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Leicester v Munster - Pool 4

A

An Tarbh

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The defending champions start their campaign at one of the toughest away venues, Welford Rd, with a meeting against the twice former champions in what is arguably the tie of the round. Neither have been setting their leagues on fire but this promises to be a bruising encounter with very little being given from either side. No doubt Ronan O'Gara's mouthing off during the week will have made Leicester's team talk that little bit easier, don't be surprised if he gets an especially warm welcome from Louis Moody, although again don't be surprised if the latter gets a card for it.

On the team news, O'Gara and O'Connell both start having recovered from injuries picked up in the loss to Edinburgh, Barry Murphy and Frankie Sheehan will both start having missed most of last season's campaign. Tom Varndell returns to the Leicester starting lineup following his spell at Bedford. Centre Daryl Gibson and prop Martin Castrogiovanni also play while Paul Burke starts against his old club.

Leicester Tigers: 15 Sam Vesty, 14 Geordan Murphy, 13 Ollie Smith, 12 Daryl Gibson, 11 Tom Varndell, 10 Paul Burke, 9 Scott Bemand, 8 Martin Corry (captain), 7 Lewis Moody, 6 Louis Deacon, 5 Ben Kay, 4 Leo Cullen, 3 Martín Castrogiovanni, 2 George Chuter, 1 Marcos Ayerza
Replacements: 16 James Buckland, 17 Julian White, 18 Jordan Crane, 19 Shane Jennings, 20 Harry Ellis, 21 Andy Goode, 22 Seru Rabeni

Munster: 15 Shaun Payne, 14 John Kelly, 13 Barry Murphy, 12 Trevor Halstead, 11 Ian Dowling, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Anthony Foley, 7 David Wallace, 6 Denis Leamy, 5 Paul O'Connell ©, 4 Donnacha O'Callaghan, 3 John Hayes, 2 Frankie Sheahan, 1 Marcus Horan.
Replacements: 16 Andy Kyriacou, 17 Fredericio Pucciariello, 18 Mick O'Driscoll, 19 Alan Quinlan, 20 Tomas O'Leary, 21 Jeremy Manning, 22 Lifeimi Mafi,

Referee: Nigel Owens
 
To add my 2 penneth, after O'Gara opened his mouth this week and let the wind blow his tounge around, I hope Moody tears him a new arsehole.

Which brings me to another point... How the hell can Ronan O'Gara accuse any other player on earth of being overhyped?
 
Nah people from Cork are worse, he's really just asking for a doing.

Just read in the Times that Murphy is out after suffering a freak eye injury in training on Wednesday, the ball hit him in the eye so he's out for today. His place goes to Johnnie Murphy.

O'Gara really ****** me off though, he puts in a performance like he did for Munster against Leinster yet he never plays like that for Ireland even though the capabilities are there.
 
Well he may have mouthed off during the week but he certainly delivered at the death with that kick, phenomenal effort given the conditions.

Leicester really should have won that game given the dominance they had but fair play to Munster, once again they dig deep into the reserves. Shouldn't have doubted them, especially with the effort of Donncha for his try.
 
bit harsh there lora

bad week alright for the English with only 1 from 6 but again I make the point about the margins of the games, it's not as if many teams were beaten off the park.

Leicester could have won that match, Sale could have taken it against the Ospreys on Friday, even Glaws yesterday, had they taken the penalty instead of kicking to the corner it would have been a very different game, what would have been 7 points behind quickly went to 17, shows how quick the game can turn. No disgrace in Saints losing to Biarritz, not many teams win there, regardless of nationality. So it easily have been 4-2 in favour of the English.
 
hahaha @ the english heirachy

you boring foward based losers, bad weak for england, in fact a bad month for england

there just awful really really poor.

im glad o gara backed his mouth today, he showed that yes english people are fat ugly and unfit.
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Always a pleasure to read your abusive tirades.

Most of that has absolutely nothing to do with rugby, just more little man syndrome being displayed.

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On the subject of the actual match, now that Munster have recorded their first trophy win, could this be a sign that they may actually start winning all the big matches on the European stage? Confidence must certainly be high.
 
could be especially given their previous record in England certainly not being as good as their record in France
 
Great win for us today. In fairness though if Goode had started we could well have lost
 
i doubt it,

im glad, i was actually jumping with joy, seeing english clubs get off to a **** start in the comp they take seriously.

maybe now ppl will realise tht the gp, is the WEAKEST out of the big three leagues.
 
so what i hate england, whats the problem,

england whole history is based on them being racist, so dont give me tht b.s

nd dont threaten me with minue rep, cos i dnt give a **** about it at all, i dnt licking scrotum to get rep. you dogmatic old fool

anyways the match, - simple, munster were the better side, and o gara showed his class today. i mean is what o gara said racist, no its the truth.
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I think everyone has already gotten that message, no need to keep belting it out repeatedly.

I don't think anyone ever implied that what ROG said was racist, far from it.

i doubt it,

im glad, i was actually jumping with joy, seeing english clubs get off to a **** start in the comp they take seriously.

maybe now ppl will realise tht the gp, is the WEAKEST out of the big three leagues.[/b]

The GP and Top14 are far stronger than the ML, we only have 2 teams who can seriously win the HEC, they both have 4, it's English and French teams that win the Challenge Cup not the ML teams, they don't even get that far in the tournament, bar Connacht. We've a far way to go before we can claim we're stronger than the GP, besides the ML is shown live on Setanta and BBC Wales, if it was that good it'd be live on Sky Sports, wouldn't it.
 
thts o garas point, he said tht there is this believe instilled in people tht english rugby, both internationally and domestically is stronger thn tht of its competitors, and he blames sky for the way they overhype the gp.

the gp is strong dont get me wrong, but i think its unfair to say tht only two sides in the ml are capable, im guessing your implying leinster and munster. both are capable, but there are other who are capable too. ulster for one, ospreys for two, scarlets for three, are all more than capable of lifting the hec.

english clubs did nothing last year in the hec, the ml was far better represented and produced the winner, and argruably the side who played the best rugby.

the challenge cup has always been poorly represented by the ml and isnt a fair reflection of the ml.

the gp has alot more strength in depth, but i think the top 6 of the ml, are stronger than that of the gp.

put it this way, if munster leinster ulster ospreys and scarlets were in the gp, how would the gp look?

i think itd be very interesting thts for sure, it just angers me that the english press seem to have a complete totalt disrespect towards the ml, as if its some second rate league cast in the shadows by the gp. i mean the national newspaper of britain never covers the ml, even though there three countries are all competing in that very league, tis aint a rant at english people, its a rant at how the media, has instilled this arrogant heirachal mentallity into the english game, sky has to take the blame. as ronan o gara said, im sometimes watching sky, and the commentators will be like "look at this quality rugby, you wont find it anywhere else" and im like" what the f***, so what they scored from a rolling maul, whats the big shock"
 
I do mean Munster and Leinster, and I should have clarfied that as well in that I mean Leinster to a lesser extent than Munster.

As for Ulster, Llanelli and the Ospreys, I don't think they're capable of winning the HEC, they won't even get out of their pools. Ulster and Llanelli will both win their home games against each other, both will lose in France and the games with London Irish are still 50/50 games. As for the Ospreys they won't win in Paris and more than likely will lose in Sale as well, their only chance lies in getting 10 points from Calvisano and picking up a win probably with a bonus point in the home game with Paris, which given their form this season doesn't look like happening.

Yesterday really showed me a big difference in 2 sides, you had Ulster hockeying one of the top French sides yet incapable of getting the bonus point, whereas Leinster were in a similar position against one of the top English sides and able to finish the job with the fourth try.
 
Enough with the racist slurs Lora. There's no need for them.

Anyway, the difference between the GP and ML is the wage cap. While the GP teams have been engineered to have talent spread over the whole league balencing the sides and making sure no one has all the 'superstars'. In the ML, the teams have no cap so they can bring in as many players ad superstars as they can afford.

This makes stronger overall sides but seperates the league between those times with and without 'it' what ever the it word I can't think of is).

that's why the GP is a stronger league in terms of competitiveness but will fall behind the top ML and Top14 teams with overall talent.
 
yeah i agree with tht, im in no doubt, tht team for team the gp is stronger, but i think the sides at the top - the gp would be the weakest of the three leagues.
 
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