Saracens vs Munster

Date: Sunday, December 16
Kick-off: 15:00
Venue: Vicarage Road
Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France)
Assistant referees: Jérôme Garces (France), Jean-Luc Rebollal (France)
Television match official: Gérard Borreani (France)

Munsters selection hinges on two facts, one the selection of O'Gara at ten and two, not having Keith Earls available. Earls went through the saracens defence last week like a hot knife through butter. He and Downey had a free reign over Farrell and Barritt. Problem was that O'Gara rarely recognised this advantage, kicking away too much attacking ball.

Saracens have moved Owen Farrell from outside centre to fly-half for their Heineken Cup Pool rematch with Munster at Vicarage Road on Sunday.

Both teams are level on match points in Pool 1 and in team news ahead of what will be a near sell-out crowd in Watford, Farrell starts the game at ten, with Joel Tomkins, David Strettle and George Kruis all coming into the starting line-up from the side that faced Munster last weekend.


The teams:

Saracens: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Joel Tomkins, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 David Strettle, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Richard Wigglesworth, 8 Kelly Brown, 7 Will Fraser, 6 George Kruis, 5 Mouritz Botha, 4 Steve Borthwick (capt), 3 Matt Stevens, 2 Schalk Brits, 1 Rhys Gill.
Replacements: 16 John Smit, 17 Mako Vunipola, 18 Petrus du Plessis, 19 Eoin Sheriff, 20 Ernst Joubert, 21 Neil de Kock, 22 Charlie Hodgson, 23 Chris Wyles.

Munster: 15 Felix Jones, 14 Doug Howlett (capt), 13 Casey Laulala, 12 James Downey, 11 Simon Zebo, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Conor Murray, 8 James Coughlan, 7 Peter O'Mahony, 6 Dave O'Callaghan, 5 Donnacha Ryan, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 BJ Botha, 2 Mike Sherry, 1 David Kilcoyne.
Replacements: 16 Damien Varley, 17 Wian du Preez, 18 Stephen Archer, 19 Billy Holland, 20 Peter Butler, 21 Duncan Williams, 22 Ian Keatley, 23 Luk O'Dea.

With ROG there Munster won't win, they don't have a shot of getting much going other than crash ball. Bonus point perhaps but I wouldn't be too confident of that.

Think thats a little harsh Thomond. I agree that keately offers more but ROG has been here before and delivered. Was just looking back at last years highlights against Sarries and he was superb.

Our pack looks like shaping up to be the aggressive pack of old. Killer, Coughlan POM, DOC all in great form.

I think we can pull a win out of this today

GWAN MUNSTER

Thomond is right though, ROG is the weak link in your team and the only reason to want him still playing is for nostalgic reasons.

Anyway, come on and win this Munster, we need one irish province to get a win this round!

ROG is a weak link alright. Earls could be a loss too, Lualala needs a big game.

The worry for Munster is the scrum. Different refs have different interpretations. I think Munster can dominate the breakdown and hopefully attack Saracens more this week.

Expect this to be a cracker of a game.

Great chip kick by O'Gara for Zebo to gather.

Nicely worked kick for strettle to score.

Wiggo Strettle try!

I saw that intercpet pass coming before it happened. Daft.

Go Munster

Bad mistake by Farrell there after Sarries looked in control for most part of game so far.

Horribly soft try

I would actually have given that penalty to Saracens for blocking.

Jones injured again? Awful for him, he just cant catch a break

Farrells kicking from hand has been brilliant today

Strange game, Sarancens is conrolling the territory and possession, but every mistake they make Munster hits back hard.

Golden wrote:Farrells kicking from hand has been brilliant today

Unfortunately his passing hasn't been. Slow, loopy and often the wrong choice with the miss-pass.

Awful from Sarries, great work from Munster. Sarries forwards far too lazy to get across.

Just replyed the Strettle try on sky plus and he grounded the ball past the dead ball line. Shouldn't have been given...

There are two lines goon, the line you saw isn't the deadball line.

the-goon wrote:Just replyed the Strettle try on sky plus and he grounded the ball past the dead ball line. Shouldn't have been given...

Just saw that on the halftime highlights, it was past the dead ball line by the looks of it? How did they miss that?

Question for any referees out there.

O'Gara had a dropout 22 when the clock was red. What would have happened if he had just kicked it out on the full?

Say ye are confusing it with the soccer markings perhaps? Owen Farrell is a little scut from that shot at Zebo to moving in the kick. I hope he become acquainted with Laulala and Downey in the second half as he is dumped on his arse.


"World Player of the Year,you're shoite boy." To paraphrase a Cork legend


He is kicking well out of hand but some mystifying passes, getting intercepted by Downey is pretty bad! Defending su0perbly, I will reiterate my stance that with ROG we offer nothing in attack and it could be our death.

Yeah there are other marking, it just showed the pitch

Didnt see the jones injury what happened?

Pulled up Pete, while looking to recover a kick in behind. Hammer injury I'd say shouldn't be too bad, nothing look his previous hopefully,

Thomond wrote:Say ye are confusing it with the soccer markings perhaps? Owen Farrell is a little scut from that shot at Zebo to moving in the kick. I hope he become acquainted with Laulala and Downey in the second half as he is dumped on his arse.


"World Player of the Year,you're shoite boy." To paraphrase a Cork legend


He is kicking well out of hand but some mystifying passes, getting intercepted by Downey is pretty bad! Defending su0perbly, I will reiterate my stance that with ROG we offer nothing in attack and it could be our death.

The commentators love him. Barnes druels everytime he does something half decent, even if its something as simple as a 22 drop out.

They used to do the same with Courtney Lawes, the best athlete ever according to Stuart Barnes' logic, talks some shoite at times. Praised Fraser's technique when he took a knock for a poor tackle, his head was by the attacker's knee that is dreadful technique!

Again poor passing by Saracens.

They mustn't teach the basics well in South Africa Biltong

Thomond wrote:Pulled up Pete, while looking to recover a kick in behind. Hammer injury I'd say shouldn't be too bad, nothing look his previous hopefully,

Cheers thomond, so zebo at 15? could be good for munster me thinks he may get more ball

The ref needs to card Munster - thats 3 times they have kileld the ball when sarries have been a few meters out. cynical!

O'Dea to the wing and Zebo at FB, seemingly, none of our backs will get much ball with ROG at the helm but Zebo may get some room to run fielding the kicks.

ah yeah. it was the soccer markings. my bad

very tight game alright. Sarries getting too many midfield breaks

Thomond wrote:They used to do the same with Courtney Lawes, the best athlete ever according to Stuart Barnes' logic, talks some shoite at times. Praised Fraser's technique when he took a knock for a poor tackle, his head was by the attacker's knee that is dreadful technique!

I remember that when Northampton were playing well. Barnes always seems to overhype English player in the HC and they normal have a massive slump in form afterward (Lawes and Ashton come to mind for starters)

And Farrell misses another penalty....

Farrell is decent but nowhere near as good as he is hyped up to be by the English media, would be hard to live up to that in fairness but I haven't seen him show he can do a great job at running a backline in the HC.

Great by O'Dea, but stupid by Ashton. Is Wian Du Preez on?

Great kick from ROG there 10-13 Munster

O'Gara shows how to kick under pressure...again

10 - 13

I wrote that before he had kicked...

Kilcoyne didn't start due to a stomach bug, Horan on the bench

Thomond wrote:Kilcoyne didn't start due to a stomach bug, Horan on the bench

God, Munster will be praying Du Preez lasts the 80mins.

What happened with Farrell? Looked like he punched Zebo

Thomond wrote:They mustn't teach the basics well in South Africa Biltong

Looks like it mate.

Jeez, Farrell is having a mare if you ask me.

Sarries have got them in the scrum now Mako is on.

They should ask Brits to kick at goal.

Biltong wrote:They should ask Brits to kick at goal.

You don't teach the basics, but you teach Hooker to kick at goal in SA?

wales606 wrote:

Biltong wrote:They should ask Brits to kick at goal.

You don't teach the basics, but you teach Hooker to kick at goal in SA?

It comes naturally.

I think Farrell inhibits his backs as much as rog does his. I think they are both very poor footballing flyhalves

Zebo is unreal