Cardiff Blues v Munster

[An Tarbh]

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Cardiff Blues v Munster

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Blues out-half Rhys Jones will make his first start on Saturday having previously only appeared as a sub.

Given the strength of the backline with the likes of Robinson and Thomas in the centre and Blair at full back they'll certainly be looking to take advantage and move ahead of Munster in the table.

Jerry Flannery has not been included in the squad for Munster's trip to the Welsh capital in what will be seen as an indication that he may not be involved in the Wales games or certainly won't start at any rate.

Paul O'Connell will be looking to play 80 minutes as he also looks to make a case for a starting berth against the Welsh on March 8.

Tony Buckley and Peter Stringer have both been released from the Ireland squad and have been included in the squad. However Rua Tipoki misses out with a back strain.

You'd think it should be a home win but you would have said the same 2 weeks ago and Munster still got the job done in Edinburgh, so definitely a tough one to call.

 

[MunsterMan]

O'Connell, Quinlan, Stringer Buckley In Munster Squad
28 February 2008, 1:39 pm
By Pat Geraghty


Senior internationals Paul O'Connell, Alan Quinlan, Tony Buckley and Peter Stringer are all included in the Munster squad for Saturday's Magners League clash with Cardiff Blues at the Arms Park (5.30).
Quinlan, Buckley and Stringer all started in the game against Edinburgh while O?Connell made his first senior appearance of the season for Munster from the bench before going on to return to Ireland action against Scotland at Croke Park.
Jerry Flannery has returned to training following a groin strain but wasn?t deemed ready for consideration for this game while Rua Tipoki suffered a slight back strain in training and was also omitted from the squad as a precaution.

Munster lie in third place in the League one place ahead of Saturday?s opponents who are on the same points (29) as Declan Kidney?s side.

Kidney will announce his starting XV and replacements tomorrow (Friday) lunchtime.

Munster Squad: S Payne, B Carney, I Dowling, D Howlett, K Lewis, L Mafi, P Warwick, J Manning, T O'Leary, P Stringer, F Pucciariello, T Buckley, Darragh Hurley, F Sheahan, D Fogarty, P O?Connell, D Ryan, M Melbourne, A Quinlan, N Ronan, J Coughlan, T O'Donnell, J O'Sullivan, A Foley.




Looking forward to this. I think we can win it,

Freddie
Frankie
Buckley
Ryan
P'O Connell
Quinlan
Ronan
Foley

That's a savage pack for half way through the six nations, pity Flannery and Tipoki are injured

 

[shtove]

Munster looking good. Warwick at 10, Lewis at 13 instead of injured Tipoki.

Who cares? I just want to see Hulk Buckley chucking people out of the ruck as he searches for the ball.

 

[Cymro]

Cardiff Blues Team: 15 Ben Blair, 14 Tal Selley,
13 Jamie Robinson, 12 Gareth Thomas, 11 Jamie Roberts, 10 Rhys Jones, 9 Richie Rees,
8 Xavier Rush &copy;, 7 Robin Sowden Taylor, 6 Mamma Molitika, 5 Paul ***o, 4 Deiniol Jones, 3 Gary Powell,
2 T Rhys Thomas, 1 John Yapp

Replacements: 16 Tauf’ao Filise, 17 Gareth Williams, 18 Scott Morgan, 19 Ben White, 20 Jason Spice, 21 Nick Macleod, 22 Dafydd Hewitt

Happy with this squad looks tidy! At last Dai has seen the light and dropped Macleod as he is a pile of gash! Anothr good young and up and coming fly half in Rhys Jones is good to see him start!

 

[Cymro]

WHAT A GAME, WHAT A GAME!

Cardiff 25 - Munster 22

 

[MunsterMan]

f***!

 

[Captain Morgan]

Sweet.

 

[MunsterMan]

Cardiff Blues 25 - 22 (8 - 10) Munster R
Tries:
Thomas, Roberts, Selley
Tries:
Payne, Buckley, O'Connell
Penalties:
Blair 2
Penalties:
Warwick
Conversions:
Blair 2
Conversions:
Warwick 2

 

[Cymro]

I felt that White crossed the line before our last try at the end!

What was the ref seeing? White had clearly come through the middle of that ruck and was legal allowed to pick the ball up and score!

 

[RC]

Sounds like a good win for the blues.
I was walking past the arms park after kick off, leaving work, and it was ridiculously windy. The conditions must have been quite bad for people getting under any high balls.
Was it a good game, or was it just rivetting because of the last minute try?

 

[Cymro]

Sounds like a good win for the blues.
I was walking past the arms park after kick off, leaving work, and it was ridiculously windy. The conditions must have been quite bad for people getting under any high balls.
Was it a good game, or was it just rivetting because of the last minute try?
[/b]

Was a good game, although there was lots of mistakes I felt it was a fairly good game! Although Munster's tactic at the end was their downfall, at 70 mins on the clock Munster in their own 5m line decided to keep the ball and run the clock, this was ok but made for boring rugby, however had Munster kicked the ball over the line when they had the penalty then Im sure Munster would have won!

 

[SmokeyMonkey]

I left 5 mins before the end

 

[RC]

:lol:

Poor bugger.

 

[Cymro]

Harsh Harsh when that happens

 

[Captain Morgan]

I think Munster might have got a bit ahead of themselves in thinking they had won it, this contributed it to their downfall, not like Munster to get cock is it?

 

[Grandslam7805]

What a game. Munster was at their own try line for like the last 5 minutes of the game. I thought the game was over after Cardiff came in from the side, but they stuck with it and got 1 more chance and capitalized.

 

[Cymro]

Still going to say it was a cracking match!

 

[Sir Speedy]

Glad that Munster lost. That play which saw them move around an area of 10 metres in 7 minutes was appalling, and it is negative rugby. As the commentator said on S4C, there's something wrong with the game when a team does this for that amount of time. Fair enough, it was windy and they were in their 22, but they could do that for the whole game if they wanted to.
Then we'd be stuck watching 0 - 0 games everytime Munster play. Can you imagine them keeping the ball tight like that for 80 minutes in a Heineken Cup semi or final, doing the same for the extra time periods, and then letting O'Gara kick them to victory in the goal-kicks at the end? It's ridiculous, and a last minute loss like this is nothing less than what they deserve.
Also, well done Cardiff.

 

[MunsterMan]

Cardiff did the same thing in the first half but we missed tackles and they broke away. Credit should go to Cardiff for defending so well and keeping us there which is what we couldn't do to them i suppose. (Anyone know where i can see stats? our missed tackle count must have been huge). If that penalty had only found touch! :wall:

 

[Cymro]

Odd how i cant find any :'(