Review of your club's season

In the spirit of maes' excellent thread last year (https://www.606v2.com/t28791-review-of-the-season-for-your-team):

maestegmafia wrote:I was wondering if any of you would be kind enough to write a few words on how you feel the season went for your club/province/region this year, as for all but a few of us our season is now over...!

In the endeavour to create an interesting thread minus pointless trolling mocking and jeering. It would be the gentlemanly thing to do to encourage a review of your own club before you start to pass opinion on what other board members have contributed as opinions of their own clubs.

can I ask that you take a moment to contemplate how your club has gone over the course of the whole season? A couple of clubs still have something to play for, and all participants in the semifinals that I watched this weekend are to be heartily congratulated for some truly excellent rugby If you have the energy, finish off with a thought about what you'd like to see for next season too

Scarlets

Expectations (of mine)
HEC - 3rd in pool
RABO - 4th/5th
LV= - 1st/2nd in pool

Actual Placings
HEC - 4th in pool (winless)
RABO - 4th, losing semi-finalists
LV= - 3rd in pool

Overall

The season started off well giving, a weakened, Leinster a thumping at home, and we had a team that was full of backs wanting to run the ball left right and centre. We were sitting in the top few places of the league for a long time (till around december?), but then Rhys Priestland picked up his injury, and we started to play like a team that had no pack and no direction. Because of this we seemed to nail down our first choice pack, and stopped rotating our locks/props. When we managed to pull ourselves out of this slump (Being destroyed by the Ospreys and Ulster away over the festive season), we had slipped down the table to 6th (our lowest placing all season). With the pack being settled in, we started to play more of a ten man game, and struggled to really set the backs free. Using that style, and young Owen Williams at fly half, we managed to kick our way up the table and into the play off spots.

The main improvement this season upon last season was definately our pack. I was seriously concerned that we would struggle this season in the pack, as we had lost Iestyn Thomas, and Rhys Thomas who were our first choice loose and tight head, and we had also lost Lou Reed, Dominic Day and Damien Welch in the second row. Also the fact that a number of our new recrutes were not available for the start of the season (Jacobie Adriaanse, Johan Snyman, Tomas Valejos-Cinali) I thought we would not be able to get any forward platform. However now I think we have a decent pack, probably our best since Wyatt and Big John Davies, and we have a few options in the front and second row too.

Average for the Ospreys to be honest. We hit the heights we aspire to in a few games but not in others.

Our squad is looking good, despite losing top players though multiple injuries to players in specific positions has really hurt us.

Three tightheads out during the HEC, plus two locks, then losing two wingers.

When injury isn't in one position we, like all clubs have the ability to cover and carry on.

That said we still performed well. No surprises not make play offs or knockout rounds this year due to the above.

Encouraging that the players who covered did so well.

Best news is the amount of top welsh players we have retained. That will make a massive difference to the Ospreys future.

Pretty happy with progress this season at Carnegie. We've suffered from starting each season with sufficient changes in the squad to make it difficult to get the team functioning as a unit. The season has come good later on, getting ourselves into play offs, beating all the highest placed teams on the way.

We have some real talent in the young squad, Rowan, Barrow, McColl, etc and if we can hang on to them we'll be in good shape for next season.

I'm going to do mine through the medium of emoticons:

Edinburgh:

Reckon that covers it pretty well, fES, in your first season home!

Exeter:

~ First Heino experience in a group with the reigning Champions of Europe and the likely Champions of Europe this season: two wins and pushing Leinster so close at the RDS a decent return
~ 6th in the AP => Heineken Cup rugby next year.
~ Rob Baxter joins the coaching panel for England's summer tour of Argentina
~ 2 players in the AP team of the season: Richie Baxter and Luke Arscott
~ Undefeated in the league vs reigning prem Champions Harlequins (no other team has achieved that this season)
~ Likely to be one of only 3 or 4 profitable AP clubs again
~ Stadium development plans to push ahead
~ Sandy Park selected to be one of the venues for RWC 2015
~ 6 players appear for England U20s, 5 in the JWC squad (Luke Cowan-Dickie, Henry Slade, Sam Hill, Jack Nowell, Joel Conlon & Jack Arnott)
~ 3 players in England U18 squad
~ 3 of the v promising youngsters blooded in the AP: Dave Ewers, Jack Nowell and Henry Slade

Overall a good follow up to last season, and showed that we could cope with two serious competitions (Heino and AP) when many thought that would be our undoing

Glaws:

What a difference 12 months make! After the shambles of the Redpath departure and plummeting through the league to 9th we finished a very respectable 5th with points from all bar one game in the Jeff. Unbeaten in the Amlin group stage and semi-finalists in the A league. The selection for the 2015 world cup is another great achievement.

We are still too inconsistent, but we appear to be going in the right direction. We need to focus more on our set piece and work on carrying round the edges and rucks to draw in defenders to release the likes of May (who ended the season with the best strike rate of any player in the Jeff).

The core of the team is young and so whilst we have made few signings for next season you would imagine that next season the likes of Savage, Robson, Burns, 36, Trinder, May and Sharples will only improve. The signing of Kvesic is a real coup, but in my opinion Glaws definitely have the honour of the signing of the season - can anyone claim to have made more impact than Sione Kalamafoni? He is a human wrecking ball that also does alot of the graft and he, along with Morgan and Qera, have galvanised our back row.

The future looks very promising for Glaws with a core group of some very talented youngsters, I'm predicting a top 4 finish next season

Mixed for Quins Around early March time it looked like it could be the club's best ever season. On course for a home semi-final, top seeds in the HC, Robshaw favourite to be Lions captain. Then we hit some bad form - stupidly lost to Wasps at home and got smashed by Exeter- though winning the LV= was a nice break from our league form. Robshaw came back from England exhausted and downhearted and got run over by Saracens on his first game back, before Munster outmuscled us in the HC quarter. Our form slowly improved again in the last few league games, and as the clock hit 40 minutes we looked in a good position to overthrow Leicester away in the semi final, but a couple of key mistakes cost us and we got outclassed in the second half.

All in all then, with a HC home quarter, 3rd place league finish and LV= Cup and A League trophies you can't say it was an unsuccesful season, but I think there's a slight worry that, with Evans and Easter in their last few years, this was our big chance to make an impact at the business end of the European season.

Sale

Expectations (of mine)
HEC - Couple of wins
Aviva Prem - Top Middle Table
LV= - 2nd in Pool

Actual Placings
HEC - 4th in pool
Aviva Prem - 10th
LV= - Runners Up

Overall

The start to the season was awful, 7 losses in 7 games in the Premiership with a playing style that lacked attack and defence seemed none existent. We had massive problems behind the scenes, 2 head coaches were fired or left and a rather sparsely filled new stadium which was great but difficult for fans to get to (and lacking a community atmosphere being in the middle of no-where).
The run in the LV Cup and Steve Diamond taking the helm hand giving some stability allowed us to start giving good performances and wins at home from November. Demotion and injuries to our "star signings" allowed more consistent players to make their mark and very slowly dragged us out of the relegation zone. We had a strong end to the season in the end with overtaking Welsh (thanks to points deduction, but might have done that anyway) and Worcester eventually drawing level with Irish on points at 10th. A final of the LV Cup was a highlight in a poor season showing we did have the basics of a good squad that performed badly.

I can only hope we start next season with a squad built more on work ethic than "star quality" which fails to show up.

Bath

My expectations/hopes:

League: Top 6
Europe: Amlin Semi
LV: Aim to win

Reality:

League: 7th
Europe: Amlin quarters
LV: Semi


All in all another average season for Bath. New coaches seemed to have had us playing anti rugby for much of the season, with only glimpses of actually using the likes of Biggs and Eastmond.

However with the signing of some good young players for next season, I hope that some silverware and HC qualification as a minimum can be achieved. The focus seems to be on a stronger squad for next year rather than single players (with the average wage coming down), which bodes well for me.
There are still concerns over the complete lack of an attack coach though.

All in all, this season is only likely to be remembered for the retirement of the clubman that is Lee Mears, good luck to him.

Tigers. Slow start and some pretty uninspired stuff early doors. Picked up as the season went on and HEC knock outs plus AP top 2 is a fair return. Less said about our LV campaign the better.

We seem to be turning it on nicely at the end of the season but need some silverware or Cockers will be under considerable pressure from the fans.

Have been screwed over by the RFU (no surprise there) who are paying to use a Poopie football stadium instead of WR.

Bathman_in_London wrote:Bath

All in all another average season for Bath.

Come on Bathman, you actually managed to beat Glaws this season... twice!!! It's the best season you've had in years!!

thomh wrote:Mixed for Quins Around early March time it looked like it could be the club's best ever season. On course for a home semi-final, top seeds in the HC, Robshaw favourite to be Lions captain. Then we hit some bad form - stupidly lost to Wasps at home and got smashed by Exeter- though winning the LV= was a nice break from our league form. Robshaw came back from England exhausted and downhearted and got run over by Saracens on his first game back, before Munster outmuscled us in the HC quarter. Our form slowly improved again in the last few league games, and as the clock hit 40 minutes we looked in a good position to overthrow Leicester away in the semi final, but a couple of key mistakes cost us and we got outclassed in the second half.

All in all then, with a HC home quarter, 3rd place league finish and LV= Cup and A League trophies you can't say it was an unsuccesful season, but I think there's a slight worry that, with Evans and Easter in their last few years, this was our big chance to make an impact at the business end of the European season.

If you'd told me how Quins season would end this time last year (AP Semis, HEC QFs, LV= and A League winners) I'd have been pretty happy with that. I did not think at the end of last season that the squad had enough experience to retain the title or go further in the HEC. Our early season form made that assessment look pessimistic, especially when our usual January slump didn't happen - but the cracks started to appear in the extended cold snap.

In some ways, we were unlucky with injuries this season in a very strange way. Our first XV players were generally fit throughout the season whereas last season pretty much all the key players had an enforced break at some point. I think the team looked pretty jaded by the end of the season and just didn't have enough left in the tank to cope with Leicester in the second half of Saturday's game.

Looking forward to next season, though. The squad is stable, the more junior players have gained some excellent experience, the team as a whole will have a better idea of what it takes, several senior players are likely to have a decent rest over the summer and I think the new scrum laws will probably work well for our pack. The main concerns are finding the right balance at fly half (Evans can't play every game; Botica needs to find a little more consistency), integrating PDJ into the front row (hopefully England will do some of that for us over the summer) and developing a bit more depth at lock (Matthews is starting to live up to his potential, but Kohn isn't getting any younger and it does feel like we need a recruit in the engine room).

Biggest disappointment: The lack of intensity against Munster.
Job for the summer holidays: Work on being ready for tactical changes at half time, and have some responses.

Great season.....so far

Pack has become a potent weapon, we have certainly improved under Deano, but have just began to faulter in the last few games...losing to Bristol on the final day of the season and to Leeds in the Semi Final 1st leg.

Hopefully we should have enough to make it back to the prem.

Also in the final of the B&I Cup v Leinster A...

Good potential, some old grizzled vets with some great young potential...need to improve our back play..but our pack looks the real deal now...
Golding retiring is a blow...but i think we have a ready made replacement in Shiels...who looks class.
Should we make it up however i think we would need a few signings...

Ulster targets
H-cup, win it
Pro 12, win it
Target was to win silverware this season, either H-cup or Pro 12 or both.

Started season the best possible way, winning 10 (was it?) or more games in a row.

Loss at home to Saints cost us a home Q-final, team just wasn't at the races that day.

Had a dip in form after chrismas as an injury crissis of epic porportions hit the team, worse list of injuries I've ever seen, (number of which were in same position meant we were using 3rd/4th choice in some positions)

The top Players started coming back just in time for the Scarcens game, but I feel it was a about two weeks to soon for them, they weren't at their best and were beat by the better team on the day, (if game was two weeks later it would have been different, eiter Ulster win or Close loss),

In league beat Leinster (a team we normally struggle against) home and away, topped the table, and have a (sort of) home final.

Need to beat Leinster and pick up pro 12 trophy, to match the teams goals this season.

Negatives
losing to Saints, and Saracens in H-cup (Saracens can be excused, due to the injuries)

Postives
monkeys off our back
First competative win in France
Beating Leinster away, (and home to boot)
Topped Pro 12 table

Overall I'm happy enough with this season so far, its a tough call who is the top Province at present ( and that isn't due to a Leinster decline), Saracens game was disappointing but given the injuries in the months leading up to it, it wasn't unexpected.
The team will want to win the final to match thier goals for the season, of course I want them to win it, but to be honest win or lose, Ulster have show this season that they are back among the top teams in Europe, and last seasons h-cup final wasn't a one off. We are back at the top table, and this time we're for staying.

HongKongCherry wrote:

Bathman_in_London wrote:Bath

All in all another average season for Bath.

Come on Bathman, you actually managed to beat Glaws this season... twice!!! It's the best season you've had in years!!

Haha you are right! With 4+ tries in both victories too! I wasn't going to mention Glaws due to the league table positions this year...!

Meh, it was OK, still won silverware and made our minimum targets. Wished we'd been able to play better rugby doing so

I don't want to talk about the Dragons' season. All I'll say is thank chuff for Zebre.

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:I don't want to talk about the Dragons' season. All I'll say is thank chuff for Zebre.

Top of the league at one point mind, something that only two regions managed to do.

We've underperformed this season, missing out on a HEC spot and wimping out of the Anglo and LV cup knock out games.

Positives have been the contributions of all the new signings - Gilbert, James, Webber, Agulla and Day have been brilliant, plus the emergence of Eastmond and Devoto into the first team squad.

Bathman_in_London wrote:

HongKongCherry wrote:

Bathman_in_London wrote:Bath

All in all another average season for Bath.

Come on Bathman, you actually managed to beat Glaws this season... twice!!! It's the best season you've had in years!!

Haha you are right! With 4+ tries in both victories too! I wasn't going to mention Glaws due to the league table positions this year...!

Let's not get carried away, it was only one bonus point victory. We somehow managed to stop you getting that at the Rec, despite the ref trying to make it alevel playing field for you!

Last year our victories were the only glimmer of light in an otherwise dreadful season and i completely ignored the table when conversing with HERSH, so you're most welcome to do the same

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:I don't want to talk about the Dragons' season. All I'll say is thank chuff for Zebre.

Top of the league at one point mind, something that only two regions managed to do.

They should have based qualification for the playoffs on the league table after the first round of fixtures, not the last. They base World Cup seedings on the IRB rankings months ahead of the tournament, so why not in the Rabo too?

Ospreys....shocking start to the season with 3 loses on the bounce. Recovered well in the middle of the season to stake a play off spot but fell away at the finale. HC was always a tough ask with Toulouse and tigers so no complaints from me.
Injuries to Dirksen, Walker, bishop really hurt the team. The players who came did a decent job but our back line wasn't the same. A mixed bag overall. Achieved the double over the other regions ( finally winning at Newport!) but lost to Connacht, Treviso for the first time. Roll on sept.....

Wasps.

Great first 45 minutes v Quins. Then the wheels fell off (credit to Quins for the comeback).

The rest of the league season mirrored that game. A 9 & 6 winning record went to 9 & 13. We led in a number of games but couldn't shut the oppo out.

Good Amlin campaign until we met a team with more nous (Leinster).

Peed off with us to be unable to compete for 80 mins.

Some of the tries we got were superb though.

Tough 'em up next season Dai!!

Munster

To be honest our season seemed to be summed up as the following: a series of mediocre performances and then one big adrenaline fuelled result to paper things over and reassure us all is ok.

I had expected to make the quarter finals of Europe and finish around 2nd or 3rd in the league. We finished 6th and made the Semi Finals so its a strange middle ground. Im happy to have been within a score of the HEC Final but I am worried about not having a consistent set of performances. Edinburgh made a Heineken Cup Semi Finals last year. Look at them now. Next year I want to see us delivering consistently.

All that being said I'm happy where we are going into next season with minimal personnell changes. Last season we had a new coaching team and several new players (Downey, Laulala, Dougall, Stander etc). Apart from the loss of O'Gara we do not have big changes.

I'd give us a C+ if asked to grade our season.

If we beat Leinster in the Final our season will have been a success. If we do not it will have been a failure.

" I'd give us a C+ if asked to grade our season."

Ditto Wasps.

We had our golden period in the mid 'noughties' but there's lot of work to do to get us approaching that. We have some good players for sure, but the toughness that Dallaglio, Waters, Worsley, Dowd, and many others provided, is missing.

Next season, 6th in the AP is the best we can hope for.

A new ground in our West London heartland will be good. The fans out in Bucks turned up in droves when we were winning. They have not been so keen in recent years; but I still see the same faces making the trip from London for most matches.

Notch wrote:If we beat Leinster in the Final our season will have been a success. If we do not it will have been a failure.

That works both ways,winning the Amlin but losing the Rabo won't be a good season for Leinster.Winning the Rabo and losing the Amlin would be more acceptable while winning both would be a pretty good season.

London Irish

A season to forget in most cases, inconsistency and too many lacklustre displays in the Jeff and the Amlin against the teams around us. Wins against Saints and the Saffers were offset by defeats to LWelsh, Sale and the higher mid table teams.

The change of coaching staff will maybe have an impact in the new season, and there will be some new faces in - another season of "consolidation" beckons but there are some bright spots in particular Guy Armitage and Marlon Yarde if we can hold on to them and the new training ground has finally been approved.

Main job is to stay in the Jeff - main aspiration has to be a new ground but that's a long way off.

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Exeter:

~ First Heino experience in a group with the reigning Champions of Europe and the likely Champions of Europe this season: two wins and pushing Leinster so close at the RDS a decent return
~ 6th in the AP => Heineken Cup rugby next year.
~ Rob Baxter joins the coaching panel for England's summer tour of Argentina
~ 2 players in the AP team of the season: Richie Baxter and Luke Arscott
~ Undefeated in the league vs reigning prem Champions Harlequins (no other team has achieved that this season)
~ Likely to be one of only 3 or 4 profitable AP clubs again
~ Stadium development plans to push ahead
~ Sandy Park selected to be one of the venues for RWC 2015
~ 6 players appear for England U20s, 5 in the JWC squad (Luke Cowan-Dickie, Henry Slade, Sam Hill, Jack Nowell, Joel Conlon & Jack Arnott)
~ 3 players in England U18 squad
~ 3 of the v promising youngsters blooded in the AP: Dave Ewers, Jack Nowell and Henry Slade

Expectations (mine):
HEC - Anything really, just a massive positive being there
Aviva Prem - Middle Table
LV= - 2nd in Pool

Actual placings:
HEC - 3rd in pool containing arguably two best teams in Europe, two wins
Aviva Prem - 6th
LV= - 2nd in pool

Overall a good follow up to last season, and showed that we could cope with two serious competitions (Heino and AP) when many thought that would be our undoing

Updating for expecttions and placings

red_stag wrote:...... Edinburgh made a Heineken Cup Semi Finals last year. Look at them now. Next year I want to see us delivering consistently.

Embra were delivering consistently this season, just not the right way

Expectations (minimum):

Heino: SF (Top group)
Rabo: SF (Home SF)

Improve interpro record
Build squad depth
Devise more effective game plan less reliant on Pienaar

Actual:

Heino: QF (Pool winners)
Rabo: Finalist - Winners?

Very disappointing to lose to Saracens and Saints in Europe with two pretty weak performances. However we topped the group, winning on French soil and put in some excellent performances along the way particularly at Franklins gardens and reached the knockout stages for the 3rd successive season improving our European seeding.

In the RABO we've topped the league and reached the final playing some scintillating rugby at times and showed real character to come back from a mid season dip.

Rugby wise the players have really adapted to Anscombes NZ attacking philosophy and Pienaar has become less of a lynchpin. Young players like Jackson, Gilroy, Marshall, Henderson, Nelson, Allen and Olding have all broken through and Paul Marshall, Stevenson, Lutton, Diack, Black and various others have thrived under Anscombes rotation policy. Williams has been a revelation and along with Payne has brought a new dimension to the side.

We've dominated the interpros beating Leinster not once but twice.

All this despite injuries to Bowe, Ferris, Muller, Best, Payne, Wallace amongst others at key times and carrying the burden of the Spence tragedy.

Ticket sales are well up with sell outs most of the season and the new stands are well under way.

This has been an exceptional season, a massive step forward for Ulster rugby and a Rabo title whilst not being the be all and end all would be a great way to finish.

Glasgow

Expectations:
Heineken Cup - Knockout stages
League - Playoffs

Results:
Heineken Cup - bottom of Pool 4, 1 win, 5 losses
League - Third place, eliminated in semis

A season of two halves for us, really. We would do well to remember the lessons learned in the early part of the season, which was horrendously patchy and disappointing.

The Heineken campaign was just strange. The first game away at Saints set the tone as we led 0-15 playing some great stuff to ship 24 unanswered points in the second half and sail to defeat. We just could not put complete performances together against Ulster (oh, the irony of going down to Paddy Jackson's goalkicking) and lost successive matches against Castres by 3 points or less when we should have tied the games up within the hour mark. We only played to potential in the final victory over Saints, when Peter Horne's hero try from 50m out made for 10 different highlight reels.

Close, but an absolute fail in terms of the campaign as a whole and highlighted that the team wasn't confident in itself yet. The second half of the season was to turn this around.

The league started off very badly as the team was decimated by injury. Losing to Ulster away and Scarlets at home in the first two weeks typified this but by mid-September the arrival of Strauss, Matawalu and Maitland saw great away victories (not something often achieved last year) at the Liberty and Stadio di Monigo and by the time we had treated our tweed wearing friends in Murrayfield to their traditional annual double wedgie we were in great shape for the final run in.

Hoodoos were smashed in the new year. Putting 40 points on Treviso, 60 on the Dragons, 50 on Munster and another 35 on the Ospreys meant that the only teams we now really feared were Ulster and Leinster. Setting a new league record for consecutive bonus point victories which had previously stood for 9 years was a watershed and really marked a new era in play for us.

Having more people in the Dream Team than any other team is a testament to the quality throughout and the only thing that stopped the team progressing to the league finals was inexperience and lack of street smarts. The future is bright for next year.

What would be your verdict on Toonie, GC, in his first year in charge?

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:What would be your verdict on Toonie, GC, in his first year in charge?

To be honest Asbo, I can't work out whether Glasgow did well despite him or because of him.

A lot of the blue chip signings that we had were actually decided before he arrived, although the one that I know he was directly responsible for was Niko Matawalu. And we know how that turned out. So to what extent can we give credit for the make-up of the team? In terms of tactical nous, what is clear is that Toonie is a much better selector for Glasgow than Robinson was for Scotland and it is also true that he is not afraid to try players out. Giving Alex Dunbar time to develop in the centres was critical and he was smart enough to tempt Mark Bennett back during an injury window.

Where I have to give Toonie credit is creating an atmosphere that the players want to continue to play in - evidenced by the astonishing feat of re-signing almost the entire team for next season. This is tempered by the fact the move to Scotstoun had already been booked before Toonie arrived. Always easier to create a collegiate environment in a smaller, purpose built, brand new and excellent facility.

So he's done fine. How Glasgow gets on next season will determine how much of this season's success is down to him as manager and how much was actually attributable to the legacy of Sean Lineen.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

red_stag wrote:...... Edinburgh made a Heineken Cup Semi Finals last year. Look at them now. Next year I want to see us delivering consistently.

Embra were delivering consistently this season, just not the right way

Indeed . 7 wins was it? A large steaming pile of mince. That squad should be able to do better than that

Next season I want to see Edinburgh achieve mid-table mediocrity in the Rabo, and avoid a pants down Heineken Cup spanking in the group stages.

Shooting for the stars......

TJ wrote:

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

red_stag wrote:...... Edinburgh made a Heineken Cup Semi Finals last year. Look at them now. Next year I want to see us delivering consistently.

Embra were delivering consistently this season, just not the right way

Indeed . 7 wins was it? A large steaming pile of mince. That squad should be able to do better than that

I'm sure that's meant to be an insult, but I'm quite hungry now.

funnyExiledScot wrote:Next season I want to see Edinburgh achieve mid-table mediocrity in the Rabo, and avoid a pants down Heineken Cup spanking in the group stages.

Shooting for the stars......

x 10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyg48Xpp3IU&feature=em-uploademail



Goat

Leinster:

Expectations:

HC - Winners
League - Winners
B&I Cup - Winners

Actual:

HC: out in the pool stages, bitterly disappointing stuff. Essentially knocked out by not scoring more in the first 2 rounds but even at that we could have sneaked a draw away to ASM and we'd have been through. Into the Amlin, where we've done pretty well so far. Final on Friday.

League: Another slow start but we showed very good consistency since Christmas and have only lost one game in the last 10 (i think). Beaten twice by Ulster but done the double over Munster and put 37 points on our bogey team (the Ospreys). Plenty of players used over the course of the season (51/52) with a few gems unearthed, Jordi Murphy, Ben Marshall and Jack McGrath look like they could all have a big future ahead of them. Madigan has shone. Finished in the top 2 again, final in two weeks.

If we win all 3 finals it will be a very good season.

Mickado wrote:Leinster:

Expectations:

HC - Winners
League - Winners
B&I Cup - Winners

Jaysus Mick - and I thought that my wife was demanding...

I'll do Glasgow as well - expectations for next season:

Rabo12 - winners
HC - winners
1872 cup - runner-up

And for Embra, expectations for next season:

Rabo 12 - above Zebre
HC - any sort of win
1872 cup - avoid 3rd place

funnyExiledScot wrote:I'll do Glasgow as well - expectations for next season:


1872 cup - runner-up

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:
1872 cup - avoid 3rd place

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

And for Embra, expectations for next season:

Rabo 12 - above Zebre
HC - any sort of win (even a moral one)
1872 cup - avoid 3rd place

Clarification added.

George Carlin wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

And for Embra, expectations for next season:

Rabo 12 - above Zebre
HC - any sort of win (even a moral one (that includes avoiding a nilling))
1872 cup - avoid 3rd place

Clarification added.

Further clarification added

This is bullying. I demand this thread be locked!

I'll have the last laugh. Just you wait - I have a vision of Piers Francis emulating the Toonie Flip to put Ben Atiga under the sticks for a 1872 Cup clinching try at Scotstoun......that will definitely happen.....definitely....

Anyway - Kiwireddevil, this is all your fault anyway. We buy Kiwis because they are supposed to be good at rugby, and yet you send us Brendan Laney, Piers Francis and Ben Atiga. Was that supposed to be funny!!?