Munster v Edinburgh, Friday February 18

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Munster: 15 Johne Murphy, 14 Doug Howlett, 13 Lifeimi Mafi, 12 Paul Warwick, 11 Denis Hurley, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 James Coughlan, 7 Tommy O'Donnell, 6 Denis Leamy, 5 Mick O'Driscoll, 4 Donnacha Ryan, 3 Tony Buckley, 2 Damien Varley, 1 Wian du Preez.
Replacements:16 Denis Fogarty, 17 Marcus Horan, 18 Stephen Archer, 19 Ian Nagle, 20 Billy Holland, 21 Duncan Williams, 22 Tom Gleeson, 23 Simon Zebo.

Edinburgh: 15 Chris Paterson, 14 Lee Jones, 13 Ben Cairns, 12 James King, 11 Tim Visser, 10 David Blair, 9 Greig Laidlaw (c), 8 Netani Talei, 7 Ross Rennie, 6 Fraser McKenzie, 5 Steven Turnbull, 4 Scott MacLeod, 3 Geoff Cross, 2 Andrew Kelly, 1 Kyle Traynor.
Replacements:16 Alun Walker, 17 Lewis Niven, 18 David Young, 19 Alan MacDonald, 20 Roddy Grant, 21 Nick De Luca, 22 Simon Webster, 23 Jim Thompson.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

It's a very experienced Munster team. Comparing the two teams, a bonus point home win could be in the offing.

 

[munstermuffin]

A good mixture though Snoop and we'd be happy with just the win. Nice to see Tommy O'Donnell be retained after doing very well last week. I disagree with starting Warwick at 12 but it lashing rain here now so hope we just get a decent game

 

[profitius]

Terrible weather conditions! :S ******* rain and strong winds all day we make it a low scoring game I'd say with plenty of scrums.

 

[munstermuffin]

No we don't include scrum in our rules here
But absolutely pouring now so yea a low scoring game with alot of errors. This weather reminds me of the Aus game

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Going to be watching Buckley closely in this (or is that a bad idea? )

 

[munstermuffin]

Olyy it like doing the lotto - Buckley could be brilliant or make you cringe.
I still think though he'd be ok with a decent scrum coach like Paul McCarthy isn't up to this level. We need someone like if you look at Leinster they have Feek and Gibbs those guys know exactly what they're doing and are at such a standart

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Going to be watching Buckley closely in this (or is that a bad idea? )

Don't bother. He'll probably pull out before kickoff with a virus. Again.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Olyy it like doing the lotto - Buckley could be brilliant or make you cringe.
I still think though he'd be ok with a decent scrum coach like Paul McCarthy isn't up to this level. We need someone like if you look at Leinster they have Feek and Gibbs those guys know exactly what they're doing and are at such a standart

The man you need:


Seriously! Rggie Corrigan did a very good job getting Tom Court up to scratch when he helped coach Ulster and is doing a decent job at Leinster underage level now. He's certainly better than Paul McCarthy.

 

[munstermuffin]

Snoop his name has been mentioned before and I agree. He's been in game recent enough but my main annoyance is we have went backwards with McCarthy/Fisher combo. I would love if Reggie did come in and I hope someone steps in to fix this because it's not only bad for Munster but for Irish rugby too

 

[profitius]

Going to be watching Buckley closely in this (or is that a bad idea? )

He gets bad publicity. The fact is Munster scrum has been a disaster no matter who players. Wian Du Preez has looked poor in it this season and he's supposed to be a top class scrummager.

All Buckley has to do is hold his own in the scrums and he'll be a real asset. I'd say with a different scrum coach he could be fine in the scrums. Time will tell. He was the best Irish player on the pitch when Ireland played NZ away last summer so he is a great signing for Sale. I'd prefer if he stayed at Munster.

 

[coonor]

He gets bad publicity. The fact is Munster scrum has been a disaster no matter who players. Wian Du Preez has looked poor in it this season and he's supposed to be a top class scrummager.
All Buckley has to do is hold his own in the scrums and he'll be a real asset. I'd say with a different scrum coach he could be fine in the scrums. Time will tell. He was the best Irish player on the pitch when Ireland played NZ away last summer so he is a great signing for Sale. I'd prefer if he stayed at Munster.

Du Preez has not stood out this season but he has held his side of the scrum in every game. You can't expect him to hold Buckley's side aswell. I will admit when he has a good game Buckley can play well in the loose and can score tries but he is 30 years old and still can't scrummage. He will have been trained by many scrummaging coaches but he still can't get it. He couldn't even learn from Greg Feek who has is helping Healy very much. He has qualities and if Sale can magically improve his scrumagging then he could be a good player.

 

[munstermuffin]

Disagree that Buckley has had alot of coaching when he hasn't.
Buckley hasn't worked under Feek either

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

We're saying the same thing now that we were saying in 2005 (when he joined Munster) with regards Tony Buckley- if he improves his scrummaging he'll be a good player. He hasn't improved and isn't a good player. From July he'll be Sale's problem and Ireland can carry on with John Hayes as starting international tighthead......................

I hope Buckley comes good but after saying the same thing for about 8 seasons I don't expect him to. He'll do well against the bottom half of the Premiership but Sale shouldn't expect a world beater.

Back to this game, it's disappointing that Zebo and Nagle have been dropped but not entirely unexpected. Hopefully both will get 20 minutes or more off the bench. Dropping Sherry from the 23 is a bad call in my opinion since Fogarty has repeatedly failed to deliver. O'Donnell is being given an opportunity to shine in an experienced pack. If he takes it, he could force his way past Ronan and into Amlin Cup quarter final contention.

 

[coonor]

Disagree that Buckley has had alot of coaching when he hasn't.
Buckley hasn't worked under Feek either

During the AI Feek was used as a scrum coach for Ireland and Buckley actually got worse. He knew his scrummaging was crap and he should have done what ever he could to fix it. I wish him the best of luck at Sale but way do some people keep on defending when he is such a poor player.

 

[Peat]

During the AI Feek was used as a scrum coach for Ireland and Buckley actually got worse. He knew his scrummaging was crap and he should have done what ever he could to fix it. I wish him the best of luck at Sale but way do some people keep on defending when he is such a poor player.

Most of Ireland's props have not looked good at stepping up to international level. Probably because it is, oddly enough, a level up. Although I think questions might be asked about coaching/priorities set from above...

 

[monkeypigeon]

Ryan really is Donnocha mark 2. Serious discipline problems. Whistle whistle whistle.

 

[monkeypigeon]

13 all at half time, Munster went onto win 23 - 13. Alright match, nothing special though. Three tries to one.

Mafi was really good. Howlett scored two tries, which was nice for him.

 

[munstermuffin]

Well lads must say tonight was a good result in a decent battle.
Good points:
- Marcus Horan is back and did fine
- In O'Donnell and Holland we do really have 2 lads that are fighting to go up pecking order
- Despite monkeypigeons comment I thought Ryan as well as Micko were superb and Buckley was very good
- Mafi was awesome and did the hard work for Howlett's 2 tries. Doug was on fine form again
- Stringer I felt showed again why Irelands best 9 was playing tonight

Bad Points:
- Fogarty came back and threw **** poor lineouts and seemed to weaken our scrum. (Harsh I know for his first game back)
- Too many Cork Con players on bench shows politics (And I don't mean they should be starting)

SUPER POINTS:
- We didn't concede anything in scrum, won a few penalties and dominated (How often can I say that lately)

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

I agree with what was said above. Positives were Buckley in the loose (he was also good in the scrum but Edinburgh aren't exactly strong), Mafi and Coughlan. Williams got a chunk of gametime alongside O'Gara which will do him good while Zebo also got a few minutes. Stringer showed that he should be starting for Ireland. Horan returned from injury and looked better than Du Preez.

Negatives were failure to secure a bonus point and Fogarty's total ineptitude. A lack of gametime for Nagle was disappointing but he'll feature in the next 3 or 4 games anyway.