Edinburgh vs Munster, Sat 11 April 7:30pm; BBCALBA/TG4

thomond2006

Edinburgh:

15 Greig TONKS
14 Dougie FIFE
13 Phil BURLEIGH
12 Andries STRAUSS
11 Tim VISSER
10 TOM HEATHCOTE
9 Sam HIDALGO-CLYNE

1 Alasdair DICKINSON
2 Ross FORD (captain)
3 WP NEL
4 Anton BRESLER
5 Ben TOOLIS
6 Roddy GRANT
7 Hamish WATSON
8 David DENTON

Substitutes

16 Stuart McINALLY
17 Grant SHIELLS
18 John ANDRESS
19 Fraser MCKENZIE
20 Tomas LEONARDI
21 Nathan FOWLES
22 Sam BEARD
23 Tom BROWN

Munster:
Felix Jones; Keith Earls, Andrew Smith, Denis Hurley, Simon Zebo; Ian Keatley, Conor Murray;
Dave Kilcoyne, Duncan Casey, BJ Botha; Billy Holland, Paul O'Connell; Peter O'Mahony - capt., Tommy O'Donnell, CJ Stander.

Replacements: Eusebio Guinazu, James Cronin, Stephen Archer, Donnacha Ryan, Dave O'Callaghan, Duncan Williams, JJ Hanrahan, Ronan O'Mahony.

With four rounds remaining, both sides have plenty to play for before season end. Edinburgh are in the hunt for a Champions Cup qualification spot while Munster seek to earn a home playoff semi-final. Edinburgh's form in the league has been very good since the New Year: 5 wins from 7. Munster's form is similar: 4 wins and 1 draw in the last 7. Munster will seek to put two wins back to back against Edinburgh and Treviso before travelling to Belfast to face Ulster in what could be a knockout match to earn a home semi-final. With Ulster facing Leinster, Glasgow and Connacht, Munster should consider themselves favourites to host a semi-final.

I'm not a fan of the Hurley-Smith partnership and would have preferred to retain Earls at 13 where he flourished during the Six Nations. We have two quality wingers in ROM and Conway that could slot in. Otherwise the rest of the side picks itself. Donnacha Ryan returning from RTP means Munster won't have to use DOCII as second row cover.

razorblunt

Will be heading along to this one, great day in the 'Burgh today and for the past few, same again tomorrow night and we're laughing.
Get the impression Edinburgh's eye is on the semi final next week against the Dragons.
The bandwagon is full at the minute with folk boldy claiming they've got a ticket to the semi yet don't even know this game is on.
Personally I hope Munster teach them a lesson and get revenge for the loss in Thomond at the start of the season.

I'll still go along and support Edinburgh next week anyway, but there'll be no half and half jersey tomorrow!

thomond2006

MunXV vEdinburgh: Jones; Earls, Smith, Hurley, Zebo; Keats, Murray; Killer, Casey, BJ; Holland, PO’C; PO’M – capt., TO’Donnell, CJ

Replacements: Guinazu, JCronin, Archer, DRyan, DaveO’C, Williams, Hanrahan, RO’Mahony

razorblunt

Edinburgh XV has just been named:
Tonks, Fife, Burleigh, Strauss, Heathcote, Vissr, Hidalgo-Clyne, Denton, Grant, Watson, Toolis, Bresler, Nel, Ford, Dickinson

Subs: McNally, Shields, Andress, McKenxie, leonardi, Fowles, Beard, Brown



That backrow with Grant and Watson is a bit off balance, though Watson did well against Cowan in the QF last weekend.
Strong team, interesting to see their mindset.

Fireball07

Concur about the Hurley-Smith partnership. It should either be JJ-Smith or Hurley-Earls (although I wouldn't say no to JJ-Earls either) just because Smith and Hurley are very similar and don't get the best out of each other or the outside backs. It does seem interesting that ROM seems now to be viewed firmly ahead of Conway, despite Conway having a good season.


A BP is well within our capability.

thomond2006

Given Edinburgh have something to play for I wouldn't think a BP is likely. A low scoring game, maybe 8-12 point win for Munster.

CatFromHue

Just looked at Edinburgh's home record is pretty good.

They've beaten Glasgow and Ospreys, drew with Lanelli, and had only a 3 point loss to Ulster. Only teams to beat them at home are Connacht, by a point, and Ulster.

letowski

I'd say that'll be more or less our team for the rest of the season. I agree with the view on Earls to 13 and Conway/Rom at 14, I think Foley will have Earls at 13 sometime again, because of his performance v Glagsow a few weeks backs.

It's not a particularly strong Edinburgh team, they've a solid front row and a good back 3. But they're on a decent run at the moment so it should be a good test.

Hopefully we will see Donnacha Ryan get a good run.

kooga

i watched edinburgh v irish last week and defensively very good, munster will have their work cut out tomorrow night. Need a win !

jm08

kooga wrote: »

i watched edinburgh v irish last week and defensively very good, munster will have their work cut out tomorrow night. Need a win !

Worth noting that Munster have conceeded the least tries in the PRO12 this season so far.

Tries for / Tries against
Munster 50 / 22 (points difference +149)
Edinburgh 33 / 37 (PD +1)

thomond2006

Hopefully this match will actually happen, since the reverse match in September was called off.

phog

That's possibly our strongest team to play this season, no reason not to expect a win but in the back of everyone's mind must be the loss to them earlier in the season in TP.

That's a very good looking Munster team

Mahatma Geansai

Deleted User wrote: »

That's a very good looking Munster team

Murray is quite a handsome man alright.

thomond2006

phog wrote: »

That's possibly our strongest team to play this season, no reason not to expect a win but in the back of everyone's mind must be the loss to them earlier in the season in TP.

What loss do you speak of. Match was called off.

Buer

Can see Munster securing a home semi final and maybe top spot. I don't think I can recall such a consistent run of first team players for them in the latter stages of the league campaign and it shows in their peformances.

If POC starts 3 more games (not counting this weekend) it will be his most appearances in a Pro12 season in his career and Conor Murray hits the most starts in a Pro12 season this weekend (which is still very low, relatively).

Fireball07

Buer wrote: »

Can see Munster securing a home semi final and maybe top spot. I don't think I can recall such a consistent run of first team players for them in the latter stages of the league campaign and it shows in their peformances.

If POC starts 3 more games (not counting this weekend) it will be his most appearances in a Pro12 season in his career and Conor Murray hits the most starts in a Pro12 season this weekend (which is still very low, relatively).

Hopefully we don't have any injuries. Losing the likes of Killer, Cronin and Murray for the HC was a massive blow which we couldn't recover from.

Fireball07

I think a BP may be essential in the fight for a home semi-final.

phog

Fireball07 wrote: »

I think a BP may be essential in the fight for a home semi-final.

Unless Edinburgh are only keeping an eye on next week then I can't see us getting a BP win there today.

Fireball07

A full-strength Ulster got a BP against Connacht in Galway. Edinburgh have been good at home, but how many times have they come up against one of the top sides at full-strength? We are absolutely a better team, and I don't think we should be setting our standards any lower than the highest possible.

thomond2006

14 points from Edinburgh, Dragons, Treviso would be a great return.

Cookiemunster

thomond2006 wrote: »

14 points from Edinburgh, Dragons, Treviso would be a great return.

I'd be hoping for 15 from the final 4 games. 4 today, 5 each at home to Treviso and Dragons and 1 from Ulster. We'd be in with a decent shout of the top 2 if we could get that.

ouncer

Guys, we in Connacht need a favour. Would be much appreciated

thomond2006

He nearly missed that!

Anatidaephobia

That's the worst kick i've ever seen that succeeded in scoring.

thomond2006

Poor drop from Kilcoyne

Fireball07

That knock-on metres from the line was very bad. I know it's wet but those kind of mistakes are ones that cost teams.

Edinburgh have started fairly lively.

Mahatma Geansai

On the replay, the Edinburgh lock is lucky to still be on the field. He threw an elbow/shoulder at Murray after that maul.

Fireball07

That's a ridiculous penalty to concede.

Swan Curry

Murray got everything out of that, fair play to him.

bilston

Score?

limerickfc

What was the penalty on O Donnell for when he joined the maul after the line out.?

aimee1

bilston wrote: »

Score?

3-0 edinburgh

Fireball07

bilston wrote: »

Score?

3-0 to Edinburgh.



Conceding way too many penalties, losing ground every time.

aimee1

limerickfc wrote: »

What was the penalty on O Donnell for when he joined the maul after the line out.?

the lineout wasnt over as the maul hadnt move

DDC1990

Getting whistled off the park. Need to be more disciplined.

Great break from TOD

Fireball07

Great pace TOD, excellent break and counter.

thomond2006

Good response

LuckyGent88

No more than we deserved imo so far

CatFromHue

aimee1 wrote: »

the lineout wasnt over as the maul hadnt move

He joined the maul/lineout at the same time as Casey.

Bit of a silly one to give away.

Fireball07

Good kick from Keatley.

thomond2006

FFS terrible option

Fireball07

Why did Keatley kick that? We've been making yards fairly consistently.

DDC1990

Fireball07 wrote: »

Good kick from Keatley.

I thought they were 2 poor kicks tbh, to give away possession.

Swan Curry

DDC1990 wrote: »

I thought they were 2 poor kicks tbh, to give away possession.

I think he was referring to the kick at goal

thomond2006

What kind of loopy pass was that?

bleg

Jesus keatley is having a shocker.

Fireball07

Smith or Hurley really needed to straighten up there and fix the defender before giving the pass, as it was Smith's pass was crap.

Fireball07

Swan Curry wrote: »

I think he was referring to the kick at goal

No, I was referring to the one for Zebo.

thomond2006

Botha is a liability. Time to get him off.

Swan Curry

Fireball07 wrote: »

No, I was referring to the one for Zebo.

Oh, sorry.

Brave from Jones, good effort