Leinster v Munster PRO14 Semi-final

First topic message reminder :


Leinster: Joey Carbery; Jordan Larmour, Garry Ringrose, Isa Nacewa (capt), James Lowe; Ross Byrne, Luke McGrath; Jack McGrath, Sean Cronin, Tadhg Furlong; Devin Toner, James Ryan; Rhys Ruddock, Jordi Murphy, Jack Conan.
Replacements: James Tracey, Cian Healy, Andrew Porter, Scott Fardy, Max Deegan, Nick McCarthy, Rory O’Loughlin, Barry Daly.

Munster: Simon Zebo; Andrew Conway, Sammy Arnold, Rory Scannell, Keith Earls; JJ Hanrahan, Conor Murray; James Cronin, Rhys Marshall, John Ryan; Jean Kleyn, Billy Holland; Peter O’Mahony (capt), Jack O’Donoghue, CJ Stander.
Replacements: Niall Scannell, Dave Kilcoyne, Ciaran Parker, Gerbrandt Grobler, Robin Copeland, Duncan Williams, Ian Keatley, Darren Sweetnam.

Referee: Stuart Berry (SARU, 13th Championship appearance)
AR1: Ben Whitehouse (WRU). AR2: Craig Evans (WRU).
TMO: Neil Paterson (SRU).

Sky Sports Action (Ch 407): 15:00
TG4: 14:50

Certainly going to be interesting to see how Racing cope with having Finn Russell and Simon Zebo in the team at the same time!

Even in attack Zebo has been a liability at times, though i understand he was playing in an average backline.

With the grit and power Munster showed in the forwards they would have won this with some to spare had they got a decent backline.

eirebilly wrote:I must admit to being happy to see JJ start at 10 over Keatley. I feel Keatley is probably more stable but has never really been a big match player to me. JJ has the ability to create things out of nothing but can also have very off games.

I have long said that Munster will not win anything until they get an excellent 10 to run the back line.

I thought JJ was dire. WTF happened to that guy? He looked great at under 20s, his kicking was unreal. On Saturday he seemed to be a good bit behind Keatley.

VinceWLB wrote:This is exactly the kind of play that needs to get stamped out of the game and deserved a red.

However i'm glad this was only a yellow as this would have ruined this as a contest.

He was lucky not to get a red IMO. Very lucky that someone's leg just got in the way at the wrong time on the video replay.

eirebilly wrote:

rodders wrote:

eirebilly wrote:

rodders wrote:

eirebilly wrote:
Zebo will be very missed at Munster.

James Lowe will miss him anyway, he'll have to run over Conway next season instead.

Guessing you missed Zebo's hits on Lowe after the 2 missed tackles

I'm sure Racing will be delighted he didn't miss all his tackles  

In fairness, he does not miss many and no player makes all their tackles. I am sure Racing will be more delighted with his counter attacking prowess, try's and try assists more than anything else

As a Leinster fan, I'm not one of the Zebo haters, but in his counter attacks he has a tendency to run down blind alleys - as in the first half, and some of his passing was atrocious - forward, into touch, at the players feet. He was partly to blame for the Leinster try, got badly bumped by Lowe (we wasn't the first and he won't be the last to suffer that), but he did at least knock Lowe off balance in next phase - wasn't his fault that Lower did a great off load and there wasn't a Munster player within yards of Conan when he received the offload.

The Earls try was down to sh1te defence by Carbery rather than genius by Zebo. Criminal for Carbery to come in off his win when Zebo was already marked, leaving Earls unmarked to take the pass and score.

Interesting to see how he gets on with Racing, but Jeebus anybody from Racing watching Finn Russell on Friday night must be having palpitations - he was woeful. The sort of player when on the few occasions he's great he looks like a genius 10, but when he's bad like v Scarlets he's woeful.

A couple of 10's with big reputations were shown up at the weekend - Russell and Biggar v Ulster was also very poor. Thought of the six 10's playing the Pro 14 games at the weekend, the rookie McPhillips for Ulster was excellent as was Patchell for Scarlets. Keatley/Hanrahan for Munster crap, Ross Byrne for Leinster ok no more and Russell and Biggar awful.

Finally, to my ignorance had never hears of that Ulster THP O'Toole - though he showed up very well and looks like another tight head talent in wings to follow Furlong, Porter, Ryan, Bealham. Will he be the number 18 on the teamsheet behind Marty Moore?>

eirebilly wrote:

rodders wrote:

eirebilly wrote:

rodders wrote:

eirebilly wrote:
Zebo will be very missed at Munster.

James Lowe will miss him anyway, he'll have to run over Conway next season instead.

Guessing you missed Zebo's hits on Lowe after the 2 missed tackles

I'm sure Racing will be delighted he didn't miss all his tackles  

In fairness, he does not miss many and no player makes all their tackles. I am sure Racing will be more delighted with his counter attacking prowess, try's and try assists more than anything else

As a Leinster fan, I'm not one of the Zebo haters, but in his counter attacks he has a tendency to run down blind alleys - as in the first half, and some of his passing was atrocious - forward, into touch, at the players feet. He was partly to blame for the Leinster try, got badly bumped by Lowe (we wasn't the first and he won't be the last to suffer that), but he did at least knock Lowe off balance in next phase - wasn't his fault that Lower did a great off load and there wasn't a Munster player within yards of Conan when he received the offload.

The Earls try was down to sh1te defence by Carbery rather than genius by Zebo. Criminal for Carbery to come in off his win when Zebo was already marked, leaving Earls unmarked to take the pass and score.

Interesting to see how he gets on with Racing, but Jeebus anybody from Racing watching Finn Russell on Friday night must be having palpitations - he was woeful. The sort of player when on the few occasions he's great he looks like a genius 10, but when he's bad like v Scarlets he's woeful.

A couple of 10's with big reputations were shown up at the weekend - Russell and Biggar v Ulster was also very poor. Thought of the six 10's playing the Pro 14 games at the weekend, the rookie McPhillips for Ulster was excellent as was Patchell for Scarlets. Keatley/Hanrahan for Munster crap, Ross Byrne for Leinster ok no more and Russell and Biggar awful.

Finally, to my ignorance had never hears of that Ulster THP O'Toole - though he showed up very well and looks like another tight head talent in wings to follow Furlong, Porter, Ryan, Bealham. Will he be the number 18 on the teamsheet behind Marty Moore?>

eirebilly wrote:

rodders wrote:

eirebilly wrote:

rodders wrote:

eirebilly wrote:
Zebo will be very missed at Munster.

James Lowe will miss him anyway, he'll have to run over Conway next season instead.

Guessing you missed Zebo's hits on Lowe after the 2 missed tackles

I'm sure Racing will be delighted he didn't miss all his tackles  

In fairness, he does not miss many and no player makes all their tackles. I am sure Racing will be more delighted with his counter attacking prowess, try's and try assists more than anything else

As a Leinster fan, I'm not one of the Zebo haters, but in his counter attacks he has a tendency to run down blind alleys - as in the first half, and some of his passing was atrocious - forward, into touch, at the players feet. He was partly to blame for the Leinster try, got badly bumped by Lowe (we wasn't the first and he won't be the last to suffer that), but he did at least knock Lowe off balance in next phase - wasn't his fault that Lower did a great off load and there wasn't a Munster player within yards of Conan when he received the offload.

The Earls try was down to sh1te defence by Carbery rather than genius by Zebo. Criminal for Carbery to come in off his win when Zebo was already marked, leaving Earls unmarked to take the pass and score.

Interesting to see how he gets on with Racing, but Jeebus anybody from Racing watching Finn Russell on Friday night must be having palpitations - he was woeful. The sort of player when on the few occasions he's great he looks like a genius 10, but when he's bad like v Scarlets he's woeful.

A couple of 10's with big reputations were shown up at the weekend - Russell and Biggar v Ulster was also very poor. Thought of the six 10's playing the Pro 14 games at the weekend, the rookie McPhillips for Ulster was excellent as was Patchell for Scarlets. Keatley/Hanrahan for Munster crap, Ross Byrne for Leinster ok no more and Russell and Biggar awful.

Finally, to my ignorance had never hears of that Ulster THP O'Toole - though he showed up very well and looks like another tight head talent in wings to follow Furlong, Porter, Ryan, Bealham. Will he be the number 18 on the teamsheet behind Marty Moore?>

I suspect Earls was in touch for his try. TMO and ref didn't seem too interested in viewing it properly.

VinceWLB wrote:Even in attack Zebo has been a liability at times, though i understand he was playing in an average backline.

With the grit and power Munster showed in the forwards they would have won this with some to spare had they got a decent backline.

Name me a player who does not have off games and can be seen as a liability on occasions. Thing is, Zebo has one of the best try scoring and try assist ratios around.

I think that Munster did have dominance in the forwards but I honestly felt that Kleyn was very lucky to only see a yellow card for his clear out, in my mind that was red and if it had been red, Leinster would have gone on to win by 20-30.

Fair play. Agree on that.

eirebilly wrote:

VinceWLB wrote:Even in attack Zebo has been a liability at times, though i understand he was playing in an average backline.

With the grit and power Munster showed in the forwards they would have won this with some to spare had they got a decent backline.

Name me a player who does not have off games and can be seen as a liability on occasions.

Dave Kearney?

Haha. I was going to say that too. If not Kearney then definitely Super Ferg McFadden.