Leinster v Castres 15/10/2016, RDS, 3.15 - BT Sports 3

molloyjh

Hagz wrote: »

Did anyone spot the dive by Rory Kockott in the 73rd minute?

He put Nicolas Sanchez to shame.

Yep. Little push from Tracy and you'd swear he'd been broken in half. The scream out of him was quite dramatic as well.

MugMugs

redmca2 wrote: »

I was at the match.
The ref was pretty weak I thought, his oddest decision being the penalty try for Castres. He sin binned Luke McGrath for pulling down a maul!!
Luke McGrath pulled down 7 or 8 Castres forwards??
He should get a medal if he did that all by himself !!

McGrath was done for side entry. Personally it looked as if he came in when the ball was over the try line.

By the refs logic we were due more penalty tries than just one.

molloyjh

MugMugs wrote: »

McGrath was done for side entry. Personally it looked as if he came in when the ball was over the try line.

By the refs logic we were due more penalty tries than just one.

No he came in well ahead of the try line. Completely the right call from the ref.

CMOTDibbler

We need to be careful for the away leg though. Castres have a dreadful away record, but have pretty impressive home stats: Hammered Grenoble 46-9 and beat Racing 92 by 31-23.

Like a lot of French teams, they just don't prioritise away fixtures.

former total

CMOTDibbler wrote: »

We need to be careful for the away leg though. Castres have a dreadful away record, but have pretty impressive home stats: Hammered Grenoble 46-9 and beat Racing 92 by 31-23.

Like a lot of French teams, they just don't prioritise away fixtures.

By round six, hopefully they'll have stopped caring... but if they could beat Saints next weekend that would be great for us.

MugMugs

CMOTDibbler wrote: »

We need to be careful for the away leg though. Castres have a dreadful away record, but have pretty impressive home stats: Hammered Grenoble 46-9 and beat Racing 92 by 31-23.

Like a lot of French teams, they just don't prioritise away fixtures.

Grenoble are hardly a fitting example

CMOTDibbler

MugMugs wrote: »

Grenoble are hardly a fitting example

Yes and no. Had they not hammered them, it would have reflected badly on Castres.

Interested Observer

former total wrote: »

By round six, hopefully they'll have stopped caring... but if they could beat Saints next weekend that would be great for us.

Yes, the fixtures fell quite well for Leinster, beat them first up at home and hope they've given up by round 6. Also Montpellier at home in round 5 is ideal.

CMOTDibbler

Interested Observer wrote: »

Yes, the fixtures fell quite well for Leinster, beat them first up at home and hope they've given up by round 6. Also Montpellier at home in round 5 is ideal.

The next two fixtures are away though. The results from them could make the rest of the matches must wins and give the other teams something to play for.

These next two are crucial.

molloyjh

CMOTDibbler wrote: »

The next two fixtures are away though. The results from them could make the rest of the matches must wins and give the other teams something to play for.

These next two are crucial.

They are big, but if Castres can win next week then it will prob come down to ourselves and Monty. Assuming (and we have to assume this for now) that we win all our home games then it comes down to what teams can do away from home. If Northampton can't beat Castres away next week you have to assume they won't manage any away wins. And that would take them out of the equation.

Castres are away to Monty first in the double header so I can see them losing both of those games. We've Northampton away first in our double header and with it so soon after the AIs I'm not sure we can expect a win there. It may get fairly tight between ourselves and Monty at the end.

MugMugs

molloyjh wrote: »

No he came in well ahead of the try line. Completely the right call from the ref.

Fair point.

He was close to the line though :P