Any rugby heads care to explain how both Irish provinces can deliver such criminally inept performances?
Our teams are provinces and have half the national side on each, yet both were battered by club sides which seems ridiculous to me, especially considering the pats on the back Irish rugby’s been giving itself lately. Am I totally wrong here or what?
It was embarrassing viewing watching Leinster getting bullied mercilessly by the Wasps pack but not moreso than witnessing the pitiful attempts at Munster to move the ball wide.
Funny that there’s 3 English teams left too considering they were considering pulling out a while back. And didn’t O’Gara also have a pop at what he regarded the weakness of the English League too?
Without wanting to turn this into a Munster v Leinster debate I thought Leinster gave the more shambolic performance. Llanelli played very well and in truth Munster simply weren’t a match for them. That said they tried (as Munster do) and nearly got themselves into a game winning position, though that would have been larceny.
The Wasps game started with Wasps in the ascendancy. Then Leinster lads seemed to decide that they were being challenged so they took the game on and looked like they were at least a match, but probably far better than Wasps. Yet they failed to fire for anything like 80 minutes again and fell away badly to deliver a truly inept performance.
From watching both games the following are not good enough:
I couldn’t believe Leinster’s start to the 2nd half. Wasps with a man in the sin bin and still their outnumbered pack destroy Leinster up front and bully us for 2 tries that finish the game off. A distinct lack of fight. Is signing players who were part of a lightweight pack before, like Cullen and Jennings, the answer?
I couldn’t believe Leinster’s start to the 2nd half. Wasps with a man in the sin bin and still their outnumbered pack destroy Leinster up front and bully us for 2 tries that finish the game off. A distinct lack of fight. Is signing players who were part of a lightweight pack before, like Cullen and Jennings, the answer?
One would think not. Jennings always looked a decent player but nothing extraordinary. Cullen looks good at Leinster but he never made much of an impression when he played here. Keogh was a decent addition last season though.
Certainly I don’t think Munster’s signings (Warwick - Connacht out-half and Lewis - Leinster reserve centre) are going to get their backline going.
I dip in and out of the rugby football threads and regularly refer to Leinster and Ireland as “we” and “us”. A cursory search of the rugby football thread would find multiple instances of me doing so; e.g. celebrating Leinster’s wins over Munster. But, like John Terry, I only use these terms as “sarcastic exclamation” as I actually despise rugby football. I trust this clears things up to the satisfaction of everybody.
