HEC SF: Clermont Auvergne vs Leinster; Sunday 29 April, KO 1600(CET); Live Sky Sports

GerM

I did like Hines tweet yesterday referencing Leinster's Twitter policy:

Wagga5: Night night tweeples. Adrenaline has worn off now. Remember, only 14h till @SeanOBrien1987 can tweet again. #blackoutcountdown

Fishooks12

GerM wrote: »

I did like Hines tweet yesterday referencing Leinster's Twitter policy:

Wagga5: Night night tweeples. Adrenaline has worn off now. Remember, only 14h till @SeanOBrien1987 can tweet again. #blackoutcountdown

What's the twitter policy?

GerM

Fishooks12 wrote: »

What's the twitter policy?

Blackout on Twitter usage 24 hours either side of the game, as far as I know.

CatFromHue

prospect wrote: »

Oh right, you are being serious.

LOL.

Alright so, I'll entertain it, for one post.

1. Unless you are blind, Cullen is behind the players leg when he actually grabs (and for the moments preceding it) so was not watching.
2. As he cannot see he moves his hand up the players leg (sounds saucy eh!) until he feels the players shorts and grabs them (the shorts) at the point of contact, which happens to be the crotch.
3. Unless the Clermont player has the worlds smallest and low hanging balls, there is no chance Cullen was near them.
4. Sh1t like this happens all the time.

"Citing", bo**ox!

I'd like to see the what happens after the clip, it cuts out too soon for me. It doesn't look very pretty at all and has never happened me when playing. When you take into account the position the Clermont player is and how far apart his legs it makes his shorts very tight on his crotch. Grabbing him in this position would be unpleasant to say the least.

BoarHunter

Leinster7 wrote: »

One thing we can all agree on is taht the top English referees, ie. Wayne Barnes & Dave Pearson are just weak and get it consistently wrong as Barnes did for both sides yesterday. If we had Rolland eg. reffing yesterday (which he cant technically cos he's Irish, I know) there would've been 1 yellow each and a red for Clermont, also at least 4-6 more penalties to Leinster and 2-3 less against Leinster, so it should've been 12 against Leinster and 20 against Clermont... I'm saying this after watching the game again and not thru blue tinted glasses etc..

So, in conclusion, Leinster clearly deserved to win and D'Arcy's tackle on Fofana was heroic, epic. The fact he is like a lost sheep for Ireland is why Schmidt should be hired by the IRFU to replace Kidney asap.....if only...

LOL after reading your post I can tell you they are well blue tinted

Banbridgeman

That GIF originated from where else but munsterfans.com. Cullen pulls down on the shorts. Definitely not a citing. Although to be perfectly honest I would prefer if Cullen wasn't cited because I actually think toner will strengthen the one area where Leinster are weak so maybe I'm a wee bit biased

MungBean

Looks to me like Leo just grabbed the shorts, see no evidence to suggest he deliberatly went for the ball bag.

BoarHunter

MungBean wrote: »

Looks to me like Leo just grabbed the shorts, see no evidence to suggest he deliberatly went for the ball bag.

no I don't think there any substance here for a citing tbh. The only thing I see on this video is a blue player ( fitz I think ) coming on the side of the ruck to take a white player. dunno if this was whistled or not but it's funny to see.

clsmooth

Tox56 wrote: »

The one thing that makes me think that he might have made contact was that the second Cullen squeezes, Rougerie's right leg sort of collapses in without any other obvious provocation.

Think thats because one of his own team mates was lifted on/shoved into him

Cpt_Blackbeard

Cowardly by Cullen.

ironingbored

irishbucsfan wrote: »

George Hook says Leinster were lucky to still be in the game at all and struggled to compete for 80 minutes. Discuss.

I remarked during the 2nd half that Clermont had hardly been in Leinster's half of the pitch at all (bar the 5mins at the end).

Reddan was a big factor in this. They emptied their bench much earlier too making a mockery of Hook's comments above).

Leinster had a good first 15 mins and should really have made a number of line breaks count. Clermont had the better of the latter part of the first half and the 12-6 HT scored was probably a fair reflection. Leinster really should have been more than 4 ahead going into the last 10 mins.

TheGoldenAges

Cpt_Blackbeard wrote: »

Cowardly by Cullen.

Welcome back to the thread, looking forward to your statements today

BarackPyjama

I'd say he just wanted a feel of Rougerie's balls. Who wouldn't?

ktulu123

I think a whole lot is being made out of nothing really. Can clearly see he is just grabbing shorts.

BarackPyjama

Cpt_Blackbeard wrote: »

Cowardly by Cullen.

That coward is leading his troops to another Heineken Cup final though. I'd take a successful coward over an honorable failure any day. Psych! :pac:

CatFromHue

BarackPyjama wrote: »

I'd say he just wanted a feel of Rougerie's balls. Who wouldn't?

His nickname isn't the horse for nothing :pac::pac::pac:

Fishooks12

From a pretty neutral point of view, I'd like to think so anyway:

At the very least it's careless from Cullen, at worst it's very cynical and not something I like to see on a rugby field

It does look like Rougaries leg collapses when Cullen seems to grab but it could be coincidence

Teferi

Cpt_Blackbeard wrote: »

Cowardly by Cullen.

It just eats you up inside when Leinster win, doesn't it?

durkadurka

Clermont fans: best in the world

http://www.thejournal.ie/nice-touch-pic-of-the-day-435097-Apr2012/?utm_source=twitter_self

Cpt_Blackbeard

Teferi wrote: »

It just eats you up inside when Leinster win, doesn't it?

Not really...
I'd obviously wish for Munster to be where Leinster are now, but we had our years of dominance. The next few years will be about rebuilding a squad capable of scaling those heights again.

Am I not allowed to express my opinion on Cullen's actions in that .gif, or is that an exclusive right to being a Leinster fan?

John.Icy

Clegg wrote: »

Or perhaps the D'arcy tackle on Fofana won the game for Leinster?

No. Darcys tackle was around the knees, little effect tbh. Look at that snapshot someone posted earlier.....an inch and leinster were out. If you cant see that as a bitta luck that fofana made sucha balls of it...meh.

Neil Francis summed it up perfect, a miracle Fofana didnt touch down.

But believe what makes you sleep at night.

Tox56

John.Icy wrote: »

No. Darcys tackle was around the knees, little effect tbh. Look at that snapshot someone posted earlier.....an inch and leinster were out. If you cant see that as a bitta luck that fofana made sucha balls of it...meh.

Neil Francis summed it up perfect, a miracle Fofana didnt touch down.

But believe what makes you sleep at night.

Or Sexton's conversion is a few inches to the left and the Fofana try is immaterial, or they have a better camera angle to show Sexton's conversion was good. That's sport.

John.Icy

I'm from Leinster...and I'd cite leo. Clearly going for nads. Ffs, you can see Leo shnaking his fingers up his shorts! Picking for gold was he ehh?? Dirty boy.

If it was a Clermont player doing that, his head would be on a pole in Dublin.

vetinari

Tox56 wrote: »

Or Sexton's conversion is a few inches to the left and the Fofana try is immaterial, or they have a better camera angle to show Sexton's conversion was good. That's sport.

The try and conversion would have tied the game???

I'm from Munster but was going for Leinster yesterday. Thought they did a great job of managing the game for most of the last 20 minutes. Clermont should really have kicked for territory rather than trying to run out of their 22 at that point.

I have to say thought that Barnes favored Lenster. It was most noticeable in the first half. He gave some strange penalties to Leinster on scrums that were going backwards. With a different ref, you could have seen a game similar to the England Ireland game in the six nations, i.e. one where nearly each scrum is a penalty.

Either team deserved to win, Clermont did shoot themselves in the foot with their substitutions though.

GerM

John.Icy wrote: »

No. Darcys tackle was around the knees, little effect tbh. Look at that snapshot someone posted earlier.....an inch and leinster were out. If you cant see that as a bitta luck that fofana made sucha balls of it...meh.

So if D'Arcy hadn't have been there, Fofana still would have knocked on?

From a standing start on his own line, he tackled a man who took the ball on the charge, put him down and forced him to stretch to touch the ball down. It was a superb tackle.

irishbucsfan

The penalty that Barnes gave to Clermont in the scrum at the end was ridiculous IMO. Their Loose head was almost facing his own try line he was boring in so much.

I thought Leinster should have been penalised a few times in the scrum in the first half but that penalty was so incorrect at such a vital time that I feel it all came out in the wash.

WeeBushy

Right after the Clermont player whose standing in front of the ruck moves to the left you can see where Cullen's hand is. Over Kearney's shoulder. Before that his hand does come in close, but doesn't go near the nads. I am genuinely baffled as to how anyone could think he should be cited based on that. He can't even see what he's doing ffs! I almost feel like I must be watching something else, its such a non issue to me.

Besides basing an opinion about this on a gif is a bit stupid imo.

yosser hughes

irishbucsfan wrote: »

The penalty that Barnes gave to Clermont in the scrum at the end was ridiculous IMO. Their Loose head was almost facing his own try line he was boring in so much.

I thought Leinster should have been penalised a few times in the scrum in the first half but that penalty was so incorrect at such a vital time that I feel it all came out in the wash.

I agree with you there.I'm surprised nobody hasn't mentioned that already.I could not understand how he gave Clermont a penalty in that scrum at the end.Leinster were coming away with the ball as well.It should have been game over right there.
Leinster were the better team.They took their chances and Clermont didn't.Small margins.Of course Clermont could feel hard done by but that's sport.

edit:In fact I thought Barnes was a bit eager to award them that penalty, the crowd,the impetus with Clermont.

Tox56

vetinari wrote: »

The try and conversion would have tied the game???

I'm from Munster but was going for Leinster yesterday. Thought they did a great job of managing the game for most of the last 20 minutes. Clermont should really have kicked for territory rather than trying to run out of their 22 at that point.

I have to say thought that Barnes favored Lenster. It was most noticeable in the first half. He gave some strange penalties to Leinster on scrums that were going backwards. With a different ref, you could have seen a game similar to the England Ireland game in the six nations, i.e. one where nearly each scrum is a penalty.

Either team deserved to win, Clermont did shoot themselves in the foot with their substitutions though.

I agree on the luck and Barnes favoured Leinster, but it was pointed out by someone that something illegal could be behind that scrum dominance, and Barnes was pinging it.

I know nothing about the scrum, but a scrum going forwards shouldn't automatically win a penalty and assumed to be superior. The scrum probelm was miraculously solved at half time, so something might have been going on.

OldRio

Highlights of the semis on ITV4 at 7.30pm
Enjoy