Ospreys v Munster: Sat 7 March 14.40 - Sky Sports

Teams:

Ospreys:
15 Dan Evans   14 Tom Grabham   13 Jonathan Spratt   12 Josh Matavesi   11 Hanno Dirksen   10 Sam Davies
9 Tom Habberfield   1 Ryan Bevington   2 Scott Otten  3 Aaron Jarvis   4 Lloyd Peers  5 Tyler Ardron  6 James King
7 Justin Tipuric (Capt)   8 Dan Baker

REPLACEMENTS:  16 Matthew Dwyer   17 Nicky Smith  18 Dmitri Arhip   19 Rory Thornton  20 Olly Cracknell  21 Morgan Allen  22 Martin Roberts   23 Ben John


Welcome back Donnacha Ryan - its been a while!

Munster:
Munster: JJ Hanrahan; Felix Jones, Keith Earls, Denis Hurley - capt., Ronan O'Mahony; Ian Keatley, Duncan Williams; Dave Kilcoyne, Eusebio Guinazu, BJ Botha; Donncha O'Callaghan, Billy Holland, Dave O'Callaghan, Sean Dougall, CJ Stander.

Replacements: Kevin O'Byrne, John Ryan, Stephen Archer, Donnacha Ryan, Jack O'Donoghue, Neil Cronin, Andrew Smith, Andrew Conway.

At Liberty Stadium, 2.40pm. Live on Sky Sports
Referee: Marius Mitrea (FIR, 37th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Sean Brickell, Simon Rees (both WRU)
Citing Commissioner: Ray Wilton (WRU)
TMO: Simon McDowell (IRFU)

Interesting that Felix Jones is on the wing for Munster. I don't think he has ever played there before. It seems like a Joe Schmidt request!

Sin é wrote:Interesting that Felix Jones is on the wing for Munster. I don't think he has ever played there before. It seems like a Joe Schmidt request!

That is a strong team you have out there Sin, who is this hooker, Argentinian? another tough day at the office for us, we are missing 18 or so either injured or with TW.

wayne wrote:

Sin é wrote:Interesting that Felix Jones is on the wing for Munster. I don't think he has ever played there before. It seems like a Joe Schmidt request!

That is a strong team you have out there Sin, who is this hooker, Argentinian? another tough day at the office for us, we are missing 18 or so either injured or with TW.

Eusebio is injury cover for Damian Varley (and Sherry & Cronin!) who has just retired. Decent enough - fairly aggressive. We've a fairly strong team out ok. Nothing like the red of Munster to get the Ospreys fired up!

Glad to see Ryan resurface.

Sin é wrote:

wayne wrote:

Sin é wrote:Interesting that Felix Jones is on the wing for Munster. I don't think he has ever played there before. It seems like a Joe Schmidt request!

That is a strong team you have out there Sin, who is this hooker, Argentinian? another tough day at the office for us, we are missing 18 or so either injured or with TW.

Eusebio is injury cover for Damian Varley (and Sherry & Cronin!) who has just retired. Decent enough - fairly aggressive. We've a fairly strong team out ok. Nothing like the red of Munster to get the Ospreys fired up!

Our best 2 props are on the bench, this is Smiths first game after his pectoral muscle injury in the Autumn, and I just wish we had anyone of Steenkamp, Bernardo or Cavubati off the injury table for a bit of ballast in the second row, yet both in the 2nd row and 2 in the back row are decent lineout options, and it is good to see Habberfield selected at scrum half, most on our forum have wanted this all season when Webb is away, roll on next year when Brendon Leonard joins us.

Great to see Donnacha Ryan back in the mix although I can't help but feel that this could be make or break for him not just for this season but also for his career.

If the same injury reoccurs again it could be curtains.

Great player so I really hope I'm wrong.

On a separate note I see Axel has managed to keep the changes to 3 this week!!

O's will do well to win this with that scrum.

Just as Munster will do well to win with this indiscipline!

That was a lovely pass for the Os try.

They're being completely whistled out of it

Mitrea seems to be reffing one team here O's getting away with quite a lot Munster pinged for everything. That's as a neutral Scot.

If the Welsh fans on here have any consistency they'll admit that the ref has been completely one-sided. How that wasn't a yellow and penalty try I'll never know.

0-8 penalty count.

Where is Chunky when you need him?

Hiding under his rock?

So Munster put up a high ball with 2 chasers both obstructed, play on says the ref. This is becoming a bit silly now.

What has happened to the Irish posters on this board? At one time they were the voice of reason; the fans who gave everyone else a telling off for grumbling about the ref. But now the Irish are at it, and with gusto! Ref whingeing has hit a new height.

Don't you lot dare take the moral high ground (like you used to) the next time Welsh fans complain about the ref!

Griff wrote:What has happened to the Irish posters on this board? At one time they were the voice of reason; the fans who gave everyone else a telling off for grumbling about the ref. But now the Irish are at it, and with gusto! Ref whingeing has hit a new height.

Don't you lot dare take the moral high ground (like you used to) the next time Welsh fans complain about the ref!

That seems somewhat unfair, I can criticise Irish and Welsh fans for getting one-eyed and I will and I do!

Munster were idiotic in this game, the referee missed a Dirksen deliberate knock-on in this game but Munster were really wretched and their discipline was shocking. I think the scoreline flattered them a little bit so there can't really be any complaints imo.

I didn't say you could criticise, Notch. But the Irish used to get credit on here for their level headed analysis, non booing of kickers, respect for the ref, etc., etc. But that credit has been eroded somewhat lately.

Credit where it's due, and none where it's not.

Its not the ref that is the issue for me (Mitrea is a good ref in imo) its Chunky's theory that is the issue; that referees are biased towards Irish provinces, which is total BS and these last two games have proved that.

I ignore Chunky to be honest so I'm not sure what his theories are.

I'm only going to make one point now, until I watch the game back, how Duncan Williams wasn't yellow carded on 3, YES THREE OCCASIONS today is inexplicable.

Here we go, first time ever a top 3 Irish province doesn't bring the ref with them to the Liberty, and they all start complaining.  You can't have the referee in your back pocket all the time...

I didn't watch the game, but knowing this league he probably was crap. Musnter fans on Facebook, etc seem really gracious and haven't mentioned the ref, if that's relevant?

No complaints about the ref from me. Ospreys were the better team by far and Munster deserved nothing from the match.

[quote="profitius"]No complaints about the ref from me. Ospreys were the better team by far and Munster deserved nothing from the match. [/quote
Profitius, well put, I thought we wanted it a lot more, after watching it back, I have to agree with the commentators and some on here, Dirksen should have been yellow carded, I wouldn't have given a penalty try as probably, going by the rest of the match one of your players would have dropped it, as I said Duncan Williams should have been yellow carded a number of times, playing the ball on the ground in an offside position and trying to take the ball out of a scrum when it is clearly in between the second and back row spring readily to mind, anyway hopefully we'll meet again in the playoffs, pob lwc.

No complaints from me about the ref either - plenty of errors, but none that decided the game. Munster lost through their own ineptitude.