The ghost of John Muldoon v the tears of Cian Healy Build up thread

Faugheen

Ah Rory. Did the hard part exceptionally well.

thegreycity

Really impressive for Connacht to keep Leinster scoreless in the last 10

degsie

Annnnd it's over. Well done Leinster.

A-Train

Leinster rocked up to prove a point and they did. Complete control

Dave_The_Sheep

That's pretty satisfying. Should have gotten a BP though.

Who is that interviewer on Eir?

mangobob

Anytime we leave the Sportsground with a win you have to be pleased. Delighted with our defence also, which was epic at times.

But if I was to be critical, we really should have been further ahead, especially after the red card. We didn't look like a team which had a numerical advantage out there.

Commiserations to Connacht (except that eejit who stamped on JDF. He can feck right off.)

Nitrogan

Mils Muliaina had another quiet game.

degsie

JVdF is a gentleman

thegreycity

Nitrogan wrote: »

Mils Muliaina had another quiet game.

Does a lot of unseen work to be fair

stephen_n

Belham will be very happy with his days work, certainly put his hand up today at scrum time.

As for his replacement, well that is one of the dumbest things I’ve seen in a long time. That will be a long ban I’d say.

Clegg

Connacht are a good side this year so it's encouraging to see how well Leinster contained them defensively. VdF was monstrous today and deserved motm.

On a slightly worrying note Leinster really should've scored 4 or 5 but execution was rather poor. Need to tighten up before the big European games coming up.

This was our toughest match of the season so far and we were comfortable enough all throughout.

freyners

Better team won. We looked fairly underwhelming in attack once in the 22. Although laceys refusal to ref the offside line didnt help the game at all

The Pheasant2

Anyone have any stats on how many tackles for VDF?

Akrasia

Leinster are a behemoth in defence. They make any team look like they have no ideas. Connacht had about a 4 minute window when they tried to do their offloading quick recycling rush attack but the leinster defence were just too fast off the line, too quick to get back and re-organise and the broken play ended up benefiting leinster

Both teams had about 50% possession, the difference was that leinster soaked up everything Connacht had to throw at them while using their possession to pin Connacht even further behind the gain line.

They would have liked a BP, but Connacht, to their credit, did enough scrambling to shut the gate with some excellent last gasp tackles.

Exclamation Marc

The Pheasant2 wrote: »

Anyone have any stats on how many tackles for VDF?

20 according to Ultimate Rugby.

sydthebeat

freyners wrote: »

Better team won. We looked fairly underwhelming in attack once in the 22. Although laceys refusal to ref the offside line didnt help the game at all

Dunno what your on about, he caught connacht off side loads of times during the game

Burkie1203

Vdf 20
Fardy 18
Conan 14
SoB 12

stephen_n

sydthebeat wrote: »

Dunno what your on about, he caught connacht off side loads of times during the game

Eventually, Tom Farrell spent most of the first half so far offside, it looked like he was trying to rejoin Leinster.

freyners

sydthebeat wrote: »

Dunno what your on about, he caught connacht off side loads of times during the game

Eventually. A lot of the first half had both sides blatently ahead of the hindmost foot line.

Probably could have qualified my post a bit more

Chex LeMeneux

Hard to know watching bits and pieces on the phone but Leinster well deserved to win. VDF was unreal. Was impressed by our own SOB Marmion and Carty. Think they have done enough to maybe have a look at at the USA match in November. Would love to break the hoodoo next week in Belfast.

thebaz

Former Former wrote: »

Robertson-McCoy is an absolutely useless player, and then he does that.

I'd be combing his contract for grounds for termination if I was Andy Friend.

fully agree - what a nasty cheap shot - at a time when rugby is trying to eradicate serious injury such as concussion , you have Robertson McCoy stamping on someones head - what a man - long ban please

Faugheen

The Pheasant2 wrote: »

Anyone have any stats on how many tackles for VDF?

20 tackles, 1 missed according to espn rugby.

Slipping.

Larbre34

Chex LeMeneux wrote: »

Was impressed by our own SOB Marmion and Carty. Think they have done enough to maybe have a look at at the USA match in November.

Not by a long shot they havent. We are 11 months away from Japan, whatever about Marmion already established in the squad, the USA game will be drilling lads that are likely to be on that plane, or at very least 24th men in the 6 Nations. SoB and Carty are neither of those.

stl.ire

Leinster’s defense was scary good. Connacht couldn’t get round then going wide and if they went up the middle they were slammed by a blue wall. Connacht didn’t particularly play badly it was just such an impressive defensive performance with a few moments of nice attack.

Tom Farrell was very impressive, Copeland and Dillane had good games too. Haven’t seen much of Carty recently but he’s improved a lot, if he could play on the gain line more against a press defense he’d be in the Ireland convo. TOH reminded me of Zebo when Munster struggled, he’s a nice player but in no way suited for Schmidt’s Ireland.

wp_rathead

Thought Conan and VdF were awesome for Leinster
Josh fecking loves playing Connacht for some reason, think this is his 3rs or 4th MotM against us..

Larmour must have eel DNA
Ringrose try was highlight of the game, came from not finding touch with a clearance

SOB2.0 and Tom Farrell were Connachts 2 stand outs

Thought Roux and Dillane were industrial around the park
Finlay went well at TH
Hopefully Ruddock and Ronaldson are not badly injured

Id have no issue never seeing McCoy wearing Connacht jersey again, I understand "red mist" excuse at times but stamping on players exposed neck is disgusting

Lacey missed abit and didn't agree with all his calls but some of the comments from the crowd were pretty cringey unfortunately

Diabhal Beag

Disappointing that we never really got going in attack but the better team won with ease. JvdF and Conan seemed to just be everywhere. The channels to Carty and Bundee were walled up after the first 10 minutes. Nice to see SOB Sr have an impressive outing, just wish it wasn't against ourselves.

Massive credit to Leinster. Best side in Europe and dominated the match for the full 80.

As for ourselves it isn't a disaster but we've some tough away fixtures in the next few weeks that we need to be winning if we've any hopes of a play-off spot. Some really good early signs from 4/5 games so far.

Burkie1203

wp_rathead wrote: »

Hopefully Ruddock and Ronaldson are not badly injured

Ronaldson one looked horrible on replay

wp_rathead

Burkie1203 wrote: »

Ronaldson one looked horrible on replay

Fnck
For him and for Connacht, with Horowitz still out young Fitzgerald might yet be making his debut sooner than expected

Chex LeMeneux

Larbre34 wrote: »

Not by a long shot they havent. We are 11 months away from Japan, whatever about Marmion already established in the squad, the USA game will be drilling lads that are likely to be on that plane, or at very least 24th men in the 6 Nations. SoB and Carty are neither of those.

We're looking at Carty as the 3rd choice 10 so he is up against Billy burns or Ross Byrne not Sexton. Tbh back row is so competitive that it's hard to argue for many outside of VDF leavy SOB POM and Stander but I still think our SOB had a good innings. From a connacht POV I think Marmion Carty Dillane Bundee are worth a look and maybe Buckley for the extended squad