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Leinster v Munster URC Semi -Final match thread

aloooof

Munster: Mike Haley; Keith Earls, Antoine Frisch, Jack Crowley, Shane Daly; Ben Healy, Craig Casey; Jeremy Loughman, Diarmuid Barron, Stephen Archer; Jean Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne; Peter O’Mahony (C), John Hodnett, Gavin Coombes.

Replacements: Niall Scannell, Josh Wycherley, Roman Salanoa, Fineen Wycherley, Jack O’Donoghue, Neil Cronin, Rory Scannell, Alex Kendellen.

Leinster Rugby (caps in brackets):

15. Jimmy O’Brien (69)

14. Tommy O’Brien (23)

13. Robbie Henshaw (76)

12. Charlie Ngatai (14)

11. Dave Kearney (185)

10. Harry Byrne (50)

9. Luke McGrath (194) CAPTAIN

1. Michael Milne (31)

2. Rónan Kelleher (45)

3. Michael Ala’alatoa (46)

4. Ryan Baird (52)

5. Jason Jenkins (16)

6. Max Deegan (97)

7. Will Connors (35)

8. Jack Conan (131)

16. John McKee (19)

17. Cian Healy (263)

18. Thomas Clarkson (26)

19. Joe McCarthy (18)

20. Josh van der Flier (126)

21. Nick McCarthy (61)

22. Ciarán Frawley (66)

23. Liam Turner (19)

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mun1

Munster won the game on the pitch , leinster lost it in the team selection.

I expected leinster to field a front 5 of porter, Sheehan, furlong , ryan & McCarthy who would pump munster up and down the field for 50 mins then reflect on a job well done, and leinster into another final.

Absolutely shocking selection , smacks of arrogance. Surely he knew even a heavily depleted munster side would go at it hard for 80 mins and would need to be quietened in the first 20 mins.

instead the leinster front five were put under the pump in the first half and were lucky to be leading at half time. Leo Cullen should have at least had some of the aforementioned front 5 on the bench to rescue the game.

all will be forgiven in the leinster camp if they win next week, but i dont think they will have the firepower to put LR away.

it seemed to me that Leo was rewarding reserve players with starting spots in a cup semi final, forgetting it was the cup semi final.

very sloppy.

Dubinusa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120592299#Comment_120592299

He's very poor

LostArt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120592780#Comment_120592780

Don't agree at all. He picked a rotated team he felt was good enough to win and they almost did. Now personally I would have had a few of the first teamers on the bench but I don't think there was arrogance at all

Dubinusa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120592380#Comment_120592380

I disagree. Only because of next week's tilt.

lawrencesummers

I think the difference between the teams and not for the first time was Denis Leamy.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120593117#Comment_120593117

We lost the game. Even if we win next week the season will be a qualified success.

His job was to pick the teams to win both.

aloooof

An interesting wrinkle is that I honestly don’t think Cullen would’ve named the team he did but for Munster’s injury issues last weekend.

Larbre34

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120592783#Comment_120592783

There was no need for the amount of rotation and the level of risk he took.

Never mind backing the squad that got through the Zebres and the Dragons, you pick a f**king squad to win today's game and only today's game. At the sharp end of the season you field your best players until they break and then you field your second best.

None of those include Nick McCarthy or Tommy O'Brien or Clarkson or McKee.

At the very least, we should have had a bench of finishers all up the standard of VdF. That would have been a bare minimum.

First Up

I think Cullen made a pragmatic decision to favour the Heinken over the URC. They lost and I don't begrudge Munster the narrow win.

In such a close match the referee played a big part and I am still curious why such a referee was given the job.

Good luck to both in the finals.

Larbre34

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120592677#Comment_120592677

No we wouldn't.

As others have said, all the top teams have to fight on two fronts until April or May, they die with their boots on.

Leinster have not made the required effort today, in every respect.

In fact it was disrespectful to Munster not to give them both barrels and they did what anyone does with such disrespect, they dished out a slap in the face.

I don't care if Cullen was feeling arrogant or canny, strategic or ambivalent, he was plain f**king wrong. A catastrophic miscalculation.

Roxxers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120593202#Comment_120593202

rog will do him again

Roxxers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120592611#Comment_120592611

what a twat

Dubinusa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120592528#Comment_120592528

I do get the frustration. But the schedule is brutal. Week after week of knockout rugby, with no Sexton! No Henshaw or Lowe. Players needed rest, especially the international lads. If we'd gone full strenght today and won, but lost VDF or Ryan or Furlong, we'd be fecked next week. The URC would be great! But it's apparent that the heino is the goal.

Fair whack to the turnips! Best of luck to them! I'm delighted for them to accomplish this. It hurts as a Leinster fan. I think the selection was fairly good. Not too many key lads involved.

Allinall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120593202#Comment_120593202

What specifically did the ref do wrong?

I watched the who match and didn’t see anything amiss.

Podge_irl

The international players did not need rest! They have not played that much - it was a selection solely about avoiding injuries.

We should have had a stacked bench out there if we were at all serious about winning.

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120593226#Comment_120593226

Mod: Don’t abuse other posters.

Roxxers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120592803#Comment_120592803

most lol gs is ancient history now just aswell your post are locked in the warmup thread

mr_edge_to_you

Just home. Great match and a great atmosphere. Great fun with a few Munster supporters around us.

When I heard O'Mahony and Earls were starting I was thinking this is going to be tough. That's a massive level of experience and a statement of intent.

When I saw the team Leinster named I was a lot more wary about their prospects.

I think Leo got the selection wrong and badly at that. I was in shock seeing Lowe doing a full warmup. I would've thought that if he still injured, he certainly wouldn't be that involved. I would imagine when Munster saw the Leinster team, it was a red tag to a bull. The perfect ammunition for a team led by Peter O Mahony and Keith Earls. Munster would've known Leinster were there for the taking.

Leinster dominated the league all season and were knocked out in the 2nd of 3 play off games. It's a pretty poor result for them.

Munster did well. You look at the state of their squad at 9am last Sunday after the Glasgow game. It was some turnaround. I thought Casey had a great game too.

A fully stacked Leinster team would've been a far different proposition. I am surprised that they didn't go in fully loaded and pull players ashore early. Or even, put a few on the bench and bring them on for impact. Now they face the prospect of another season with nothing in the trophy cabinet. Which would be a very poor reflection for a team of that stature. Serious pressure on them now ahead of next week.

Dubinusa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120592552#Comment_120592552

Hold on there.... this was not a full stacked Leinster team.

bilston

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120593238#Comment_120593238

Why would anyone need a rest? In two weeks time they get plenty of rest

ersatz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120593300#Comment_120593300

Casey didn't fill me with a lot of confidence today. I thought he pissed about at the back of rucks, a lot. At least once he was trying to milk a penalty and almost los the ball to a counter ruck. Slower ball may have been tactical and under orders but I thought at times with scoreboard pressure things got to him and he was ropey. Some of Munster's failures on the Leinster line were the result of poor decisions by him.

JRant

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120593106#Comment_120593106

This wasn't a regular league game against the Dragons. You don't put McCarthy and McKee on the bench for a bloody semifinal. Rotation is fine and dandy to get you to the business end of the season but once the big games (and this was a huge game) come along you treat the opponents and the competition with respect and play your best or at least have the bench loaded in case it turned out like today.

This is two years in a row Leo and Co have done this so they clearly haven't learned a thing which is a huge concern.

If Leo thought he could just rock up today with that squad and blow Munster away in a semifinal then Leinster have big problems and explains why he's won so little in his time here.

tbm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120593250#Comment_120593250

From what I recall:

Should have carded McGrath in the first half.

Missed a number of incidents of crossing in the Munster attack. It was pretty frenetic to be fair, but there were at least two obvious times it happened.

Not rewarding Leinster’s scrum dominance on a few occasions in the second half.

The penalty count was heavily in Munsters favour, and that wasn’t Murphy’s doing. The lead up to the DG was managed fantastically well by Munster. That was the winning of the game.

CatFromHue

I would have preferred a stronger Leinster team, and to have won, but the team Cullen picked wasn't blown away. They were leading at half time and with 10mins to go. It all came down to a drop 3 mins from end to lose by a point. Cullen very nearly got away with it.

It's still gutting to lose though.

Roxxers

arrogance a killer , will be same next week , not good for team moral , what must the rejects think after losing today , when chatting to the uninjured

ersatz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120593377#Comment_120593377

Edged in front for half time and failed to back it up in the next quarter. very unLeinster.

Foxtrol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120593262#Comment_120593262

Agree - no one was in need of a rest after their break during the SA trip. The team wasn't as weak as some on here expected but it wasn't as strong as I hoped it would be - I thought they'd go full reverse of last week. Even saying that they came extremely close to pulling it off, despite Munster playing well, Leinster playing poorly, and so much going wrong for the team during the match.

Hopefully this is a black eye that focuses the team away from any sense of expectation that things will be easy. Munster were playing for their season today and that'll be Leinster next week. A win next week and no one will lose sleep about losing today.

Congrats Munster, you can see how much beating the Leinster B team meant to their team and fans. You're definitely improving, it looks like we'll need to sprinkle in a few more starters the next time we play a meaningful match.

Roxxers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120593087#Comment_120593087

lol moaning re ref lord cop on

phog

I'll read the match thread later, just logged in to say I'm absolutely delighted with the result and in general with the game.

I've no idea why Frank Murphy is trending on Twitter but as I've said before the game the URC should never have put him the position he was in.

For a card happy ref I thought there were two penalties where Leinster were lucky not to get cards for cynical play, McGrath's knock on and the Leinster player on the ground tackling the Munster player, had that ball gone to the winger it was a try.

That win, aside from the obvious of putting us into the final & beating Leinster at home locks us into Tier One in next season's ERC pool draws.

The Drop Goal was something else, under the cosh to score, Leinster defending like demons, Crowley in the pocket and the pass to give him every opportunity to seal it.

Did I say I'm delighted

SUAF

lawrencesummers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120593238#Comment_120593238

henshaw played today