Back in the land of the living now after a hectic fortnight of work and flights and jet lag and booze. Sat in front of the tv like a zombie all day yesterday but back in the game now. Still havent seen a replay of the game in full as my digi recorder fooked up, only read last sunday/monday papers today so only just caught up with reaction etc.
Firstly I can understand exactly what the players meant when they said they enjoyed this victory more, so did I. 2006 was an unbelieveable day for so many reasons but it was the Monday after before I could say that I actually enjoyed the victory such was the nerves beforehand and the absolute overwhelming sense of relief afterwards, we were like zombies after that game and reality didnt set in for a few days. This time it was different because the monkey was off Munsters back and this was going to be an ultimate test, if we had lost I would have been gutted but in all honesty there is no shame in losing to Toulouse at any stage considering there record in winning 3 finals and losing the 4th by a freak of nature. I was quietly confident before game, Toulouse have not been themselves for a while, were unimpressive through the competition to date and whilst they did well v Irish in the semis Cardiff got far closer to them than they should have in the quarters. When you see Toulouse picking there team in response to yours its a good sign, they sacrificed a bit including Bouliho in back row to counteract our lineout, ultimately it didnt pay off.
Team were excellent on the day, I did not think we could win with ROG having a 6/10 day but he kicked his kicks I guess and it was the difference in the end. My MOTM was O Connell, led by example and got through trojan work, lineout was exceptional, made the right calls at the right time and robbed a few of theres, cant ask for more than that.
Where is Hayes getting this indian summer from? Has scrummaged better this season than ever before, a combination of Pucirella coaching and a viable competitor in Buckley for the first time in his career maybe, theres another season (at least) in Hayes yet.
The centres were excellent and if a few offloads had come off it would have been a comfortable win.
The whinging I cannot fooking believe. As I said I havent seen game again but for the middle 40 mins after they puffed themselves out we played all the rugby, ROG attempted to put a bit of width on it regularly and we were inches away from making offloads stick and getting clear linebreaks. If I may suggest some alternative reasons Toulouse lost
- Made fook all effort to run around Munster apart from couple of broken plays i.e. there try
- Have gone virtually the whole season without an actual no 10, JBE is a good scrum half, that is a world away from being an outhalf with the quality to play at that level. Im not sure what happened but they had gafffie du tiot earlier on in the season whether he got injured our not I dont know but you can add 2 players after the pool stage so there was an opportunity for them to pick someone upā¦i.e get michelak back from SA where he wasnt a regualr starter
-why did they try to play like Munster (of 2006!), they booted it in the air and looked for Munster to make mistakes and kick there scores off that, they deserted there traditional game and they did not look comfortable trying to play such a structured game
- discipline was poor, lippy, narky dig from pelous etc, Munsters dicilpline was exscellent in contrast.
Toulouse have a valid point about the ref, knowing the ref is a huge advantage in rugby such is the importance of interpretation of the rules. It was ridiculous that Owens reffed munster 5 times in a row, more ridiculous that the stupid fooker cant speak french, surely if you knew you were a top class referee it would a great way to get ahead, just get a few french lessons!!! Ultimately I dont think Owens decisions changed the game one way or another.
Some laugh all the moaning about Munster killing the game for the last 20 minutes! If they had played ball and lost the game the same people would be out crying chokers, all you had to do was control it for last bit of game etc!! As for Stephen Jones, if it were England or Wasps or Leiscter who had done it it would have been seen as the greatest tactical masterstroke in history. As a professional team Im sure Toulouse could/should have figured out a way around it, its not like its the fiorst time the tactic has been used FFS. One way out would have been allow the initial ballcarrier and his support break the tackle as they were geared up to make a yard and hit the deck, the defence could then have blown over the ball carrier (forget the ball) and just stopped the wave of support coming, ball carrier and support then left like fookin plebs lying on the ball with defenders both sides. Difficult to explain that having read it again but it is a tactic I saw used to great effect in the schools cup this year where the pick and jam is the prefered weapon of choice once most teams get 3-0 upā¦
Anyways great great day, nobody can question this victory (except of course on a 5 page bitch fest on AFR!!) where we got out of the toughest group in HEC history and cemented our place at the top of the seedings for next year. Wasps have franked our form nicely by winning the GP yesterday and Clermont finished top of the Top 14 as well and are nicely placed with def home semi final. Only blsmish on the season was double defeat to Leinster but you know what, if I was given that scenario at start of this or any other season I would bite the hand that offered it.
Randomly
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Think Mcgahon wil lget the job unless there is some serious politicking going on, could be an issue in that Bradley might have set his heart on Munster and if that is the case it will be very very hard for him to go back to Connacht. I wouldnt like to see him lost to the Irish system either because I think he has something to offer just hasnt been helped by the situation out west. Connacht need a change as much as he does. He might come in as backs coach with Mcgahon maybe. Unless we beat NZ and Oz then we may well be stuck with him at the top! Unless (big fooking unless, clutching at straws unless) Kidney brings him on board the Irish set up. Know some lads that played under him at Ireland U21s and with Con and they speak highly of him, but not as the main man in any set up.
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Summer tour has now gotten v interesting, appears we had a decent win against the Baa Baas, particulalry if you look at the shambles the English second string were today. Not inconceivable that Munster 1-8 will start next saturday but that would be incredibly harsh on Heaslip IMHO who is not far off Irish player of the season. Leamy is a sqaure peg in the no 8 hole so he should lose out, as much as it pains me to say it after his excellent season/final/general presence on the pitch. Wil be a big ask of the Kiwis to adapt back to the āoldā rules in a few weeks and it will be there first match with them in 12 months, that is going to be a massive massive advantage to Ireland. Also they are in a bit of a state of flux at the moment with players deserting at a rate of knots, losing the calibre player thay have cannot be good regardless of the strenght in depth. If the crusaders players dont start next saturday it wil be an outstanding chance to get our first victory over the All Blacks. Blind faith has led me down some dodgy routes before so Im nbot going to go all out and predict a win!!
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Saw the Cipriani injury today, nasty, get well sone to the lad, an absolute joy to watch and as Iv said before if he trains on he will be the scourge of ireland for many many years to come. He could be absolutely anything with a few years expereince and I really hope he comes back from this with his pace and his bottle intact, unfortunately Jonny W was never the same player after the injuries so heres hoping wont be a seriosuly unfortunate double for english no 10s. Would love to see him playing at 12 outside ROG in SA next year, if he is fit and well he will be 10 though and ROG 21!
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If anyone has a copy of the match or can fgure out where i can download it off net can you let me know, would love to see build up and the post match etc, got bits and pieces off RTE website but they dont seem to have the actual match.