Rabbo Pro 12 Final thread(Teams included)

First topic message reminder :

Right, now, we know the teams, we know the venue, how do we think this one will pan out ? Although there is less at stake, I think that this game will be a lot better than HC final, and with Leinster having home advantage, it is hard to look past a Leinster win, but the Ospreys have been to the RDS this season and won so they will not fear going to Dublin, also Tandy has come in and breathed fresh air into the squad, but I still think Leinster will win but it will be very close, probably just a score in it. So I am going for Leinster by 3pts.

LEINSTER:

15: Rob Kearney 14: Fergus McFadden 13: Brian O'Driscoll 12: Gordon D'Arcy 11: Isa Nacewa 10: Jonathan Sexton 9: Eoin Reddan

1: Heinke van der Merwe 2: Sean Cronin 3: Mike Ross 4: Leo Cullen CAPTAIN 5: Devin Toner 6: Kevin McLaughlin 7: Shane Jennings 8: Jamie Heaslip

REPLACEMENTS:

16: Richardt Strauss 17: Cian Healy/Jack McGrath 18: Nathan White 19: Brad Thorn 20: Dominic Ryan 21: John Cooney 22: Ian Madigan 23: David Kearney

OSPREYS:

15 Richard Fussell
14 Hanno Dirksen
13 Andrew Bishop
12 Ashley Beck
11 Shane Williams
10 Dan Biggar
9 Rhys Webb
1 Paul James
2 Richard Hibbard
3 Adam Jones
4 Alun Wyn Jones (Capt)
5 Ian Evans
6 Ryan Jones
7 Justin Tipuric
8 Joe Bearman
Replacements:
16 Scott Baldwin
17 Ryan Bevington
18 Aaron Jarvis
19 James King
20 Tom Smith
21 Kahn Fotuali'i
22 Matthew Morgan
23 Tom Isaacs[/quote]

Ooooh I can just see the headlines now... Welsh teams steals one again.

Ireland beaten by Wales in their last 3 games, Ospreys beaten Leinster and Munster 3 times this season, 2 of Leinsters games in Dublin.

And everyone thinks the Welsh are lucky.

LeinsterFan4life wrote:

3rdGrandslamCame wrote:3 out of 3 v Munster
3 out of 3 v Leinster
3 in a row v Ireland for Wales

The celtic balance has swung.

Yep this clearly shows ospreys are better than leinster...oh wait we have 3 HC's

Is there a need for this Wales v Ireland crap? Show a bit of grace and enjoy your win.

eirebilly wrote:I am just really happy that Poite's craziness didnt ruin the match too much.

That depends on who you support

rodders wrote:

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Williams looks like he has a few seasons in him yet honestly.

Ha ha thats funny, he did nothing all game but he keeps popping up and scoring tries!

To be fair, the first one was a superb finish, the second was a good finish too.

Walker wouldn't have scored either

eirebilly wrote:I am just really happy that Poite's craziness didnt ruin the match too much.

I think he did Billy. He got the scrum totally wrong, Adam Jones was deliberately dropping the scrum and he gave two yellows against Leinster. That was the difference.

Well said rory we didnt bring up wales vs ireland when we hammered cardiff

wales606 wrote:If Dan Biggar can play like he does for the Ospreys for Wales, he will be the Welsh 10 for a long time - He outplayed Sexton today, and did in the final 2 years ago.

Biggar's kicking was excellent, but it's irrelevant as Halfpenny is the kicker for Wales. What does matter is the magnitute of the games that Dan Biggar has been involved in for his club.

The Scarlets have done NOTHING of significance for a long time and Dan Biggar has won the league twice with the Ospreys (both times away at Leinster).

Agree Rory, this isn't an international.

Well done Leinster, you really are a tough side Let's do it all again next season!

I just can't believe it. I really can't. i didn't think we would win to be honest. So proud.

Anyone who says the Rabo doesn't mean anything to the Irish teams doesn't know what they are talking about. Great ad for the league.

I don't think Biggar outplayed Sexton, but there wasn't much between them. I do rate Biggar over Priestland honestly.

3rdGrandslamCame wrote:

wales606 wrote:If Dan Biggar can play like he does for the Ospreys for Wales, he will be the Welsh 10 for a long time - He outplayed Sexton today, and did in the final 2 years ago.

Biggar's kicking was excellent, but it's irrelevant as Halfpenny is the kicker for Wales. What does matter is the magnitute of the games that Dan Biggar has been involved in for his club.

The Scarlets have done NOTHING of significance for a long time and Dan Biggar has won the league twice with the Ospreys (both times away at Leinster).

Scarlets or Ospreys don't play at outside half though.

Whats Bowe doing there? Hes an Ulster man....

3rdGrandslamCame wrote:

wales606 wrote:If Dan Biggar can play like he does for the Ospreys for Wales, he will be the Welsh 10 for a long time - He outplayed Sexton today, and did in the final 2 years ago.

Biggar's kicking was excellent, but it's irrelevant as Halfpenny is the kicker for Wales. What does matter is the magnitute of the games that Dan Biggar has been involved in for his club.

The Scarlets have done NOTHING of significance for a long time and Dan Biggar has won the league twice with the Ospreys (both times away at Leinster).

Biggar has shown he can raise his game for the O's. If he can do it for Wales then he will get the 10 spot.

You can never have enough 80% goal kickers.

3rdGrandslamCame wrote:

wales606 wrote:If Dan Biggar can play like he does for the Ospreys for Wales, he will be the Welsh 10 for a long time - He outplayed Sexton today, and did in the final 2 years ago.

Biggar's kicking was excellent, but it's irrelevant as Halfpenny is the kicker for Wales. What does matter is the magnitute of the games that Dan Biggar has been involved in for his club.

The Scarlets have done NOTHING of significance for a long time and Dan Biggar has won the league twice with the Ospreys (both times away at Leinster).

Biggar is a really good player but not sure he "outplayed" Sexton.

Blimey

Do you think they handed Shane the try like his last couple

That's the fourth time we've won it. I'm so glad. Not just cause they're my team, but for Welsh rugby as well. With all this talk of people going abroad, I think it's a great advert for the game in Wales

ROdders - don't actually agree with that. Adam was no angel (let's be serious, what TH is??), but The first yellow was more deserved than the second but it was coming. And like I said, why the hell would the O's want to get other props yellow carded? Unconested scrums would have benefited Leinster far more than the O's!

Risca Rev wrote:

Steffan wrote:Great win for the One True Region

Great for the Ospreys. That one true region thing is gash though.

One True Region all the way. I dont support the Os but at least they actually do try to appeal to people outside the town/city they play in

Who got MOTM? Had to be Nacewa for me.

rodders wrote:Whats Bowe doing there? Hes an Ulster man....

Typical irish, got to get in there somewhere...

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Who got MOTM? Had to be Nacewa for me.

Think it was Williams for benefit of scoring the winning try. Fair enough, but Nacewa was class too.

rugbydreamer wrote:ROdders - don't actually agree with that. Adam was no angel (let's be serious, what TH is??), but The first yellow was more deserved than the second but it was coming. And like I said, why the hell would the O's want to get other props yellow carded? Unconested scrums would have benefited Leinster far more than the O's!

What was it deserved for,if you look at the scrum the 2 props went down together and if you look at the 2nd scrum Jones went down first if anything.

Also, did I hear correctly that the Ospreys are an all welsh side with the exception of Dirksen? Who will be qualified this year?

rugbydreamer wrote:ROdders - don't actually agree with that. Adam was no angel (let's be serious, what TH is??), but The first yellow was more deserved than the second but it was coming. And like I said, why the hell would the O's want to get other props yellow carded? Unconested scrums would have benefited Leinster far more than the O's!

Dreamer watch the replays, Jones is bringing the scrum down purposely to get the penalty. It is clear as day, he is hitting the deck first.

1st yellow was wrong, second was a disgrace. No wonder Schmidt is fuming.

Just so ou all know, I've just voted for Os by a score

rodders wrote:

eirebilly wrote:I am just really happy that Poite's craziness didnt ruin the match too much.

I think he did Billy. He got the scrum totally wrong, Adam Jones was deliberately dropping the scrum and he gave two yellows against Leinster. That was the difference.

Both Leinsters cards were a joke. The second card jones drops his bind and brings it down again and Leinster get carded. Poite just took a guess and handed the match to ospreys. Very hard when you have to play with 14 men.

leinsterbaby wrote:Anyone who says the Rabo doesn't mean anything to the Irish teams doesn't know what they are talking about. Great ad for the league.

Absolute.
Great ad for the League and a great ad for Rugby. Same as the Premiership final yesterday.
And some people still don't get the excitement and benefit of a playoff and One Big Final.

Congrats to Ospreys. Great stuff!!!!
And also to Leinster, one of the class teams of this era.

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Also, did I hear correctly that the Ospreys are an all welsh side with the exception of Dirksen? Who will be qualified this year?

Not they're not an all-Welsh side. They've still got a couple of non-Welsh players in the squad.

Where's Thomond to say the Irish aren't allowed to moan about the ref as it's just sour grapes??

Rodders, 2nd card I might agree with you, but majority of the time it was Leinster bringing it down first, that's honestly how I was seeing it. Like I said Adam wasn't an angel by any means but the majority of time, for me, it was Leinster collapsing it. Cards were coming, but I have to say the situation wasn't helped by Poite at all. Shocking control over that aspect of the game.

doctor_grey wrote:

leinsterbaby wrote:Anyone who says the Rabo doesn't mean anything to the Irish teams doesn't know what they are talking about. Great ad for the league.

Absolute.
Great ad for the League and a great ad for Rugby. Same as the Premiership final yesterday.
And some people still don't get the excitement and benefit of a playoff and One Big Final.
.

Funny you should mention that, weren't the favourites to win yesterday, Leicester? Leinster were the favourites today too. Just goes to show how unpredictable rugby is!

How do refs always seem to get it so wrong whenever welsh sides face the irish

In that game I meant Cari! I thought the commentator said that the starting line-up had just Dirksen who was non-welsh. Obviously that Samoan 9 with a name I will not even try to spell was on the bench, but I mean on the starting team.

Fair play to Ashley Beck, Henson couldn't even give an interview at his age.

Beck is going to be phenomenal and expect him to fill out a bit in the next year or two.

LeinsterFan4life wrote:How do refs always seem to get it so wrong whenever welsh sides face the irish

Are there no decent referees outside Wales and Ireland?

Rory_Gallagher wrote:

LeinsterFan4life wrote:

3rdGrandslamCame wrote:3 out of 3 v Munster
3 out of 3 v Leinster
3 in a row v Ireland for Wales

The celtic balance has swung.

Yep this clearly shows ospreys are better than leinster...oh wait we have 3 HC's

Is there a need for this Wales v Ireland crap? Show a bit of grace and enjoy your win.

Probably not mate but we may as well get our retaliation in now against the Irish press, because of they way they will react (as they always do), when an inferious Welsh teams has the audacity to beat an Irish one...

Cari wrote:

doctor_grey wrote:

leinsterbaby wrote:Anyone who says the Rabo doesn't mean anything to the Irish teams doesn't know what they are talking about. Great ad for the league.

Absolute.
Great ad for the League and a great ad for Rugby. Same as the Premiership final yesterday.
And some people still don't get the excitement and benefit of a playoff and One Big Final.
.

Funny you should mention that, weren't the favourites to win yesterday, Leicester? Leinster were the favourites today too. Just goes to show how unpredictable rugby is!

Im just upset I had bets on Ospreys + 10. Outright would have made me a lot more :*(

LeinsterFan4life wrote:How do refs always seem to get it so wrong whenever welsh sides face the irish

Come on now, you agreed with me above not to bring the Ireland v Wales thing into it.

Rory - correct the starting team were all Welsh bar Dirksen

Rory_Gallagher wrote:In that game I meant Cari! I thought the commentator said that the starting line-up had just Dirksen who was non-welsh. Obviously that Samoan 9 with a name I will not even try to spell was on the bench, but I mean on the starting team.

Oh ha! Sorry Rory.

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Also, did I hear correctly that the Ospreys are an all welsh side with the exception of Dirksen? Who will be qualified this year?

2014

Him and Fotuali (who would have played better from the bench) were the only non-welsh players in the 23.

That is pretty impressive.

Brilliant game. From both sides.

Leinster = relentless
Ospreys = relentless

A shame only one could win.

Poite???

Brilliant by Ospreys. To come to the home ground of Europe's top team with a completely partisan crowd and win. Shows how good they are. Should target a real assault on Europe next year. They have it all to be honest.

From a Leinster point of view, I'm disappointed. Three lost finals in a row. It's embarrassing. Two lost at home. Humiliating. But at least the pain is relieved a bit by the unprecidented achievements in Europe.

I knew nothing about scrums before this. I know nothing about scrums now. I'll leave that to others. I just wish the IRB would DO SOMETHING about fixing it.

Ok joking aside, I think this was a magnificent final. I think Leinster have better backs but Ospreys the best front 5.

You dont beat a team 3 times out of 3 in a season by pure luck, so the Ospreys have to be the better side.

Leinster's luck run out in trying to deal with the Ospreys scrum and eventually the ref sussed it out, and clearly have a great team spirit to fight back in this way.

Though we must be honest and say from the 58th minute it was noticeable that Leinster had less energy as a result of their cup final last week. Though they really lost the game because they can't scrummage, that is no ones fault but their own.

Rory...welsh sides i didnt say wales

rugbydreamer wrote:Where's Thomond to say the Irish aren't allowed to moan about the ref as it's just sour grapes??

Rodders, 2nd card I might agree with you, but majority of the time it was Leinster bringing it down first, that's honestly how I was seeing it. Like I said Adam wasn't an angel by any means but the majority of time, for me, it was Leinster collapsing it. Cards were coming, but I have to say the situation wasn't helped by Poite at all. Shocking control over that aspect of the game.

Dreamer I'm not saying Leinster weren't under pressure in the scrum at times, but that 1st yellow VDW and Jones drop at the exact same time. It should have been a reset scrum. The second yellow should have been a penalty to Leinster.

Feckless the commentators here said they're trailing a change to the scrums next season. Whether it'll come to anything, I don't know.

Calmed down a bit now... Fair play to the Leinster fans on here - on the whole both gracious and honest about how much winning this would have meant to them (no devalued league rubbish!). They are a remarkable team - but the Ospreys really seem to have the "Indian sign" over them at the moment. Hate to keep banging on about the ref, but he did his best to ruin a fabulous match today. Have always been bemused by people who big Poite up, he's always seemed rubbish to me.

Well done to Shane - two brilliant ties (that actual dummy pass to himself for the second was pure Hollywood!). Nice to finish with something meaningful and not just a forward roll in a defeat!

Ospreys have really developed as the season went on. Huge impact from Ryan J, Adam, AWJ and Ian Evans as they came back from 6N, and Beck, Biggar, Tupiric, Dirksen and Fussel have been great all season. Bishop played very well today.

Hope they all have a great night in Dublin! Nice to have some silverwear at the regions after a rather depressing regional season up until now!

Bravo Ospreys!

Rodders - I think it was given a yellow for their persistant infringement before hand. Not saying that's the right thing for Poite to have done, but I could understand why he did give a yellow just because for the majority of the time Leinster kept doing it (or that's how it seemed to me anyways. The scrum is often a complete mystery to me!)

The Ospreys were poor in Europe because a large chunk of the squad are young and inexperienced in that sort of environment.

Wales winning the grand slam and the Ospreys beating Leinster and Munter 3 times each shows that the future is bright and the talent is definitely there.

I just hope we finally crack europe in the next season or two.

AlynDavies wrote:Ok joking aside, I think this was a magnificent final. I think Leinster have better backs but Ospreys the best front 5.

You dont beat a team 3 times out of 3 in a season by pure luck, so the Ospreys have to be the better side.

Leinster's luck run out in trying to deal with the Ospreys scrum and eventually the ref sussed it out, and clearly have a great team spirit to fight back in this way.

Though we must be honest and say from the 58th minute it was noticeable that Leinster had less energy as a result of their cup final last week. Though they really lost the game because Poite couldn't ref the scrummage, that is no ones fault but Poites.

Fixed that for you