Munster vs Edinburgh, Sat 9 Feb 7:45pm;

thomond2006

Munster:
D Hurley; J Murphy, I Dineen, JJ Hanrahan, D Barnes; I Keatley, D Williams;
M Horan, D Varley, BJ Botha; I Nagle, B Holland; CJ Stander, S Dougall, J Coughlan capt.

Replacements: M Sherry, W du Preez, J Ryan, D Foley, T O’Donnell, P Butler, C Sheridan, S Deasy.

Edinburgh:
15 Tonks; 14 Fife, 13 Cairns, 12 Atiga, 11 Brown; 10 Francis, 9 Rees, 1 Yapp, 2 Titterrell, 3 Nel, 4 Parker, 5 van der Westhuizen, 6 Cox (C), 7 McInally, 8 Talei

Replacements: 16 Lawrie, 17 Jacobsen, 18 Allan, 19 Gilchrist, 20 Watson, 21 Leck, 22 Hunter, 23 Jones

There's Rabo on this weekend you say?!

A few interesting selections for this. Horan and Varley ahead of du Preez and Sherry in the front row, CJ back in the mix but no place for the in form TOD. JJ gets a run at 12.

sweetthing

Disappointed not to see TOD in the team nor Sherry, but I guess they've both played
rugby lately. Great to see JJ in the team again, hoping for another strong showing from him. Overall, it's a decent enough looking team, considering who we're missing. Edinburgh without Visser an co. shouldn't pose a challene at home...should be a bp here

DDC1990

2 Kerrymen in the center. Nice

EDIT: Or not just assumed it was JJ at 12 Barnes at 13, but its Dineen at 13 Barnes at 11.

Not a fan of that. Barnes is not a winger. Good for him to get gametime though I suppose.

phog

That's a fairly strong team and good bench to boot. With the versitility of JJ, Deasy and Keatley we've ended up with only requiring two backs on the bench. Great to see Sheridan was passed fit, opportune time for him to be available.

Great to see Barnes and Dineen getting a chance to prove themselves.

who_me

Nice to see Keatley & Hanrahan to see how they work together. It's a decent pack, so hopefully they should get some ball to play with.

Fireball07

Should be enough to win, you'd think.


Good to see JJ get another run, and it's an opportunity for Sheridan to show what he can do from the bench. Nagle looks like he'll be moving on at the end of the year, hopefully he can impress here

Fishooks13

Good to see Barnes in the side

thomond2006

I'm looking for a big game from Johne Murphy, he's here until the end of next season so he could be an important player.

totallegend

Baffled as to why du Preez is on the bench. The Indo were speculating that he'll be shipped out in the summer despite having another year on his contract and that in return, Munster will be able to give BJ a two-year deal.

But that doesn't explain why Horan is playing.

thomond2006

Edinburgh fans on their forum were saying that there's only 5 Scottish Qualified players in their starting lineup. When I counted it I saw that McInally was the only SQ forward.

It doesn't say much for the talent coming through that Edinburgh/Scottish Rugby feel they need so many non-SQ players in the squad. I read somewhere that the SRU has increased Edinburgh's budget this season by £2m (IIRC).

Podge_irl

thomond2006 wrote: »

It doesn't say much for the talent coming through that Edinburgh/Scottish Rugby feel they need so many non-SQ players in the squad. I read somewhere that the SRU has increased Edinburgh's budget this season by £2m (IIRC).

I imagine the SRU just want to get Edinburgh/Glasgow to build some support and improve how the club/provincial game is seen there and that requires results so they're trying to buy some success. Doesn't seem to be working mind.

Hiring Bradley over EOS cause he could start screwing things up a few months earlier doesn't appear to have been the brightest move.

phog

Heading down to this and looking forward to some live rugby again. I think we have enough firepower to win but after recent visits to Musgrave Park nothing is certain.

BTW, can a mod or OP change the title to show that this game in on TG4

danthefan

For the life of me I cannot see the point in starting Horan.

Fishooks13

danthefan wrote: »

For the life of me I cannot see the point in starting Horan.

Ya it's a strange one.

Rovi

phog wrote: »

BTW, can a mod or OP change the title to show that this game in on TG4

It's also on BBC Alba.

thomond2006

Fishooks13 wrote: »

Ya it's a strange one.

I don't think anything can even be read into it, if it was one of the younger LHs then you make the argument that it's due to du Preez perhaps leaving at the end of the season.

ballygowan1

Duncan Williams just doesn't have it. The guy is a liability

DarkJager

Did I just hear the Cookie Monster doing commentary?

Almaviva

Gosh switching to standard definition is painful isnt it ?
(I know, thinly veiled, etc)

irishbucsfan

Ooh Botha gets a talking to!

Quint2010

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Ooh Botha gets a talking to!

Botha gets a yellow card...This ref does not like him one bit..

thomond2006

Botha binned already! :O

TheJims

What is goin on... bj yellow carded after giving away 4 penalties in the scrum in 12 minutes...

irishbucsfan

Quint2010 wrote: »

Botha gets a yellow card...This ref does not like him one bit..

He's gone down at every single scrum so far.

Only keeping one eye on it though

Quint2010

Where's Archer?

irishbucsfan

Uh oh

The scots just realised Dougall is a bit Scottish.

Stheno

Why was he binned? For collapsing the scrum?

irishbucsfan

John Ryan comes on and wins a penalty! Massive turn around.

Feck off to France BJ, no one wants you any more!

thomond2006

6-3 HT

painful watching

Almaviva

thomond2006 wrote: »

6-3 HT

painful watching

Yes. Was looking forward to a good day's rugby today, and nothing but garbage played in all three.

Tomorrow has a lot to do to retrieve the situation...

Quint2010

Is that the voice of Jabba The Hut doing the half time analysis?...

Irlandczyk

Quint2010 wrote: »

Is that the voice of Jabba The Hut doing the half time analysis?...

Guess TG4 don't have any backups for their panel. Guy has laryngitis or something and still comes to work, the trooper. Seriously though, not a voice for TV at all... Jabba-wonga-nipple-pinchy...

DDC1990

Coughlan has been standout.

Williams has been "not-terrible".

Varley was good.

Botha was class, despite the referee picking on him for the first 15 minutes.

Awful game to watch.

EDIT: JJ starting to play well after a few dodgy passes early in the 2nd half.

thomond2006

Try for CJ Saviour, nice break and kick by Dineen.

Johne Murphy has worked his ass off tonight, good to see.

Here comes Cathal Sheridan.

Anatidaephobia

Why hasn't Sheridan gotten a chance until now, he seems to be quite good?

Spudmonkey

Already Sheridan looks a bit sharper.

Anatidaephobia

Final score 30-3.

irishbucsfan

Dineen got better and better as the game went on. I'd love to see that midfield play with Murray, Zebo, Earls and Jones around them. Could be really dangerous.

Glass Prison 1214

Haven't been watching very closely but from what I have seen, having Keatley and JJ at first and second receiver has made Munster's back play look much more threatening and pacey. Hopefully Penney will clearly see this.

thomond2006

Turgid stuff for the most part but it was good to wrap up a comprehensive victory in the end. Tricky trip next week to Scarlets.

durkadurka

After losing the last two in musgrave in fairly crap circumstances this was needed.

The scrum for play off places is going to be very interesting .

phog

Another wet night in Musgrave Park but at least this time we got a good win, would have preferred to get 5 points, we really should have pushed for tries once we went 12 - 3 up. Couldn't understand the ref, he carded BJ for 4 scrum offences then went on to penalise Edinburgh in 4 consecutive scrum without a card, Edinburgh got off without a card for 3 high tackles and 7 kick able penalties, cynical play at it's best and ignored.

Keatley, JJ, Dineen, Murphy and Hurley put in some great work throughout the game, all looked impressive. CJ busted a gut to get up for Dineen's chip ahead, deserved the try.

phog

danthefan wrote: »

For the life of me I cannot see the point in starting Horan.

It's fairly simple, Marcus is in the H/cup squad and we're facing into a Q/final game. He was on the bench for the Sarries game in Watford and hasn't played rugby with Munster since so Penney has decided to keep him match fit in case he's needed in the future.

Aside from that he's still got a lot to offer Munster rugby.

chippers

phog wrote: »

Another wet night in Musgrave Park but at least this time we got a good win, would have preferred to get 5 points, we really should have pushed for tries once we went 12 - 3 up. Couldn't understand the ref, he carded BJ for 4 scrum offences then went on to penalise Edinburgh in 4 consecutive scrum without a card, Edinburgh got off without a card for 3 high tackles and 7 kick able penalties, cynical play at it's best and ignored.

Keatley, JJ, Dineen, Murphy and Hurley put in some great work throughout the game, all looked impressive. CJ busted a gut to get up for Dineen's chip ahead, deserved the try.

I thought the ref was very harsh calling high tackles on Edinburgh. At least two of those were not high.

Dineen looked very good. Put an absolutely massive hit in late in the game.

phog

chippers wrote: »

I thought the ref was very harsh calling high tackles on Edinburgh. At least two of those were not high.

Dineen looked very good. Put an absolutely massive hit in late in the game.

I haven't seen it on TV but at the game I was sure they were high, but my point was the ref carded BJ for persistent fouling but ignored persistent fouling by Edinburgh.

irishbucsfan

Botha was doing the exact same thing over and over again. Of course he was going to be carded.

phog

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Botha was doing the exact same thing over and over again. Of course he was going to be carded.

I've absolutely no problem with BJ being carded.

I've already posted about why I thought a card fir Edinburgh was warranted.

Fishooks13

Any highlights? How did Barnes play?

DDC1990

Barely touched the ball. Johnny Murphy had to work hard to get himself into the play, but Barnes spent most of it on the wings.

Disappointed, but as I said before he's not a winger. He's an out and out 13, but Dineen is showing much more potential.

I'd imagine it might be Danny's last year.

thomond2006

DDC1990 wrote: »

Barely touched the ball. Johnny Murphy had to work hard to get himself into the play, but Barnes spent most of it on the wings.

Disappointed, but as I said before he's not a winger. He's an out and out 13, but Dineen is showing much more potential.

I'd imagine it might be Danny's last year.

He's out of contract alright: http://dolphinrfc.com/rugby/barnes-signs-contract-extension/

I'd like Munster to keep him, but Barnes is probably better off leaving for his own sake. Get some experience in the RFU championship or ProD2. A good agent would get him a decent contract.

DDC1990

thomond2006 wrote: »

He's out of contract alright: http://dolphinrfc.com/rugby/barnes-signs-contract-extension/

I'd like Munster to keep him, but Barnes is probably better off leaving for his own sake. Get some experience in the RFU championship or ProD2. A good agent would get him a decent contract.

Yeah, i'd have loved him to kick on from the year he had 2 years ago.

Having played with him in Tralee, it would have been nice to see a guy like him make it big.

But for his own development, it might be better that he look for work elsewhere.

He's behind Earls, Laulala, and Dineen now for a Center spot, and he doens't cut it on the wing.