Magners Celtic League this weekend 15/16 Feb

juvenal

Friday

Llanelli Scarlets -v- Glasgow Warriors
Edinburgh - Munster
Ulster - Dragons

Saturday

Ospreys - Connacht
Leinster - Cardiff Blues

MUNSTER: S Payne; D Howlett, R Tipoki, L Mafi, I Dowling; P Warwick, P Stringer; F Pucciariello, F Sheahan, T Buckley; M O'Driscoll, D Ryan; A Quinlan, N Ronan, A Foley (capt). Replacements : D Fogarty, D Hurley, P O'Connell, J Coughlan, T O'Leary, J Manning, K Lewis.

ULSTER: M Bartholomeusz; M McCrea, T Bowe, P Steinmetz, S Danielli; N O'Connor, I Boss (capt); B Young, N Brady, D Fitzpatrick; R Caldwell, J Harrison; N Best, K Dawson, S Ferris. Replacements: R Best, J Fitzpatrick, C Del Fava, M McCullough, P Marshall, P Wallace, B Cunningham.

CONNACHT: G Duffy; D Riordan, M Mostyn, M Deane, A Wynne; A Dunne, C McPhillips; B Wilkinson, A Flavin, R Morris; M Swift, A Farley (C); M McCarthy, J O'Connor, J Muldoon. Replacements: J Fogarty, R Loughney, D Gannon, R Ofisa, C Rigney, C O'Loughlin, T Donnelly.

LEINSTER: L Fitzgerald; S Horgan, C Warner, M Berne, G Brown; F Contepomi, C Whitaker; C Healy, O le Roux, S Wright; T Hogan, L Cullen (c); C Jowitt, K Gleeson, S Keogh. Replacements: B Blaney, S Knoop, D Toner, K McLaughlin, C Keane, E O'Malley, F Jones


Half times:

Ulster 7 Dragons 6 ; try from Caldwell after a good break and nice offload by Bowe

Edinburgh 0 Munster 0 :eek:

Scarlets 17 Warriors 7

bleg

0-0 in edinburgh


sounds like an interesting match

juvenal

Murrayfield

50mins: Edinburgh 0 Munster 0

Both teams down to 14 men, Dougie Howlett just got dumped on his head in a pretty dangerous tackle. Sin bin, lucky it wasn't a red.

juvenal

Ravenhill

51mins: The Celtic League's most capped player, Adam Black, has just been given a straight red card for a knee to the face of the Ulster prop.

Ulster 7 Dragons 6

juvenal

54mins - First score in Edinburgh!

Edinburgh 0 Munster 3; Penalty by Warwick

juvenal

Edinburgh 0 Munster 6

Ulster 14 Dragons 6

Scarlets 30 Glasgow 7

juvenal

Ravenhill: Try #3 for Ulster, Bryn Cunningham.

Ulster 21 Dragons 6

Tommy Bowe is having an excellent game, putting a real case to be brought in for the Scotland game.

Murrayfield: Edinburgh 7 Munster 6

juvenal

Funny stuff in Belfast!

Simon Danielli first beats two players and as he's diving over the line he drops the ball and knocks on!!

Dragons recover and clear, before Ulster regain possession, and Boss goes over beside the post. Bonus point in the bag - Ulster 28 Dragons 6.

Great start for Matt Williams

juvenal

Try in Murrayfield; smart play from Donnacha Ryan who picks from the base of the ruck on the Edinburgh line and dives over the line American Football-style for the try.

Warwick fails to adds the extras; 77mins Edinburgh 7 Munster 11

EdgarAllenPoo

What a second half performance by Ulster, not perfect but a hundred times better than their Heineken Cup performances this season.

juvenal

GDM wrote: »

What a second half performance by Ulster, not perfect but a hundred times better than their Heineken Cup performances this season.

Yeah, they were very impressive. The Dragons aren't great, but in fairness to Ulster they've put down a great marker in Williams' first game in the saddle. Tommy Bowe is playing outstanding, and he was outside centre tonight. Wallace impressed when he came on, nice try at the death off the inside pass.

Full times

Ulster 38 Dragons 13
Edinburgh 7 Munster 11
Llanelli 30 Glasgow 7

chris85

Tommy Bowe had a stormer tonight. Attacked very well. Overall a very good Ulster performance, they look like a totally different team with the new coach in place.

Tommy Bowe to play for Scotland i hope. He gives the team a bit more choice. Bowe on the wing, Horgan on the other wing, Murphy full back.

Crash

Missed the matches unfortunately - how did big Paulie play? seeing as eddies probably gonna include him in the scotland squad, game time or no, hope he did alright.

EdgarAllenPoo

What he did he did well (apart from an initial knock-on) but I'd say he needs another few games before playing for Ireland.

phog

POC played alright but he only got about 30mins so there's no way bar injuries to a few others that he should be considered for the match day 22. I think he should be used in the squad of 30 to allow for more intensive training with the forwards.

Donnacha Ryan had a good game in the 2nd row - in fact he was my MOTM.

Crash

Has he not been training with the 30 already? I've seen pictures in the papers of him training with them.

juvenal

çrash_000 wrote: »

Has he not been training with the 30 already? I've seen pictures in the papers of him training with them.

Not sure about that?

As mentioned he came on for the past half an hour. Tbh I was flicking between the Munster and Ulster games, and spending more time watching Ravenhill because the Munster game wasn't exactly eye candy last night! So I can't give you an honest opinion on how he did, but Ryan was excellent.

Personally I'd be surprised to see him feature in the rest of the 6N. At the very best he'd be fully match fit for the England game, but I wouldn't bring him in the starting XV, perhaps an impact player from the bench? Cullen should be pushing more for a spot, and I think DO'C and MO'D are both playing very well as it is. I'd rather see O'Callaghan/O'Driscoll/Cullen rotating the 4/5 shirts for the remaining three games.

It will be interesting to see how Leinster do tonight against a strong Cardiff side.

Stev_o

Im off to the Leinster match tonight probably a win is a long shot chances are that the line out is going to fail with Ollie throwing

Crash

debating whether to head to the game or not - indecision at its best

juvenal

çrash_000 wrote: »

debating whether to head to the game or not - indecision at its best

I think everyone is in the same boat; I think I may head as it's going to be dry, if a bit cold.

If I could squeeze in Man Utd - Arsenal in the teach tábhairne beforehand I'd be sorted!

zAbbo

I've a spare ticket going if anyone wants it.

Weather looks pretty good, and it's a fairly strong Cardiff team with a strong enough Leinster team.

Surely it's worth going to see big Ollie at hooker

Stev_o

zAbbo wrote: »

I've a spare ticket going if anyone wants it.

Weather looks pretty good, and it's a fairly strong Cardiff team with a strong enough Leinster team.

Surely it's worth going to see big Ollie at hooker

I think everyones going just to see if they can fit him in there! Surely the scrum will be too wide to even be possible

smackbunnybaby

anyone know what happened connacht against ospreys on setanta?

during the week there was an ad saying that Connacht Ospreys were on setanta ireland and leinster cardiff was on setanta 1.

but instead kerry tyrone in the allianz league is on setanta ireland!

phog

smackbunnybaby wrote: »

anyone know what happened connacht against ospreys on setanta?

during the week there was an ad saying that Connacht Ospreys were on setanta ireland and leinster cardiff was on setanta 1.

but instead kerry tyrone in the allianz league is on setanta ireland!

It's on Setanta 1 now with Fred Cogley and Reggie, very poor game for Connacht, they can kiss the H/Cup for next year goodbye.

phog

Less than 12 minutes gone in the RDS and it's 14 - 0 to Cardiff. Leinster need to wake up.

phog

33 mins gone and it's now 14 - 10, Leinster score a good try after attacking the Cardiff line for what seemed like ages, though I think there might have been a knock-on in the early stages of the attack.

The try seemed to have come at a cost - Cullen and Healy off injured.

Junior

Good result for Leinster there ..

Stev_o

Back from the Leinster match. A wins a win but god was it was ugly at all Leinster had really nothing in attack and really got lucky with Fitz try at the end

zAbbo

There's no way Horgan should be playing next week.

Thank god for Phils boot and Luke's try.

juvenal

Yeah Horgan looked well off match fit. Good win though, I had Cardiff tipped to win; lovely solo try from Luke Fitzgerald at the end.

My starting XV for next week:

15. Murphy
14. Kearney
13. Trimble
12. O'Driscoll
11. Bowe
10. O'Gara
9. Reddan
1. Horan
2. Jackman
3. Buckley
4. O'Callaghan
5. O'Driscoll
6. Leamy
7. Wallace
8. Heaslip

Subs: Best, Hayes, Cullen, Easterby, Dempsey, Wallace, Stringer

The Grand Slam is gone, Eddie shoulf focus on squad rotation and injecting fresh blood balanced with old heads and experience.

Crash

you've got Mick O' on the bench and on the team - he's cloned himself?

(don't worry, i've lost track of how many times i've done that myself :P)

juvenal

çrash_000 wrote: »

you've got Mick O' on the bench and on the team - he's cloned himself?

(don't worry, i've lost track of how many times i've done that myself :P)

Yeah, superman on the field and the bench! Didn't think I had that much to drink last night

Cullen on the bench. Mal O'Kelly out of the matchday 22.

phog

Good turn round by Leinster - Luke's try was well deserved. Horgan wasn't at the races last night, he seems to be shy about tackling and slow to support, any word or Leo's injury?

Why did Contepomi try running the ball out of his own 22 when time was up, if there was a turn over and Cardiff score a converted try it could have cost Leinster the league. He hasn't learnt from Toulouse has he?

juvenal

phog wrote: »

Why did Contepomi try running the ball out of his own 22 when time was up, if there was a turn over and Cardiff score a converted try it could have cost Leinster the league. He hasn't learnt from Toulouse has he?

Yeah, it was a ballsey move; I'd say it was to try and get another score to deny Cardiff the losing bonus point.

Granted, it could have gone to sh1te and we'd have drawn, but alternatively this could have happened

Planet Rugby wrote:

Carlos Spencer demonstrated the sort of sang-froid that gives coaches nightmares. Playing in a recent Super 12 match for Auckland against their bitter rivals the Canterbury Crusaders, and with his team two points up in injury time, Spencer decided to have a little fun.

From behind his own posts he elected to run the ball, a decision that, fortunately, worked out as Auckland swept downfield, before the All Black popped up to run a superb line and canter towards the Canterbury posts unopposed. All he had to do was dot down under the posts and then kick the easy conversion to deny their rivals a bonus point.

Spencer instead ran all the way along the in-goal area right over to the far corner before putting the ball down for a try. Canterbury were at home and given that Spencer has replaced the Canterbury supporters' favourite son, Andrew Mehrtens - he played that night - as first-choice outhalf for the All Blacks, he tends to get plenty of abuse.

As he touched down he flipped the crowd the bird and then walked back along the touchline, put the ball down for the conversion and proceeded to post the extra points, thereby denying Canterbury the bonus point.

You certainly can't say there is anything mundane about Carlos Spencer.

zAbbo

Time wasn't up, Whitaker was asking the ref, and only when it was up did he put it back into the pocket for Berne.