Munster v Dragons Musgrave Park KO 18:45 on RTE 19.25

CatFromHue

Munster: 15 Johne Murphy, 14 Andrew Conway, 13 Keith Earls, 12 Ivan Dineen, 11 Simon Zebo, 10 JJ Hanrahan, 9 Cathal Sheridan, 8 Paddy Butler, 7 Sean Dougall, 6 Peter O'Mahony (capt), 5 Dave Foley, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 John Ryan, 2 Damien Varley, 1 James Cronin.
Replacements: 16 Mike Sherry, 17 David Kilcoyne, 18 Stephen Archer, 19 Paul O'Connell, 20 CJ Stander, 21 Duncan Williams, 22 Ian Keatley, 23 Felix Jones.

Dragons: 15 Dan Evans, 14 Matthew Pewtner, 13 Ross Wardle, 12 Jack Dixon, 11 Tom Prydie, 10 Kris Burton, 9 Jonathan Evans, 8 Netani Talei, 7 Lewis Evans, 6 Jevon Groves, 5 Matthew Screech, 4 Andrew Coombs (c), 3 Francisco Chaparro, 2 Hugh Gustafson, 1 Phil Price.
Replacements: 16 Sam Parry, 17 Owen Evans, 18 Dan Way, 19 Rob Sidoli, 20 Ieuan Jones, 21 Richie Rees, 22 Jason Tovey, 23 Adam Hughes.

The Dragons are 2 wins from 3. Both were at home but both were against good quality teams in Ulster and Lanelli. Their only loss was by 3 points to Edinburgh in Edinburgh. They've a terrible record against Munster in Munster though.

Munster are also 2 from 3 but they haven't played any of the big teams yet.

That's one of the weaker/inexperienced Munster teams I've seen in a while so while usually it would be expected for Munster to dispose of the Dragons, this game could be a lot closer than it usually is.

phog

The game is live online @ RTE.ie and S4C TV.

As the title says RTE have deferred coverage.

This needs to be a win, after last week a convincing win.

who_me

I think they've been playing some great rugby ball in hand this season so far, but we need more control and composure in defence; it went very headless in the second half last week.

Newport should be better than the other 3 sides, but their away form is dire. 6 points from 10 away games last season?

Fireball07

It really should be a win, but I'm more worried about the performance at this stage. Defensively, there has to be a massive improvement as Leinster/Gloucester will tear us to shreds if we defend like we did against Treviso. Discipline as well, needs to be a lot better.


Big chance for the likes of Butler and Dougall to try and stake a claim for a place in the 23, Dougall has an outside chance of starting if he performs.

Conway's injury came at an unlucky time for him and with Earls and Laulala both in good form, and Zebo always likely to start, he mightn't be able to squeeze into the starting 15. And with only Murphy and Hurley being played at full-back, I'm not sure that is an option as of now. Kinda surprised that one of Zebo or Conway wasn't tried at 15 today, would seem like it means that one of Murphy/Hurley will play there in the big games.

Obviously, great to see Felix back aswell...and Varley must be approaching his last chance after fcuking up another great attacking position last week. I like him as a player but his darts are totally unreliable, and regularly cost us. It's really really frustrating, he hasn't made any improvement in that area and whereas before, Sherry/Varley was a 50/50, Sherry is now comfortably ahead.

thomond2006

Anything less than a BP will be a disappointment.

ScrubsfanChris

Went over to get tickets at the Ticketmaster booth outside Dolphin side earlier, guy gave me Stand tickets for €20 each, not €35 like it says on the website. For anyone who's interested.

phog

thomond2006 wrote: »

Anything less than a BP will be a disappointment.

Performance far more important than a bp win.

CatFromHue

thomond2006 wrote: »

Anything less than a BP will be a disappointment.

Dunno about that now. For me Munster have a game on their hands and should be happy with just a win.

Newtown90

Great buzz here!!

But Clare just scored the goal to break cork hearts!!

In other news Sheridan is very bulky looking! Really strong like.

Hagz

Is that supposed to be a picture of Sheridan or of scenes in general?

Newtown90

Hagz wrote: »

Is that supposed to be a picture of Sheridan or of scenes in general?

Big screen showing the hurling..................

irishbucsfan

That lad in the red hat is obviously a big fan!

castie

phog wrote: »

The game is live online @ RTE.ie and S4C TV.

As the title says RTE have deferred coverage.

This needs to be a win, after last week a convincing win.

Where can I find the link for the live game on rte.ie?
All I see on RTE player is the RTE 2 schedule of 19:25

Anatidaephobia

castie wrote: »

Where can I find the link for the live game on rte.ie?
All I see on RTE player is the RTE 2 schedule of 19:25

They probably only stream one thing at a time, so wait a couple of minutes for the hurling to be over.

http://www.rte.ie/sport/

pappyodaniel

How is this match gonna follow the hurling? Impossible but I'll be watching.

A2LUE42

Just kicked off on s4c

Fireball07

Very nice run from Murphy early on, break from Earls too.


Early scrum, let's see how Ryan and Cronin do.

castie

A2LUE42 wrote: »

Just kicked off on s4c

Link?

Im getting stream not found on s4c
http://www.s4c.co.uk/clic/e_live.shtml

Fireball07

POM has some serious skills.

Anatidaephobia

Foley had a very good steal there a few minutes ago. JJ is looking to kick a lot, but has been poor so far. 3-0 Munster

Fireball07

It was a nice kick from JJ. Dragons looking to keep the ball in hand a lot, but it's been a relatively impressive start.

Fireball07

Pretty sure my RTE stream is well behind reality... 3-3 now though. Bit of a silly penalty to give away.

irishbucsfan

ah it's on! I missed that!

Anatidaephobia

Munster have a scrum in front of the posts here. Good opportunity.

Butler makes an absolute balls of it at the base of the scrum.

Fireball07

Anyone know who put in that massive hit from that last kick-off?



I didn't think that was a great kick from JJ, Dragons did really poorly to let it bounce... very good attacking platform.

EDIT- Ah, Butler...

Anatidaephobia

Defence looking porous again.

Fireball07

Anatidaephobia wrote: »

Defence looking porous again.

Yeah... Talei walked through there.

razorblunt

S4C commentator being a bit disingenuous to JJ on the garryowen leading to the scrum.

Anatidaephobia

Dragons 7 tries a Neil Back in the scrum.

Fireball07

What has Murphy been doing over the summer, he looks so lively... Really staking a claim for a starting position.


Good scrum there.

Anatidaephobia

Fireball07 wrote: »

What has Murphy been doing over the summer, he looks so lively... Really staking a claim for a starting position.


Good scrum there.

Agreed, I think he'll be fighting it out with Hurley and Felix for 15 in the HC.