Harlequins v Munster Rugby 14:00 Sunday April 7th Sky Sports

Cork Boy

Chabals Beard wrote: »

O'Gara "I live for the Heineken Cup"

http://www.munsterrugby.ie/matchdaytv/play/media/id/14913

bilston

Havent been on much in the last couple of days as Ive been licking my wounds from sat, hanging and travelling but just to say well feckin done Munster. Brillant result and particularly well done to POC and ROG. I bet they are two satisfied 'liginds' this morning!

little173

Fantastic result from Munster - Whilst all the praise is rightly going to O'Connell and O'Mahony, Zebo's skill set is quite something, and after such a long lay off. Every time I see this guy he makes a real impression and reminds me of BOD in his early days, he is a special talent..

Buer

He should absolutely be on the plane to Australia. He plays with such energy and enthusiasm. I think he would hit the ground running over there and be a massive success. Earls didn't have the extrovert nature at a young age that makes a guy in these situations but I can't see Zebo being phased whatsoever by mixing with the best. I think it would make him an even better player.

buck65

Tommy O Donnell was ferocious as well.

Grimebox

Cork Boy wrote: »

Just to refer back to the argument about whether Munster should field a strong team against Leinster...

Personally I think it would be absolute and utter madness. This was our first outstanding/big game in a long time and we have another massive game at the end of the month (in terms of importance). To let our form dip in that space of time would be murder to our HC campaign.

Secondly, I think we can all agree that what happened yesterday was 100% 'Munster' and you don't 'Munster' by inviting Leinster to bend you over their knee, pull down your shorts and give you a spanking in Thomond Park. You all heard Paulie talking about how players (particularly the young fellas) had to watch their families listen to and read bad things being said and written about them. For players like him, Munster is his club in the traditional sense of what it means to have a club and you do not wear your club's jersey and let your arch rivals come to your own ground and kick seven shades of muck out of you.

People underestimate the effect psychology has in sports, particularly belief. Before the 100m was ran under 10.0 secs people thought it was impossible. Then someone did it and soon afterwards the 100m < 10s was being achieved all over the place.

One more eg... Arnie Schwarzenegger believed he was lifting the top amount in the world in a certain leg lift until he met a South African lifting twice that. When Arnie saw that he managed to double what he could lift on that particular exercise within a month.

TL;DR - form is vital for the CA game so we need to put out a full team against Leinster.

I thought you were arguing to put forward a second string team until the TL;DR

RodgersLFC

Tommy O'Donnell was a beast yesterday. An absolute beast. The Munster backrow just destroyed Harlequins in the second half.

They'll have their work cut out against Clermont but if anyone can do it, its Munster!

Larbre34

Sublime stuff from Munster on Sunday, I shouldn't have been surprised, but it raised my eyebrows. Who'd bet against them taking Clermont away from fortress Marcel Michelin.

As for Munster v Leinster, both sides owe it to each other and the crowd to field the very best XVs they can, it would always be a huge fixture but the bragging rights just became secondary to both squads need to sharpen and coalesce for silverware chances. For Leinster that means keeping Madigan IMO

Can't wait for the trip down to Thomond on Saturday, bring on the banter!

ssaye

Larbre34 wrote: »

Sublime stuff from Munster on Sunday, I shouldn't have been surprised, but it raised my eyebrows. Who'd bet against them taking Clermont away from fortress Marcel Michelin.

As for Munster v Leinster, both sides owe it to each other and the crowd to field the very best XVs they can, it would always be a huge fixture but the bragging rights just became secondary to both squads need to sharpen and coalesce for silverware chances. For Leinster that means keeping Madigan IMO

Can't wait for the trip down to Thomond on Saturday, bring on the banter!

Clermont will not be playing at home in the semi, its always a neutral ground so thats another little help

Stade de la Mosson in Montpellier

Larbre34

ssaye wrote: »

Clermont will not be playing at home in the semi, its always a neutral ground so thats another little help

Stade de la Mosson in Montpellier

which is why I said 'away from fortress Marcel Michelin' implying Leinster demonstrated it one year ago.........

awec

Larbre34 wrote: »

which is why I said 'away from fortress Marcel Michelin' implying Leinster demonstrated it one year ago.........

Leinster just about beat them, they were lucky Clermont ballsed up that try at the end, I still believe that they should have grounded that. Clermont are probably better than last year.

That said, I think I'll have a piece of Munster at 10/1.

Rightwing

awec wrote: »

Leinster just about beat them, they were lucky Clermont ballsed up that try at the end, I still believe that they should have grounded that. Clermont are probably better than last year.

That said, I think I'll have a piece of Munster at 10/1.

Ya I remember watching that match and wondered how did they lose it, but as you say anything can.

.ak

In fairness Leinster were the better team for the majority of the game, atleast it was parity until HT and we came out of the traps quicker. They were extremely unlucky not to win it due to Fofana's bicep being an inch too big, but thems the breaks, if they wanted to win it they should've played better in the 79 minutes prior to that.

Teferi

Rightwing wrote: »

Ya I remember watching that match and wondered how did they lose it, but as you say anything can.

Will you go away out of that.

Clermont lost the game but it was hardly in their hands for the 80 minutes, it was even most of the game. Leinster were very good value for their win. Their defence at the end was fantastic.

Larbre34

awec wrote: »

Leinster just about beat them, they were lucky Clermont ballsed up that try at the end, I still believe that they should have grounded that. Clermont are probably better than last year.

That said, I think I'll have a piece of Munster at 10/1.

Are they 10/1?? I may reinvest a tenner of my Grand National winnings at that rate!!

.ak

Aye, excellent odds for a two horse race.

Pudsy33

As someone who levelled much criticism at ROG over the course of the six nations, I have to see it was great to see him play well yesterday. He did everything we know he is capable of, kicking his goals and keeping Quinns pinned back. Still firmly believe he is done with regards Ireland, but I still love watching him play his best.

Grimebox

.ak wrote: »

Aye, excellent odds for a two horse race.

I was thinking the exact same thing but its 10/1 for Munster to win the whole thing. They are 9/2 for the Clermont game on Paddy Power

phog

Some stats from the game - got from twitter, hope these are embedded properly.

phog

Interesting tweet from Hugh Watkins

Hugh Watkins ‏@Hughwatkins 42m @FrankieSheahan agree with nearly every comment you made on the scrums yesterday.

TheVman

Hello All, im new to the thread but i post an odd reply on the Live Line thread for the laugh in the afternoons.

I was in Bordeaux last year for the semi between leinster and clermont. Leinster were lucky that fofana made a balls of things in the last minutes. Clermont are definitely the side to beat this year, its an absolutely excellent team, complete in every position (siviatu, fofana, rougerie, domingo, kayser, kotze - cudmore hines, vosloo and bonnaire) between themselves and Toulous there probably the two major suppliers of players to the french squad (and i know thats not saying much so far this year) and i make that point because the thing is they have "french" players. Toulon for example is 80% international, its basically a cheque book team... Vern Cotter is a class coach and munster better be strong psychologically because you shake up the french a bit and there quickly knocked off their bikes )

I'll be in Montpellier on the 27th in me red jersey and i do hope we pull it off... I live here in the rugby capital of france in toulouse but my heart belongs to Munster (leinster last year ) )

phog

He's coming at you!

awec

Larbre34 wrote: »

Are they 10/1?? I may reinvest a tenner of my Grand National winnings at that rate!!

10/1 to win the HEC outright.

If Munster beat Clermont then those odds will be slashed significantly.

Larbre34

awec wrote: »

10/1 to win the HEC outright.

If Munster beat Clermont then those odds will be slashed significantly.

They are bound to shorten even before the Clermont game, especially if they do a number on Leinster. Clermont also have to go to Toulon and entertain Toulouse in the meantime, so they could well be dented a little by then. Either way, I wouldnt leave it until 26th April to put your money on Munster for a HEC.......

budhabob

phog wrote: »

Some stats from the game - got from twitter, hope these are embedded properly.

Thanks for these....some interesting reading. Great to see Casey and Downey pull it out of the bag like that.

Also, as others have stated previously, TOD was brilliant. He has grown into that jersey by every game.

Grimebox

Is it just me or is the visualization of "Missed Tackles" broken? It clearly isn't in a ratio of 15:3 and wouldn't the bigger number imply more of the bar to that team? I couldn't trust the rest of them after that one

case885

Grimebox wrote: »

Is it just me or is the visualization of "Missed Tackles" broken? It clearly isn't in a ratio of 15:3 and houldn't the bigger number imply more of the bar to that team? I couldn't trust the rest of them after that one

Did you count how many missed tackles per team there was then?

Grimebox

case885 wrote: »

Did you count how many missed tackles per team there was then?

I don't follow. I'm stating the graphic looks wrong to me

shuffol

Its unusual how Quins made nearly 20 more tackles than Munster yet the top 3 tacklers are Munster players.

case885

Grimebox wrote: »

I don't follow. I'm stating the graphic looks wrong to me

Yeah g'man nice edit.