped them ,great match and great win

remus808

dc69 wrote: »

hipkiss is nothing special,wouldnt get on leinster team

In fairness, theres very few if any centres in the world that would make it into a leinster XV.. considering they have not 2 but 3 of the worlds best!!

BOHSBOHS

yup great defence by leinster
leicester were probably a bit distracted with their ,who can grow the best facial hair competition

dc69

karmabass wrote: »

In fairness, theres very few if any centres in the world that would make it into a leinster XV.. considering they have not 2 but 3 of the worlds best!!

sounds nicer every time its said

zAbbo

Great game, just back to find Munster going over for 7 points against wasps

Would be great if the two Irish teams could beat the two best English teams on the opening weekend

marco_polo

Munster 20-13 up at half time. Good work so far, keep it up boys

Marshy

24-23 to Wasps in the end. Disappointing, a game Munster could've won. Pity their second half performance wasn't as good as their first. ROG looks back to his best on a positive note.

Bounty Hunter

Munster did not deserve to lose that game, Quinlan was immense. Mafi and Tipoki look very good. I dont what to blame the ref so will avoid mentioning his part in the game. O'Gara wearing red again and back on form. Fair play to wasps though stopping a Munster team like that is really impressive. despite the loss I really got the impression the Munster players believe they can get their trophy back this year (thats right its theirs:D). as always the travelling crowd was brilliant and the bonus point could be very big.