European games round 3.

Didn’t see a thread. Apologies if there is one.

Good start by Quins. Cardiff seemed to be defending very narrowly again. A lovely conversion by Marcus Smith too.

Strong by Lane

Another nice kick.

Cardiff score again, but I think Adams killed Lee Lo there, by over running him.

It's a very open game so far, plenty of attack and a lot of errors. 

Should be a good second half but Cardiff will face a tough start with a man in the bin and Quins on top at scrum time.

Yeah, I haven’t been convinced by Arhip recently and I probably won’t ever be convinced by his replacement Lewis.

Enjoyable game though.

Lovely by Quins.

Looked like Cardiff were on a bit before that though, before a poor Amos error.

Bit of asymmetric refereeing there. Not even a warning.

This is getting bizarre. Lane was clearly in front.

I didn’t get that at all. I am watching on S4C so wasn’t really sure why they checked the finish, after Lane looked in front. Not sure what happened there.

Poorfour wrote:Bit of asymmetric refereeing there. Not even a warning.

It was so lazy and cynical he deserved it. All he had to do was to make some half baked effort to make it look like he was trying to wriggle out the way and he slows the ball and escapes the yellow probably not the pen. Was it 4 pens in 3 mins? Kicking the ball away just before. Wasn't painting a good image to the ref.

The Care try being disallowed was quite harsh considering they've let the Lane one stand.

I just watched it on BT Twitter. Did the ref try saying was Lane pushed or something? I really don’t get it.

Tomos Williams delivering a 9 masterclass tonight

How can they look at that and come to the conclusion he wasn't offside?

RiscaGame wrote:I just watched it on BT Twitter. Did the ref try saying was Lane pushed or something? I really don’t get it.

yes, he wanted the push to be checked but thought it was OK after the TMO replay. This is a score-a-thon.

2 infringements results in a warning this time. I love a bit of consistency

That was so sideways the Cardiff player took out the legs of the last man in the ruck.

Poorfour wrote:2 infringements results in a warning this time. I love a bit of consistency

Yes. But the last few minutes should be interesting....

And about time too, sir

Semi pro hooker on now.

Bar the Lane try I think the ref has been pretty good.

Been an entertaining game, as a neutral, still some time for another couple of twists in the tale.

Marcus Smith is a player....

Good shift Marler, going 75 mins

doctor_grey wrote:Marcus Smith is a player....

He just seems to be operating at 1.5x speed whilst everyone else is on 1x speed.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Bar the Lane try I think the ref has been pretty good.

Been an entertaining game, as a neutral, still some time for another couple of twists in the tale.

Well, you’re right on the second point.

Poorfour wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:Bar the Lane try I think the ref has been pretty good.

Been an entertaining game, as a neutral, still some time for another couple of twists in the tale.

Well, you’re right on the second point.

You're hoping for not one more.

Hope is for other teams. Quins have Marcus Smith.

He gets it. Another late Quins comeback. Little bit of unnecessary stuff at the end. Think Adams is more annoyed by his own error and getting turned over than by whatever he's kicking off about.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

doctor_grey wrote:Marcus Smith is a player....

He just seems to be operating at 1.5x speed whilst everyone else is on 1x speed.

Marcus Smith must have had a little drink
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/47505da4-d9ea-4d8f-b6ec-c375810e68aa

Quins really are a glass canon aren't they? Brilliant in attack, brilliantly ridiculous in defence. Love watching them, but must give their supporters grey hairs.

Cumbrian wrote:Quins really are a glass canon aren't they?  Brilliant in attack, brilliantly ridiculous in defence.  Love watching them, but must give their supporters grey hairs.

Not so much a glass cannon as just playing to different criteria. “Glass cannon” implies that they’re easily broken, whereas for the past year they’ve been one of the most resilient teams, coming back from huge deficits and finding ways to win with the clock dead.

Hell of a way to throw that away. I know there was thirty seconds to play, but I think I would’ve preferred to have taken a DG in front of the posts and then try seeing the game out.

Adams must be annoyed with himself. I see he kicked off about a bit of sledging too, but it wasn’t the best way to try launching an attack.

Poorfour wrote:

Cumbrian wrote:Quins really are a glass canon aren't they?  Brilliant in attack, brilliantly ridiculous in defence.  Love watching them, but must give their supporters grey hairs.

Not so much a glass cannon as just playing to different criteria. “Glass cannon” implies that they’re easily broken, whereas for the past year they’ve been one of the most resilient teams, coming back from huge deficits and finding ways to win with the clock dead.

I suppose I mean that your defence just isn't up to it, you aren't going to win (I hope I'm proved wrong) this competition by leaking that many tries. You'lll eventually meet somebody who can score as freely, but also keep things tight in defence. I reckon if you can tighten things up, you'd easily be one of the best teams in Europe. I say that with affection, one of the reasons I got into union was my old science teacher was a Quins fan.

Good come back from Munster.
A good winning try from Coombes. A very good player indeed.

Cumbrian wrote:

Poorfour wrote:

Cumbrian wrote:Quins really are a glass canon aren't they?  Brilliant in attack, brilliantly ridiculous in defence.  Love watching them, but must give their supporters grey hairs.

Not so much a glass cannon as just playing to different criteria. “Glass cannon” implies that they’re easily broken, whereas for the past year they’ve been one of the most resilient teams, coming back from huge deficits and finding ways to win with the clock dead.

I suppose I mean that your defence just isn't up to it, you aren't going to win (I hope I'm proved wrong) this competition by leaking that many tries. You'lll eventually meet somebody who can score as freely, but also keep things tight in defence.  I reckon if you can tighten things up, you'd easily be one of the best teams in Europe.  I say that with affection, one of the reasons I got into union was my old science teacher was a Quins fan.

Having shouted myself so hoarse at Ashton Gate last season that I couldn’t speak normally for a week, I beg to differ. Quins conceded the ninth most points last season, plus 76 more in the knockout games, and still won the title.

The Champions Cup is a different beast and they probably will need to tighten up, but when they can produce tries from anywhere they will always have a chance.

I think also this game was a bit of a one off. It was a fairly depleted Quins side, with second choice players at lock, third and fourth string players at flanker and a 13 playing 12. At the same time, I think it was a near full strength Cardiff side with 14 internationals in the starting team vs 6 for Quins. We saw in the previous game that Cardiff’s style is a good one against Quins, so it was always going to be a hard one to win. Add in the somewhat asymmetric refereeing, and I’m delighted with the result.

I think Quins were impacted by Kenningham's injury most of all. Lawday is pushing his way in at 6 it seems but he isn't a 7 and won't offer what Kenningham and Evans have to the Quins defence. The chop tackles and jackling were both notably absent from the Quins defence.

I thought Wallace might make a comeback to the Quins first team, is he injured as well?

Healey trying to argue that Umaga didn't deserve a red while agreeing that the rules should say red. Idiot .

Second one in less than a month ...

In fact how was he even playing as he got a 3 match ban?

I'm watching a recording so behind the live play but how was the Toulouse yellow not a red given the red given to Umaga? If anything it looked worse to me and the height drop was no more than the first red ... completely inconsistent.

Heaf wrote:In fact how was he even playing as he got a 3 match ban?

Answering my own question apparently he did a course to reduce the ban - so that didn't work then.

I did think the red and yellow were about right. Wouldn't exactly think a second red was harsh though.

Excellent win for Wasps in the end though ... although arguably they should have gone for the bonus point try from the last pen instead of taking the kick for 3 ...

Alfie Barbeary is some player & is only going to get better

Just got in and put on the Connacht-Leicester. This is some score though 30 minutes to go....

Nice try ...

Tigers scrum has been well on top which makes me even more puzzled how the one just before the 2nd Connacht try was called for Connacht when their TH went straight to ground ...

Wow Tigers snatch it at the end again ....

Connacht crowd don't like it but it's the right call ...

Now players arguing with the ref after the final whistle as if he's going to change his mind and restart the game