URC Round 10 - Munster vs. Ulster - Saturday, Jan 8th @ 7.35pm - Premier Sports 2, RTE 2, URC TV

None of the Irish sides have been that impressive this season imo. They've all shown weaknesses. Leinster in particular don't look as well drilled this year. Could be how the season is now structured differently which leads to less game time for the second string. Covid disruptions have been problematic as well.

But I wasn't talking about the Lions.

And thats his first game in a few weeks as well

Farrels role tonight was as a ball carrier. He is more than capable of running and passing but he played his role well tonight

Well that's hardly fair.

I was at this (haven't watched it back, not sure I will!!) but I don't know if how atrocious the conditions were came across on the box. At one point I looked at the flags at the Mayorstone end, two of them blowing different directions and one not at all. The wind was swirling like mad the whole game and there was plenty of rain to boot. I don't think bemoaning a 'lack of ambition to play rugby' in that is very fair. Especially when we lost a player in the opening minutes. We did miss a couple of overlaps all the same when camped on their line.

I thought our subs won it for us, JOD and the kids brought fresh energy and impetus. I thought Beirne was sensational, he really has it all. Haley was brilliant also bar that kick out of the full. He's very unlucky not to be in consideration for Irish honours, he's been a very good signing for us. Great positionally, steps off both feet, good clearance kicker, good in the air. Not saying he should be ousting Keenan but he's worth a look at international level.

Crowley made a few mistakes but you can see there's a very talented player in there. Aherne had a fine game, he was utterly spent coming off. I was a big Niall Scannell fan but since that injury a couple of season ago he just seems to have lost his mojo with ball in hand completely, I think we need to be giving Barron the jersey for the rest of the season.

Rather than bemoaning Munster's efforts, I came away from that match wondering how Ulster were so poor against 14 for 70-odd mins. They didn't fire many shots at us at all.

As an aside, the general narrative across the media since the Connacht game has been a bit much - some of those players hadn't played much rugby in a couple of months. Zebo tonight was playing his first game since October 11 or something. We're basically back to a 'first game of the season' scenario, give them a break. I don't think we're getting the most out of the squad in coaching terms at all and am glad JvG is leaving but a little bit of perspective.

Have you been watching any of the Premiership or Top14 games? We're not the only tournament having COVID trouble

What an utterly dreadful game of Rugby. Awful.

How Burns is getting paid for playing Rugby is a mystery to me. Ulster were clueless.

As for Munster? It seems for some that the bar is set so low nowadays, that the performance last night was somewhat acceptable. IMHO it was pure muck. (apart from Beirne)

Perhaps JVG wants to leave now? Perhaps the players want him to leave now? Somethings not right.

I only caught the first half and didn't expect Munster to play their way back into it, especially given the amount time they spent on Ulsters line with nothing to show for it. It is worrying that whatever else is going on around the park Munster can't convert goal line possession as they used to.

Fair play though, they collected themselves and took advantage Ulster's limitations on the day.

Sooooo Zebo decision was incorrect.

I'm utterly baffled.

Unless they had an angle that no one else had then that decision makes no sense.

The citing window is over so Crowley can't be cited now.

The TMO and ref decided Zebo was the guilty player and the hearing say they can't accept that and it was never a red card so he's free to play.

The ref didn't "decide" that Zebo was the guilty player. The video of Zebo very clearly shoulder charging into the jaw of a player while not wrapping correctly showed that he was the guilty player. An utterly baffling decision.

What does Brad Shields have to do with Zebo very clearly shoulder charging into the jaw of a player while not wrapping correctly?

But we're discussing how Zebo very clearly shoulder charging into the jaw of a player while not wrapping correctly?

Brad Shields one Kilcoyne was tackled into him by another player from what I remember, so that was the mitigation from red to yellow, ref and tmo butchered that one imo.

Zebo and Crowley both seemed to make contact with the head and either could have got the red. Low end red for me with little ban. Chris Farrells was a lot worse the previous week, clear red.