Munster vs Cardiff Blues

[feicarsinn]

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Cardiff travel to Limerick looking to make amends for last week's home defeat to Edinburgh. Munster suffered a similar fate at the hands of Scottish opposition, a depleted side coming unstuck in Firhill. In last year's corresponding fixture Munster ran in four tries in an entertaining clash that ended 28-20.

Munster have recalled Lion John Hayes and almost idiot boy Lion Alan Quinlan to bolster their squad for the clash, while Paul Warwick will be out for at least 2 weeks with a foot ligament injury.

Cardiff will come into this game with pretty much the same squad available to them as last week(I think) but have yet to confirm anything. A Munster victory should be expected but a close, scrappy game would be my prediction.

Munster Squad: Danny Barnes, Felix Jones, Scott Deasy, Denis Hurley, Doug Howlett, Barry Murphy, Tom Gleeson, Lifeimi Mafi, Jeremy Manning, Toby Morland, Peter Stringer, Marcus Horan, Tony Buckley, Julian Brugnaut, John Hayes, Denis Fogarty, Damian Varley, Mick O'Driscoll, Donnacha Ryan, Alan Quinlan, Billy Holland, Tommy O'Donnell, Niall Ronan, Denis Leamy, James Coughlan.

Cardiff: Tbc

 

[MunsterMan]

Poor Welsh buggers won't know what hit them

 

[cyRil]

Well they've been playing like absolute gyppos so I wouldn't be surprised if they got a 20+ tonking.

 

[Thingimubob]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cyRil of Ospreylia @ Sep 8 2009, 09:57 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Well they've been playing like absolute gyppos so I wouldn't be surprised if they got a 20+ tonking.[/b]

Au Contrair
Sam Norton Knight has been plying like a gyppo they weren;t so abd when Sweeney and Warburton came on
And didn;t Glasgow have a comfortable win against Munster last week?
I agree with feicarsinn, should be a close scrappy affair, or a similar game to last season.

 

[Blindside6]

Blues:

Ben Blair; Leigh Halfpenny, Gareth Thomas, Dafydd Hewitt, Chris Czekaj; Ceri Sweeney, Gareth Cooper; John Yapp, Rhys Thomas, Taufa'ao Filise, Deiniol Jones, Paul ***o, Maama Molitika, Robin Sowden-Taylor, Xavier Rush.
Replacements: Gary Powell, Gareth Williams, Scott Morgan, Andy Powell, Richie Rees, Sam Norton-Knight, Dafydd James.


Sam Norton-Knightmare dropped to the bench after his stellar performance against Edinburgh

 

[DuncTheDoodle]

Andy Powell in. Likely to be the same as the last seasons Heinkein Cup games. They'll bring him on an hour in for Rush, as he goes on to do the same thing, only with less thought. Always nice to see tired defence have a go at Powell. He's an excellent impact player.

Suprised that Sowden-Taylor hasn't been dropped as Norton-Knight was. He hardly had a great game last weekend. Not sure about seeing John Yapp back, though. Morris did seem to look very tired, but Yapp has a tendacy to, well, get mroe than a little confused.

And can't we see Daf James start again? He was excellent against Lecister when I went to see, as was Gavin Evans.

 

[shtove]

Missed everything last week.

Hoping for a double eye gouging from Quinlan on Powell - the miracle of sight is wasted on him anyway, he just bounces off defences again and again and again.

 

[Blindside6]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (DuncTheDoodle @ Sep 9 2009, 06:07 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Andy Powell in. Likely to be the same as the last seasons Heinkein Cup games. They'll bring him on an hour in for Rush, as he goes on to do the same thing, only with less thought. Always nice to see tired defence have a go at Powell. He's an excellent impact player.

Suprised that Sowden-Taylor hasn't been dropped as Norton-Knight was. He hardly had a great game last weekend. Not sure about seeing John Yapp back, though. Morris did seem to look very tired, but Yapp has a tendacy to, well, get mroe than a little confused.

And can't we see Daf James start again? He was excellent against Lecister when I went to see, as was Gavin Evans.[/b]

I guess Dai must be thinking that RST can't have 2 shocking games in a row. I don't think I've ever seen him appear so off the pace of a game. What Yapp will bring, that Morris didn't, is a bit of go forward. A lot of the problems for the Blues backs against Edinburgh stemmed from the poor forward performance.

 

[monkeypigeon]

Munster:
15 F Jones;
14 D Howlett,
13 B Murphy,
12 L Mafi,
11 D Hurley;
10 J Manning,
9 P Stringer;
1 M Horan,
2 D Fogarty,
3 J Hayes;
4 M O'Driscoll capt,
5 D Ryan;
6 A Quinlan,
7 N Ronan,
8 D Leamy.

Replacements: D Varley, T Buckley, B Holland, T O'Donnell, T Morland, S Deasy, T Gleeson.

Well that Munster team looks a bit stronger than last week with Murphy offering a more potent attacking option at 13. Quinlan hopefully will sort out the problems at the breakdown and Hayes should tidy up the scrum a bit.

I hope Deasy gets some game time having sat on the bench for the entire of the last match. Looks like he's cover for outhalf.

 

[An Tarbh]

Manning's decision making needs to improve though, far too often he took the wrong option last weekend. The sooner they've Warwick and O'Gara back the better.

 

[bgrugbyfan]

Andy Powell always makes me wince with his lack of discipline and affinity for penalties although he's game for contact.

(lol about the gouging and his eyes).

 

[DuncTheDoodle]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Blindside6 @ Sep 10 2009, 12:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (DuncTheDoodle @ Sep 9 2009, 06:07 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Andy Powell in. Likely to be the same as the last seasons Heinkein Cup games. They'll bring him on an hour in for Rush, as he goes on to do the same thing, only with less thought. Always nice to see tired defence have a go at Powell. He's an excellent impact player.

Suprised that Sowden-Taylor hasn't been dropped as Norton-Knight was. He hardly had a great game last weekend. Not sure about seeing John Yapp back, though. Morris did seem to look very tired, but Yapp has a tendacy to, well, get mroe than a little confused.

And can't we see Daf James start again? He was excellent against Lecister when I went to see, as was Gavin Evans.[/b]

I guess Dai must be thinking that RST can't have 2 shocking games in a row. I don't think I've ever seen him appear so off the pace of a game. What Yapp will bring, that Morris didn't, is a bit of go forward. A lot of the problems for the Blues backs against Edinburgh stemmed from the poor forward performance.
[/b][/quote]
Morris was great for the first 20 minutes, but then his stanima went completely. Yapp's not a clever player, but he can scrummage like mad until the final whistle goes.

 

[Blindside6]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (DuncTheDoodle @ Sep 10 2009, 08:09 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Blindside6 @ Sep 10 2009, 12:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (DuncTheDoodle @ Sep 9 2009, 06:07 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Andy Powell in. Likely to be the same as the last seasons Heinkein Cup games. They'll bring him on an hour in for Rush, as he goes on to do the same thing, only with less thought. Always nice to see tired defence have a go at Powell. He's an excellent impact player.

Suprised that Sowden-Taylor hasn't been dropped as Norton-Knight was. He hardly had a great game last weekend. Not sure about seeing John Yapp back, though. Morris did seem to look very tired, but Yapp has a tendacy to, well, get mroe than a little confused.

And can't we see Daf James start again? He was excellent against Lecister when I went to see, as was Gavin Evans.[/b]

I guess Dai must be thinking that RST can't have 2 shocking games in a row. I don't think I've ever seen him appear so off the pace of a game. What Yapp will bring, that Morris didn't, is a bit of go forward. A lot of the problems for the Blues backs against Edinburgh stemmed from the poor forward performance.
[/b][/quote]
Morris was great for the first 20 minutes, but then his stanima went completely. Yapp's not a clever player, but he can scrummage like mad until the final whistle goes.
[/b][/quote]

Yapp will also get about the pitch and be willing to carry ball. Something Morris was unwilling/unable to do last week.

On paper, it should be a close game with the Blues just shading it. But as the man says, the game's played on grass not paper and the Blues just don't seem to travel well.

 

[Bluemoon]

Im going to need a blindfold for this one if we play like we did last week.

Id be happy with a just a better performance this week. Last season we won games with our organisation and defense early season and built up some momentum.

 

[DuncTheDoodle]

I'm quietly confident that Sweeny might just be the missing link we needed last week. Norton-Knightmare's going to end up streching his legs for the final section of the game, but I've always thought people under-rated poor old Ceri, and with any luck this could be his day. He controls the game better than Flannagan and SNK do, too.

 

[durbutter]

Lovely evening for a match, wish i was going.

 

[MunsterMan]

Yup, perfect conditions, that Munster team could put up a score if Manning has an OK games.

 

[bristol-iain]

Muntser thoroughly deserved that win.

Best bit of the game: That smug midget Stringer being skinned by a Kiwi fat boy. :bravo: :bravo:

 

[monkeypigeon]

Nah bai, Rog is a smug git, but Stringer just does what scrumhalves do. And he's as sound as chips, I also enjoyed seeing him get buned...not sure why though.

Backrow was very dominant in the first half and it wasa bit more even in the second. No more Billy Holland in the backrow. Niall Ronan is an absolute dog though....hounding down every ball and ripping everything. He was brilliant.

Manning was better today, kicked well, needs to stop with running down blind allys.

Felix Jones was very good again. Best of the backs I think, and Hurley looked strong when he got the ball.

 

[dullonien]

Pitifully poor performance again from the Blues. First half was a bit rubbish in general, both teams looking rusty and too prepared to put boot to ball, although it did liven up in the last 5-10min. The second half was horrible from the Blues though, with Munster's pack dominating at the breakdown. 22 turnovers! How can a team expect to win with a stat like that, not to mention their appalling lineout. As Monkeypigeon said, Niall Ronan was extremely good over the ball, but I thought the Blues were equally weak. Most of the time, the player getting tackled didn't have the necessary support, but even if there was, they weren't managing to move the Munster players! Handling errors were also a big worry.

The only players I thought who had atall decent games for the Blues were Rush up front, and Powell when he came on. And in the backs Blair, Halfpenny, and Cooper were alright.

These are troubling times for the Blues, up front at least. In the backs there's plenty of quality to come in, with Roberts, Shanklin and James to return in the next two games. 10 is still a big worry mind. Up front though, the Blues are only missing Jenkins and Williams. Two huge players I know, but they have problems if they're gonna rely on just two players. Up front, Yapp is still not getting through enough work, and the Hookers seem to have gone backwards. Second row is suddenly looking poor, with ***o having two bad games and neither Deiniol Jones or Bradley Davies looking stellar. In the backrow Molatika is beginning to look his age, and Sowden Taylor is still rubbish! Ffs Dai, give Warberton the chance he deserves, he's certainly better than Sowden Taylor, then when Martyn Williams returns he'll just move over to replace Molatika.

Lot's of work to do, the Blues have just gone from being Wales' best region to the worst! Signs didn't look good at the tail end of last season mind.