Munster vs Cardiff, De Indo Park, Sat 13 Feb 8pm; TG4

thomond2006

Munster v Cardiff Blues, Guinness PRO12 Round 14, Saturday February 14th at Irish Independent Park - KO: 7:35pm.

Munster:
JJ Hanrahan; Andrew Conway, Keith Earls, Denis Hurley - capt., Ronan O'Mahony; Ian Keatley, Duncan Williams;
John Ryan, Eusebio Guinazu, BJ Botha; Donncha O'Callaghan, Billy Holland; Sean Dougall, Dave O'Callaghan, Jack O'Donoghue.

Replacements: Niall Scannell, Dave Kilcoyne, Stephen Archer, Shane Buckley, Paddy Butler, Neil Cronin, Rory Scannell, Ivan Dineen.

That's a good team, would have preferred Dineen ahead of Hurley given his performance against Sale. The big news is O'Donoghue making his first Pro12 start, he has a lot of potential. The team reads Dougall 6 DOCII 7 which would be a bit strange. Hanrahan at 15 as we have no back three players left!

phog

Just posted the team on the Munster thread, decent team and strengthened by Joe dropping Keatley, having Earls and the return of Killer from injury.


Denis Hurley captains the side which I think is a first.

vienne86

Lovely back line in that tem for tomorrow. Have to fancy Munster.

ssaye2

Cardiff Blues: 15 Joaquin Tuculet, 14 Richard Smith, 13 Cory Allen, 12 Gavin Evans, 11 Lucas Amorosino, 10 Rhys Patchell, 9 Lloyd Williams; 1Sam Hobbs, 2 Matthew Rees (c), 3 Adam Jones, 4 Macauley Cook, 5 Filo Paulo, 6 Josh Turnbull, 7 Josh Navidi, 8 Manoa Vosawai

Replacements: 16 Kristian Dacey, 17 Thomas Davies, 18Taufa'ao Filise, 19 Miles Normandale, 20 Ellis Jenkins, 21 Tavis Knoyle, 22 Gareth Davies, 23 Tom Isaacs

slingerz

Vosawai is some animal for Cardiff, baptisim of fire for JOD against him.

total former

A strong enough Cardiff team and definitely more settled than the Munster side, this could be tough.

phog

Such a pity the first Munster game in the redeveloped stadium as good as clashes with the Irish game and then Cork play Kilkenny at Páirc Uí Rinn.

The Pro12 and the Unions really need to sit down and look at the fixtures for next season.

phog

That's a good backrow for Cardiff, our guys will need to be on the top of their game at ruck time.

ssaye2

Navidi has been playing very very well

phog

Officials for the game


At Irish Independent Park, 7.35pm. Live on TG4
Referee: Lloyd Linton (SRU, 5th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Andrew McMenemy, Duncan McClement (both SRU)
Citing Commissioner: Eddie Walsh (IRFU)
TMO: David Changleng (SRU)

Mahatma Geansai

Delighted to see JOD start. Starting Hurley at 15 and JJ at 12 would probably make the side stronger, but the side selected makes sense. Hopefully Rory Scannell gets an opportunity to impress from the bench.

budhabob

phog wrote: »

Just posted the team on the Munster thread, decent team and strengthened by Joe dropping Keatley, having Earls and the return of Killer from injury.


Denis Hurley captains the side which I think is a first.

This is interesting. There was a match before christmas (with both POC and POM playing I think) and Hurley was doing all the talking in the dressing room and huddle.

thomond2006

Now to cap off the day with Francis Saili's done deal.

Cookiemunster

phog wrote: »

Such a pity the first Munster game in the redeveloped stadium as good as clashes with the Irish game and then Cork play Kilkenny at Páirc Uí Rinn.

The Pro12 and the Unions really need to sit down and look at the fixtures for next season.

Which was fixed first, the rugby or the GAA? It wouldn't surprise me if the GAA game was purposely put on to clash with the rugby.

letowski

Looking forward to this one. Cardiff are quite strong in the backrow and half back. Jones will be a big test against John Ryan once again too. I like the look of our team though, especially the shape of our back line. Should make for a good game!

shuffol

Great to see two young 8s with buckets of talent lining out for Munster and Leinster this weekend. I'm sure there'll be some good tussles between them for a test Jersey in years to come.

phog

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Which was fixed first, the rugby or the GAA? It wouldn't surprise me if the GAA game was purposely put on to clash with the rugby.

I think it was the GAA game, I think I recall a tweet about the clash when these Pro12 games were confirmed.

Losty Dublin

If every restaurant in Ireland hasn't got a TV in it this evening then my rose-mantic dinner will be batter burgers and chips.

And she is being sent out to collect it

Goldstein

Think I'll catch the first half of Ireland V France at home then bomb it up to get a good spot in Musgrave Park! I know they're showing the whole match before the Munster game but 4.5 hours is a long time to be sat up there and the big screen isn't the best. Doesn't look like there'll be any rain so should be some atmosphere.

kub

Goldstein wrote: »

Think I'll catch the first half of Ireland V France at home then bomb it up to get a good spot in Musgrave Park! I know they're showing the whole match before the Munster game but 4.5 hours is a long time to be sat up there and the big screen isn't the best. Doesn't look like there'll be any rain so should be some atmosphere.

We are doing the same thing actually.

Mahatma Geansai

Earls just beat 6 players to help set up a try for JOD. Very good team try.

Munster 23 - 9 Cardiff

The Pheasant2

JJ looking sharp

KevinK

What happened at the end of that game? It sounded like the ref and TMO decided Munster knocked the ball on but then awarded the try anyway...

aimee1

KevinK wrote: »

What happened at the end of that game? It sounded like the ref and TMO decided Munster knocked the ball on but then awarded the try anyway...

blue knock on, then red knocked on but i was playing advantage so i will give the try. joke decision

aimee1

aimee1 wrote: »

blue knock on, then red knocked on but i was playing advantage so i will give the try. joke decision

Didn't really made any difference in the overall context with its being Munster's 3rd try but had Munster to win by 10 on Superbru so not happy:mad::pac:

Tin Foil Hat

Anyone know why Keatley was pulled at the last minute?

Newtown90

Tin Foil Hat wrote: »

Anyone know why Keatley was pulled at the last minute?

MRSC said himself and Conway had the Flu!

thomond2006

I hear Earls had an excellent game?

letowski

thomond2006 wrote: »

I hear Earls had an excellent game?

Did well with Hurley on the build up to the last try. Overall was quite good, worked typically hard and looks like he'll be big for us for the rest of the season. One positive I got from the game was the performance of some of the newcomers.. JOD, R Scannell, Sweetham and O'Dea had his first game back. These guys played very well which I think is important especially for the start of next season during the WRC, when they will play. O'Mahony also really has exceeded expectations this season, excellent again as he has been all season.

DDC1990

aimee1 wrote: »

blue knock on, then red knocked on but i was playing advantage so i will give the try. joke decision

To be fair, despite the TMO's comments there was pretty clearly no Munster knock on. The Cardiff player knocked it out of his hands and then he gathered it straight away. I was baffled by the conversation though.

aimee1

DDC1990 wrote: »

To be fair, despite the TMO's comments there was pretty clearly no Munster knock on. The Cardiff player knocked it out of his hands and then he gathered it straight away. I was baffled by the conversation though.

yes but the ref said both sides knocked on but because he was playing advantage he was awarding the try.

DDC1990

aimee1 wrote: »

yes but the ref said both sides knocked on but because he was playing advantage he was awarding the try.

Oh I know. He should have gone back for a Munster penalty based on the advice. It was just ****ty advice IMO.

Wang King

Very impressed with JOD, carried well for the first try, took his own try very well and showed some lovely passing and vision during the game.. A bit of a find methinks.
Earls played well for his 65 minutes, always looking for the ball and when he took it at pace always made yards

The Lost Sheep

Wang King wrote: »

Very impressed with JOD, carried well for the first try, took his own try very well and showed some lovely passing and vision during the game.. A bit of a find methinks.

He's captained Munster at every level he's played and is future Senior captain IMO. His carrying/passing always been very good and that's from his Waterpark/East Munster days. He's been tipped to go far for several years within Munster...

thomond2006

It's rare that a player gets a three year contract out of the academy so it tells you how much the management think of O'Donoghue.

phog

I watched the game this morning, was impressed with some of the lads like Scannell, ROM, LOD, JOD and JJ.

JJ showed last night what we'll miss when he leaves but Scannell slotted in well with his late call up, though JJ took a lot of responsibility off him.

JOD's try was a near team try, turn over near our 22, a few passes, then a huge break by Hurley with Earls supporting him out wide, pass out to him then he cuts inside hearts a few players then shifts it to JJ who's on his shoulder, JJ brought to ground who pops it up to Williams who then passes it out to Holland and Holland gives a simple pass out to Jack who pinned back the years and charged fir the try line, simple but effective stuff.

Couldn't understand how the ref could allow the try, if the agreed with the TMO that there was a double knock on them surely he had to back to the penalty advantage he was playing. Other than that I thought the ref had a good game.

thomond2006

Circumstances aside, it's great to see LOD back. Maybe there isn't a spot for him next year but hopefully he can put himself in the shop window. His type of situation is one I hope someone in David Nucifora's position can assist.

phog

thomond2006 wrote: »

Circumstances aside, it's great to see LOD back. Maybe there isn't a spot for him next year but hopefully he can put himself in the shop window.

He's small but a star player just needs to stay injury free, he's far too good not to play pro rugby

phog

Match stats from ESPN

phog

WTV's blog from the game

phog

Some Photo form the game, more on MR