Champions Cup Pool 1: Munster v Glasgow Warriors, 22 October

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Munster Rugby v Glasgow Warriors 
Saturday 22 October 2016
KO: 13:00
Thomond Park, Limerick

Live on BT Sport / beIN Sports

Referee Jerome Garces (France)
Touch Judge 1 Adrien Descottes (France)
Touch Judge 2 Sebastian Cloute (France)
TMO Arnaud Blondel (France)
Citing Commissioner Yves Thieffine (France)

A. Head to Head

Sides have never met in Europe.

In league play:

28 Played 28
16 Wins 11
11 Losses 16
1 Draws 1

B. Recent League Form

19 February 2016
Glasgow Warriors 27 - 24 Munster Rugby

2 October 2015
Munster Rugby 32 - 21 Glasgow Warriors

30 May 2015
Munster Rugby 13 - 31 Glasgow Warriors

28 February 2015
Munster Rugby 22 - 10 Glasgow Warriors

20 December 2014
Glasgow Warriors 21 - 18 Munster Rugby


C. Teams

Munster Rugby

15 Simon Zebo
14 Darren Sweetnam
13 Jaco Taute
12 Rory Scannell
11 Keith Earls
10 Tyler Bleyendaal
9 Conor Murray

1 Dave Kilcoyne
2 Niall Scannell
3 John Ryan
4 Donnacha Ryan
5 Billy Holland
6 Peter O'Mahony
7 Tommy O'Donnell
8 CJ Stander

16 Duncan Casey
17 Brian Scott
18 Stephen Archer
19 Robin Copeland
20 Jack O'Donoghue
21 Duncan Williams
22 Ian Keatley
23 Ronan O'Mahony

Glasgow Warriors 

15 Stuart Hogg
14 Sean Lamont
13 Alex Dunbar
12 Sam Johnson
11 Rory Hughes
10 Finn Russell
9 Henry Pyrgos

1 Gordon Reid
2 Fraser Brown
3 Zander Fagerson
4 Tim Swinson
5 Jonny Gray
6 Rob Harley
7 Ryan Wilson
8 Josh Strauss

16 Pat MacArthur
17 Alex Allan
18 Sila Puafisi
19 Lewis Wynne
20 Simone Favaro
21 Ali Price
22 Mark Bennett  angel
23 Peter Murchie

Glasgow made hard work of that!

And another one after a brilliant sprint and try saving tackle by Sweetnam. Numbers eventually tell.

31-17 with 10 minutes to go.

Could Munster crumble here?

Bad miss from the lino though, I'm sure Glasgow had a foot in touch after Sweetman's tacklr

Better attritional work by Munster and then a try to cap it off. Best play of the match in holding on, keeping possession, and then a try to drive home the knife.

Glasgow have been so crap.

Munster

RDW_Scotland wrote:Glasgow have been so crap.

They've been exactly like tigers we're last week.

Congratulations Munster, great game and win

Incredible performance Munster - Axel would have approved

Amazing from Munster 

Great score Munster, and Glasgow, you'll be back.

Well done Munster! What a display after getting a red card in 1st half. Glasgow were made to look like a bunch of amateurs.

As a Glasgow fan that was hard to watch, far too passive and Lamont who has not had much game time being thrown into this game was a poor decision I feel, but injuries gave Townsend no choice. Just awful though. Luckily there's still plenty to play for and to be fair to the players this game was always going to be tough.

Ref was consistent but I didn't like his style at the breakdown. Not a day for poaching at all.

Congrats again Munster, must have felt good!

Very nice send off from Munster.

Full marks to Sky Sports for that overall presentation and coverage.

Great game, Munster. A performance that would make Foley proud.

Pot Hale wrote:Full marks to Sky Sports for that overall presentation and coverage.  

Have to agree there. I hope they get the rights when the rights are exclusive again.

Great performance from Munster you wouldn't know they had 14 men.

RIP Axel

Great performance from Munster,the defensive pressure was top notch,they didn't let Glasgow get any momentum and then they were clinical in attack and destructive in the scrum.

I feel sorry for Keith Earls ,not a nasty player but emotion got the better of him today.Thankfully he will only feel disappointed on a personal level since the team did such a fantastic job anyway.

Great to see the family on the pitch with the players at the end at what must be a really tough time for them - this is what I love about rugby, the way everyone comes together in difficult times.

Unfortunately for Glasgow it was a game they really did not want to be playing and it showed. Still some things are more important than rugby results and this was always going to be Munster's day. I have got no problems with that.

Well done Munster for giving your man such a great send off. None of the people who played in the game or who were there will ever forget it.

For Glasgow, we just need to put it behind us and move on. I hope we will never be involved in anything like that again. It really has been some week.

Those players will be emotionally and physically spent after that, it was an unbelievable performance from Munster especially after going down to 14 men. Axel was definately guiding them today, well done Munster you put up a fitting tribute in the spirit you played that match to him.

Didn't see this and by the sounds of it I really don't want to.
Glasgow will be delighted to get the hell out of there I would think.
Quite an odd Weegie line up and it sounds like this showed.

However as a means of giving the Munster club and fans some sort of catharsis I am delighted.

Well all to play for in this group - making the assumption that Racing will win the rearranged game at home to Munster, every team will technically be on 1 win with BPs separating everyone.

I suspect BPs will be the thing that seperates teams come the end of the group stage so Glasgow will be disappointed they didn't come away with anything from Munster.

Terrible match from Glasgow. The pack showed no intent. I expect it was more a blip from the occasion and will hopefully be the 1 clanger this year. Munster ran all over them. Good send off for them and allows a bit of a move forward from Paris.

Earls let the emotion of the day get to him and the tip tackle was more unlucky than malicious. Toomua's was worse but under present law the ref had no choice. The jawing at the Glasgow players as he left the field deserves sanction though. The ref has taken his time and was at one point sounding like he was looking for reasons to avoid sending him off (top of the shoulder or neck). Does anyone know when they will make up the Racing game?

First things first; Munster

From a Glasgow point of view, I was very interested in Toonie's comments that Glasgow hadn't turned up, But rathe than criticising the players he went on to say it was the coaching team who hadn't prepared them properly. This suggests that the pre-match talk had been about weathering the early storm (think POC's "five minutes of manic feccin aggression boys" pre-match talk) allowing the over emotional Munstermen to give away penalties, go six or nine points up, watch them deflate and then calmly impose our own patterns of play on the game. This may well have worked if Munster had not scored a try after three minutes. But they did and then they destroyed us carried on a wave of emotion which just swept the Glasgow hopes away. Once Glasgow fell behind their only chance was to join in the mayhem and "meet them aff the bus" as Shrek would put it. They couldn't find that spark and Munster fully deserved their win.
The group is still wide open; it may transpire that one team nicks an away win at Tiggers and that's enough. Certainly Tiggers showed that Racing are beatable, however in Paris they will be a different beast.
So. Who will win the group? Probably won't be decided till Glasgow beat Tiggers on the last weekend. (Or not)

First of all, my sympathies to Glasgow. It was a really tough gig for you to have to handle and no matter what you did, it was going to be difficult to get out of this one looking good.

I'm really glad for our players that they performed so well though as they had (and are having) a very difficult time.

Poor Earls, being sent off (rightly) on such an occasion would be a huge punishment for him, so if he was mouthing off at anyone, it was probably because he was so mad at himself.

For those who enquire - Red Card is an automatic citing.

Keith Earls hearing is in London tomorrow (Wednesday).

Munster winger Keith Earls was issued with a red card during Saturday's Champions Cup win over Glasgow Warriors and will face an independent Disciplinary Committee in London tomorrow.

Earls was sent off by referee, Jerome Garces (France), for an alleged dangerous tackle on the Glasgow Warriors player, Fraser Brown, in the 19th minute of the match in contravention of Law 10.4 (j).

Mike Hamlin (England), Chairman, Roddy Dunlop QC (Scotland) and Andrea Caranci (Italy) have been appointed as the independent Disciplinary Committee for the hearing which will take place in London tomorrow (Wednesday, 26 October).

Law 10.4 (j) Dangerous tackling
Under World Rugby's Sanctions for Foul Play, Law 10.4 (j), Lifting a player from the ground and either dropping or driving that player's head and/or upper body into the ground while the player's feet are off the ground, carries the following sanction entry points - Low End: 4 weeks; Mid-Range: 8 weeks; Top End: 12 to 52 weeks.

The committee are going to have to look at this in a completely unemotional way! I don't envy their jobs with this one. A game surrounded by so much emotion and they're going to have to make a call that will have folk shouting about the outcome whichever way the rule!

However long the ban is, I don't see too many people from Munster complaining or getting worked up about it. There are more important things in life.

Sin é wrote:However long the ban is, I don't see too many people from Munster complaining or getting worked up about it. There are more important things in life.

Sadly that doesn't seem to the be the case Sin. There is always a vocal minority of idiots in each teams supporters. Hogg has been getting abuse via Twitter and many others have said Brown deliberately rolled to make sure he landed on his head to get Earls a red.

Personally I think Earls should get a short ban, and if he wasn't to get a ban I wouldn't be too fussed either.

I know front rows aren't renowned for their brains but I find the claims that he deliberately tried to land on his head absolutely baffling.

One person in particular is laying into Hogg on Twitter - Hogg since tweeted that he was trying to get Earl's to calm down and they spoke about it after the game and all is good between them. That hasn't satisfied the Twitter abuser though.

Earls calling people a 'f*cking cheat' on his way off the pitch and then booting equipment made him look like an absolute jeb end. Why should he get a short ban ?

munkian wrote:Earls calling people a 'f*cking cheat' on his way off the pitch and then booting equipment made him look like an absolute jeb end. Why should he get a short ban ?

Although against the general principles of sportsmanship I don't think that on it's own is ban worthy - the citing should focus on the tip tackle only IMO.

RDW_Scotland wrote:

munkian wrote:Earls calling people a 'f*cking cheat' on his way off the pitch and then booting equipment made him look like an absolute jeb end. Why should he get a short ban ?

Although against the general principles of sportsmanship I don't think that on it's own is ban worthy - the citing should focus on the tip tackle only IMO.

Well yes, not on its own but it should be taken into consideration.

munkian wrote:Earls calling people a 'f*cking cheat' on his way off the pitch and then booting equipment made him look like an absolute jeb end. Why should he get a short ban ?

What would people's reaction be in Liam Williams did it d'you reckon?

RDW_Scotland wrote:I know front rows aren't renowned for their brains but I find the claims that he deliberately tried to land on his head absolutely baffling.

One person in particular is laying into Hogg on Twitter - Hogg since tweeted that he was trying to get Earl's to calm down and they spoke about it after the game and all is good between them. That hasn't satisfied the Twitter abuser though.

I don't think Brown even landed on his head, more on his shoulder! You will always get people who see things differently!

One person criticised Hogg, numerous others (Irish) defended him on twitter. Hogg should probably have known better than to go near someone who had been red carded and was in a very emotional state, but then it wasn't easy for any of the Glasgow players to think straight either and they were in the same situation as the Munster players except without the crowd support.

I had a look at the Glasgow Forum on the game - there are some posters there (not all) who have really lost the plot over the incident and are really looking for Earls' blood!

Sin é wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:I know front rows aren't renowned for their brains but I find the claims that he deliberately tried to land on his head absolutely baffling.

One person in particular is laying into Hogg on Twitter - Hogg since tweeted that he was trying to get Earl's to calm down and they spoke about it after the game and all is good between them. That hasn't satisfied the Twitter abuser though.

I don't think Brown even landed on his head, more on his shoulder!  You will always get people who see things differently!

One person criticised Hogg, numerous others (Irish) defended him on twitter. Hogg should probably have known better than to go near someone who had been red carded and was in a very emotional state, but then it wasn't easy for any of the Glasgow players to think straight either and they were in the same situation as the Munster players except without the crowd support.

I had a look at the Glasgow Forum on the game - there are some posters there (not all) who have really lost the plot over the incident and are really looking for Earls' blood!

I think all this shows is that rugby is an emotional sport for both players and fans alike!

Heres a look at it and others in detail

https://theblitzdefence.wordpress.com/tag/spear-tackle/

munkian wrote:Earls calling people a 'f*cking cheat' on his way off the pitch and then booting equipment made him look like an absolute jeb end. Why should he get a short ban ?

I think most people would make allowances considering the situation. Earls was one of two players who would have played with Axel as well as having been coached by him. Can you imagine how he felt for being sent off 20 minutes into such a game?

cakeordeath wrote:

Sin é wrote:However long the ban is, I don't see too many people from Munster complaining or getting worked up about it. There are more important things in life.

Sadly that doesn't seem to the be the case Sin. There is always a vocal minority of idiots in each teams supporters. Hogg has been getting abuse via Twitter and many others have said Brown deliberately rolled to make sure he landed on his head to get Earls a red.

Personally I think Earls should get a short ban, and if he wasn't to get a ban I wouldn't be too fussed either.

Interesting. Whilst I agree with you it makes me remember about how Biggar received such abuse after being taken out in the air by Finn Russell in a Scotland vs Wales fixture. Russell received yellow for a red card offence, therefore was later cited and banned yet somehow it was all Biggar's fault - the abuse was pretty widespread as it was all over here as well as other Scottish forums.

There are some idiots on the Glasgow forum, I read some of their stuff as well and it was awful.

There are always some idiot fans, for every team.

Earl's will get a couple of weeks ban and that will be the end of it. I very much doubt if Hogg, Brown or any of the Glasgow players will hold any grudges about it and that is what counts at the end of the day. As Hogg implied, they have already made up about it, end of. Any further comments by any of the players are just likely to throw petrol on a bonfire and it was not that sort of match.

BigGee wrote:There are some idiots on the Glasgow forum, I read some of their stuff as well and it was awful.

There are always some idiot fans, for every team.

Earl's will get a couple of weeks ban and that will be the end of it. I very much doubt if Hogg, Brown or any of the Glasgow players will hold any grudges about it and that is what counts at the end of the day. As Hogg implied, they have already made up about it, end of. Any further comments by any of the players are just likely to throw petrol on a bonfire and it was not that sort of match.

As the rugby Admin for this site I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

BigGee wrote:There are some idiots on the Glasgow forum, I read some of their stuff as well and it was awful.

There are always some idiot fans, for every team.

Earl's will get a couple of weeks ban and that will be the end of it. I very much doubt if Hogg, Brown or any of the Glasgow players will hold any grudges about it and that is what counts at the end of the day. As Hogg implied, they have already made up about it, end of. Any further comments by any of the players are just likely to throw petrol on a bonfire and it was not that sort of match.

Yeah I agree here too, except for Gwlad as I hear that's a really good forum...

If Earls is shown leniency because of the circumstances then it's pretty poor and inconsistent (again) IMO. How he supposedly stormed off is understandable but it was also unnecessary.

mikey_dragon wrote:

BigGee wrote:There are some idiots on the Glasgow forum, I read some of their stuff as well and it was awful.

There are always some idiot fans, for every team.

Earl's will get a couple of weeks ban and that will be the end of it. I very much doubt if Hogg, Brown or any of the Glasgow players will hold any grudges about it and that is what counts at the end of the day. As Hogg implied, they have already made up about it, end of. Any further comments by any of the players are just likely to throw petrol on a bonfire and it was not that sort of match.

Yeah I agree here too, except for Gwlad as I hear that's a really good forum...

If Earls is shown leniency because of the circumstances then it's pretty poor and inconsistent (again) IMO. How he supposedly stormed off is understandable but it was also unnecessary.

I don't think he will be shown leniency for the tackle. However, it seems some people want Earls to be punished for his reaction to being sent off. Can anyone tell me what rugby law that offends and what is the punishment?

BigGee wrote:There are some idiots on the Glasgow forum, I read some of their stuff as well and it was awful.

There are always some idiot fans, for every team.

Earl's will get a couple of weeks ban and that will be the end of it. I very much doubt if Hogg, Brown or any of the Glasgow players will hold any grudges about it and that is what counts at the end of the day. As Hogg implied, they have already made up about it, end of. Any further comments by any of the players are just likely to throw petrol on a bonfire and it was not that sort of match.

Agree 100%.

Sin é wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:

BigGee wrote:There are some idiots on the Glasgow forum, I read some of their stuff as well and it was awful.

There are always some idiot fans, for every team.

Earl's will get a couple of weeks ban and that will be the end of it. I very much doubt if Hogg, Brown or any of the Glasgow players will hold any grudges about it and that is what counts at the end of the day. As Hogg implied, they have already made up about it, end of. Any further comments by any of the players are just likely to throw petrol on a bonfire and it was not that sort of match.

Yeah I agree here too, except for Gwlad as I hear that's a really good forum...

If Earls is shown leniency because of the circumstances then it's pretty poor and inconsistent (again) IMO. How he supposedly stormed off is understandable but it was also unnecessary.

I don't think he will be shown leniency for the tackle. However, it seems some people want Earls to be punished for his reaction to being sent off. Can anyone tell me what rugby law that offends and what is the punishment?

That was my point too - I don't think there has ever been a ban for someone having a rant at another player and expressing his frustrating with inanimate objects on his home team bench!

Sin é wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:

BigGee wrote:There are some idiots on the Glasgow forum, I read some of their stuff as well and it was awful.

There are always some idiot fans, for every team.

Earl's will get a couple of weeks ban and that will be the end of it. I very much doubt if Hogg, Brown or any of the Glasgow players will hold any grudges about it and that is what counts at the end of the day. As Hogg implied, they have already made up about it, end of. Any further comments by any of the players are just likely to throw petrol on a bonfire and it was not that sort of match.

Yeah I agree here too, except for Gwlad as I hear that's a really good forum...

If Earls is shown leniency because of the circumstances then it's pretty poor and inconsistent (again) IMO. How he supposedly stormed off is understandable but it was also unnecessary.

I don't think he will be shown leniency for the tackle. However, it seems some people want Earls to be punished for his reaction to being sent off. Can anyone tell me what rugby law that offends and what is the punishment?

I'm pretty sure there isn't a rule that covers that, unless it is suspected that the reaction was aimed at an official? #HartleyVsBarnes . What I do know, sadly, is that the criticism of Earls would be a hundred times worse if he was more Welsh.

Sin é wrote:Can anyone tell me what rugby law that offends and what is the punishment?

Not sure actually. Good question.

Maybe this:

10.4 (m) Acts contrary to good sportsmanship. A player must not do anything that is against the spirit of good sportsmanship in the playing enclosure.

mikey_dragon wrote:



What I do know, sadly, is that the criticism of Earls would be a hundred times worse if he was more Welsh.

I think if these sort of circumstances involved a Welsh team and/or coach, then the reaction of the rugby world would be exactly as it would have been for Munster and Foley. This was not a normal game in any shape or form and virtually everyone realised that

That would be the case even if it involved Liam Williams!

In any other circumstances though, we would certainly be after him!

mikey_dragon wrote:

Sin é wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:

BigGee wrote:There are some idiots on the Glasgow forum, I read some of their stuff as well and it was awful.

There are always some idiot fans, for every team.

Earl's will get a couple of weeks ban and that will be the end of it. I very much doubt if Hogg, Brown or any of the Glasgow players will hold any grudges about it and that is what counts at the end of the day. As Hogg implied, they have already made up about it, end of. Any further comments by any of the players are just likely to throw petrol on a bonfire and it was not that sort of match.

Yeah I agree here too, except for Gwlad as I hear that's a really good forum...

If Earls is shown leniency because of the circumstances then it's pretty poor and inconsistent (again) IMO. How he supposedly stormed off is understandable but it was also unnecessary.

I don't think he will be shown leniency for the tackle. However, it seems some people want Earls to be punished for his reaction to being sent off. Can anyone tell me what rugby law that offends and what is the punishment?

I'm pretty sure there isn't a rule that covers that, unless it is suspected that the reaction was aimed at an official? #HartleyVsBarnes . What I do know, sadly, is that the criticism of Earls would be a hundred times worse if he was more Welsh.

The criticism would be justified if Earls had acquired a reputation for behaving badly like Hartley, Liam Williams and a few others I won't bother to mention.

Still not sure how Williams has a reputation for behaving badly on the pitch, Hogg's record for example is much worse.

Liam Williams has got a reputation, whether it is justified or not is another matter but once you have been labelled a pantomine villan it is hard to lose it.

Hogg certainly was a petulant youngster and paid the price for that as well. He does seem to have grown up a lot more recently, getting married and having children does that to you. He has also commendably got involved in a campaign for road saftey awareness, having lost one of his team mates from his youth rugby days to a car crash.

We have got a few others around the scotland squad who seem to attract trouble, Ryan Wilson springs to mind.

Generally though when opposition fans are going after players, it is because they are good (and Liam Williams is very much in thatr category) and for most of us, it is done in good humour!