Magners Celtic League - Fri 29 Feb / Sat 1 Mar

juvenal

Another break in the Six Nations Championship sees the resumption of the Magners League. Fringe players in all three countries have been released by their national sides for selection.

Friday 29 February 2008

Glasgow Warriors - Ospreys, Firhill 7.30pm
Dragons - Edinburgh Rugby, Rodney Parade 7.10pm
Connacht - Leinster, Sportsground 7.30pm - Live on Setanta Sports 1&2/Delayed coverage on SS Ireland @ 9.30pm
Ulster - Llanelli, Ravenhill 7.30pm - Live on Setanta Sports Ireland

Saturday 1 March 2008

Cardiff Blues - Munster, Arms Park 5.30pm - Live on Setanta Sports 2/Delayed coverage on SS Ireland @ 9.00pm



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

LEINSTER: Luke Fitzgerald, Shane Horgan/Gary Brown/Fionn Carr/Felix Jones (3 to be omitted), Michael Berne, Christian Warner, Shane Horgan / Gary Brown / Fionn Carr / Felix Jones (3 to be omitted); Felipe Contepomi, Chris Whitaker (captain); Ollie le Roux, Brian Blaney, Stan Wright; Trevor Hogan, Malcolm O'Kelly, Shane Jennings, Keith Gleeson, Stephen Keogh
Replacements: Cian Healy, Stephen Knoop, Cameron Jowitt, Kevin McLaughlin, Chris Keane, Eoin O'Malley, A.N. Other (1 to be added)

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

Killme00

I would like Ulster to do weel under Matt Williams, i think he a good coach. The game a few weeks ago was good to watch..some great stuff from Bowe at centre and the OH OConnor

Hopefully Leinster can pick up a bonus point win, its always tough in Connaught but its needed..Ollie at Hooker is funny!!

juvenal

It will be interesting to see who starts at 10 for Ulster. I was impressed with young Niall O'Connor last time out, and Wallace came on at centre and also had a good spell.

From an Irish point of view our current replacement outhalf needs to get game time in that position though.

It's also good to see Chris Whitaker back after the ankle break in Toulouse, although it does mean another Irish scrumhalf on the bench.

Stealdo

juvenal wrote: »

It will be interesting to see who starts at 10 for Ulster. I was impressed with young Niall O'Connor last time out, and Wallace came on at centre and also had a good spell.

From an Irish point of view our current replacement outhalf needs to get game time in that position though.

It's also good to see Chris Whitaker back after the ankle break in Toulouse, although it does mean another Irish scrumhalf on the bench.

At this stage Juvenal, I'd rather see O'Conner getting game time at 10 and Wallace left at 12 for Ulster, so that O'Conner will get a chance to develop in that position the way Paddy Wallace never did. I would hate to see Wallace play 10 for Ulster now until he's 33/34 and O'Conner to end up being another wasted prospect. This is obviously from a purely selfish perspective if I was an Ulster supporter I might feel differently.

Great to see Whitaker back, particularly as the Reddan move didn't happen in the end. Hopefully there'll be no long term ill effects.

dc69

Killme00 wrote: »

Ollie at Hooker is funny!!

i was at the last match he played hooker,his throwing is far superior to jackmans

i always break into laughter whenever i see ollie,what a legend:)

Killme00

dc69 wrote: »

i was at the last match he played hooker,his throwing is far superior to jackmans

that is whats so funny

phog

My predictions for the Irish Provinces are:
Ulster win
Leinster win with a BP
Connacht loss
Munster hopefully a win but I think it'll be a losing BP.

I haven't seen any of the team sheets but I bet the Welsh teams will have their internationals unlike the Irish teams with the esception of thos who haven't got game time from EOS.

juvenal

Stealdo wrote: »

At this stage Juvenal, I'd rather see O'Conner getting game time at 10 and Wallace left at 12 for Ulster, so that O'Conner will get a chance to develop in that position the way Paddy Wallace never did. I would hate to see Wallace play 10 for Ulster now until he's 33/34 and O'Conner to end up being another wasted prospect. This is obviously from a purely selfish perspective if I was an Ulster supporter I might feel differently.

Great to see Whitaker back, particularly as the Reddan move didn't happen in the end. Hopefully there'll be no long term ill effects.

Very prescient Stealdo!

Ulster team announced, both Wallace and O'Connor to start;

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

O'Connell, Quinlan, Buckley and Stringer all in the Munster squad; Fla deemed unfit so I don't think we'll see him coming in for the Wales game in any capacity;

Munster squad: S Payne, B Carney, I Dowling, D Howlett, K Lewis, L Mafi, P Warwick, J Manning, T O'Leary, P Stringer, F Pucciariello, T Buckley, Darragh Hurley, F Sheahan, D Fogarty, P O'Connell, D Ryan, M Melbourne, A Quinlan, N Ronan, J Coughlan, T O'Donnell, J O'Sullivan, A Foley.

Blues: Ben Blair; Tal Selley, Jamie Robinson, Gareth Thomas, Jamie Roberts; Rhys Jones, Richie Rees; John Yapp, T Rhys Thomas, Gary Powell, Deiniol Jones, Paul Tito, Mamma Molitika, Robin Sowden-Taylor, Xavier Rush (capt).
Replacements: Tauf'ao Filise, Gareth Williams, Scott Morgan, Ben White, Jason Spice, Nick Macleod, Dafydd Hewitt.

dc69

any news on the wings for leinster,they have named the whole team except both wingers.
would love to see felix jones get a run out,i have heard good things about him.supposed to be fast

Stealdo

Such lofty praise Juvenal.

Don't know about Leinster wingers yet, Irish Times this morning suggests that Horgan and Brown are the probables. Not sure what they're basing that on, but then I'm not sure why Cheika named 4 wings in the first place? Are there injury/fitness worries?

Looking forward to seeing Fitzgerald get more time in his preferred position. All the talk lately has been of him being destined to play centre in the long term, probably has a few pounds to add before then. Hopefully himself and Kearney won't end up vying for a single spot and becomming inadequate cover elsewhere (a la Murphy/Dempsey's time on the wing).

juvenal

Stealdo wrote: »

Such lofty praise Juvenal.

Don't know about Leinster wingers yet, Irish Times this morning suggests that Horgan and Brown are the probables. Not sure what they're basing that on, but then I'm not sure why Cheika named 4 wings in the first place? Are there injury/fitness worries?

Looking forward to seeing Fitzgerald get more time in his preferred position. All the talk lately has been of him being destined to play centre in the long term, probably has a few pounds to add before then. Hopefully himself and Kearney won't end up vying for a single spot and becomming inadequate cover elsewhere (a la Murphy/Dempsey's time on the wing).

Don't let it go to your head too much, you know we don't see eye to eye on Dempsey/Murphy!

Munster team named;

Munster: Shaun Payne; Brian Carney, Kieran Lewis, Lifeimi Mafi, Doug Howlett; Paul Warwick, Peter Stringer; Federico Pucciariello, Frank Sheahan, Tony Buckley; Donnacha Ryan, Paul O'Connell (captain); Alan Quinlan, Niall Ronan, Anthony Foley.
Replacements: Denis Fogarty, Eugene McGovern, Mark Melbourne, John O'Sullivan, James Coughlan, Tomas O'Leary, Jeremy Manning.

Jackz

Con 10 - 3 Lein :eek:

Scootay

Not that weird. Leinster are playing into the wind. Contepomi's penalty crossed the bar and was blown back over! In the first half they have to hold the ball and try driving Connacht down the field. In the second half they'll have the wind and plenty of kicking the ball for lineouts. Expecting more from Leinster in the second half.

juvenal

Half time:

Connacht 10 Leinster 3
Ulster 5 Llanelli 3

As mentioned, a bizzare incident when Contepomi struck a penalty over the bar by several metres, before the wind caught it and blew it up and back out into the field of play!:eek:

It looked like it originally hit the post, and Connacht played the ball as if it were live before the ref signalled the penalty had been scored.

Horgan is on the bench with new cap Felix Jones and Gary Brown on the wings.

Connacht played with a very strong wind in the first half, just as Llanelli did in Ravenhill, so we should see more foward attack from Leinster and Ulster in the second halves.

Jackz

Try Shane Horgan, nice fends, converted. Yea my shocked thing above was a joke.

galwayrush

Jackz wrote: »

Try Shane Horgan, nice fends, converted. Yea my shocked thing above was a joke.

bummer, it's very stormy in Galway tonight, looks like the flood gates could open second half.:(

Scootay

Connact 10 - 16 Leinster
Ulster 8 - 3 Llanelli

galwayrush

Looks like we'll be rooted at the bottom of the table tonight. Miserable season for us.

Jackz

Close in the end.

phog

Terrible conditions in Galway but Leinster were lucky to win, they scored the few chances they had while Connacht seemed to do everything except score. I predicted Leinster would get 5 points from this match but in the end I think they were happy to come home with 4.

It didn't matter in the end but when Healy was sinbinned and OLeR came back on for the next scrum should Leinster have taken off a back rather than Keogh as there was only minutes left and they were defending a 5m scrum, what do people think? I thought with conditions the backs were the players going to be least used so one of those could be sarcificed to allow Ollie on.

galwayrush

At least we got a bonus point.

zAbbo

Did Keogh come off, seems a strange decision considering.

4points is a good return.

RuggieBear

Connacht were ****ed when they could only score 10 points with that wind.

tbh i thought the ref gave every 50-50 ball to Connacht which meant we couldn't get our hand on the ball and the few times we did Leinster stupidly tried to run it in the 2nd half when they could have just kicked it down the bloody field.

phog

RuggieBear wrote: »

Connacht were ****ed when they could only score 10 points with that wind.

tbh i thought the ref gave every 50-50 ball to Connacht which meant we couldn't get our hand on the ball and the few times we did Leinster stupidly tried to run it in the 2nd half when they could have just kicked it down the bloody field.

He may have given the 50/50s to Connacht but he allowed Glesson and Keogh some latitude with regards to being behind the hind foot at rucks.

BTW Leinster only scored 13 points with the same wind.

juvenal

Cardiff 25 Munster 22.

Munster pipped at the post with an 87th minute converted try by the Blues. I thought Foley tapping a penalty on his own line with 6 to go was a mistake. Munster went through an amazing spell on about 40 phases as they were trying to run the clock down, but I thought it was a bit early to do that.

Still a very impressive example of ball-up-the-jumper stuff for 4/5 mins!

phog

I think you'll find it was Quinnie who took the quick tap and go.

Munster like Leinster against Glasgow snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. I predicted that Munster would lose and hoped they might get the losing BP but tonight while watching the game I thought we could come home with 5 points. Too many of our missed tackles were fully punished by Cardiff and fair play to them they deserved their victory, they played to the very end.

Crash

Munster were, compared with the blues, awful. So many foolish mistakes, and taking those seven minutes on their own line was ridiculuous.

Cardiff have to be applauded for the intensity they played the game with, to be honest. They went into their own rucks with the intention of quick play, not defense, and did magnificently.

jackbhoy

juvenal wrote: »

Munster went through an amazing spell on about 40 phases as they were trying to run the clock down, but I thought it was a bit early to do that.

Still a very impressive example of ball-up-the-jumper stuff for 4/5 mins!

Yeah it was impressive to go through that many phases without error and Setanta commentators seemed to love it. Imo though to go through 40 phases and not gain an inch but in fact lose territory doesn't do much for you, sure it helps run the clock but you still leave Cardiff metres from line of they do get hold of ball, by which time most of your forwards will be out on their feet from all that effort.

Marshy

çrash_000 wrote: »

Munster were, compared with the blues, awful. So many foolish mistakes, and taking those seven minutes on their own line was ridiculuous.

Cardiff have to be applauded for the intensity they played the game with, to be honest. They went into their own rucks with the intention of quick play, not defense, and did magnificently.

Were we watching the same game there? Fair enough Munster didn't capitalise on the wind in the first half but for the first half hour of the second half they were by far the dominant team. They were 2-0 up on tries in that period playing into the wind. Cardiff made so many bad errors and Munster played the conditions well, their third try was brilliant. Pretty much all the back line was involved and then POC barged his way over.

I agree that they pushed their luck with that period on their own line but they did have a chance to clear when Warwick had a penalty that didn't make touch. Thought they deserved to win, but ultimately 2 soft tries towards the end were their undoing.

Crash

You do have to take the two teams seperately though - the blues are not on the same level as Munster. This is their first match in four games they've won, and to be honest they won it through Munsters mistakes.

Buckleys try was a great piece of work, as was Paulie's, but overall against a team that's been having a bad run of the game, Munsters own errors (for instance, i'd be interested to see the ruck turnover stats, cardiff plowed into a few of those) allowed that cardiff team to play, and when they did, they played well.

[Jackass]

I know it's still early enough and despite not picking up the bonus point (thank feck we got the win at all!) I think this is the weekend Leinster won the league...all we need is cruise control for the rest of the season and keep getting results, everything went right for us this weekend.

Next we've Glasgow at home, then the 2 big games left in the season in the space of a week, LLanelli away followed by Munster at home, even if we come out of those games with a win and a losing bonus point we're still in great shape, then we finish up with a trip to Edinburgh, and home and away to the dragons, which is key having those two games last knowing what we will need to get out of them to win the leasgue.

Touch wood, I think we'll get this one, hopefully no last day blunders!! :eek:

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Crash

I'd say Dougie was fairly annoyed with a few of his teammates after that performance - a five on one overlap for that first try, howletts good, but he ain't that good

phog

çrash_000 wrote: »

i'd be interested to see the ruck turnover stats, cardiff plowed into a few of those) allowed that cardiff team to play, and when they did, they played well.

Buckley was penalised for counter rucking (shoulder I know but still) in the 1st half and I think it made him stand off a bit at ruck time after that.

Crash

He was lucky not to get penalised a few more times actually - the ref was calling him out during rucks quite a lot.

sioda

How did the munser game manage to run into 9 minutes of overtime though I didn't see any injuries

RuggieBear

ball didn't go dead. testament to both Munster and Cardiff...and a scared ref!

Ulstermell0

daveirl wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

is there anywhere on the net with highlights?