Yeah Iāve said already Warwick was savage but that was a shocking decision by him to kick when he had 3 or 4 outside him. Iāll say again-Warwick you eejit. Doesnāt take away from that great Munster performance.
Ah lads what a fantastic game. In the end Iām half glad Munster didnāt win cause Iām pretty sure the old fella beside me was ready to shift the face off me if they did.
Iāll write a bit more on it tomorrow when Iām less boozed and tired. Warick was silly. Very very silly. (Great game other than that though).
Just in the door from itand I am absolutely sickenedā¦Great display from munsterā¦to think fellas were laughing here when I said the atmosphere in Thomond would get to some of the more inexperienced kiwisā¦It certainly got to Donald and Weepuā¦For munster to a man they were superb and i was delighted to see Coughlan and Ronan both having great gamesā¦Thought the ref had a shocker, absolutely no consistencyā¦Mick O Driscoll who I have never been a fan of played a captains role to a tee with an inexperienced pack alsoā¦
Great atmosphere in Thonond tonight, up there with some of the other great nights I have had in thereā¦The new zealand 7 and 8 both looked excellent for themā¦
What happened Leamy lads?..
Iāve just seen an add on tv for a DVD of a play about a random reserve team rugby friendly, similar to tonights, which took place 30 years ago. Iām truly lost for words.
Hard to be too harsh on Warwick, he put in an amazing stint. Everyone out there made mistakes over the course of the game, the difference was his misstake came at the end of the game. No man shirked his responsibility and for a second string provincial outfit to put it up to a team picked from the cream of the Super 14 is testament to the Munster spirit.
Munster did well last night in fairness, put in a very solid and fired up performance. Just shows what can be done when going into a game with the right attitude. Poor mistake from Warick at the end, as he had to have known time was up, as the stadium clock was further ahead than actual time, but he had played very well up til then.
To be honest tho, Iām glad they didnt win. The shite weād have to endure if they won would be unbearable. Hearing gobshites going on for another 30 years and plays and stuff. Lads this morning saying how they are still up on aggregate, but when I pointed out to the 2 buckos in here who went to the game and are the biggest bandwagoners you could meet, that the All Blacks hammered them in 89, they said, ah sure that doesnt count, that wasnt a big game. Just summed up some of the gobshites that go support this side.
Atmosphere did come accross well on TV too, crowd really got into it. I didnt think the ref was that bad to be honest, got a couple of calls wrong on both sides, and Munster will always look hard done by as the AB had most of the ball and Munster were trying to win it back.
What an epic game of soggy biscuit. As jugs so rightly says, 2 reserve teams playing a completely meaningless friendly.
Build a bridge and get over it.
Well,
Fantastic occasion for Limerick City last night and throughly enjoyable game. I went along not knowing what to expect, but in fairness to them they put on some show. I shouted and roared, and used up all 6 of my rugby cliches within the first 10 minutes. I willed the munster defense to hold on for 5 more minutes, I gave it the Munster, Munster, Munster, and when the final whistle wentā¦ I wasnāt that bothered and to be honest to a lot of the people around me didnāt seem that bothered either.
A credit must go to the players, who in fairness gave absolutely everything for their chance to secure a place in Munster rugby folklore. After every ruck there were 2 players down injured, they out on their feet and battled on. Youāve got to admire their fighting spirit and their attitude. Regardless of whether or not it was an All Black B team, they should still be 30 to 40 points better than a provencial B team.
I enjoyed it, it was a fantastic occasion but when it ended I didnāt feel that pang I feel when the final whistle goes and Limerick crash out of the championship for another year. Puke describes himself as being gutted, i was far from it, but then again I was only a blow in to it all (but I was far from being alone in that last night) I just couldnāt help but get the feeling that it was all a very very slick PR exercise and you can be sure the Munster branch achieved their aim last night, and that was not to win on the pitch but to wow enough corporate clients so that the gravy train keeps on rolling in the lean times ahead.
But in fairness it has lifted the entire city and the pictures going around the country showing Limerick in such a positive light can only be a good thing.
Iāll never be a rugby man, but I can certainly see the attraction to the whole Munster scene alright.
A fantastic occasion, and can only be good in the long term for Munster Rugby.
Fuck the begrudgers.
I cant post at home, when i can I will comment fully.
Im not gutted I must say, it was hard to be disapointed after that performance. Dont think Munster lost anything in defeat. thought the double Haka beforehand was magic stuff, really got the crowd going and definately made a few of the Kiwis think.
For Mafi that was an All Black trial and he completely outplayed the opposition centres. Puke maybe you were right all along!?!! I think he will def get the call up after last night, still not sure hes good enough but as iv said Id be happy to be proven wrong.
Ronan & Coughlan were the stand out performers for me though. Neither has played for Munster in a long time and this was a huge step up to a standard neither had played before. Coughlan took on huge responsibility when Leamy went off and controlled ball at the back of the scrum very well. Ronan is definitely the best 7 Munster have as well, expect Wallace to move to 8 and him to see a lot more game time.
When you consider that the back row for 60 odd mnutes of the game was Couglan, Holland & Ronan, with zero international caps and probably less than 5 HEC cup games between them the effort was unreal.
Timmy Ryan held his own as well. Did his reputation no harm at all.
Jugs et al, begrudge away. Yep it was two āreserve teamsā but fact is NZ were 1/33 such was the expectation they would blow Munster away. Far superior game of rugby to the weekend with both sides trying to retain the ball.
it was, I think, the best quality game I have seen all year. Ref penalised Munster a lot but in all fairness Munster played that on and over the edge all night, as they needed to. Seriously controlled aggression. Fair credit to McGahan for getting them to an intensity that allowed them to match the all blacks physically but still play with such control.
And one more thing. Fair play to all involved, it was spectaculalry well run affair. Bit OTT maybe with the air corps drpping in etc but what a spectacle. It has finally put Lk in the news for good reasons and provided a massive massive boost to the local economy when it is most needed. On top of everything else this is fantastic for Limerick, a great sporting city.
The city itself actually looked fantastic last night, a different buzz about going to a game at night time, walking over the sarsfield bridge with the riverside lit up on both banks all the way up to the castle. I would imagine it would have looked very impressive to any first time vistors to Limerick.
[quote=āGmanā]Munster did well last night in fairness, put in a very solid and fired up performance. Just shows what can be done when going into a game with the right attitude. Poor mistake from Warick at the end, as he had to have known time was up, as the stadium clock was further ahead than actual time, but he had played very well up til then.
To be honest tho, Iām glad they didnt win. The shite weād have to endure if they won would be unbearable. Hearing gobshites going on for another 30 years and plays and stuff. Lads this morning saying how they are still up on aggregate, but when I pointed out to the 2 buckos in here who went to the game and are the biggest bandwagoners you could meet, that the All Blacks hammered them in 89, they said, ah sure that doesnt count, that wasnt a big game. Just summed up some of the gobshites that go support this side.
Atmosphere did come accross well on TV too, crowd really got into it. I didnt think the ref was that bad to be honest, got a couple of calls wrong on both sides, and Munster will always look hard done by as the AB had most of the ball and Munster were trying to win it back.[/quote]
I thought the ref was extremely poor, he kept turning his back on the play. And Munster had the ball for most of the 2nd half???
Dan
Interested that you think Mafi has played himself onto the ABs considering the major blunder he made for the try when he broke the line needlessly to hand the ABs the overlap. Iād hold him way more culpable for the defeat than Warwick who kicked the last ball out. It wasnāt like Munster were 2 yards out with a 3 man overlap. Mafi had a good game but still think that he is a bit too headless to be an AB.
WBY
[quote=āW.B. Yeatsā]Dan
Interested that you think Mafi has played himself onto the ABs considering the major blunder he made for the try when he broke the line needlessly to hand the ABs the overlap. Iād hold him way more culpable for the defeat than Warwick who kicked the last ball out. It wasnāt like Munster were 2 yards out with a 3 man overlap. Mafi had a good game but still think that he is a bit too headless to be an AB.
WBY[/quote]
He broke the line all night and those were the defensive tactics. They knew the All Blacks would be spinning it wide and they knew theyād have the legs on them so they were coming in and spotting the centres all night and it worked a treat most of the time.
More conservative tactics might have saved them on that occasion but Rockocoko would have strolled in for a hat trick had there been a disciplined drift defence in evidence all night.
Some of the lads on here talking about friendlies are missing the point. Runt sums up my attitude even though Iād care alot more about rugby than him. Was disappointed they lost but it wasnāt overbearing or anything. The main thoughts Iāll take away from last night is that those Munster lads put their bodies on the line in a manner I havenāt seen from a rugby team in a long, long time. The intensity and ferocity and aggression would put nearly every other game to shame. It was an extraordinary game of rugby and it will be a long time before we see that level of commitement and effort put into a game again.
You often see players in various sports who give every drop of sweat and blood they have for their team and some of the true greats can do this consistently on a weekly basis. But Iām not sure Iāve seen 15/22 guys do it simultaneously before.
I was saying something very similar to a friend when watching the game in the pub last night. He argued that they would have won had they the 10 senior boys, I asked him who would he drop, who let his team mate down out there? Iām not saying the 15 out there were the best Munster had, but not one of them let the side down, not one of them gave less than he had inside of him. Thats all you can ask for. Winning wasnāt important last night (it was only a midweek tour match after all), keeping up the Munster tradition was, and they done that and more. With professionalism all the great traditions of rugby are falling by the wayside (witness the Lions for this). Musnster proved yesterday that they still hold onto something thats intangible, and no amount of begrudgery can take that away from them.
[quote=āW.B. Yeatsā]Dan
Interested that you think Mafi has played himself onto the ABs considering the major blunder he made for the try when he broke the line needlessly to hand the ABs the overlap. Iād hold him way more culpable for the defeat than Warwick who kicked the last ball out. It wasnāt like Munster were 2 yards out with a 3 man overlap. Mafi had a good game but still think that he is a bit too headless to be an AB.
WBY[/quote]
Rockos covered the most of my points below but
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Mafi will get capped I think. I still feel he doesnt have core skills to be a regular all black though.
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Dont blame Mafi at all, correct he made the move that left the hole there but as rock said, that was the plan. That was how they closed them down all night. Same as Glopuscter last night, its high risk high reward stuff. The fact that they got caught out so little was an unbelieveable effort.
I wouldnāt blame Mafi either, I would say that Topiki was carrying a knock going into the match so Mafi was effectivily covering 2 positions. I would be surprised if Mafi was to leave to go be a bench warmer back home, he is earning far more here than he would down there
I would blame both number 10ās. They kept kicking the ball out of play, never found one of their own men with any of their kicks up the field, 90% just went out of play.
[quote=ādancarterā]Rockos covered the most of my points below but
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Mafi will get capped I think. I still feel he doesnt have core skills to be a regular all black though.
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Dont blame Mafi at all, correct he made the move that left the hole there but as rock said, that was the plan. That was how they closed them down all night. Same as Glopuscter last night, its high risk high reward stuff. The fact that they got caught out so little was an unbelieveable effort.[/quote]
Dan/Rocko
Agreed: they do pull the outside man in to stop the ball going wide but not on every ball, I think its usually the winger that does it.
Youād expect a lad that wants to play for the ABs to be able to decide whether or not he needs to do it on a case basis. That ball wasnāt the one to do it on when they had enough numbers ( and not props on wingers)
Anyway Mafiās decision for me was the losing of the game. Granted hindsight is a great thing and he had defended well all night except for the high tackle when he was lucky not to get 10.
WBY