Munster vs Connacht, Fri 5th March 7:35pm, Eir Sport 1

Utopia Parkway

Carbery was so low there. Not sure about that.

A-Train

The ref gave Munster a much needed out there, Carbery went to ground himself

razorblunt

Lineout reduced to trick plays.

The Inbetween is mine

Cloete for Ireland !

Squidgy Black

That is a fantastic turnover by Cloete to kill momentum

Buer

razorblunt wrote: »

Lineout reduced to trick plays.

In fairness, they should have done that a long time ago. Surprised that Holland wasn't all over it a long time ago given how clever he normally is.

sydthebeat

Toland giving potm to the losing side again

Cloete on the player, not the ball. Sick of seeing those given as turnovers.

Utopia Parkway

sydthebeat wrote: »

Toland giving potm to the losing side again

Thornbury had to get it really. Was everywhere.

sioda

I agree with Toland's pick Jesus I feel dirty saying that

razorblunt

sydthebeat wrote: »

Toland giving potm to the losing side again

Thornbury fully deserved it.

Daly should get a yellow there too.

On the basis of the last few weeks I'd have Tom Daly in the Ireland setup over Chris Farrell.

irishgeo

Munster getting the all the calls. Jack carty taken out by a high tackle and the Munster lads gets off a red card for 2 yellows and carberry practically on the ground gets a "high" tackle to get out of jail.

Naturally enough Connacht will still find a way to lose an Interpro despite the opposition nearly losing every line out.

It never works the other way around though.

irishgrover

Good game of rugby, nothing too controversial to discuss. Thought the ref had a good game

Squidgy Black

Well that was an absolutely cracking game to watch as a neutral.

its_phil

sydthebeat wrote: »

Toland giving potm to the losing side again

There’s already an award for the winning side...

Euphoriasean

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Cloete on the player, not the ball. Sick of seeing those given as turnovers.

To be fair its hard to be on the ball when the player is lying on it. Thought it was the right call.

leakyboots

Hats off to whoever prepped Connacht for our lineout, did a brilliant job

leakyboots

Euphoriasean wrote: »

To be fair its hard to be on the ball when the player is lying on it. Thought it was the right call.

Didn't think there was anything wrong with that turnover at all

testtech05

Thornbury was absolutely everywhere tonight. Has had a great season for us.

OldRio

That hit on Carty by Cloete looked bad. I could be wrong but surprised it wasn't looked at.
Thornbury was everywhere.

Great game of rugby.

stephen_n

Carty showing why he should be and why he shouldn’t be in the Irish squad in equal measure tonight.

ClanofLams

De Allende clearly high on Aki after lineout in phase before Cloete got penalty. Not sure how Cloete hit on Carty wasn't checked, maybe Joy Neville did but looked like contact to head which should be reviewed. Aki's yellow incredibly harsh, pass was behind Casey, who was going to make linebreak?? Carbery's one in corner very soft considering he was about a foot off the ground, similar on Porch went without penalty.

Perhaps just one eyed but thought Connacht were pretty hard done by.

testtech05

OldRio wrote: »

That hit on Carty by Cloete looked bad. I could be wrong but surprised it wasn't looked at.
Thornbury was everywhere.

Great game of rugby.

I didn't get a proper look at it but was surprised they didnt check it again.
Even after that there was a knock on to the player in front for Munster luckily ended with the kick going dead. Think we just ran out of steam towards the end a bit

Having said all that though thought the ref had a pretty good game overall. Pretty consistent with most of his decisions.

Utopia Parkway

Brilliant game. Two evenly matched sides. I thought Beirne was the main difference between the sides earlier in the season and he wasn’t there tonight. Ref was good but I thought a couple questionable calls went against Connacht in the last 10 or so minutes there.

DDC1990

Carthy/Cloete clash was checked.

Referee said "Joy checked it, nothing in it".

ElisaAtWar

Gavin Thornbury is something and deserves the recognition. Heff only hits the lineouts because Thornbury is there. On the other side of it, well it was a bash bang solution against a bash bang team. So the strategy sucked. But it is what it is. Playing Munster in such a fashion is just daft

It was an entertaining game but honestly you can't say that what were all about was clueless. Lots of possession, but no ideas. I tend to use such a sentence for Munster but tonight Connacht showed how lacking in ideas they are in recent times

razorblunt

DDC1990 wrote: »

Carthy/Cloete clash was checked.

Referee said "Joy checked it, nothing in it".

Joy Neville isn’t exactly excelling at the TMO role in fairness.

normanbond

Thornbury had a fine game, Mike Haley should have got man of the match though, he was everywhere, game changer and match winner

Clareman

Wow we were made work for that but ultimately it was a semi final so that's what you'd expect.

Hopefully we'll get a lot of players a run in the next 2 dead rubbers

OldRio

irishgrover wrote: »

Good game of rugby, nothing too controversial to discuss. Thought the ref had a good game

2/10 must do better.

Utopia Parkway

Thornbury with 12 tackles 0 missed.
2 turnovers
3 line out steals
2 charge downs

theVersatile

Any clips of the Cloete/Carty incident? Seem to have missed it in the heat of the game.

Padkir

razorblunt wrote: »

Joy Neville isn’t exactly excelling at the TMO role in fairness.

That's understating it.

Not just tonight. Every game I've watched where she is TMO, she's too finnicky and harsh on minor things and misses or passes on the big issues.

TomsOnTheRoof

Connacht unlucky in places. Thornbury was immense. Haley surely must be close to a call up at this stage.

Clareman

Padkir wrote: »

That's understating it.

Not just tonight. Every game I've watched where she is TMO, she's too finnicky and harsh on minor things and misses or passes on the big issues.

I thought the opposite, she brings stuff to the refs attention and lets tehm make a decision rather than declare her opinion, it's not like she's part of a normal ref crew and building up a rapport with the rest of the team.

aloooof

That game fairly rattled along. Connacht disrupted Munster’s lineout and exiting kicks so much that they’ll have to be disappointed not to come away with the win; it feels like it should have been decisive. Connacht 2nd row both very, very good.

Felt Aki’s probably was a borderline yellow but they always feel a bit harsh when you see some other incidents that get a yellow.

Thought the ref was good, but he was definitely on the quick side to blow at the breakdown; Cloete and Cronin benefitted from 2 jackals that were blown fairly quickly.

Haley has been excellent of late. He’s had the occasional slight mistake, but he’s brought so much in the counter-attack, and his offloading this season.

Thought that was a good game, enjoyed it. Connacht still 2% off, but they'd every chance of winning that. Some quality performances and some terrible discipline from them.

ElisaAtWar

There was just a simple little scenario where Bundee passed the ball to Porch. There was nothing wrong with the pass but it summed up Connacht in the last while. Porch took the pass and got bundled into touch. But he should have being taking an inside line for that pass. But he didn't know any better. And just strikes of poor coaching. As said playing Munster at their own game is pure stupid, but there was no clear idea what to do with the ball Thornbury provided. And that is a worry. I don't Andy Friend has provided any solutions. In fact I think Connacht has regressed under his tutelage. Hard words, but it's my belief. Maybe he was a sevens coach for a reason.

And this not to say Van Graan offers anything to Munster. It's still the deadbeat Munster it has always been.

thomond2006

I think tonight showed why Healy only got the one year extension. He's not quite there yet. He's had a lot of minutes this season and that will hopefully stand to him. The next two weeks should be used to have a look at Flannery and Crowley, though perhaps not at 10. Flannery might get a game at 15 with Conway and Daly back with Ireland (presumably) and Haley due a rest. Crowley has played some games at 12 this season.

JJ and Carbery look nailed on for the 23 for the final.

its_phil

ElisaAtWar wrote: »

There was just a simple little scenario where Bundee passed the ball to Porch. There was nothing wrong with the pass but it summed up Connacht in the last while. Porch took the pass and got bundled into touch. But he should have being taking an inside line for that pass. But he didn't know any better. And just strikes of poor coaching. As said playing Munster at their own game is pure stupid, but there was no clear idea what to do with the ball Thornbury provided. And that is a worry. I don't Andy Friend has provided any solutions. In fact I think Connacht has regressed under his tutelage. Hard words, but it's my belief. Maybe he was a sevens coach for a reason.

And this not to say Van Graan offers anything to Munster. It's still the deadbeat Munster it has always been.

Connacht are 8-6 with 10 bonus points. What nonsense are you talking about?

What you think sound like hard words, sounds like crap to the rest of us based on nothing with zero context given Connacht's history bar one season.

gally74

ElisaAtWar wrote: »

There was just a simple little scenario where Bundee passed the ball to Porch. There was nothing wrong with the pass but it summed up Connacht in the last while. Porch took the pass and got bundled into touch. But he should have being taking an inside line for that pass. But he didn't know any better. And just strikes of poor coaching. As said playing Munster at their own game is pure stupid, but there was no clear idea what to do with the ball Thornbury provided. And that is a worry. I don't Andy Friend has provided any solutions. In fact I think Connacht has regressed under his tutelage. Hard words, but it's my belief. Maybe he was a sevens coach for a reason.

And this not to say Van Graan offers anything to Munster. It's still the deadbeat Munster it has always been.

munster will maul and roll over most teams from 5 meters,

but they will win nothing when it comes to the buisness end of the compettion,

The Inbetween is mine

razorblunt wrote: »

Joy Neville isn’t exactly excelling at the TMO role in fairness.

Is it because she's pregnant Liam?

The Inbetween is mine

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

Thornbury with 12 tackles 0 missed.
2 turnovers
3 line out steals
2 charge downs

He was damn good against us tonight defensively... deserves the CJ Stander award.

Zzippy

Regarding the reffing. Thought the ref was decent but he was very quick to favour the jackal. Loughman and Cloete both benefited at times, Loughman in particular had hands on the ground before he got on the ball Aungier was trying to recycle. I don't know what Neville was looking at, but Cloete's contact with Carty was *at least* a penalty, it was careless, if not reckless, and high. The yellow for Bundee was harsh but understandable, I don't think Casey would have gathered so the knock on wasn't very material. You don't often see a yellow for that so far out the pitch. That was Neville too, ref had been happy to go with a penalty only. Ah well. It was a good fair contest and either side could have snatched it, Munster just about deserved it on merit. Story of the season.

randomname2005

Great game, disappointed for Connacht to fall short.
Hadn't seen the ref before. Though he did okay, missed a few things as all refs do, but not sure it would have changed the outcome unless the clote incident was red.

Would be great if there were more games like this on a regular basis in the pro 14

theVersatile

Best rugby of the night was played in the build up to our three pointer after HT. Lovely offloading. We also seem to get it in drips and drabs but not over eighty minutes, but there's a night and day difference between Munster now versus last season.

Jump_In_Jack

The yellow against Aki stalled the momentum of the game and was a poor call I thought. Penalty was all that should have been given.

Could someone explain why Cloete got his yellow for picking up the ball with no one competing with him?

Same for Aki’s penalty that gave Munster the soft 3 points.

If the rules mean you have to ruck over it for a teammate to pick it up behind you even when there is nobody from the other team trying to ruck against you it seems like a stupid rule that just slows down the game needlessly, or have I got it wrong?

randomname2005

Jump_In_Jack wrote: »

The yellow against Aki stalled the momentum of the game and was a poor call I thought. Penalty was all that should have been given.

Could someone explain why Cloete got his yellow for picking up the ball with no one competing with him?

Same for Aki’s penalty that gave Munster the soft 3 points.

If the rules mean you have to ruck over it for a teammate to pick it up behind you even when there is nobody from the other team trying to ruck against you it seems like a stupid rule that just slows down the game needlessly, or have I got it wrong?

Clote I think could have gone against him or the other Munster player basically diving over the top. And 5m out after a line break is yellow.

Aki was different. The ball was still in the ruck, under somebody standing over it so he couldn't pick it up