URC Round 9 - Connacht vs Munster - Saturday, Jan 1st @ 5.15pm - Premier Sports, TG4, URC TV

Yea, coombes will benefit from game time alright.

Casey is a limited SH though what he does well he does very well but hes not going to get past murray anytime soon and we all know murray has aspects of his game that are lacking.

Doak needs to get past cooney first and that wont be easy.

Every province has 2 very good SH’s currently, but i dont think there is much wrong with who the top 2 are.

There is a game and a time for casey, and the munster game plan is neither. Hes a very good player who's attributes suit a team like leinster more than munster where they play with relentless tempo and ball in hand.

caseys box kicking isnt great, or at least its not near murrays, and munster have based a lot of their game on it because murray is so good at it and conway is a compliment to it.

One offload is brutal

An awful lot of judgments being cast after one game here by some.

Hopefully that Delahunt incident at HT is given a bit of media spotlight and looked into a bit more; it's needless, seemingly unprovoked, and taints the image of the league and the teams involved.

The league's image was tainted tonight for sure. But not by the handbags at HT.

I think he's saying it was a **** game to watch.

Not just the quality of the spectacle, but the general standard of rugby on show in a game between one of the supposed best teams in the competition with ambitions of winning it, and a team who will likely be in the playoffs. It was dreadful and very little rugby was played. AIL games are generally of a higher standard. I've watched some Top14 and Premiership this weekend, and honestly the chasm in quality is substantial. And also the standard of refereeing was brutal. A lot of people say that Connacht players get unfairly overlooked by Ireland coaches, and I think tonight proved that not to be true. And as for Munster, none of the team that played tonight can have any complaints if they aren't in the 6N squad.

For what was supposed to be a big interpro between two good teams, that game was a terrible advert for the URC. And honestly, if I was a Kiwi or Australian wanting to watch some NH rugby, the URC would be the last thing I watch.

Going off on a tangent here but the entire league is a joke and it's a serious hinderance for the national team. The fact that the English, French and a lot of the Welsh players are playing in a high quality, competitive league week in week out is a big advantage for them.

A British and Irish league would the an ideal scenario but I appreciate it's just a pipe dream.

It's not on the basis of one game though.

The Italian and Welsh teams are crap and have been for a while. The South African teams have added absolutely nothing and most of the Springboks don't even play for them.

The format is also an utter pisstake, overly complicated, renders it utterly unfair and makes a mockery of the integrity of the league

The fact that they change the format and add new teams every few years does nothing for the status of the competition.

Look at the Premiership and Top 14 and how competitive they are in comparison. Bath have lost all 10 games they've played in the Premiership, but they'd be better than half of the teams in the URC. Only one team has won the URC/Pro14/Pro12 for each of the last 4 years.

Watch the highlights of some of the thrillers in the Premiership from last weekend, Bristol v Leicester, Quins v Northampton, Wasps v London Irish. Enthralling, intense games with real jeopardy and world class players. Compare that with the dross being served up by the URC. The league the provinces play in is one of the biggest problems Irish rugby has.

Munster made 45 passes last night

Kieran Marmion had 85

I think you're way overblowing one poor game. It happens all the time, I regularly watch top 14 matches with behemoths fill of superstars like Toulouse and La Rochelle that turn out to be absolutely septic with a result something like 12-6.