RaboDirect Pro 12 - General Season Discussion

Thought it would be worthwhile to have a general thread where we can discuss games that don't quite earn their own match thread.

Aironi doing quite well against Scarlets in Wales at the moment, 16-9 in Scarlets favour with 50 gone, but they've only just conceded that try in the last 2 minutes after getting caught out wide.

Hagz

Keats and Olivier are going to add a lot to Aironi. It would be good to see them being more competitive this season.

Scarlets eventually broke them down and finished off the game strongly. 32-9 final score. Still, not a terrible start to the league for them.

thomond2006

http://www.rabodirectpro12.com/ - Website not working for me.

I suppose a discussion point from this weekend is the Cardiff win over Edinburgh. I thought Cardiff would win but not by that much. Edinburgh are really doomed without the boot of Paterson.

Ospreys looked good against Leinster, perhaps they can turn a corner with all their stars gone. Could change the culture of the team.

Aironi should be much stronger after the World Cup when Orquera and Masi are back available. As Hagz says Keats and Olivier should help the team. They really should sign Mauro Bergamasco, he's still a free agent. The Italian federation would surely finance part of a deal to bring a star player home. A backrow of Sole, Bergamasco and Williams would be a match for most sides.

durkadurka

Didn't Cardiff lose a load of players? I'm amazed they still won at Edinburgh. It's a fairly damning indictment of the scots I suppose.

thomond2006

durkadurka wrote: »

Didn't Cardiff lose a load of players? I'm amazed they still won at Edinburgh. It's a fairly damning indictment of the scots I suppose.

Tom Davies (Doncaster), Ben White (Exeter), Tom Brown (Dragons), Tom Slater (Bristol), James Loxton (Connacht), Bryn Griffiths

That's the list of players that left in the summer, all fringe players.

Ben Blair is injured while Jenkins, Davies, Warburton, Lloyd Williams, Parks, Roberts and Halfpenny are at the World Cup.

You're right, it is an indictment of the Scots. Many of the best Scottish players are playing outside of Scotland, they tried private investment in club rugby with the Carruthers at Edinburgh and that was a disaster.

Glasgow seemed to do alright at Ulster, one of Ulster's tries came from an intercept (similar to "that" pass by TOL against France) but the weather was shocking so it was always going to be close.

phog

I tipped Dragons to cause an upset during the W/C and internationals but seeing Ospreys on Friday night they seem to have a fairly decent lineup, they could build up a head of stream which could see them earn a home S/F, is it too early to be making that sort of prediction.

theboss80

Deleted User wrote: »

Scarlets eventually broke them down and finished off the game strongly. 29-9 final score. Still, not a terrible start to the league for them.

Finished up 32-9 with a penalty conceded right at the end

thomond2006

Is the site not working for anyone else or is it just me?

Hagz

thomond2006 wrote: »

Is the site not working for anyone else or is it just me?

Nah, it just loads a white page. Probably updating.

phog

working for me

thomond2006

Ospreys beat Edinburgh 26-19. Considering they were hammered by Cardiff at home the week before, a point isn't a bad result for Edinburgh.

Edinburgh scored one try, through...you guessed it, Tim Visser!

Digifriendly

thomond2006 wrote: »

Ospreys beat Edinburgh 26-19. Considering they were hammered by Cardiff at home the week before, a point isn't a bad result for Edinburgh.

Edinburgh scored one try, through...you guessed it, Tim Visser!

Agree - good result for Edinburgh who welcome their coach's former team to Murrayfield next weekend. Will be interesting to see how Ospreys do on the road away from home comforts.

phog

All four Irish provinces won this week-end and two of them playing away from home, hopefully, that's something that can be repeated during the season.

Piliger

Why no app this year ?

thomond2006

Cardiff BP win over Treviso: 33-18.

PhatPiggins

Standards of play have been largely average in the extreme so far this season. I know its a WC year but does anyone else feel that their has been a gradual fall in quality the past few years.

The Irish second team can still take nearly all comers, the Scots and Italians play God awful rugby and the Welsh seem to care only occasionally. For me the Aviva Prem is streets ahead in terms of entertainment.

phog

My favourite non Irish player Martyn Williams is out for at least 6 weeks, picked up an injury in Ravenhill last Friday night.

.ak

PhatPiggins wrote: »

Standards of play have been largely average in the extreme so far this season. I know its a WC year but does anyone else feel that their has been a gradual fall in quality the past few years.

The Irish second team can still take nearly all comers, the Scots and Italians play God awful rugby and the Welsh seem to care only occasionally. For me the Aviva Prem is streets ahead in terms of entertainment.

You really can't make any assessments based on the fact it's a WC year. Last year was very good in terms of quality, and probably the year before was even better (when Ospreys were exciting to watch).

But if you want a really entertaining league to watch, forget the premiership and catch the Top 14. Guaranteed top flight high end rugby, even with 30 Frenchmen in NZ.

thomond2006

Good win for Treviso tonight, 13-15 away to Glasgow.

GerM

Great win for them, not so great for my prediction league status but everyone else had Glasgow too. Good to see the league being so competitive this season. Or is it just most teams are playing poorly?

thomond2006

GerM wrote: »

Great win for them, not so great for my prediction league status but everyone else had Glasgow too. Good to see the league being so competitive this season. Or is it just most teams are playing poorly?

This. The games have been very poor, Munster have won 4/4 for example but haven't needed to get out of second gear to win the games.

Hopefully the Treviso win tonight will spur them on to win more games.

profitius

PhatPiggins wrote: »

Standards of play have been largely average in the extreme so far this season. I know its a WC year but does anyone else feel that their has been a gradual fall in quality the past few years.

The Irish second team can still take nearly all comers, the Scots and Italians play God awful rugby and the Welsh seem to care only occasionally. For me the Aviva Prem is streets ahead in terms of entertainment.

Irish rugby has gotten much stronger in the past few years especially with squad depth. The Scots have not progressed at all and possibly gone backwards. The Welsh teams are getting better overall too.

CatFromHue

Aironi have beaten Edinburgh 25-19 in Italy this afternoon.

Seemingly Ulster had a tough enough game over there earlier this season too. Treviso was/is a tough place to go so it's good to see Aironi becoming more competitive.

thomond2006

Great result for Aironi!

conf101

thomond2006 wrote: »

Good win for Treviso tonight, 13-15 away to Glasgow.

The same Glasgow who beat us at home...Ugh!

Damn, was so close to punting Treviso last night. Something in my gut said it was time.

Done poorly this weekend with the predictions.

durkadurka

Everyone has so no harm done.

Two italian wins. Who'd have thunk it?

thomond2006

Result of the round was Glasgow tanking Cardiff 34-13 in Cardiff! I don't think anyone saw that coming. Both their wins have come away from home and in places you wouldn't at all expect (other win was at Leinster).

I think it's good for the league that Glasgow and Edinburgh won this weekend, their general crapness is dragging the competition down as a whole. They really need to up their game to make the Pro12 more competitive.

Ospreys have had a handy first 5 games (4 of them at home) and are 5/5. Tough trip next week to Thomond though!

I'm surprised Scarlets have started the season so poorly, albeit their fixture list so far has been tricky (been away to Connacht, Munster and Treviso and hosted Leinster). Only win to date was a facile victory over Aironi in Week 1.

Great start to the season for Connacht. The fact they have two LBPs from the two lost games is a good sign.

Next weekend's fixtures:
Scarlets vs Edinburgh
Ulster vs Treviso
Glasgow vs Dragons
Aironi vs Blues
Leinster vs Connacht
Munster vs Ospreys

Digifriendly

Saw Glasgow's win on S4C - fully deserved but little atmosphere in a mostly empty stadium. Similar crowd it seemed to last week's defeat to Munster. Honestly think it is no advantage in Cardiff playing in a 30,000 capacity stadium which is hard to even half fill. They'd have been better to stay put in their previous club ground as a 5-6,000 crowd would at least look a bit better and generate a bit more noise rather than echo in a stadium that is bigger and shared with a soccer club.

CatFromHue

Big weekend in the Pro 12 coming up. As shown in Thomond's post above the Irish teams are in 2,3,4, and 5 position in the table with Ospreys going to Munster, first v second, and Connacht coming to Leinster, third v fourth.

Ulster are home to Treviso so would be looking to get a win and prob a bonus point there too.

Cardiff are away to Aironi who, while limited, were a tough nut for Leinster to crack last Saturday. The win for Leinster will put them in a good mood for the visit of Connacht as we've a severely weekened squad at the moment.

thomond2006

TABLE:

Ospreys 24
Munster 18 (4/6, 1tbp, 1lbp)
Leinster 18 (4/6, 1tbp, 1lbp)
Cardiff 16

---

Glasgow 14
Treviso 14
Connacht 14 (3/6, 2lbps)
Ulster 12 (3/6)
Scarlets 11
Dragons 10
Edinburgh 10
Aironi 6

tbp= try bonus point; lbp = losing bonus point

http://www.rabodirectpro12.com/matchcentre/table.php

Phase one of the Pro12 is over, no games for 2 weekends (weekend after RWC Final).

Ospreys are 6/6 and riding high. Getting rid of the superstars has paid off. They don't have too many galacticos to re-integrate into the squad after the World Cup with Phillips, Hook and Byrne all gone.

Connacht should have got something out of the Leinster match, they are the type of games Connacht need to get a return from. Still 3 wins from 6 isn't bad. I doubt Ulster are happy with their performances.

It's good to see Treviso and Glasgow have started well. We need these sides to be competitive to make the league more competitive as a whole.

On another note, the quality of the rugby has been pretty poor IMO.

justsomebloke

thomond2006 wrote: »

Ospreys are 6/6 and riding high. Getting rid of the superstars has paid off. They don't have too many galacticos to re-integrate into the squad after the World Cup with Phillips, Hook and Byrne all gone.

It will be interesting to see how they get on with bigger players going back to the other teams. They also managed to luck out with the draw and managed to get both Munster and Leinster fixtures while both teams were depleted and this will probably see them get a home semi, it will be interesting to see how the return fixture goes

thomond2006 wrote: »

On another note, the quality of the rugby has been pretty poor IMO.

have to say I have been very disappointed with Leinster so far. Yes I know a lot of people will say we are missing up to 20 players but still with the caliber of players that is still there I would of expected a lot more.

GerM

justsomebloke wrote: »

have to say I have been very disappointed with Leinster so far. Yes I know a lot of people will say we are missing up to 20 players but still with the caliber of players that is still there I would of expected a lot more.

I think you expect way too much from a group of lads that have essentially been thrown together. They've won 4/6 which is a big step up on the start of last season where we were 1/4 and people were thinking Schmidt wasn't the man for the job. We were languishing near the foot of the table and it ultimately cost us a home final and possibly a double. Given there have been an amazing 24 players missing at times think Leinster have done remarkably well. You also have to factor in how many new lads are finding their feet. 5 of the starting 15 at the weekend weren't with Leinster last season. People like Luke Fitz and Strauss are the leaders and they're only 24 and 25. All in all, I'm very happy with how things have gone.

thomond2006

Treviso 50-24 Dragons

That's 4 wins on the bounce for Treviso and their first ever bonus point win in the competition.

Also, 'The Breakdown' with Pro12 highlights is on freeview, tommorrow at 5pm on Setanta Ireland. BBC2 Wales Scrum V show is also on at 5pm.

Podge_irl

Genuinely surprised to see Glasgow of all teams break Ospreys winning record. Fair play to them. All the same, equally surprised to see the Spreys have won 6 games, none with a bonus point. Wonder if they've finally got the hard edge necessary to really go places if they're closing out close games.

[Jackass]

Treviso running 7 tries past dragons and putting up a half century = :eek:

I hope they start producing in Europe or it's a sad enditement of the league to see them hovering around the play-off spots nearly half way through the season.

danthefan

Jackass wrote: »

Treviso running 7 tries past dragons and putting up a half century = :eek:

I hope they start producing in Europe or it's a sad enditement of the league to see them hovering around the play-off spots nearly half way through the season.

1. We're not even a third through the league yet.
2. They've done well while the vast majority of the internationals have been away.

So no.

[Jackass]

1. There's 3 or 4 games until half way point, thus the use of the word "nearly".

2. I was more reffering to the half century, 7 try drumming of Dragons after the return of the internationals, but since you raise the point, other victories against teams like Ulster & Scarlets who not only are their squad numbers barely effected by the world cup, but only supplied a fraction of the amount of players to the world cup as Treviso did....

Jayzussss Daniel.

thomond2006

thomond2006 wrote: »

Also, 'The Breakdown' with Pro12 highlights is on freeview, tommorrow at 5pm on Setanta Ireland. BBC2 Wales Scrum V show is also on at 5pm.

A reminder!

wixfjord

thomond2006 wrote: »

A reminder!

Nice one! Cheers!

kksaints

Good to see Treviso doing well. Hope Aironi can get some more wins soon enough

profitius

Its looks like its going to be very tight this season.

Overall the Irish teams have been a bit disappointing so far. Munster losing at home to the Ospreys and were haunted to beat Cardiff away. Ulster and Connacht losing winable games too.

The Italians have gotten stronger as expected. They are getting harder to beat which is good for them and the league.

[Jackass]

Anyone watching Ospreys v Scarlets on S4/C?

Amazing that the ground is barely half full for the "biggest rivalry in Welsh rugby". Really shows the gulf in support compared to the Leinster v Munster game last night...little or no atmosphere either, as the showcase event in Welsh regional rugby. If anything it's the Scarlets fans making all the noise. Why wont they buy in to Celtic / Magners / Pro12 rugby??

On a side note, hoping Scarlets can knick this one, 3 - 0 Ospreys coming in to half time, not the best game in the world...Would be great to be top of the table coming in to the HEC break, and also for everyone else, that Ospreys don't pull the points gap back out at the top of the table again.

wixfjord

[Jackass] wrote: »

Anyone watching Ospreys v Scarlets on S4/C?

Amazing that the ground is barely half full for the "biggest rivalry in Welsh rugby". Really shows the gulf in support compared to the Leinster v Munster game last night...little or no atmosphere either, as the showcase event in Welsh regional rugby. If anything it's the Scarlets fans making all the noise. Why wont they buy in to Celtic / Magners / Pro12 rugby??

On a side note, hoping Scarlets can knick this one, 3 - 0 Ospreys coming in to half time, not the best game in the world...Would be great to be top of the table coming in to the HEC break, and also for everyone else, that Ospreys don't pull the points gap back out at the top of the table again.

Streams here: http://www.wiziwig.tv/broadcast.php?matchid=131769&part=sports

CatFromHue

Ospreys and Lanelli finished 9 all which puts Ospreys top on points difference over Leinster, both are on 26 points. Munster are third on 23, followed by Glasgow on 22.

jacothelad

[Jackass] wrote: »

1. There's 3 or 4 games until half way point, thus the use of the word "nearly".

2. I was more reffering to the half century, 7 try drumming of Dragons after the return of the internationals, but since you raise the point, other victories against teams like Ulster & Scarlets who not only are their squad numbers barely effected by the world cup, but only supplied a fraction of the amount of players to the world cup as Treviso did....

Jayzussss Daniel.

Ulster had 9 first team players at the world cup and 3 others out with injury v. Treviso. I think you will find that is quite a lot.

thomond2006

The Breakdown is on Setanta Ireland at 5pm today. Don't think it's on freeview this week.

BBC2Wales Scrum V programme is today at 5:10pm, it will be fairly short I'd say since Dragons v Cardiff was called off.

errlloyd

Glasgow are having a weird season. Losing games they should win and winning games they should lose. In any case as a part time Gunners fan I am getting worried by the shift in Scotland towards Glasgow. Edinburgh need a new home ground, and need to start holding on to some internationals.

Treviso getting quite strong. Realistically Italy are getting there in terms of rugby, they're becoming a true tier one nation, and they're pouring all their developmental resources into these two teams, (somewhat unequally in Treviso's favour). If players in France nearing retirement choose to spend their last few years back in Italy you could have a treviso in four or five seasons challenging for playoffs.

wixfjord

Personally, I'm delighter with the league table at the moment.
If you had of told me at the start of the season that Leinster would be joint top right before the first HEC game, I'd have jumped at that.

[Jackass]

jacothelad wrote: »

Ulster had 9 first team players at the world cup and 3 others out with injury v. Treviso. I think you will find that is quite a lot.

Um, you're including players who were due to join Ulster after the world cup as "first team players"? Even so, it's less than the 13 players Treviso had at the world cup, so the point is still laughable that Treviso did well because of the world cup dispite arguably being the most effected team in the league...