European Champions Cup Round 3 & 4 - Munster V Leicester

First topic message reminder :

When: Saturday 9th December, 19:45
Where: Thomond Park, Limerick
TV: BT Sports, beIN


Referee: Jérome Garcès (Fra)
Assistant Referees: Ludovic Cayre (Fra), Hervé Lasausa (Fra)
TMO: Philippe Bonhoure (Fra)


For the third year in a row, the two former champions meet in the December back to back clashes. For the third year in a row it starts with a game in Limerick
2015 - Leicester win both matches on the way to making the Semi final stage.
2016 - Munster thrash Leicester in the first game, before narrowly losing the return at Welford Road as it was their turn to make the semis.


In a tight pool with these two sharing top spot, one point clear of Racing 92, getting the upper-hand in this pair of fixtures could be vital in the quest to qualify from the group. Maybe it is the pessimist in me, but I am struggling to see far beyond two wins for the Irish Province.


Round 4:

Where - Welford Road Stadium, Leicester
When - Sunday 17th December; 17:30
TV: BT Sports, beIN

Referee: Mathieu Reynal (Fr)
Assistant Refs: Tual Trainini (Fra), Mathieu Noirot (Fra)
TMO: Philippe Bonhoure (Fra)



Last season Leicester turned a 38-0 loss to Munster in Round 3 into a narrow win at home in Round 4. Can they do it again? Probably not but I can hope.

Erm. That's a strange citing unless I'm not seeing something?

eirebilly wrote:Tuilagi cited

http://rugbylad.ie/watch-manu-tuilagi-cited-for-this-dangerous-tackle-on-munsters-chris-cloete/

I cannot for the life of me see anything wrong here. Seems to be a waste of time...

You could argue he's a little high but there's nothing in that worth of referral (he'd have been unlucky to give a penalty away). He wraps him up and makes as much contact with his chest than his shoulder. If we're going to hand out citings for tackles like that then they'll be a dozen players cited every weekend.

A complete and utter waste of time. It really does annoy me to see something like that cited, it makes a mockery of the system.

Before kickoff I was expecting Manu to be too fired up and get binned or worse, so in that sense a citing is unsurprising.

That's Frak pathetic though, as long as he avoids eating the biscuits he'll be out in 5 minutes.

And yet somehow Healy gets away with a yellow for a deliberate shoulder charge to the head ... WTF

Heaf wrote:And yet somehow Healy gets away with a yellow for a deliberate shoulder charge to the head ... WTF

Healy has been cited as well!

They must have used the wrong clip. There is a no arms.tackle.by Tuilagi on the same player which is.defintaely a pen and probably for me a yellow.

Its the right clip, the citing is for shoulder to jaw. When you slow it down you can see it but it is very unavoidable as Cloete was dropping to take the hit. Again, I see absolutely nothing in this that warrants a citing.

I didn't see any 'no arms' tackle from Tuilagi on Cloete during the game either 7&1/2, can you remember approximately when that happened?

There's a link on twitter. I'll have a gander.

Check out @threeredkings’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/threeredkings/status/943072388241076224?s=09

Not sure if this will work...

It works but I don't see any issue with that either. Looks like he is wrapping his arms to me.

I think it may be one of those 'if ye look hard enough, you will find it' kind of incidents.

Cheers for the link

No probs. It's kind of going against what citing should be about which are the blatant mistakes.

You'd argue that one is more likely to attract a citing as the left arm is isn't really wrapped though that angle shows the right is but the force of the contact takes the tackled player away from Manu.

I think the citing officer is going to try and argue initial contact of the shoulder is with the head on the first tackle. Which looks marginal at best but by the letter of the revised laws is a red where as that hit as the player tries to grab the ball would never be more than a yellow if it was deemed a shoulder charge.

BigGee wrote:

Heaf wrote:And yet somehow Healy gets away with a yellow for a deliberate shoulder charge to the head ... WTF

Healy has been cited as well!

Ah good ...

Manu cleared.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Manu cleared.

I am really surprised by that, that blatant attack to the head of Cloete that the citing officer, alone, saw should have seen Tuilagi with a Hartley like suspension

Both those looked fine to me, especially for Manu who had made faaarrr worse tackles in his career

yappysnap wrote:Both those looked fine to me, especially for Manu who had made faaarrr worse tackles in his career

To be honest there were significantly worse hits in that game. If Manu got cited for that I'm amazed Logo didn't get cited for smashing the Munster centre with a no arm high shoulder after he tried to run off with the ball having been put into touch and the whistle going.

Manu looks to have leaned down a little so hopefully we'll see him a little more flexible and able to bend down into the tackles now.

Heaf wrote:

BigGee wrote:

Heaf wrote:And yet somehow Healy gets away with a yellow for a deliberate shoulder charge to the head ... WTF

Healy has been cited as well!

Ah good ...

Healy got 3 weeks - how the ref ever saw that as a yellow is a mystery - too late for Chiefs of course ...

Healy has quite a catalogue of foul play now. Some sanctioned, some not. His nasty stamp on Cole still leaves a bad taste.

Yea then there's the whole punching and head butting lunacy in that England game too

Heaf wrote:

Heaf wrote:

BigGee wrote:

Heaf wrote:And yet somehow Healy gets away with a yellow for a deliberate shoulder charge to the head ... WTF

Healy has been cited as well!

Ah good ...

Healy got 3 weeks - how the ref ever saw that as a yellow is a mystery - too late for Chiefs of course ...

French refs seem to be more tolerant of physical violence than their B&I counterparts.