Munster V Edinburgh - GPro 12 Round 1

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Munster V Edinburgh

Friday 5th September 2014
KO 19:35
Thomond Park

Referee: Leighton Hodges (WRU, 41st competition game)
Assistant Referees: Nigel Correll, John Carvill (both IRFU)
Citing Commissioner: Eddie Walsh (IRFU)
TMO: Jude Quinn (IRFU)
Live on TG4 / BBA ALBA

23 Wins 6
75 Tries 42
696 Points 443
27 Average age 26

Results last year:

Munster 34 - Edinburgh 23
Ednburgh 12 - Munster 55

Pre Season form:

Munster 17 - London Irish 5
Gloucester 45 - Munster 8

Edinburgh 10 - Leicester 11
Newcastle 15 - Edinburgh 21

Teams:

Munster
  
15 Ronan O'Mahony
14 Andrew Conway
13 Johne Murphy
12 Andrew Smith
11 Simon Zebo
10 Ian Keatley
9 Duncan Williams

1 John Ryan
2 Kevin O'Byrne
3 BJ Botha
4 Donncha O'Callaghan
5 Billy Holland
6 CJ Stander
7 Sean Dougall
8 Shane Buckley

16 Duncan Casey
17 Alan Cotter
18 Stephen Archer
19 Dave Foley
20 Tommy O'Donnell
21 Cathal Sheridan
22 Johnny Holland
23 Ivan Dineen

Edinburgh
 
15 Jack Cuthbert
14 Dougie Fife
13 Sam Beard
12 Andries Strauss
11 Tim Visser

10 Greig Tonks
9 Sean Kennedy

1 Alasdair Dickinson
2 Ross Ford (Captain)
3 John Andress
4 Fraser McKenzie
5 Ollie Atkins
6 Tomas Leonardi
7 Hamish Watson
8 Cornell Du Preez

16 James Hilterbrand
17 Rory Sutherland
18 W P Nel
19 Ben Toolis
20 Mike Coman
21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne
22 Nick McLennan
23 Phil Burleigh

RDW_Scotland wrote:

IanBru wrote:I'm going to disagree with you RDW - Coman was the primary tackler, and for the life of me I can't see what he has done wrong there.

Wasn't a comment on the decision - it was poor from the red to give a pen but no yellow!

I reckon he wasn't sure himself

Ah, coolio!

Big run by Dougie Lomu Fife

HE WAS STRAIGHT OFF HIS BLOODY FEET!!

His knees hit the ground!

Jeezoh!

Fife should have gone outside not inside. God Edinburgh will be kicking themselves if missing that chance is the difference

Take your time Tom!

It's about time Hodges gave a penalty at the scrum Munster have been bent into all sorts of shapes with no reared for the dominant side!

Just go for the corner!

That was a forward pass to zebo on the wing there

Frak off Frak off Frak off Frak off ref Frak,right off

Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!!

Nel!!!!!!!!!

Oh my god.

Waaahooo!! Amazing boys!!

Congrats brothers!

Ooooooft. Nel can breath again

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Bloody stressful!

But boy did we deserve that!

Well done Edinburgh, The team looks very well drilled.

Yesssssss!!!! I have a sudden really strong urge to buy Ian Keately a pint...

How lucky was that! Well done Edinburgh.

Big, big kick. Long one. Hard one.

HE'S MISSED!

Tbh, I don't think that Munster performance merited a win. It would have just papered over the cracks. Some loose sphincters in Embra because they missed two absolutely golden chances to finish that off.

Keatley will find it tough, 1 from 4 and they lost by a point.

How has it finished guys? Saw it at 14-13

Is this real life?

GLove39 wrote:Yesssssss!!!! I have a sudden really strong urge to buy Ian Keately a pint...

I'd say he'll need one aye.

Well Edinburgh win, despite their best efforts to throw it away! I think we can probably say that Keatley was our man of the match!

Still an away win at Thormund park is never to be sniffed at and it would have been psychologically devastating for them if they had thrown it away.

Neutralee wrote:How has it finished guys? Saw it at 14-13

Finished that way. Munster missed a penalty with the last kick of the game.

So how we're edinburgh on the whole then?

How did wafson play?

Well deserved win for Edinburgh against Stander!!

Thank you Keatley!

Never in doubt...

wow what a result for Embra!

How did munster look? Like they just got told they were lucky they had a contract?

Welly wrote: So how we're edinburgh on the whole then?


How did wafson play?

Significant step up in performance from last season, but we did our best to lose a game we should have easily won.

Watson was everywhere as always!

I am off to take a screen shot of the table.

Top marks to the Luvvies for showing real grit and winning in Thomond.
Plusses: real guts and resolute defence.
Minuses: Very predictable one out attack Mrs Fes in her present state could have played 10. Total inability to close out the game.
But a win, in Ireland, well done the exfoliators.

Three yellow cards? Holy crapola. Was Hodges just doing his usual impression of a man sausage or was our discipline really that bad?

George Carlin wrote:Three yellow cards? Holy crapola. Was Hodges just doing his usual impression of a man sausage or was our discipline really that bad?

I would say 2 out of the 3 were deserved. I would also like to see the replay of the DOC incident.

Deserved win. Delighted with the result and the way we played. Sure at times we did our best to try and lose it, but the overall play was a massive step up from last year

Hamish Watson had a good game, as did pretty much all the Edinburgh pack, subs as well. The backs were more of a mixed bag. Kennedy struggled and Heathcote I am sure is a much better player than he showed tonight. He looks like what he is, someone who is short on confidence, not having played for a year. I am sure he will improve.

Dougie Fife looked sharp and very dangerous and we saw a few flashes of Cuthbert and Viss. Strauss did not show very much and was easily eclipsed by Burleigh when he came on. Beard made the try with a beautiful kick and was probably right to ignore me yelling at him to pass!

All in all a very promising start, the defence was outstanding. If they can get a little bit more clinical in attack they will be a handful for anyone, even Glasgow!

Wasn't Heathcote dropped into the team at the 11th hour though?
He wasn't even on the team sheet and then suddenly he was starting. He'll get better.

I only caught the last 25 minutes but Fife looked rapid and absolutely mad for it. Cuthbert looked safe as usual. Hopefully nothing badly wrong with Visser. All of the Edinburgh pack looked like they wanted to carry, which was great and our front row looked in very good shape in the tight.

And this is before Anton Bresler and Matt Scott get onto the field.

Get in!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Phew, 3 yellow cards for us.
The video replay "breaking" on the yellow card Munster incident - leaving the Irish TMO to make the call himself.
A few boobies as well that nearly handed it to them at the end. My heart is still trying to recover. Well deserved and delighted with the win.

Hi, I'm Jonny by the way. Long time v2 stalker but decided to contribute this season and now is as good a time as any.

Mabye too early to analyse but......in the friendly against Leicester we had a narrow lead and got a very long range pen with about 3/4 to go. I felt the wrong call was made to kick for goal. Decent chance of it dropping short and giving them one last bite of the cherry, which they took. I nearly signed up to comment then as I felt the call should have been kick for touch and try to retain possession for the last 3 mins or so. I felt that was a higher percentage play and the kick for goal a bit of a stretch. (Figured I'd look a bit sad though signing up to over analyse a friendly.)
However, roll forward to tonight and it happened again exactly the same. Long (very long) penalty with 3 to go dropped short giving them time to work through to get a kickable pen of their own. Thankfully this time it missed, but the point stands - is there a lack of thinking clearly under pressure here? or is our captains (Coman at the time) leadership call up for scratch? Or does anyone disagree with me here?

Anyway, a bit too waffly for immediately post match. Don't mind if nobody responds, just sat at home along screaming at the telly and needed to let some steam out to someone. Delighted!


Edit: noticed irnbru say "kick for the corner!" earlier on this page.

Bresler might not walk into the team based Mackenzie and Atkins' performance!

Really want to see more of hurly though.

JonnyEdinburgh wrote:Get in!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
Phew, 3 yellow cards for us.  
The video replay "breaking" on the yellow card Munster incident - leaving the Irish TMO to make the call himself.
A few boobies as well that nearly handed it to them at the end.  My heart is still trying to recover.  Well deserved and delighted with the win.

Hi, I'm Jonny by the way.  Long time v2 stalker but decided to contribute this season and now is as good a time as any.

Mabye too early to analyse but......in the friendly against Leicester we had a narrow lead and got a very long range pen with about 3/4 to go.  I felt the wrong call was made to kick for goal.  Decent chance of it dropping short and giving them one last bite of the cherry, which they took.  I nearly signed up to comment then as I felt the call should have been kick for touch and try to retain possession for the last 3 mins or so.  I felt that was a higher percentage play and the kick for goal a bit of a stretch.  (Figured I'd look a bit sad though signing up to over analyse a friendly.)
However, roll forward to tonight and it happened again exactly the same. Long (very long) penalty with 3 to go dropped short giving them time to work through to get a kickable pen of their own.  Thankfully this time it missed, but the point stands - is there a lack of thinking clearly under pressure here? or is our captains (Coman at the time) leadership call up for scratch?  Or does anyone disagree with me here?

Anyway, a bit too waffly for immediately post match.  Don't mind if nobody responds, just sat at home along screaming at the telly and needed to let some steam out to someone.  Delighted!


Edit:  noticed irnbru say "kick for the corner!" earlier on this page.  

Welcome.

JonnyEdinburgh wrote:Get in!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
Phew, 3 yellow cards for us.  
The video replay "breaking" on the yellow card Munster incident - leaving the Irish TMO to make the call himself.
A few boobies as well that nearly handed it to them at the end.  My heart is still trying to recover.  Well deserved and delighted with the win.

Hi, I'm Jonny by the way.  Long time v2 stalker but decided to contribute this season and now is as good a time as any.

Mabye too early to analyse but......in the friendly against Leicester we had a narrow lead and got a very long range pen with about 3/4 to go.  I felt the wrong call was made to kick for goal.  Decent chance of it dropping short and giving them one last bite of the cherry, which they took.  I nearly signed up to comment then as I felt the call should have been kick for touch and try to retain possession for the last 3 mins or so.  I felt that was a higher percentage play and the kick for goal a bit of a stretch.  (Figured I'd look a bit sad though signing up to over analyse a friendly.)
However, roll forward to tonight and it happened again exactly the same. Long (very long) penalty with 3 to go dropped short giving them time to work through to get a kickable pen of their own.  Thankfully this time it missed, but the point stands - is there a lack of thinking clearly under pressure here? or is our captains (Coman at the time) leadership call up for scratch?  Or does anyone disagree with me here?

Anyway, a bit too waffly for immediately post match.  Don't mind if nobody responds, just sat at home along screaming at the telly and needed to let some steam out to someone.  Delighted!


Edit:  noticed irnbru say "kick for the corner!" earlier on this page.  

Welcome to the forum!

I think it was a decent call, but Cuthbert should have kicked.

That last season at Bath has nearly ruined Heathcote by the looks of things, just as they almost did with Cuthbert, who just needed the opportunity to show what a good player he is. I hope TH goes the same way and gets some decent game time to show what he can do. I still remember him outplaying Ford in the A international a few years back. He also looked very good when he was playing regularly for bath when he was 20. I am sure he will come good.

JonnyEdinburgh wrote:Get in!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
Phew, 3 yellow cards for us.  
The video replay "breaking" on the yellow card Munster incident - leaving the Irish TMO to make the call himself.
A few boobies as well that nearly handed it to them at the end.  My heart is still trying to recover.  Well deserved and delighted with the win.

Hi, I'm Jonny by the way.  Long time v2 stalker but decided to contribute this season and now is as good a time as any.

Mabye too early to analyse but......in the friendly against Leicester we had a narrow lead and got a very long range pen with about 3/4 to go.  I felt the wrong call was made to kick for goal.  Decent chance of it dropping short and giving them one last bite of the cherry, which they took.  I nearly signed up to comment then as I felt the call should have been kick for touch and try to retain possession for the last 3 mins or so.  I felt that was a higher percentage play and the kick for goal a bit of a stretch.  (Figured I'd look a bit sad though signing up to over analyse a friendly.)
However, roll forward to tonight and it happened again exactly the same. Long (very long) penalty with 3 to go dropped short giving them time to work through to get a kickable pen of their own.  Thankfully this time it missed, but the point stands - is there a lack of thinking clearly under pressure here? or is our captains (Coman at the time) leadership call up for scratch?  Or does anyone disagree with me here?

Anyway, a bit too waffly for immediately post match.  Don't mind if nobody responds, just sat at home along screaming at the telly and needed to let some steam out to someone.  Delighted!


Edit:  noticed irnbru say "kick for the corner!" earlier on this page.  

Welcome as well, I stalked for a long time before taking the plunge as well. I am very glad I did now, it has been a lot of fun. The Scottish posters generally don't take themselves to seriously. How can we at the end of the day!

I'll take the win in Thomond with Hodges having no idea how to ref but a lot to work on. Also worried that Timbo may be out for a while.

Welcome Jonny

RDW_Scotland wrote:Bresler might not walk into the team based Mackenzie and Atkins' performance!

Really want to see more of hurly though.

Expected a bit more from MacKenzie to be honest, was at fault for Stander 2nd try but did a good job at the mauls, was surprised to see him loosehead lock thought he was bigger than Atkins.

Atkins i thought was immense apart from one ball lost into contact deep in Munster's 22, carried all evening.

With Gilchrist and Bresler that's a great set of lock.

A typical blasé and lethargic start from Munster (I mean the first half - not the entire game)  They chugged along in the lowest gear they have and seemed to think a ratchet up in the second would suffice.  And it damn nearly did, which would have been a remarkable and probably unfortunate steal from the more mentally involved and controlled Edinburgh.

Still - knowing Munster - that game by the end had enough bite from them to show they'll most probably improve in all departments as the season goes on.  But each season is getting tougher, more teams hit harder and, really, losing games is a luxury in Pro12 that few if any backed sides can afford.  Training field pace in certain games (that was undoubtedly utilised in years gone by) will be a dangerous philosophy in our new European reality.

Thanks for the welcomes folks.
Biggest positive: Depth. When we lost a few injury/international/rested in the run in last year the season tailed off in a whimper. Given our absentees this bodes very well.
Negative: I think I counted 312 basic errors in the last 15 minutes, so far from perfect! The good thing was that after each error we seemed to hit the following ruck even harder rather than letting the heads drop. Bring on Connacht...

SecretFly wrote:A typical blasé and lethargic start from Munster (I mean the first half - not the entire game)  They chugged along in the lowest gear they have and seemed to think a ratchet up in the second would suffice.  And it damn nearly did, which would have been a remarkable and probably unfortunate steal from the more mentally involved and controlled Edinburgh.

Still - knowing Munster - that game by the end had enough bite from them to show they'll most probably improve in all departments as the season goes on.  But each season is getting tougher, more teams hit harder and, really, losing games is a luxury in Pro12 that few if any backed sides can afford.  Training field pace in certain games (that was undoubtedly utilised in years gone by) will be a dangerous philosophy in our new European reality.

I think it is going to be a very different league this year, truly competitive. The Irish sides may well have to take all the games a bit more seriously now. This may be a warning to them what might happen if they don't. Munster will probably still be ahead of Edinburgh at the end of the season, but you have only got to lose one or two games at home and suddenly the aura is gone. In previous years sides went to Thomund hoping for a losing bonus point at best. If sides start going there genuinely thinking they will win, it puts a different complexion on things. This can only be a good thing for the league.

BigGee wrote:

SecretFly wrote:A typical blasé and lethargic start from Munster (I mean the first half - not the entire game)  They chugged along in the lowest gear they have and seemed to think a ratchet up in the second would suffice.  And it damn nearly did, which would have been a remarkable and probably unfortunate steal from the more mentally involved and controlled Edinburgh.

Still - knowing Munster - that game by the end had enough bite from them to show they'll most probably improve in all departments as the season goes on.  But each season is getting tougher, more teams hit harder and, really, losing games is a luxury in Pro12 that few if any backed sides can afford.  Training field pace in certain games (that was undoubtedly utilised in years gone by) will be a dangerous philosophy in our new European reality.

I think it is going to be a very different league this year, truly competitive. The Irish sides may well have to take all the games a bit more seriously now. This may be a warning to them what might happen if they don't. Munster will probably still be ahead of Edinburgh at the end of the season, but you have only got to lose one or two games at home and suddenly the aura is gone. In previous years sides went to Thomund hoping for a losing bonus point at best. If sides start going there genuinely thinking they will win, it puts a different complexion on things. This can only be a good thing for the league.

Munster have actually lost their last 3 league games when playing in Thomand. So much for it being a fortress.

The rugby season is back so it looks like I am back to spending my weekends on 606v2!

Very pleased with tonight's result, although Kennedy would be my 3rd choice 9 I thought he was excellent tonight and really gave the backline a tempo.


Other positives from tonight:
The scrum was very good (even though the ref didn't agree?) and it showed that pre season was no fluke.
Hamish Watson was a great ball carrier and was everywhere,
Coman played well when he came on(unlucky with pen),
Sam beard looks comfortable and we have plenty of competition for the 13 jersey,
The lad burleigh looks solid and could be a very good signing, not sure what position he will play though.

Negatives
Heathcote didn't control the game considering the platform he was given,
We miss matt Scott, Strauss is solid but generally runs the same straight line.
Cornell du preez is a great player but can be lazy I watched him at around the 50 minute really struggling to keep up with play, over 5 phases he did not bother to ruck or look for the ball in any of them. Very similar to the ruck inspector himself mr kellock !

Welcome jonny it is always good to have a few more scottish posters on this forum