The most anticipated rugby of the weekend - Guinness Pro 12: R16

[Leonormous Boozer]

Friday

Edinburgh v Blues
Dragons v The Champions Elect
Munster v Scarlets

Sunday


Ospreys v Glasgow
Zebre v Ulster
Treviso v Connacht

Edinburgh v Blues - Embra looked like a side with potential last week, possibly because they looked like a large u16 side but there was something, a huge turnaround is needed to get something this week and I don't think they're quite capable to do that and are destined to sadly and quietly wait until Cockers comes steaming at the ears. Cardiff to win a close match while never looking like losing.

Dragons v The Champions Elect - The tournament's most aesthetic squad has had to field a weak side after last week's orgy of injuries, Kirchner at 13 would have even Leinster's most biased fan (me) extremely worried. However, by using the logic of a similarly weak Leinster side who played the majority of the game against the Scarlets with 14 men getting a lbp and Scarlets being better than the Dragons - Leinster will scrape it!

Munster v Scarlets - Munster at home, with no major injuries beat the Scarlets, its getting boring at this stage. I'd advise any Ulster fans not to look at the Munster starting backline...

Ospreys v Glasgow - You'd expect this to be the tie of the round, its not considering Glasgow are playing Wales in Murrayfield this weekend... Ospreys to stroll it with Glasgow starting to sweat about an Irish province coming up their rear... Or not because Embra are ****e!

Zebre v Ulster - Maybe when the North Americans come I'll get to preview the Italian sides every now and then.

Treviso v Connacht - Or Ze Germans!

Edinburgh Rugby team to play Cardiff Blues at the Myreside in the Guinness PRO12 tomorrow (Friday 24 February, kick-off 7.05pm) â€" live on BBC Scotland

15. Blair Kinghorn

14. Damien Hoyland
13. Glenn Bryce
12. Chris Dean
11. Rory Scholes

10. Jason Tovey
9. Sam Hidalgo-Clyne

1. Jack Cosgrove
2. Neil Cochrane CAPTAIN
3. Murray McCallum
4. Fraser McKenzie
5. Ben Toolis
6. Magnus Bradbury
7. Jamie Ritchie
8. Cornell Du Preez

Replacements

16. George Turner
17. Derrick Appiah
18. Kevin Bryce
19. Grant Gilchrist
20. Lewis Carmichael
21. Nathan Fowles
22. Junior Rasolea
23. Michael Allen
​

Cardiff Blues: Matthew Morgan; Alex Cuthbert, Willis Halaholo, Steve Shingler, Tom James; Gareth Anscombe, Lloyd Williams; Rhys Gill, Kristian Dacey, Anton Peikrishvili, George Earle, Jarrad Hoeata, Macauley Cook, Josh Sion Bennett, Nick Williams.

Replacements: Matthew Rees, Corey Domachowski, Scott Andrews, James Down, Kirby Myhill, Tomos Williams, Garyn Smith, Aled Summerhill.


[FONT=&amp]Newport Gwent Dragons team to face Leinster[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]15 Carl Meyer, 14 Adam Hughes, 13 Tyler Morgan, 12 Jack Dixon, 11 Pat Howard, 10, Dorian Jones, 9 Tavis Knoyle; 1 Sam Hobbs, 2 Elliot Dee, 3 Brok Harris, 4 Nick Crosswell, 5 Rynard Landman, 6 Ollie Griffiths, 7 Nic Cudd, 8 Lewis Evans ©[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]Replacements; Rhys Buckley, Thomas Davies, Lloyd Fairbrother, Matthew Screech, Harrison Keddie, Sarel Pretorius, Angus O’Brien, Adam Warren.[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]LEINSTER (Leinster caps in brackets) :[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]15. Joey Carbery (14)
14. Adam Byrne (16)
13. Zane Kirchner (80)
12. Noel Reid (76)
11. Fergus McFadden (144)
10. Ross Byrne (16)
9. Jamison Gibson-Park (20)
1. Peter Dooley (31)
2. Richardt Strauss (139) CAPTAIN
3. Michael Bent (79)
4. Ross Molony (36)
5. Mike McCarthy (73)
6. Rhys Ruddock (123)
7. Peadar Timmins (5)
8. Jack Conan (44)[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]16. James Tracy (34)
17. Ed Byrne (5)
18. Mike Ross (146)
19. Hayden Triggs (23)
20. Max Deegan (1)
21. Luke McGrath (67)
22. Cathal Marsh (17)
23. Barry Daly (7)

Munster: Jaco Taute; Darren Sweetnam, Francis Saili, Dan Goggin, Ronan O'Mahony; Tyler Bleyendaal Capt., Duncan Williams; Dave Kilcoyne, Rhys Marshall, Stephen Archer; Dave Foley, Billy Holland; Dave O'Callaghan, Tommy O'Donnell, Conor Oliver.

Replacements: Kevin O'Byrne, Peter McCabe, Brian Scott, Darren O'Shea, Fineen Wycherley, Abrie Griesel, Ian Keatley, Andrew Conway.

Scarlets team to take on Munster at Thomond Park, Friday 24th February, kick-off 7.35pm;

15 Johnny Mcnicholl, 14 DTH van der Merwe, 13 Steff Hughes, 12 Hadleigh Parkes ©, 11 Tom Williams, 10 Dan Jones, 9 Jonathan Evans, 1 Wyn Jones, 2 Ryan Elias, 3 Werner Kruger, 4 Tom Price, 5 Tadhg Beirne, 6 Aaron Shingler, 7 James Davies, 8 Will Boyde

Replacements: Dafydd Hughes, Luke Garrett, Nicky Thomas, Rynier Bernardo, Morgan Allen, Aled Davies, Aled Thomas, Ioan Nicholas


... Edinburgh really aren't good enough to have such a lavish layout in their team announcement! If only everyone could be from South Dublin![/FONT]

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

A good analysis from where i am sitting. On paper all of these fixtures look pretty good but the international weekend and the coaching situation at Edinburgh (lame duck) and Zebre (would kill to have a lame duck) means they may not be competitive. The fixture list is a great advert for an 18 game league. The countries with just two teams should play all their games against each other international windows in the interest of fairness. Well, at least Scotland vs Italy x4 weeks of games. The local derbies need the internationals totenerate more interest.

 

[munstermuffin]

Big game for us. Missing lads through injuries so Jaco at 15 will be fun again. Goggin played well last week and deserves a go. Oliver will be good at 8 too although his size will be tested. Scarlets are form team and can hurt us too. Can see it being a 3 point win either way

 

[Groundhog]

Think we'll win this and the rest of our games this season and ever and forever. Rassie has no fear in blooding the young blad with Nash and now Wycherley making it into the team.
I love Oliver. He's a midget with the heart of a fully grown professional backrow. Has yet to do a single thing wrong for us. Real pocket rocket.

 

[munstermuffin]

Think we'll win this and the rest of our games this season and ever and forever. Rassie has no fear in blooding the young blad with Nash and now Wycherley making it into the team.
I love Oliver. He's a midget with the heart of a fully grown professional backrow. Has yet to do a single thing wrong for us. Real pocket rocket.

Agreed on Rassie blooding guns. Wycherley will be a great player in few years

 

[big ginger 8]

Apart from Kirchner at 13 the team is stronger than I was expecting.

Congratulations to Ed Byrne on finally getting back to fitness. The last top level game he played was October 2014.

 

[Groundhog]

Bundee is back, and with him Connacht's chances of winning meaningful games against good opposition are back. Strong Connacht outfit for the first time in a while with some decent guys on the bench.
Should be full points to Gryffindor!

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

View attachment 4828
Bundee is back, and with him Connacht's chances of winning meaningful games against good opposition are back. Strong Connacht outfit for the first time in a while with some decent guys on the bench.
Should be full points to Gryffindor!

I'm going to deliberately misinterpret you and pretend you just called Treviso "good opposition"! I feel all warm and fuzzy inside and have completely forgotten all the "Italy are ****e" stories for a moment. Thanks!

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

I'm going to deliberately misinterpret you and pretend you just called Treviso "good opposition"! I feel all warm and fuzzy inside and have completely forgotten all the "Italy are ****e" stories for a moment. Thanks!

Read the preview again, I dare ya!

 

[Groundhog]

Read the preview again, I dare ya!

Assuming anyone read it to begin with is bold

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Can't believe I have to watch Munster instead of Leinster... S4C, you've let your country down by not letting them bask in Leinster's beauty.

 

[die_mole]

cardiff, where they name their team the scarlets and have a change kit of blue
and where they had a club named bluebirds who were red

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Carbery sets up a Conan try in Newport, I had to read it though and erotica doesn't do it for me....

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I don't think I've ever seen Bleyendaal miss a touchline conversion...

 

[munstermuffin]

Wow didn't think we would have 3 tries. Hopefully we can get BP. Conor Oliver is flying it and Tyler pulling string great. We've been good in horrible wind conditions but huge room for improvement

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

A couple of tries for Rory Scholes after a horror season where he has been given almost no oppurnity to play. The complete collapse in Cardiffs form since the start of the year is bewildering. They looked so well drilled at the start and now they are a rabble! Might still have enough for a comeback mind.

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cardiff, where they name their team the scarlets and have a change kit of blue
and where they had a club named bluebirds who were red

Hah. Times are tough. It saves money if the Blues can wear the Scarlets tops for away games and vice versa.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

A double from Conan and one for Fetish now too... This is basically all I want in a Leinster match and I'm watching Munster and their three centres!

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

It's a Tale of Two Bounces in Edinburgh. Resulted in a fourteen point swing. I did say a comeback was possible. Unbelievable conversion miss by Shingler!

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

It's a Tale of Two Bounces in Edinburgh. Resulted in a fourteen point swing. I did say a comeback was possible. Unbelievable conversion miss by Shingler!

What did he do? This is the most likely game to **** my acca up!

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BP in Newport, grand job!

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Shingler missed from a try under the posts. Blues win by 1 after resisting Edinburgh for about 40-50 phases at the end with disciplined defence.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Seems to be in vogue at the moment. Munster letting Scarlets back into the game...

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Great try by Scarlets... Munster may lise me a 10er but we could go top!

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Leinster break fifty! Mike Ross made a 20m line break, we've missed the greatest game ever...