Castres Olympique vs Munster, Sat 15th Dec 5.30pm Irish time

thomond2006

L’équipe du Castres Olympique :
Spedding ; Laveau, Combezou, Vialelle, Paris ; (o) Urdapilleta ; (m) Kockott ; Babillot (cap.), Vaipulu, Caballero ; Jacquet, Lassalle ; M. Clerc, Firmin, Fa’anunu.

Remplats : Rallier, Tichit, Hounkpatin, Samson, Gimeno, Ebersohn, Batlle, Radosavljevic.

Munster:
Mike Haley; Andrew Conway, Sammy Arnold, Rory Scannell, Keith Earls; Joey Carbery, Conor Murray;
Dave Kilcoyne, Niall Scannell, John Ryan; Tadhg Beirne, Billy Holland; Peter O’Mahony (C), Chris Cloete, CJ Stander.

Replacements: Kevin O’Byrne, Jeremy Loughman, Stephen Archer, Fineen Wycherley, Arno Botha, Alby Mathewson, JJ Hanrahan, Jaco Taute.

Pool 2:
Munster 11
Gloucester 8
Castres 5
Exeter 3

It's last chance saloon for Castres as they host Munster tomorrow. The visiting team will be looking to remain ahead of chasers Gloucester in Pool 2, with Gloucester likely to pick up a win tonight against the eliminated Exeter Chiefs.

Joey Carbery gets the start at 10 and Sam Arnold remains at centre with Chris Farrell unavailable. The starting pack remains the same with Stephen Archer coming onto the bench.

thomond2006

Kockott

I'm going to be a doubting Thomas here, Castres have been a nightmare at home even when completely out of the competition.

I haven't seen enough inventiveness from Munster in attack and the forwards won't be able to do this one by themselves.

Hope I'm wrong and Munster come away with 4 or better yet 5, but my gut tells me it will be a bonus point loss.

Eoinbmw

A scrappy win is my prediction could be a few sin bins in this one!

Sabre0001

Not sure what to expect. Very scrappy and error prone game last week. Castres didn't look like offering much BUT they'll be hurting even more after the league loss and then losing in Thomond and being beaten up front for the most part. Hoping we can make the last few rounds a little more comfortable for ourselves, but that's usually not how we like doing it.

Finally get to see the Carbery, Murray partnership - will be interesting to see. Murray can keep defences honest, which might get Carbery more space and time.

Could be another scrappy game. Hopefully we can get inside Kockott's head again! And test them some more with high kicks which they struggled with.

Former Former

Like every game involving Castres, the result depends entirely on how bothered they are. If Castres go all out, they'll win. If Munster get an early score or two, they might just throw their hat at it.

Cookiemunster

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm going to be a doubting Thomas here, Castres have been a nightmare at home even when completely out of the competition.

I haven't seen enough inventiveness from Munster in attack and the forwards won't be able to do this one by themselves.

Hope I'm wrong and Munster come away with 4 or better yet 5, but my gut tells me it will be a bonus point loss.

They question can also be asked the other way. How will they break down Munster? At the end of the day they're 7th in the Top 14 with minus points difference. Yes they play batter at home, but they're not suddenly going to become Clermont at their pomp by changing a few forwards from last week.

Buer

Very hard to know how it will go but I fancy Munster to take the win. Castres are a very hard side to judge but they've been hit and miss even at home this season having lost already to Agen and Stade Francais in the T14.

I would say Munster to win by a whisker but, at the very worst, to take a LBP.

thomond2006

The weather forecast looks horrendous, heavy rain is promised.

thomond2006

Pool 2:

Munster 11
Gloucester 8
Exeter 8
Castres 5

It couldn't be set up much better for Munster.

Buer

Even a loss tomorrow and Munster are well placed to top the pool. Unfortunately, it's starting to look like an away semi final is the most likely outcome.

Poorside

Buer wrote: »

Even a loss tomorrow and Munster are well placed to top the pool. Unfortunately, it's starting to look like an away semi final is the most likely outcome.

Getting a smal bit ahead there, a home QF is within our grasp but qualifying has to be the goal first, it’s all in our hands now and I think we’ll get at least 5 points from the next 2 games, not having to chase TBP will actually help the team just focus on winning and making the right decisions

Mantis Toboggan

On TV anywhere apart from BT?

budhabob

Mantis Toboggan wrote: »

On TV anywhere apart from BT?

Don't think so, just BT 3.

Weather looks ****e, was terrible for the Toulouse / wasps game too.

LuckyGent88

Out in Germany for the weekend, hopefully we get the win. Going to be a tight game I’d imagine. Win is all we need no matter the performance

ScrubsfanChris

Munster jerseys fitting in much better now in the Christmas season :pac:

budhabob

Good defense by Munster after a fair bit of pressure from them.

razorblunt

Not sure of that penalty, the tighthead seemed to be driving inwards helped by the flanker.
Barnes has absolutely no time for Kockett's antics.

I really hope this isn't going to be one of those nights of silly Munster penalties.

budhabob

Kilcoyne has made a great start, carrying and tackling very hard!

budhabob

Some carry by CJ, so graceful

c.p.w.g.w

budhabob wrote: »

Some carry by CJ, so graceful

What was the TMO looking at?

razorblunt

Definitely contact made with Cloete's face earlier, think it might just have been a push though.

budhabob

Complaints of gouging on cloete, think I certainly saw a hand in his face a few minutes ago.

As for the grounding, I thought it was inconclusive.

ScrubsfanChris

TMO must have x-ray vision

Sirius Boner

So, the tmo can see a miniscule grounding.. but can't see Cloete getting a hand in the eyes ......

razorblunt

Commentary is so flat. Such a slog.

Stout Warrior

razorblunt wrote: »

Commentary is so flat. Such a slog.

Donncha my life’s a party O Callaghan

razorblunt

4 times Barnes told him leave while Murray waited for the ball.
Stonewall penalty.

razorblunt

On his hands too FFS.
The lads in comms looking at it on the replay too busy cramming their facts in.

razorblunt

Barnes loves shouting instructions but then just watches lads professionally foul, their 6 walked back through the ruck then joined from the wrong side on Scannell's mini break.

Stout Warrior

Munster aren’t protecting their own ball at the breakdown and it could cost them the game

razorblunt

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

budhabob

We need to come out like a train in the first 10 mins.

razorblunt

Stout Warrior wrote: »

Munster aren’t protecting their own ball at the breakdown and it could cost them the game

It's the exact same as last week.

ScrubsfanChris

Awful awful decision making.

VanGrann should give the whole team a bolloking at half team

Akrasia

Awful decision to not take the 3 points there. The clock was red, we would have had a full 10 minutes after the break with the man advantage and would go into half time having drawn blood

Poor_old_gill

Bring on JJ

razorblunt

Their line just stands off Carberry knowing he'll pass or drift. He ran (jogged) at them once and made a break.

Akrasia

razorblunt wrote: »

Their line just stands off Carberry knowing he'll pass or drift. He ran (jogged) at them once and made a break.

Good, because if they think Carbery can't or won't make line breaks then that's a huge opportunity for Munster.

They're down a scrum half which means they'll go narrow off their own rucks and we should be able to use this to our advantage

Stout Warrior

Poor_old_gill wrote: »

Bring on JJ

That’s the type of homegrown bias that could cost you. If there’s one player that can win the game for Munster it’s Carberry

budhabob

Now that's some scrum!!!

Stout Warrior

Anyone got a shotgun. I feel like killing myself listening to O Callaghan commentating

c.p.w.g.w

This is utter sh!T from Munster

Sabre0001

Frustrating watch

razorblunt

Some absolute shíthousing there from Castres at rucks, Murray could stand 10 feet back from one with his hands in his pockets and one of them would roll over and ask him for the time.

ScrubsfanChris

Munster would be well ahead if the performance was only 15% better.

razorblunt

Another stupid penalty from Scannell.
You'd tear your hair out watching this.

ScrubsfanChris

It's all panic.
Great lineout steal only for a back row to try and kick it. And now look where its lead.

ScrubsfanChris

Cockett is a liability in your team

PTH2009

Missed penalties are killing us

Stout Warrior

Turnover again how many is that so far?