Edinburgh v Munster

First topic message reminder :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/20983681

Right, my two cents!

Firstly - well done Munster on a deserved win. It was a typical Munster display; very strong up front, kick for territory well and grind a team into submission taking points when on offer. They didn't have to do a lot to win that, and indeed didn't do a massive amount, but you've got to wonder why a team really needing a BP win had fairly conservative tactics. I was fairly confident we were not going to lose 4 tries, which says a lot considering the dominance up front that Munster had.

Now I know I'll get shouted down in derision about complaining about the ref in a losing team but I'm really not bothered about that - I thought he was a poor ref in general and at times looked like he was only reffing one team. I'm sure a lot of Edinburgh's penalties were warranted, which wasn't my issue, it was the number of things he missed from Munster. As I said earlier in the thread I was standing pitch side and the number of rucks that Munster flopped over the top sealing off the ball, and not releasing the tackler. There were also a few other dodgy calls that got me riled. Anyway not sour grapes - a better ref wouldn't have changed the result but it would have made the game a bit less frustrating!

As for Edinburgh, well I think this was one our better performances but still very frustrating. Visser's knock on right at the start, Fife running it back from the KO and giving away a penalty straight after we'd just got 3 points, Tonks fumbling it in our 22, and of course Denton's pass...

I thought Scott had a fantastic game and formed a very promising partnership with Cairns, who also had a very strong game. It is crazy that Cairnsy has been injured for so long that that was his first game with Matt Scott!! He looks fit and strong and made a superb break - something we've not see for a while.

We were fairly battered up front and none of the forwards really stood out, but thought Denton put in a massive shift again and I'll forgive him for that forward pass - at least he was back there in the first place when the rest of the team weren't!

So all in all well done Munster, much better Edinburgh and it was good to see the boys put in a big shift and look like they care.

Final note on the travelling support - was the biggest and best I've ever seen for an Edinburgh game! Must have been a couple of thousand without any exaggeration - incredible

I agree with most of what you say there RDW.

I'd also say that Embra have been struggling to identify good halfback partnership well today I think you found it. They should be retained. They may have a bad game but stick with them and let them develop further and try and build some momentum and combination security.

Also that Atiga lad and Talei<?> need to be on sooner, they made huge impacts

Atiga had been truly awful all season - this was his first decent game! Talei was a star of the hk last year but has struggled this year for some reason

Some guys are better at creating front foot and some are better at capitalizing on front foot.

Maybe the pair can be included in the latter list. When you guys got motoring you looked pretty good I felt.

I still think Talei is a top player, he's just had a few injuries this year and hasn't been able to string a run of games together. His contract is up this year and can see him moving on at the end of the season, which would be a shame. I suspect his value will have dropped a lot from the high's of last season's HK (he got 3 MOTM in the group stages) to barely featuring in a losing team this year.

As I said though Atiga has been awful. It was promising to see him play better yesterday but he's got a long way to go before he is offered an extension to his 1 year contract!

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2013/0114/1224328804278.html

possibility that Ronan O’Gara might be cited for appearing to kick Edinburgh lock Sean Cox at the start of the final quarter, after which he was soon replaced. The citing commissioner, Alberto Recaldini of Italy, has 50 hours from kick-off to decide.


I suppose Muster fans may be happy if keatley has to start next week, but i'm sure they would rather have the option to choose.

Agree with RDW on the travelling Munster support - it was awesome. A wall of noise, particularly when Munster were defending in their own 22.

Edinburgh are still very much a bits and pieces side. Right from the start we kicked long into the Munster 22 and had the ball returned with interest. We were on the back foot right from the start. As soon as Laidlaw kicked short to enable us to compete, we were challenging. Contrast that with ROGs lazy long kick-off in the second half. Rather than returning the ball with interest, Rees passed it to Fife who ran upright straight into Ryan and DOC, slowing down nicely before contact. He was held up, scrum Munster in the Edinburgh 22. Sums it up really.

I think we're now getting close to figuring out our best XV (it's taken more than half a season to do so), hopefully now some continuity can help the team to gel, and iron out the silly misunderstandings that are costing us so much each and every game.