Leinster vs Munster, Fri 4th Sept 7:35pm, Eir Sport / Eir Sport FB page

AbusesToilets wrote: »

If Leinster fix their lineout, I think they will.won comfortably. Their ability to create attacking opportunities is a lot better than Munster's presently. Without being gifted field position, I see Munster struggling to drive down and work a score.

Think it's a mistake also to not start Casey over Murray, his delivery helped out JJ immensely. Murray is back to his 2011 glacial worst.

Ah, the old ones are the best, Murray is playing quite well, just because he's not flinging out doesn't mean he's playing badly.
He's also a bloody good sweeper and that will be needed as Leinster are developing the kick in behind in the 22 as an option.

Buer wrote: »

I saw a lot of this after the last meeting between the two sides. People were gushing in their praise of Casey whilst critical of Murray somewhat.

Murray had a very good game. Passed accurately and controlled the game. His kicking was superb and a major source of position for Munster.

Casey came on late against 14 men for the first few minutes. It was also a one score game where Leinster clearly were not contesting rucks for fear of conceding yet another breakdown penalty. Everyone on the field was also shattered. Casey had the ball on a plate with no pressure and the requirement was to pass only and give clean ball to Hanrahan.

If Casey had started, he'd have endured a far tougher examination. He would have needed to demonstrate a kicking game as well as varying the attack and attempting to take the ball into contact. Until we see him do that when starting against a half decent side and show he's more than able to deliver, there's no way he is getting the nod ahead of CM.

I agree.

I think Casey has a bright future and it's certainly impressive that he's gotten himself to number 2.

But I have yet to see a kicking, defending or general support game that suggests he should be starting knockout rugby matches

AbusesToilets wrote: »

It's a touch chicken and egg tho, can't start until he proves it against better opposition, but can't do that without getting a chance to. For my mind, I'd value his speed of distribution over Murray's box kicks, even allowing for the differing circumstances of the game state from last time out. Feel speed is the key to getting the best out of the Munster backs, and Murray just doesn't have that presently.

It's a fair argument. Murray needs a bit of direction from the coaches to speed things up.
He's currently looking around for a play, which is generally slowing play down. The 10 usually sees the picture before the nine, so he needs to let the 10 start calling the shots.

aloooof wrote: »

Casey's box kicking has looked pretty good when we've seen it, but absolutely agree with previous 2 posts. There's no way he would or should be starting here.

He's a nice left foot on him. Which is always useful for clearance kicks when close to RH touchline.

Murray/Casey are a good foil for Munster.
Lightning quick to the base of the ruck and far quicker in his pass.
I think he's left handed. A little less accurate off his LH side?

I hope Munster are still in the game when he comes on around '70

Hasn't quite yet earned his his stripes for Test arena but i would hope he can be brought into the fold sooner rather than later.
Ideal option for springing off the bench.

salmocab wrote: »

It’s spelt warm fuzzy

See above.

I can see the logic for Connors ahead of VdF.
Primarily because he’s the no.1 for the Pro14.
VdF will probably start v Saracens.
https://twitter.com/rpetty80/status/1301551826504945664?s=21

Clegg wrote: »

https://twitter.com/Murray_Kinsella/status/1301521157632528384?s=19

Is this only the island of ireland? probably...
still, i'll check at the time... anything is better than a stream a few seconds behind...

More importantly than the teams or ref, who is the commentary team?

The Facebook stream is good and makes my life slightly easier. I got a premier sports subscription and vpn to it. Worked a treat the last few weeks.

Smart by Eir. They'd need viewers on this game which much fewer people can do now since virgin is such a large provider.

And also a clever way to paint themselves as the good guys to the public in this Virgin dispute

ionadnapokot wrote: »

He's a nice left foot on him. Which is always useful for clearance kicks when close to RH touchline.

Murray/Casey are a good foil for Munster.
Lightning quick to the base of the ruck and far quicker in his pass.
I think he's left handed. A little less accurate off his LH side?

I hope Munster are still in the game when he comes on around '70

Hasn't quite yet earned his his stripes for Test arena but i would hope he can be brought into the fold sooner rather than later.
Ideal option for springing off the bench.

Does Casey pose a running threat. Murray doesn't seem to back himself anymore with the sniping runs.

Deleted User wrote: »

What's wrong with cross dressing?

You should never do anything important in a state of rage.

Buer wrote: »

I saw a lot of this after the last meeting between the two sides. People were gushing in their praise of Casey whilst critical of Murray somewhat.

Murray had a very good game. Passed accurately and controlled the game. His kicking was superb and a major source of position for Munster.

Casey came on late against 14 men for the first few minutes. It was also a one score game where Leinster clearly were not contesting rucks for fear of conceding yet another breakdown penalty. Everyone on the field was also shattered. Casey had the ball on a plate with no pressure and the requirement was to pass only and give clean ball to Hanrahan.

If Casey had started, he'd have endured a far tougher examination. He would have needed to demonstrate a kicking game as well as varying the attack and attempting to take the ball into contact. Until we see him do that when starting against a half decent side and show he's more than able to deliver, there's no way he is getting the nod ahead of CM.

Murray shows incredible control and is mentally a step ahead of the game, his kicking has been exceptional in the last couple of matches and he is very solid in defense, but it's a significant influence on Munster's attack that he slows down his distribution from the ruck much more than Casey seems to. He used to be a lot quicker, certainly for Ireland. Maybe it's tactical and comes from the coach who changes up the tempo when Casey comes in, but it is noticeable that the defense has time to set up in Munster phase play because of Murray's pace in distribution. It means they are fairly predictable and except for overlaps in the 22 where Conway or Earls gets the end of passes and score Munster's 5 pointers predictably come from forwards piling on at the line. Obviously there's more to it than just Murray's speed of distribution but it's a noticeable aspect of his game that seems to have settled. His lack of sniping adds to the predictability about what's coming. Maybe once the De Allende/Farrell partnership settles and pays off that will change but for me Munster's lack of creativity in the backs is holding them back, and Murray has something to do with that.