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RaboDirect Pro12: Round 13

Dragons match not on TV, but you can listen on Galway Bay FM.
First person to email Ollie and get a shoutout for TRF gets rep!
 
I'm gonna frame this fecker and put it on the wall:
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So, Gavin Evans not in the Blues 23 and they win away to Munster. Coincidence? I think not.
 
Massive win for the Blues in Munster!

17-6.
 
Awful match but I enjoyed it!
Blues have ensured the Ospreys stay in the top four for a week, first time this season.
 
Munster were beyond terrible tonight, Duncan Williams is terrible, slow as a snail getting the ball out of a ruck and cost us that second try with that knock on of his. Fair play to Cardiff for grinding out the win away though. Their number 10 had a good game for a young guy. Also glad to see another Irish backrow in Robin Copeland playing well though, he had a very good game today at 8, and can slo play in the second row. Future Leinster lock?
 
A good gorey man doing well for himself against Munster top lad is robin , his brother played well against mullingar today too. Got out bonus point. Winning.
 
Munster really are struggling and it's very worrying considering the importance of the upcoming games. Yesterday the pack wasn't bad, did its job with good carrying from Kilcoyne and Ryan, while the scrum was good considering Archer was playing.

The backs on the other hand were awful. Downey has proven to be a dreadful signing, anyone that thinks he's up to international standard is an idiot, Earls is not a centre, while apart from Howlett the back three offered no creative threat.

Munster, under Penney, have the opposite problem to last year. This season they have been wide far to early, it's to easy for defences to drift. Munster place all their ball handlers central and flood the wide channels with slow forwards. How many times did we see a Munster forward get tackled into touch, I counted about 8.....
 
Great defensive performance by the Blues (or bad attacking performance by Munster?), they kept stopping them getting past the gainline until they lost patience and kicked away.

Another very poor attempt by O'Gara at tackling Copeland for that try by the way. It looked like Copeland fended him off with his little finger. Surely Kidney can't keep selecting him in the Ireland 23 ahead of Paddy Jackson, Ian Keatley or Ian Madigan all of whom are better options nowadays.

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Did anybody see Adam Jones' great clearing kick into space last week?

Great awareness, to find that space instead of taking contact and gained about 40 metres after the reply back by Hallam Amos.

Not bad for a prop is supposedly "useless in the loose". He's also made more tackles than the "world's best tighthead and Lions starter" Dan Cole as well since returning from injury. The way the English media have hyped Dan Cole from the good player he is, and announcing him the "world's best" is ridiculous imo, as are the people who think that starting him above Adam for the Lions is a no brainer.

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Just making a note of this thread... I'll have to consider Psychic Duck and Adam Jones for Member-player obsession in the TRFies.
 
Just looking at the Jones kick...great kick and well done...but **** me he had a 5-2 outside him if he were to have shipped the pass
 
Just making a note of this thread... I'll have to consider Psychic Duck and Adam Jones for Member-player obsession in the TRFies.

I was going to make the same case for Raaadge.

Just looking at the Jones kick...great kick and well done...but **** me he had a 5-2 outside him if he were to have shipped the pass

Pretty sure most of us here could kick the ball straight a long way and have it keep bouncing on. Good vision, but as you say, better vision would have seen the guys outside.

And the main reason it ended up being such a gain was the Dragons were incredibly lazy getting back and their 13 shanked that one nastily enough.

So, uhm, not terribly impressed.

PD, where did you get your stats on tackles Jones vs Cole?

Plus Kidney's far from that mental. Conor George should basically be ignored.
 
Who's this Ospreys physio tripping up ***o Tebaldi on the break last Friday? Surely that's a touchline ban for him?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/20929271

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Pretty sure most of us here could kick the ball straight a long way and have it keep bouncing on. Good vision, but as you say, better vision would have seen the guys outside.

I didn't see the disorganisation of Dragons defence on first viewing until LN7 pointed it out. But still Dan Cole who is supposed to be "the best tighthead in the world" and vastly superior in the loose knows all about butchering overlaps, although in his case he cost a certain try through greediness.

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PD, where did you get your stats on tackles Jones vs Cole?

Last couple of domestic rounds on ESPN Scrum.com since Jones made his comeback from injury (not including the latest round as there are no Ospreys stats).
 
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Unreal.

O'Gara is Munster's biggest problem right now. He stands so far off the gain line that the backs are starting with a 15 yard sacrifice of ground (and momentum) before the first of them even gets hands on the ball.


Watching the clowns clap and cheer O'Gara kicking into touch when there are potential overlaps on makes me cringe. Do they not actually watch what is happening on the field? The pundits are little better as they start waxing lyrical about the great kick while ignoring reality.


Yeah, fine, O'Gara is great at kicking into touch.... but that doesn't mean he is running a game well. If the better option is to run and he kicks, then that is the wrong decision. Same as him not being flat to the line, if that is killing his backline, how does that reconcile with "running the game well"?

There is much more to running a game correctly than simply kicking (well) into the corner every chance you get.
 
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