Munster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread.

thomond2006 · 05-10-2010 07:06PM

danthefan wrote: »

Which is an indictment of the ban an international would get and nothing else, what Mafi did was easily worth 7 weeks.

Sorry yeah totally agree.

CatFromHue · 05-10-2010 07:13PM

thomond2006 wrote: »

It's because he's NIQ of course, I guarantee that a current international would get far less and would definitely be available for the AIs ala John Hayes last year.

i dissagree. you have to remember before hayes got sent off last year he had 2 yellow cards to his name over what 10 years or so.

on the question about sexton, he had 1 yellow card to his name.

mafi before the weekend has 9 yellow cards. he was also cited for 2 different incidents at different times in the game. both far worse then what hayes or sexton did. the 7 weeks is deserved.

sayings he only got such a long ban because he is not irish qualified is just plain wrong and not paying attention to the facts of what happened and his record

thomond2006 · 05-10-2010 07:16PM

CatFromHue wrote: »

sayings he only got such a long ban because he is not irish qualified is just plain wrong and not paying attention to the facts of what happened and his record

Good post, never thought about it that way.

I do still think being an international is a help though. Hayes got off the day/week before the AIs started I mean.

Sorry don't want to drag the thread off topic here.

duckysauce · 05-10-2010 07:29PM

ireland international v outsider, ban is going to be worse when the irfu dont stick their nose in

lologram · 05-10-2010 07:34PM

Lads put it another way, Munster are better off without him. I'm not particularly interested in whether he would have gotten a shorter ban if he was IQ.

All I know is that if I was a Munster fan, I'd be happier to have Earls (if fit), Johne Murphy, or pretty much anyone else capable of playing 13, than Mafi. He's a liability. In the HC, you're going to want to have your 15 on the field for 80 mins if at all possible. Is Mafi worth the risk?

Tefral · 05-10-2010 08:11PM

Im not suprised that Earls was named in the squad the same day that Mafi got banned.

Theres plenty of rumours in Limerick of those close to his family that he isnt being left play by the IRFU and that he is actually fit now (well match fitness aside)

Now that Mafi is banned it seems their hand is forced.

thehighground · 05-10-2010 08:14PM

CatFromHue wrote: »

i dissagree. you have to remember before hayes got sent off last year he had 2 yellow cards to his name over what 10 years or so.

on the question about sexton, he had 1 yellow card to his name.

mafi before the weekend has 9 yellow cards. he was also cited for 2 different incidents at different times in the game. both far worse then what hayes or sexton did. the 7 weeks is deserved.

sayings he only got such a long ban because he is not irish qualified is just plain wrong and not paying attention to the facts of what happened and his record

For the record, most of his yellow cards were for professional fouls/ruck offenses. Mafi actually got a yellow card for the Sexton incident and Sexton was left on the pitch.

Mafi is a hard tackler, but most of his tackles have been fine.

btw, I think he deserved the ban for the D'Arcy tackle because it was dangerous.

PhatPiggins · 05-10-2010 08:25PM

lologram wrote: »

Lads put it another way, Munster are better off without him. I'm not particularly interested in whether he would have gotten a shorter ban if he was IQ.

All I know is that if I was a Munster fan, I'd be happier to have Earls (if fit), Johne Murphy, or pretty much anyone else capable of playing 13, than Mafi. He's a liability. In the HC, you're going to want to have your 15 on the field for 80 mins if at all possible. Is Mafi worth the risk?

He's good performances in the HC far out number his poor ones, can anyone remember a bad one? 30 games over 4 seasons and 2 yellow cards both were team yellows. Granted he seems to have lost the plot since Tipoki left but this is turning into a witch hunt. The guy came from nowhere and has given a lot to Munster rugby. It's not that long ago that we were all wishing he could qualify for Ireland.

What he did is wrong but I hope he takes his ban and learns his lesson because on form he a serious asset.

phog · 05-10-2010 08:28PM

CatFromHue wrote: »

i dissagree. you have to remember before hayes got sent off last year he had 2 yellow cards to his name over what 10 years or so.

on the question about sexton, he had 1 yellow card to his name.

mafi before the weekend has 9 yellow cards. he was also cited for 2 different incidents at different times in the game. both far worse then what hayes or sexton did. the 7 weeks is deserved.

sayings he only got such a long ban because he is not irish qualified is just plain wrong and not paying attention to the facts of what happened and his record

I would have to disagee, I feel that if he was IQ he'd have got a lighter ban and the facts back this up. Look back on any of the IRFU disciplinary hearings involving an Irish international and show me a ban that long, I'd doubt you'd get one. In fact up to recently, we didnt even cite players involved in Inter-Pros.

I'd have no problem with Mafi's 7 week ban or more if I was sure that from now on all players would get similar bans for dangerous play.

danthefan · 05-10-2010 08:32PM

phog wrote: »

I would have to disagee, I feel that if he was IQ he'd have got a lighter ban and the facts back this up. Look back on any of the IRFU disciplinary hearings involving an Irish international and show me a ban that long, I'd doubt you'd get one. In fact up to recently, we didnt even cite players involved in Inter-Pros.

I'd have no problem with Mafi's 7 week ban or more if I was sure that from now on all players would get similar bans for dangerous play.

Has everyone been cited for the same offence?

PhatPiggins · 05-10-2010 08:38PM

phog wrote: »

I would have to disagee, I feel that if he was IQ he'd have got a lighter ban and the facts back this up. Look back on any of the IRFU disciplinary hearings involving an Irish international and show me a ban that long, I'd doubt you'd get one. In fact up to recently, we didnt even cite players involved in Inter-Pros.

I'd have no problem with Mafi's 7 week ban or more if I was sure that from now on all players would get similar bans for dangerous play.

It would be interesting to get the data on the IRFU disciplinary findings over the past ten years. I had a quick google and could only find individual cases.

phog · 05-10-2010 08:48PM

danthefan wrote: »

Has everyone been cited for the same offence?

Obviously not.

danthefan · 05-10-2010 09:49PM

phog wrote: »

Obviously not.

So there really aren't any facts to back anything up.

cronin_j wrote: »

Im not suprised that Earls was named in the squad the same day that Mafi got banned.

Theres plenty of rumours in Limerick of those close to his family that he isnt being left play by the IRFU and that he is actually fit now (well match fitness aside)

Now that Mafi is banned it seems their hand is forced.

Irish players have never been forced to miss HEC games. There was talk before Mafi got banned that he'd be back for LI.

CouchSmart · 05-10-2010 10:03PM

Not surprised Mafi got 7 weeks. Pretty hard to defend citings for two hightackles and for punch/use of forearm. Not sure why people are bringing up citings about Sexton and Hayes from years ago, seems irrelevant. Sexton lashed out with his foot and accidentally caught the player in the head. Hayes was stamping on a player who had brought down a maul and was unlucky to make contact with the head, yes the stamping itself is an issue but if you bring down a maul you have it coming. These two, as opossed to Mafi's utter disregard for both D'Arcy and Kearney's welfare, surely did not require higher levels of punishment?

Obviously no union is going to shoot itself in the foot with regards banning a player from important internationals but to the best of my knowledge no Irish player has put themself in that position before.

Great to see Earls back, hopefully he'll be that extra spark the Munster backline have been missing. Seems a lot of people think he will be the saviour though, hopefully the pressure won't get to him.

thehighground · 05-10-2010 10:38PM

CouchSmart wrote: »

Not surprised Mafi got 7 weeks. Pretty hard to defend citings for two hightackles and for punch/use of forearm. Not sure why people are bringing up citings about Sexton and Hayes from years ago, seems irrelevant. Sexton lashed out with his foot and accidentally caught the player in the head. Hayes was stamping on a player who had brought down a maul and was unlucky to make contact with the head, yes the stamping itself is an issue but if you bring down a maul you have it coming. These two, as opossed to Mafi's utter disregard for both D'Arcy and Kearney's welfare, surely did not require higher levels of punishment?

Mafi got 7 weeks for D'Arcy - nothing to do with Kearney which was dealt with on the pitch.

Mafi has been cited under law 10.4 (e) for an alleged dangerous tackle and 10.4 (a) for allegedly punching or striking in an incident with Leinster player Gordon D’Arcy in the 19th minute of the game. The hearing will take place in the Ulster Branch offices in Ravenhill, Belfast at 4.00pm on Tuesday, 5th October 2010. The hearing will be chaired by Hugh Logan and he will be assisted by Stephen Hilditch and Ian McIlrath.

Logan & Hilditch were on the panel that gave Sexton his ban for kicking Sexton so its surprising they are so inconsistent

Podge_irl · 05-10-2010 10:44PM

thehighground wrote: »

Mafi got 7 weeks for D'Arcy - nothing to do with Kearney which was dealt with on the pitch.

Both citings were for the D'Arcy incident I believe alright, but there is nothing that says just because a matter is dealt with on the pitch that it can't be brought further with citings.

7 weeks seems fair, though I would tend to agree with those who say he would have received less were he an Irish international. As it happens it makes little to no difference as he was never going to be back for the HEC and Munster don't play much after that with the AIs.

thomond2006 · 05-10-2010 10:49PM

He misses the Australia game, just realised that now.

Any thoughts on that game actually? I don't think it will garner as much interest as the Munster - All Blacks did.

Podge_irl · 05-10-2010 10:50PM

thomond2006 wrote: »

He misses the Australia game, just realised that now.

Any thoughts on that game actually? I don't think it will garner as much interest as the Munster - All Blacks did.

Completely forgot about that. Munster will be quite stretched at centre for that game now...

thomond2006 · 05-10-2010 11:04PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQtpxqwq_3k

Just randomly found this. Enjoy!

thehighground · 05-10-2010 11:22PM

Podge_irl wrote: »

Both citings were for the D'Arcy incident I believe alright, but there is nothing that says just because a matter is dealt with on the pitch that it can't be brought further with citings.

But if they were going to consider the Kearney incident they would have to cite it so that Munster would have time to prepare a defense.

Darran Cave made a horendous tackle on Dowling last year which he was yellow carded for. I think he would have been cited if it had not been dealt with on the pitch. (If that wasn't the reason, the IRFU should be ashamed of themselves).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HIczcxOxHs

7 weeks seems fair, though I would tend to agree with those who say he would have received less were he an Irish international. As it happens it makes little to no difference as he was never going to be back for the HEC and Munster don't play much after that with the AIs.

That is a disgrace if that is the case. Its racist! What planet are the IRFU on if they think they can get away with that kind of discrimination.

Mafi will miss:
London Irish, Toulon, Treviso, Ulster (I bet Ulster will be very upset about that), Australia, Scarlets, Dragons.

Munster are going to be very stretched (which will suit Ulster and their Magners campaign in particular).

thehighground · 05-10-2010 11:30PM

Thomond - thanks for putting those up. The only special Munster game that I didn't have a recording of.

ALH-06 · 06-10-2010 06:48AM

Anyone know what the story is with Felix Jones? I see he's on the long-term injury list - is it from the back / neck injury he sustained early last season, or has he picked up another one more recently?

buck65 · 06-10-2010 07:14AM

Knee ligament injury against Ospreys. Out til the new year.

ALH-06 · 06-10-2010 07:17AM

buck65 wrote: »

Knee ligament injury against Ospreys. Out til the new year.

Terrible news, really feel for the poor chap

JustinDee · 06-10-2010 07:17AM

thehighground wrote: »

That is a disgrace if that is the case. Its racist! What planet are the IRFU on if they think they can get away with that kind of discrimination

It isn't the case so calm down.

JustinDee · 06-10-2010 07:19AM

duckysauce wrote: »

ireland international v outsider, ban is going to be worse when the irfu dont stick their nose in

All three on panel are IRFU.

buck65 · 06-10-2010 08:43AM

Whilst not condoning Mafi's actions I think 7 weeks is a bit OTT on this. A month would have sufficed. It really puts Sexton's 2 week ban for his kick out into perspective.
There is no doubt if Mafi was Irish he would be back in reckoning for the November internationals.
Would a bit of consistency be too much to ask?
BTW I don't feel that O Brien should have been banned for his "gouge" so it is not a Leinster/Munster thing with me. The HEC judgements at least have some consistency - this is a farce.

Peter B · 06-10-2010 11:14AM

To be honest I didn't think Mafi would get a ban.

When I saw the incident live I thought if the ref had seen it he would have given a yellow card. There are lots of incidents like that in games but rarely a red is given out. The referee of course doesn't have the luxury of action replays. Thats why I'm surprised the citing panel went for a ban.

If the question is whether he deserves it, then definitely yes. Mafi has a history of high tackles and this is the only way to teach him a lesson. Yellow cards have not worked in the past.

davidpfitz · 06-10-2010 01:44PM

Peter B wrote: »

Mafi has a history of high tackles and this is the only way to teach him a lesson. Yellow cards have not worked in the past.

I agree ... but this amazingly, this was said:

'The panel took into account the player's previous good disciplinary record before they imposed a sanction of seven weeks' suspension.'

thehighground · 06-10-2010 02:13PM

Peter B wrote: »

To be honest I didn't think Mafi would get a ban.

When I saw the incident live I thought if the ref had seen it he would have given a yellow card. There are lots of incidents like that in games but rarely a red is given out. The referee of course doesn't have the luxury of action replays. Thats why I'm surprised the citing panel went for a ban.

If the question is whether he deserves it, then definitely yes. Mafi has a history of high tackles and this is the only way to teach him a lesson. Yellow cards have not worked in the past.

I don't think they were given to work in the past. For the record (From a post on Leinsterfans), one of his 10 yellows was for a hard challenge (not high). The rest were for professional fouls such as being off his feet while contesting for the ball, blocking a runner, backchat etc.

Munster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread.

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