URC Round 8. 7 derbies a-derbying

So it's URC round 8 after our little European adevnture and right before Christmas whose festive cheer will be overflwoing with a weekend full of local derbies.

Friday 22nd December 2023

Glasgow Warriors v Edinburgh Rugby
Scotstoun Stadium, Glasgow – KO 19.35 IRE & UK / 20.35 ITA / 21.35 SA
Live on: Viaplay, SuperSport, Premier Sports, Flo Rugby & URC.tv

Ulster v Connacht
Kingspan Stadium, Belfast – KO 19.35 IRE & UK / 20.35 ITA / 21.35 SA
Live on: BBC NI, TG4, Viaplay, Premier Sports, SuperSport, Flo Rugby & URC.tv


Saturday 23rd December 2023

Zebre Parma v Benetton
Stadio Lanfranchi, Parma – KO 13.00 IRE & UK / 14.00 ITA / 15.00 SA
Live on: Sky Italia, Viaplay, SuperSport, Premier Sports, Flo Rugby & [URC.tv]

DHL Stormers v Vodacom Bulls
DHL Stadium, Cape Town  – KO 17.00 IRE & UK / 18.00 ITA / 19.00 SA
Live on: SuperSport, Viaplay, TG4, Premier Sports, Flo Rugby & [URC.tv]

Tuesday 26th December 2023

Cardiff Rugby v Dragons RFC
Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff – KO 15.00 IRE & UK / 16.00 ITA / 17.00 SA
Live on: BBC Wales, Viaplay, SuperSport, Premier Sports, Flo Rugby & [URC.tv]

Scarlets v Ospreys
Parc Y Scarlets, Llanelli – KO 17.15 IRE & UK / 18.15 ITA / 19.15 SA
Live on: S4C, Viaplay, Premier Sports, SuperSport, Flo Rugby & [URC.tv]

Munster v Leinster
Thomond Park, Limerick – KO 19.35 IRE & UK / 20.35 ITA / 21.35 SA
Live on: RTÉ, Viaplay, Premier Sports, SuperSport, Flo Rugby & [URC.tv]

That Munster v Leinster game just got a little added spice with the announcement that Snyman will be leaving Munster for Leinster at the end of the season. Boxing day might live up to the name.

I have to work nights on Boxing Day, so might avoid the score of Cardiff v Dragons and catch up on Viaplay or iPlayer. Will be a nice start to my shift, to see us keep up our incredible losing streak to the Capital.

I can't wait to be in a grump towards all my shift for 12 hours

Munster should win that inter-pro handily. I was almost going to say it will be a full round of home wins but the Saturday could end up going with the road teams.

This Ulster v Connacht game is a hard watch.

Just constant reset scrums, slow line outs and Connacht players going down to slow the game.

No wonder rugby finds it hard to get new fans with this kind of game.

RiscaGame wrote:I have to work nights on Boxing Day, so might avoid the score of Cardiff v Dragons and catch up on Viaplay or iPlayer. Will be a nice start to my shift, to see us keep up our incredible losing streak to the Capital.

I can't wait to be in a grump towards all my shift for 12 hours

Oh dear haha. Thankfully, I got wind of the first quarter's score accidentally and didn't watch it.

RiscaGame wrote:

RiscaGame wrote:I have to work nights on Boxing Day, so might avoid the score of Cardiff v Dragons and catch up on Viaplay or iPlayer. Will be a nice start to my shift, to see us keep up our incredible losing streak to the Capital.

I can't wait to be in a grump towards all my shift for 12 hours

Oh dear haha. Thankfully, I got wind of the first quarter's score accidentally and didn't watch it.

Cardiff did some lovely stuff tbh, might be worth watching for that. The pressure must be mounting on Flanagan, but I think he’ll be here for the rest of the season at least. I don’t envision Dwayne Peel of the Scarlets being around that long…

mikey_dragon wrote:

RiscaGame wrote:

RiscaGame wrote:I have to work nights on Boxing Day, so might avoid the score of Cardiff v Dragons and catch up on Viaplay or iPlayer. Will be a nice start to my shift, to see us keep up our incredible losing streak to the Capital.

I can't wait to be in a grump towards all my shift for 12 hours

Oh dear haha. Thankfully, I got wind of the first quarter's score accidentally and didn't watch it.

Cardiff did some lovely stuff tbh, might be worth watching for that. The pressure must be mounting on Flanagan, but I think he’ll be here for the rest of the season at least. I don’t envision Dwayne Peel of the Scarlets being around that long…

Yes, Cardiff played really well first half (as much as it pains me to say). OK, I think our defence could have been much better but credit to them for varying the attack so well. Scored some lovely tries. Whereas we just laboured in attack, very one dimensional, and were never creative enough. Thought Cardiff used their forwards well in midfield, with some big lumps on the crash, and our centres struggled to cope and it made space out wide. Cardiff had a lot of joy through the middle with Lee-Lo carving us up with ease. Carre was used well close to the line too. We just had nothing similar in response. Yet another low point. Although, based on the first half it could have been 80+ so at least we stopped the rot a little!

I've seen some highlights now. Cardiff are not a bad team and are better than us. We shouldn't be losing like that in a derby though. Internationals like Basham shouldn't be missing tackles like he did against Ben Thomas, in my opinion.

It's fair to highlight that we did stop the rot a little in the second half (think we won it ha), but I guess it's hard for Cardiff to come back out after going in 45-7 up and then scoring again.

I am sure there will be a bit of a reaction on NYD, but then Scarlets losing at home to Ospreys does little to help us either. I am worried for the atmosphere at Dave for it now, as there can be little to gee us up before it.

I can’t quite figure it out but we weren’t just at the races. I know we don’t really have a defence coach but some players were falling off simple 1v1s. I guess this happens often, which explains the scorelines.

I know we are struggling for players and coaches like the rest, but if you compare us with Cardiff who have brought through a lot of young players, then they’re doing a lot better than we are.

I was chatting about Cardiff using youngsters more effectively earlier.

I saw our U18s coach (or one of them anyway), being a bit defensive yesterday when somebody mentioned that youngsters aren't playing and are on conditioning progs constantly. He seemed to suggest otherwise. But we really are struggling. I do think we have some talented players, but they're not getting to play much, bar the farce that is the Challenge Cup. The academy page on the main site shows 2 scrumhalves for example, but then we are too stocked and would rather give opportunities to Lewis Jones.

We have to be a lot cuter with our budget. Lydiate was a signing we didn't need to make, when we had obvious gaps at lock and 10. I am not sure we are getting much bang for our buck from Martinez. Although he can be good sometimes for us, I don't think we needed to sign Blacker when we had three senior 9s on the books already. That's before you look at players who were already in our squad that hardly play, due to constant injuries.

I don't know how they can no show a derby though. The squad didn't like the environment under Ryan, but seemingly now things are happier then they still have dross performances in their locker. I saw it mentioned that some players yesterday were late to warm up too, which is shocking if that's right.