Magners league final

Well - who will win it - will it be Leinster to do the double or will the men in red spoil the party.
For Leinster - They are playing well, they have stated they are up for the two wins and they are going to be on a high confidence wise after their fight back last week
For Munster they beat the blues last time out, they haven't any other silver and they are have the dog spirit
Well what does the panel think

It's a tough call isn't it? I'm umming and aaahing about who'll win. Both teams will want to win this badly as they have a point to prove....hmmmm....oooh dunno....eeeehhhh....Leinster. But not by a big margin.

Our Nigel is the ref. In Thomond. Munster to edge it.

Yea glas - I reckon Munster want it more, and I suspect that will count a lot

I'm gonna back my Munster men.

1 - Munster are fresh. Leinster played a very tough HEC Final with only 6 days to celebrate and recover

2 - Home advantage. Leinster Rugby Website cites 6,500 Leinster fans travelling. The game is sold out and the stadium holds 26,000. For every Leinster fan in the stadium there will be 3-4 Munster men

3 - After defeat after defeat after defeat Munster will have finally gotten over their psychological barrier by beating Leinster last month.

Staggy - is Wally there to increase the totty count?

Cari - he is. Only Tony Buckley is injured for us.

I think Munster will win, but it will be close. It's hard to see how Leinster can bring the same intensity, especially after a roller-coaster of a final last weekend.

ooh full house eh? Should be a superb match.

A lot will depend on Nigel. He has given up reffing the breakdown recently. Whether he didn't want to rock boats or not I don't know. But, if the old Nigel turns up it could be a cracker.

Glas I predict trench warfare irrespective of Nigel Owens performance.

It depends on how much last weekend's game took out of Leinster. it was a seriously combative game. Stag what's happened to Munster's three man tackle, you know when one holds the player round the neck, one holds his middle and another rips the ball away - very effective but I haven't seen it in the last couple of games they've played. I think a lot will depend on how sharp eyed Owens is to be honest as Munster have some very cute moves........

red_stag wrote:Glas I predict trench warfare irrespective of Nigel Owens performance.

He will stop it erupting into violence. If Nigel refs where there is any possibility of a claim of bias, he over compensates. There is no risk here and he will want to put it a top performance before the WC. He is the best man to take this one on, bit I agree with you, it will be ball abuse.

We're not the only team who play to the "limits of the law" Leinster seem to think that the offside line doesn't exist at times.......

I can't wait for this. It should be a cracking final, and it's on BBC 2 (not hidden away on S4C)

By the way - I added a poll to the opening post to allow you to predict the result.

I never bother with predictions because I fear retribution if things go pear shaped. But the noises I’m hearing from the Leinster camp is that the conversation about this game started on the coach journey to Cardiff Airport. Looks like Darcy will miss this one with an ankle injury which leaves us with the very exciting prospect of a McFadden / O’Driscoll midfield and O’Driscoll is now back to top fitness. Schmidt has also pretty much admitted that Jennings will start at 7, which is more good news.

For some reason I can’t see us dominating the scrum, given what Ross and Healy have just played against and bettered (in the second half anyway) I suppose this is counter intuitive but we rarely lord it over any team in the scrum when it comes to a league match.

Confident we can win if we can get ourselves UP for the game, confident we can do that.

Munster by 40+

paddy wrote:Stag what's happened to Munster's three man tackle, you know when one holds the player round the neck, one holds his middle and another rips the ball away

I think that that it was never really a Munster move rather one used by Irish national team. Munster seem to focus on bringing the man to ground and keeping the ball in the ruck as long as possible sucking in the opposition to reduce the amount of attacking options. I agree with Thomond that Leinster are forever offside. Its just how they do it where as not rolling away and sealing off are Munster tricks.

In a way I think they cancel each other out and this match is much too close to predict. I would just like to congratulate both teams for getting to the final - may the best team win! Anyone going to watch the Leicester/Sarries match, don't know if this will be on earlier in the day. Hope Sarrie win.

I foretold a Munster win weeks ago, one or two disagreed. But I still stand by my forecast.................Munster will win.................but this will also be the last big silverware for them for a year or two.

i think that we had the beating of munster in thomand last time out and we took the foot of the gas, munster played very well that day to come back, but failed to score a try again.

I think if we don't take the foot off the gas and play for 80mins(easier said then done) we should win, but al gore and john kerry should have been presidents, so nothing is certain

Aye and the big DUBYA should never have won.................
For me it still remains for Munster to lose, but this will be the last big trophy for some time.

Glad to say that I was right that Munster would win. I'm slightly surprised by the score. It is rather ironic that when people were going on about Munster not scoring tries against Leinster all their points came that way.

I was right to cat, is it fair to vote when you know the result ?

Omg what a game to choose from... a sulking BOD or a sulking O'Gara
Dammed if you do, and dammed if you dont...

I got my prediction right, but only after checking on the BBC website for the score

Crikey - you're a bitter bloke Mr Davies

poissonrouge wrote:Crikey - you're a bitter bloke Mr Davies

I'm not bitter I'm an Osprey

Na seriously... it was a tounge in cheek joke.
Leinster and Munster have been magnificent this year. Well done to both of them, though I think Munster deserved the Magners based on how many points they won the actual league by. I'm glad Leinster won Europe too, because it shows the English that our Magners league is the strongest northern hemisphere competition (thanks to the Irish).

MR. scotland27 wrote:I was right to cat, is it fair to vote when you know the result ?

I refer you to my post earlier in the thread, which was before the match started.

Magnificent game by both teams, pity nigel had one of his less memorable ones.

Munster just had to win this, and they did by the best way possible...........try's.

Just because three Irish teams ended in the top four this season doesn't mean that Irish domination is complete or permanent, all it means is that right now the ?irish are a little ahead of the rest of us.
But then they did start a little before the rest.

ospreylian wrote:Magnificent game by both teams, pity nigel had one of his less memorable ones.

Penalty try to Munster scrummage after only two scrums

MR. scotland27 wrote:

ospreylian wrote:Magnificent game by both teams, pity nigel had one of his less memorable ones.

Penalty try to Munster scrummage after only two scrums

You do realise you can give a penalty try after 1 scrum. Or that you can go 10 scrums without a penalty try.

This 3 scrum business is a commentator myth and referees do not use this approach.

Congratulations to both teams, I thought it was a cracking game to watch. More turnovers than burgers at McDonalds. Munster deserved the win to be fair, they've been at the top of the table since September and it would've been a blow had they fallen at the last hurdle.

Congrats to Wally as well - he made Munster look sexy for the 200th time

red_stag wrote:

MR. scotland27 wrote:

ospreylian wrote:Magnificent game by both teams, pity nigel had one of his less memorable ones.

Penalty try to Munster scrummage after only two scrums

You do realise you can give a penalty try after 1 scrum. Or that you can go 10 scrums without a penalty try.

This 3 scrum business is a commentator myth and referees do not use this approach.

They were on top but I still think that 1 scrum and then the try is a bit premature, having said that when Quins played Leicester at the stoop Wayne Barnes had 5 scrums and two yellow cards before the penalty try was given.

MR. scotland27 wrote:

red_stag wrote:

MR. scotland27 wrote:

ospreylian wrote:Magnificent game by both teams, pity nigel had one of his less memorable ones.

Penalty try to Munster scrummage after only two scrums

You do realise you can give a penalty try after 1 scrum. Or that you can go 10 scrums without a penalty try.

This 3 scrum business is a commentator myth and referees do not use this approach.

They were on top but I still think that 1 scrum and then the try is a bit premature, having said that when Quins played Leicester at the stoop Wayne Barnes had 5 scrums and two yellow cards before the penalty try was given.

Nige missed a blatant shoulder on BOD and later a high tackle on a Munster player, but like too many refs he totally ducked out of the scrum, penalty one way then the other, when it was just one player all the time. Also he failed to ref the breakdown fairly, Leinster were laying all over the place (tiredness?) but he failed to see it.

Makes me wonder if there should be a rule change for scrums (yet again) but this time remove the rules except for one, taking down. Let all else go on make it a fair fight.

ospreylian wrote:

MR. scotland27 wrote:

red_stag wrote:

MR. scotland27 wrote:

ospreylian wrote:Magnificent game by both teams, pity nigel had one of his less memorable ones.

Penalty try to Munster scrummage after only two scrums

You do realise you can give a penalty try after 1 scrum. Or that you can go 10 scrums without a penalty try.

This 3 scrum business is a commentator myth and referees do not use this approach.

They were on top but I still think that 1 scrum and then the try is a bit premature, having said that when Quins played Leicester at the stoop Wayne Barnes had 5 scrums and two yellow cards before the penalty try was given.

Nige missed a blatant shoulder on BOD and later a high tackle on a Munster player, but like too many refs he totally ducked out of the scrum, penalty one way then the other, when it was just one player all the time. Also he failed to ref the breakdown fairly, Leinster were laying all over the place (tiredness?) but he failed to see it.

Makes me wonder if there should be a rule change for scrums (yet again) but this time remove the rules except for one, taking down. Let all else go on make it a fair fight.

Nige was poor. He shirked the scrums and breakdown. Disappointing.

The game as a whole needs an overhaul of the rules. They need to be designed to be simple and refereeable by someone who is not superhuman without the aid of 'interpretation'.

Scotland your still thinking in numbers. Penalty tries are never ever decided on how frequent the offense occurs or whether it was a once off.

I think the idea about needing three scrums comes from the reluctance of referees sometimes to give penalty tries. Given how difficult they find it to successfully referee the scrum, you can see why. On the other hand, it can be a bit unfair that after three or four penalties for the attacking team if the referee decides to give a penalty to the defending side they can just clear their lines, so I think penalty tries should happen sooner if one team is clearly on top.

On another thought, I never understand why after the fourth or fifth scrum the defending side would infringe. A penalty try is a (almost) certain seven points, but a try where the scrum took place allows for the possibility of the place-kicker missing, or even the number 8 fumbling and knocking on!