The IRISH RUGBY thread

[omagh_gael]

Look incredibly limited at half back without Murray in there.

[Capt Pat]

I thought Munster were poor at outhalf as well today. JJ Hanrahan is coming back next season to help fix things there.

[Syferus]

Look incredibly limited at half back without Murray in there.

Shows what Ireland would have been like had Sexton got knocked out of the England game with Murray..

[Owen Brannigan]

Saracens were at the top of their form.  Their physicality made it very difficult for Munster to play their own game in the second half.  When Munster did not convert their possession and territory into scores on the board in the first half there was no way they would win the game, this is the only way to put pressure on Saracens.

The loss of Murray was a factor and his replacement constantly kicked away possession as a tactic for a high ball that stopped working. The younger lad who played against Ulster would probably have been better.

Bleyendaal cracked and missed a kickable score at a vital time, sliced some other kicks and was inaccurate.

The loss of O'Mahoney was critical, they became rudderless when they needed a breakthrough.

Man for man, Munster weren't a match for Saracens and Mark McCall was well ahead of Erasmus.  Munster do not have the resources of Saracens who have been investigated on breaking the finance rules of the premiership.

[manfromdelmonte]

Saracens were at the top of their form.  Their physicality made it very difficult for Munster to play their own game in the second half.  When Munster did not convert their possession and territory into scores on the board in the first half there was no way they would win the game, this is the only way to put pressure on Saracens.

The loss of Murray was a factor and his replacement constantly kicked away possession as a tactic for a high ball that stopped working. The younger lad who played against Ulster would probably have been better.

Bleyendaal cracked and missed a kickable score at a vital time, sliced some other kicks and was inaccurate.

The loss of O'Mahoney was critical, they became rudderless when they needed a breakthrough.

Man for man, Munster weren't a match for Saracens and Mark McCall was well ahead of Erasmus.  Munster do not have the resources of Saracens who have been investigated on breaking the finance rules of the premiership.

money doesn't buy basic skills like retaining possession and offloading
Munster kept kicking the ball away

[Owen Brannigan]

Saracens were at the top of their form.  Their physicality made it very difficult for Munster to play their own game in the second half.  When Munster did not convert their possession and territory into scores on the board in the first half there was no way they would win the game, this is the only way to put pressure on Saracens.

The loss of Murray was a factor and his replacement constantly kicked away possession as a tactic for a high ball that stopped working. The younger lad who played against Ulster would probably have been better.

Bleyendaal cracked and missed a kickable score at a vital time, sliced some other kicks and was inaccurate.

The loss of O'Mahoney was critical, they became rudderless when they needed a breakthrough.

Man for man, Munster weren't a match for Saracens and Mark McCall was well ahead of Erasmus.  Munster do not have the resources of Saracens who have been investigated on breaking the finance rules of the premiership.

money doesn't buy basic skills like retaining possession and offloading
Munster kept kicking the ball away

It does buy your own coach not one imposed by the IRFU, as many physically strong overseas players as allowed and the best conditioning coaches available. With those in place you can play with 14 men and make it look like the opposition had lost a man.

[manfromdelmonte]

Saracens were at the top of their form.  Their physicality made it very difficult for Munster to play their own game in the second half.  When Munster did not convert their possession and territory into scores on the board in the first half there was no way they would win the game, this is the only way to put pressure on Saracens.

The loss of Murray was a factor and his replacement constantly kicked away possession as a tactic for a high ball that stopped working. The younger lad who played against Ulster would probably have been better.

Bleyendaal cracked and missed a kickable score at a vital time, sliced some other kicks and was inaccurate.

The loss of O'Mahoney was critical, they became rudderless when they needed a breakthrough.

Man for man, Munster weren't a match for Saracens and Mark McCall was well ahead of Erasmus.  Munster do not have the resources of Saracens who have been investigated on breaking the finance rules of the premiership.

money doesn't buy basic skills like retaining possession and offloading
Munster kept kicking the ball away

It does buy your own coach not one imposed by the IRFU, as many physically strong overseas players as allowed and the best conditioning coaches available. With those in place you can play with 14 men and make it look like the opposition had lost a man.

and who'd replace him? there is zero progression of coaches within the irish coaching ladder
Munster have a load of oversees players, they are just not very good.
Munster kept bashing the ball up when they had the extra man, not enough brains on the field to take advantage

[Owen Brannigan]

There are no stand out Irish coaches at this point in time.

Kicking it was the alternative to trying to bash through the middle via Stander but teams have his number now and Saracens had the physicality to negate his drives.  Just don't aimlessly kick it.  Murray wouldn't have been much better on the amount of kicking but it may not have been as pointless. 

The best overseas players have their choice of teams in the NH and Munster has not been seen as a team that on the rise.  it is a bit chicken and egg at this point in time.

Will be interesting to see how Stuart Lancaster's Leinster manage away to Clermont.  Again, I fear they won't be able to cope with the sheer physicality of the French team.

[trileacman]

Box kicking should be banned from rugby union. There's nothing uglier. It's worse than the backward handpass in gaa.

[Owen Brannigan]

Leinster having a nightmare.  Sin bin, losing line outs with over throws and Carberry at full back all over the place.

[Owen Brannigan]

For 42 minutes it didn't look like any Leinster supporters had turned up.

It was arguable whether their team had turned up either.

15-3 at HT

[Owen Brannigan]

Leinster turn up after HT.

[Owen Brannigan]

Try of the competition by Gary Ringrose.

[JPGJOHNNYG]

Still doing their best to lose it with dumb mistakes

[JPGJOHNNYG]

Deserved to lose becsuse of chesting, twice held players back like pr1cks and got severely punnished for it. Should have won but with those 2 incidents gifted clermont the match