Rugby Union 23/24 Discussion

Pogue Mahone said:
No way! A pall of mine been doing that this week too. Lashing snow at the top of Ben Nevis and torrential rain at Scaffel Pike. Looked gnarly as hell.
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:lol: :lol: The Yorkshire 3 peaks for me mate. Think we’re going to have a crack at the national version in the coming years.

Weather was ok, except the wind. I fecking hate strong wind and it was really gusty when we were scrambling up Pen-y-Ghent, fairly unpleasant
 
I expected Northampton to bottle it with about 10 to play but did enough to win their first title in a decade. Dylan Hartley and Wayne Barnes were in the stands. Hopefully they were friendlier yesterday if they crossed paths than in 2013 final when Hartley called Barnes a ''fecking cheat'' and was obviously sent off.
 
T00lsh3d said:
Missed the game as I was doing the 3 peaks yesterday, I’ll watch it back in full at some stage.

How was the day overall?
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Great day out. Would have been nicer without the five hour drive each way but well worth the effort. Five minutes away from being one of the best sporting results I’ve ever seen live, but just wasn’t meant to be.

Hard to shake that nagging feeling that the wrong team won but that’s sport. At least the squad is pretty much all staying together for next year, one of the few that is.
 
A counter ruck doesn't reset offsides, right?
 
@JPRouve - In good news, your Chiefs will take on the Auckland Blues at Eden Park in next Saturday's Super Rugby Pacific final. The bad news is the Chiefs beating the Hurricanes means Ben O'Keeffe is eligible to referee his 3rd straight SRP final.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
We’ll win feck all with Ross Byrne at 10. Playing at altitude being able to kick for territory is so important. The difference in quality between the kicking game of the two teams was night and day.
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I think when he had the safety blanket of knowing Sexton was at the club, he was ok. He could do a job from time to time. Even win a final in that period. He's definitely regressing now though.
 
unchanged_lineup said:
I think when he had the safety blanket of knowing Sexton was at the club, he was ok. He could do a job from time to time. Even win a final in that period. He's definitely regressing now though.
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He’s not terrible. He’s just very average. And he’s getting shown up a lot recently in tight games, where that slight lack of quality he has compared to his opposite number keeps getting exposed.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
We’ll win feck all with Ross Byrne at 10. Playing at altitude being able to kick for territory is so important. The difference in quality between the kicking game of the two teams was night and day.
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That bit of play with 5 or 6 minutes to go, when he just flung it at a flat footed Osbourne in a panic.

I know he’s shattered but that’s where you want your 10 to take a hold of the game, not fling responsibility at a young fella.
 
diarm said:
That bit of play with 5 or 6 minutes to go, when he just flung it at a flat footed Osbourne in a panic.

I know he’s shattered but that’s where you want your 10 to take a hold of the game, not fling responsibility at a young fella.
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Yeah, exactly. And he’s constantly passing the ball from too deep in the pocket. Never seems to want to carry into contact. I don’t like scapegoating him because there are other issues but it feels like every big game this season he’s been badly inferior to the opposition 10. Can’t think of any successful teams without a very good player in that position.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Yeah, exactly. And he’s constantly passing the ball from too deep in the pocket. Never seems to want to carry into contact. I don’t like scapegoating him because there are other issues but it feels like every big game this season he’s been badly inferior to the opposition 10. Can’t think of any successful teams without a very good player in that position.
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Ye need to back Prendergast next year - even if it means a transition year while he beds in. There are too many quality players in that side to not have a class operator pulling the strings in the middle of the park.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
We’ll win feck all with Ross Byrne at 10. Playing at altitude being able to kick for territory is so important. The difference in quality between the kicking game of the two teams was night and day.
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He’s just a bang average 10, his brother is the same, the only thing that’s any bit special about those 2 is there old man’s jets , personally frawley should be the main man until prendergast has put on the size to be able to take the hits continuously, at the moment he looks a little light weight.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
He’s not terrible. He’s just very average. And he’s getting shown up a lot recently in tight games, where that slight lack of quality he has compared to his opposite number keeps getting exposed.
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That's exactly it. He was grand when the team around him had momentum. He's not a game changer whatsoever. Very lukewarm basically.
 
diarm said:
Ye need to back Prendergast next year - even if it means a transition year while he beds in. There are too many quality players in that side to not have a class operator pulling the strings in the middle of the park.
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I think everyone in Leinster is hoping Prendergast comes into pre-season about 5kg heavier than he is now. He’s got more X factor in his little finger than the two Byrnes combined but he doesn’t yet look up to it, physically. I think he needs to be protected a bit until he’s finished growing.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I think everyone in Leinster is hoping Prendergast comes into pre-season about 5kg heavier than he is now. He’s got more X factor in his little finger than the two Byrnes combined but he doesn’t yet look up to it, physically. I think he needs to be protected a bit until he’s finished growing.
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Van der Flier could do a Wally minding Rog impression for a season to be fair.

While you mention X Factor, another concern I have with Leinster, and it's one I share for ourselves and Ahern, is that for all the highlights and athletic talents, I don't know is Baird good enough at the basics of being a 6. It's all well and good breaking tackles and waiting wide for ball in space, but are you supporting yout runners to clear rucks, putting in the quiet hits in close and carrying enough dirty ball?

I have a feeling it might be Izuchukwu we see emerge to take that 6 shirt after O'Mahony long term, rather than either of the two lads. He strikes a better balance of athleticism and workrate for me. In the meantime, I think Leinster would be better served starting Conan in the big games.
 
diarm said:
Van der Flier could do a Wally minding Rog impression for a season to be fair.

While you mention X Factor, another concern I have with Leinster, and it's one I share for ourselves and Ahern, is that for all the highlights and athletic talents, I don't know is Baird good enough at the basics of being a 6. It's all well and good breaking tackles and waiting wide for ball in space, but are you supporting yout runners to clear rucks, putting in the quiet hits in close and carrying enough dirty ball?

I have a feeling it might be Izuchukwu we see emerge to take that 6 shirt after O'Mahony long term, rather than either of the two lads. He strikes a better balance of athleticism and workrate for me. In the meantime, I think Leinster would be better served starting Conan in the big games.
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Good shout about Baird. He’s a phenomenal athlete but maybe not the most disciplined. That said, I think we were decent at the breakdown today. The big difference between the two teams was what happened when the ball went out to the backs. Their kicking game was world class, while ours was bang average and our passing game just looked off. As it has done consistently this season, compared to seasons past. For one very obvious reason.
 
T00lsh3d said:
Been watching about 10 minutes and all I’ve seen is whistle
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Glasgow are incapable of playing rugby within the rules. Filthiest team in all of sport and it's the same every single time you play them. They'll be on afterwards saying the ref was biased as well, as if they shouldn't be pinged at every single tackle, ruck and play.
 
That was one of the silliest shots ever. From the side, plays the 9, hits his head
 
I'm fuming. Fair play Glasgow - they did what they do and were well worth their win.

But it's like we just bought into all the nonsense about niggle and hate before the game, and went out to feck about for 80 minutes without playing any rugby. Poor selection, poor attitude and really, really poor execution. Was a great chance to bring a big final to Limerick and they didn't show up.

Wycherley has no business playing second row at this level - all he's good for is giving away penalties. I love Jack O'Donoghue, but giving him an hour while keeping arguably the leagues form player in Coombes sat on the bench is stupidity beyond belief.

Wig , Prendergast and Leamy have been great since they came in, but this was a bit too much hubris and falling in love with their own cleverness for me. Glasgow are a team you need to go out and bury from the off, then bury again after half time and then keep pushing into the dirt because once they get a sniff, they'll keep coming.
 
diarm said:
I'm fuming. Fair play Glasgow - they did what they do and were well worth their win.

But it's like we just bought into all the nonsense about niggle and hate before the game, and went out to feck about for 80 minutes without playing any rugby. Poor selection, poor attitude and really, really poor execution. Was a great chance to bring a big final to Limerick and they didn't show up.

Wycherley has no business playing second row at this level - all he's good for is giving away penalties. I love Jack O'Donoghue, but giving him an hour while keeping arguably the leagues form player in Coombes sat on the bench is stupidity beyond belief.

Wig , Prendergast and Leamy have been great since they came in, but this was a bit too much hubris and falling in love with their own cleverness for me. Glasgow are a team you need to go out and bury from the off, then bury again after half time and then keep pushing into the dirt because once they get a sniff, they'll keep coming.
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I didn’t watch the whole match, but were you expecting to struggle at set piece so much? Lineout and scrums looked very uneasy and I tend to associate Munster with being pretty solid there
 
T00lsh3d said:
I didn’t watch the whole match, but were you expecting to struggle at set piece so much? Lineout and scrums looked very uneasy and I tend to associate Munster with being pretty solid there
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I thought we dominated them in the scrum, at least until the very end when we brought on Ryan at loosehead. 2 pens to 0 for us, and another we should've won when we drove them off their own ball but we got the ball anyway.

Lineout was a different story. Unfortunately Niall Scannell's career is illustrated by moments of shitting the bed when the pressure was on.
 
Montpellier just avoided relegation against Grenoble but they were genuinely bad.
 
T00lsh3d said:
Who’s bottom then, is it Oynnix (can’t work out if that’s a Pokémon or a character from Asterix)
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It was a playoff/in game, Oyonnax have been relegated weeks ago.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I don’t think there’s anything more to learn about Byrne. Crowley is nailed on as #1 and taking Prendergast on tour will be great for his development. Frawley’s versatility makes him the perfect backup 10.
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Totally agree, by the way.
Just saying that Farrell could have easily taken him and not had to explain why too much.
It's a good decision.
 
unchanged_lineup said:
Totally agree, by the way.
Just saying that Farrell could have easily taken him and not had to explain why too much.
It's a good decision.
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Ah, yeah, sorry. It’s definitely a brave choice, I agree. Great to see though. If you could make any criticism of life under Farrel it might be his preference for experience over youth. So this call is really pleasing.
 
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