Blues v Munster

First topic message reminder :

Munster: F Jones; D Howlett (capt), K Earls, J Downey, DHurley; R O'Gara, C Murray; D Kilcoyne, M Sherry, S Archer; D Foley, D Ryan; T O'Donnell, S Dougall, J Coughlan.

Replacements: S Henry, W du Preez, BJ Botha, B Holland, CJ Stander, D Williams, I Keatley, C Laulala.

Blues: Jason Tovey; Owen Williams, Richard Smith, Jamie Roberts, Harry Robinson; Rhys Patchell, Lewis Jones; Sam Hobbs, Rhys Williams, Benoit Bourrust, Bradley Davies, Lou Reed, Josh Navidi (capt), Sam Warburton, Robin Copeland.

Replacements: Kritian Dacey, Paetru Tamba, Scott Andrews, James Down, Luke Hamilton, Alex Walker, Ceri Sweeney, Leigh Halfpenny.

Live on S4C and RTE.

Roberts back for the Blues, be nice to see him play well for the us as he is normally lacklustre. Would be interesting to see the Romanian prop Tamba off the bench, a lot of Blues fans have been asking for a gnarly Eastern European Tighthead (I think hes a Tighthead).

Wales - I've no idea either...I've given up trying to figure out such decisions these days.

Apart from his try, Owen Williams is having a bit of a shocker.

Lou Rees is off, he had a good game - which is good news for Wales

Hahaha, good shout but I'm rather enjoying this. The best thing you can say is its getting beyond parody.

Seriously- every ball he doesn't kick he shovels on. It's quite sad to see he's basically become a sort of Dan Parks figure who offers nothing else.

Not available for selection:

Gavin Evans - Back problem
Alex Cuthbert - Facial injury (stitches in mouth)
Fau Filise - Hamstring injury return late January
Andi Kyriacou - Neck operation return in April
Andries Pretorius - Shoulder
Michael Paterson - Fractured little finger against Ospreys. Return late January.
Chris Czeckaj - Foot ligament injury. Return late Januar
Dan Fish - Suffered shoulder nerve palsy in match against Zebre. Return late January
Tom James - Fractured sesamoid (big toe). Surgery to remove pin on Wednesday 5th December, return late January

LONG TERM
Jake Cooper–Woolley - right knee ACL injury 4 months
Tom Davies - ACL knee reconstruction this week 4 months

wales606 wrote:Apart from his try, Owen Williams is having a bit of a shocker.

Lou Rees is off, he had a good game - which is good news for Wales

I am hoping he doesn't make the Wales squad ever again...!

maestegmafia wrote:

wales606 wrote:I don't know why they took Tovey off, Halfpenny may be Wales first choice FB, but I think he would be more use on the wing for the Blues with James, czekaj and cuthbert injured.

Fish is out as well right?

Yep, but he would be behind Tovey at the moment, tovey's left boot has been very good in recent weeks

Cari wrote:LeeHPee on. Stretch his legs before the Six Nations I suppose...

Better goal kicker if it gets tight...!

Sit down Patchell! Dumped on his arse there.

maestegmafia wrote:

wales606 wrote:Apart from his try, Owen Williams is having a bit of a shocker.

Lou Rees is off, he had a good game - which is good news for Wales

I am hoping he doesn't make the Wales squad ever again...!

What reed? he is pretty good considering we have 3 locks out injured at the moment.

wales606 wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:

wales606 wrote:I don't know why they took Tovey off, Halfpenny may be Wales first choice FB, but I think he would be more use on the wing for the Blues with James, czekaj and cuthbert injured.

Fish is out as well right?

Yep, but he would be behind Tovey at the moment, tovey's left boot has been very good in recent weeks

Yes I agree.

Fish was playing very well before though.

Notch wrote:Hahaha, good shout but I'm rather enjoying this. The best thing you can say is its getting beyond parody.

Seriously- every ball he doesn't kick he shovels on. It's quite sad to see he's basically become a sort of Dan Parks figure who offers nothing else.

Ah FFS take that back, Parks has been a positive influence on Connacht this season, hes not a poisionous pri*k like that Cork w**ker. How are RTE not seeing that Rog is the problem? They are blaming everyone but the f**king culprit.


Keatley for Hurley, seriously WTF.

maestegmafia wrote:

Cari wrote:LeeHPee on. Stretch his legs before the Six Nations I suppose...

Better goal kicker if it gets tight...!

Coming back from injury, I think he will only take the long ones that Patchell can't. We shall see.

Alex walker on for his first blues game

wales606 wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:

wales606 wrote:Apart from his try, Owen Williams is having a bit of a shocker.

Lou Rees is off, he had a good game - which is good news for Wales

I am hoping he doesn't make the Wales squad ever again...!

What reed? he is pretty good considering we have 3 locks out injured at the moment.

For Wales I would rather see either of the two young Ospreys or Kelly take a stab at it. Lou Reed is at the pinnacle of his career and still doesn't excel.

Good player, but not good enough to step up.

Be pretty keen to get this Romanian lad on now. Hobbs will not enjoy 20 mins against a Fresh Botha!

Roberts gets ran over in defence, that's rare

I am reassured when I see halfpenny with the ball, he just doesn't make mistakes compared to out other backs who are almost as likely to gift the opposition a try than score one (Patchell and Tovey the exceptions)

Cardiff have had 25 lineouts, RTE thing Rog should kick the corners more. I would be seriously pi**ed off if I still lived at home and had to pay money to those wa**ers.

JAMIE NO!

Munster are awful, Cardiff were so close to scoring there

Copinland in at the side right in front of Owens and he does nothing.

fksake

Roberts! Idiot.

In training Munster should play a game using only the space between the 2 15 metre lines!

How many times have they run the ball, run themselves or passed the balls in to touch!!?!?!?!?!?!?
Do they not learn?! Do they not know the phrase 'earn the right to go wide'

This is a team who are being killed by their game plan. I am not saying revert to "old Munster" but have some sense!

Jeez, how not to execute a two on one...

Roberts could have won it for the blues with an easy pass to Owen Williams. But throws it forward! That should have been a try ( although Williams should have been a bit further back)

Yeah shame about the forward pass. Roberts should've passed sooner.

It's still 6-10 at 68 minutes.

Owen Williams was a bit close there, could have eased off a bit to make the pass easier. I've been knocking Jamie for a while, but thats the best thing hes done in a Blues shirt since the Sale game.

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:In training Munster should play a game using only the space between the 2 15 metre lines!

How many times have they run the ball, run themselves or passed the balls in to touch!!?!?!?!?!?!?
Do they not learn?! Do they not know the phrase 'earn the right to go wide'

This is a team who are being killed by their game plan. I am not saying revert to "old Munster" but have some sense!

In fairness it is in Musgrave and both teams have struggled with the touchline.

Notch wrote:Jeez, how not to execute a two on one...

He only an international centre, give him a break.

wow

YES! COPELAND! WOOOOOOOOOOO!

Copeland is an excellent player. Munster were unlucky there though. Duncan Williams hasn't played well every time I've seen him this season.

Munster need a scrum half. They should try get Cooney.

Well done! Copeland shows Roberts how you score...locals booing like mad. They'll be blaming Nigel probably.

Well done Copeland looks a decent player.

Even the boos going around the stadium sound disinterested

Williams is so so bad, how he has a pro contract as a scrum half is ridiculous.

Roberts probably would have scored if he had just flattened the fullback.

Cope land finally gets to shows his famed pace!

Navidi with an excellent turnover

Excellent try.

Patchell to convert

6 - 17

valjester wrote:Cardiff have had 25 lineouts, RTE thing Rog should kick the corners more. I would be seriously pi**ed off if I still lived at home and had to pay money to those wa**ers.

It's great having a guy like ROG who can kick the corners. Sure it doesn't result in points, possession, opportunities or momentum... but... yes. ROG is a ligind.

This is actually getting quite funny.

valjester wrote:

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:In training Munster should play a game using only the space between the 2 15 metre lines!

How many times have they run the ball, run themselves or passed the balls in to touch!!?!?!?!?!?!?
Do they not learn?! Do they not know the phrase 'earn the right to go wide'

This is a team who are being killed by their game plan. I am not saying revert to "old Munster" but have some sense!

In fairness it is in Musgrave and both teams have struggled with the touchline.

What does Musgrave Park have to do with it?
How many times have the Blues run it into touch?

6-17 at 70 minutes. Blues need to hang in there now though because Munster could still easily overtake...

LeinsterFan4life wrote:Munster need a scrum half. They should try get Cooney.

Sorry fella, but we've had Lewis Jones all game. We'll trade you 1:1 for your scrum half.

LeinsterFan4life wrote:Munster need a scrum half. They should try get Cooney.

Why? He is beyond average, they have scrumhalves coming through in Sheridan, and Haugh is supposed to be excellent.

Worst performance and result for Munster in a long long time.

Really nice from Lualala and Downey running hard and offloading

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:

valjester wrote:

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:In training Munster should play a game using only the space between the 2 15 metre lines!

How many times have they run the ball, run themselves or passed the balls in to touch!!?!?!?!?!?!?
Do they not learn?! Do they not know the phrase 'earn the right to go wide'

This is a team who are being killed by their game plan. I am not saying revert to "old Munster" but have some sense!

In fairness it is in Musgrave and both teams have struggled with the touchline.

What does Musgrave Park have to do with it?
How many times have the Blues run it into touch?

They're not as familiar with the pitch and its a real sh*thole, but it all honestly I think you just have to put this down to a bad day at the office and hope they are over it by next week.

valjester wrote:

LeinsterFan4life wrote:Munster need a scrum half. They should try get Cooney.

Why? He is beyond average, they have scrumhalves coming through in Sheridan, and Haugh is supposed to be excellent.

I thought that too before this season but he looked very good at the start of the season when he got games. Huge improvement from him

Artful_Dodger wrote:Worst performance and result for Munster in a long long time.

It sounds like the Blues are playing good rugby, some credit must go their way too...?

If they blues can hold on, this would be a huge, much needed confidence booster. The performance has been pretty good in certain areas and there are a lot of positives.