Glasgow v Leinster, Sat, 1pm, Sky.

[paddyor]

The scrum, the maul.....it was rugby porn

[riocard911]

The scrum, the maul.....it was rugby porn

Absolutely. Best rolling maul for the second try from Leinster in a long time - from the 22 to the line. Seems to me the correct lesson has been learned from last season. We have to achieve pack dominance first and impose our will up front, and then follow that up with the flash harry stuff - in that order, not the other way around. Sure, there's considerable room for improvement, but by the looks of things we're starting to rumble. Long may it continue.

[footrush]

Anyway after awful early season form

We haven't hit our stride yet but we've only lost one game so far this season. I'd almost be concerned if we looked the finished article so early on.

+1

[Ruckedtobits]

18 hours on and a night's sleep but with no chance to review the game, the oldest adage in the game was proven. Forwards win matches, backs determine by how much.

In a game which was, if not determined at least critically influenced, by two sickening collisions by pairs of Glasgow players, Leinster's pack dominance was sufficent to send most fans into euphoria.

If we had suffered the same misfortunes, and result, we would undoubtedly be bemoaning our misfortune and Glasgow have every right to feel unlucky on the day. Their slick back play caused us much discomfort, particularly in the third channel between outside centre and winger. But the disorganisation of their pack was too big a handicap to overcome against a Leinster pack which showed real expertise in their scrum, maul and line-out. Cronin's throwing allowed the line-out and maul to function as intended for a change. Healy's return did not weaken our scrum at all and added dynamism to our ball carrying. Furlong continues to dominate his scrum contests and find time to play like a No 8 in open play in carrying and tackling. Toner and Fardy are ideal partners and complement each other's skills. The back-row like-wise have skill-sets which cover all their roles.

Overall, a great win but perhaps not quite a great performance. Great to see the dominance of Sexton but McGrath must improve his passing and kicking. Henshaw's defensive positioning and decision-making demonstrated the differences between playing 12 and 13 whilst Barry Daly saw the challenges of marking a top-class winger.

I was delighted with this victory and impressed by some elements of the performance but we are far from the requisite standard to be regarded as front-line favourites. We have players of great skills to return. Some combinations are still learning and gelling. Some players need to improve the consistency of their skills. But we are improving and definitely learning how to take a higher proportion of the chances we create which is the hall mark of high quality contenders.

[curates_egg]

Ruddock was consistent in everything he did, over to you POM

Ruddock's problem, as ever, is that he doesn't do any unseen work; all his is seen. That and he never captained a Munster schools side.

[curates_egg]

Healy's best performance in a Leinster shirt for quite a while. Interesting to see what happens next week and into the AIs.
McGrath is more of a Schmidt player imo.

Agreed on Healy's best performance. Superb.
Cronin and McFadden excellent too, totally justifying their selection. Perfect gameplan too.
10/10 for the management this week (as well as the points).

On McGrath, he seems far less mobile than his stonking seasons 2013-5. He used to be an animal at ruck time but I hardly notice him there anymore. As he's not really a carrier, that's a big loss to his game. I hope he can rediscover his mojo: he was so good two years ago.

Lineout and maul was superb until the subs came on. Can't remember when it was last that good.

Also, for a guy who gets a lot of grief on here, I thought JGP was again very good when he came on.

[artaneboy]

A LBP would be a very good result but we may be able to get on top of them in the tight forwards and, if the weather is poor, that could see us sneak a priceless away win. I think we need to keep it tight tomorrow, not quite ten man rugby but keep things a little narrower than we've done since Lancaster came on board. We should have the skill set to execute an opportunity if it's on but I'd rather we don't spin the ball wide for the sake of it and allow Glasgow to pick us off on counter attack ball.

Turns out, you called the tactics exactly right. The optimum result followed like it was inevitable- which, of course, it never is.... nice though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Caliphi]

Tiny dark lining to cloud. Glasgow now 'concentrating on Pro 14' according to coach. This is ominous, as I can see two bonus point win games for Montpelier. It may well all come down to our match there in January. Leaking them that LBP last week may have huge repercussions. Remember our relief with ours last year.
Just saying.

[OTT]

Just rewatching this morning. They say the most important time in the game is the period just before and after halftime and yesterday is a great example. 10-10 and Hogg misses a penalty we go up the other end and kick to the corner and come away with 7 points a 10 point swing to end the half. Second half Glasgow come out of the blocks at a rate of knots it looks certain they will get a try but mess it up on our line we go up the pitch and get a try, a 14 point swing there.

After the match yesterday I was very jolly and the score had me feeling it was a comfortable win but rewatching it I was back feeling that it was an extremely hard fought fight just like it felt when watching it live. If they bother to stay interested (which we didn't two years ago) I can't see Mont or Exeter going there and getting a win. Super stuff, lots of players still missing and lots to work on.

[Gearzbox2]

18 hours on and a night's sleep but with no chance to review the game, the oldest adage in the game was proven. Forwards win matches, backs determine by how much.

In a game which was, if not determined at least critically influenced, by two sickening collisions by pairs of Glasgow players, Leinster's pack dominance was sufficent to send most fans into euphoria.

If we had suffered the same misfortunes, and result, we would undoubtedly be bemoaning our misfortune and Glasgow have every right to feel unlucky on the day. Their slick back play caused us much discomfort, particularly in the third channel between outside centre and winger. But the disorganisation of their pack was too big a handicap to overcome against a Leinster pack which showed real expertise in their scrum, maul and line-out. Cronin's throwing allowed the line-out and maul to function as intended for a change. Healy's return did not weaken our scrum at all and added dynamism to our ball carrying. Furlong continues to dominate his scrum contests and find time to play like a No 8 in open play in carrying and tackling. Toner and Fardy are ideal partners and complement each other's skills. The back-row like-wise have skill-sets which cover all their roles.

Overall, a great win but perhaps not quite a great performance. Great to see the dominance of Sexton but McGrath must improve his passing and kicking. Henshaw's defensive positioning and decision-making demonstrated the differences between playing 12 and 13 whilst Barry Daly saw the challenges of marking a top-class winger.

I was delighted with this victory and impressed by some elements of the performance but we are far from the requisite standard to be regarded as front-line favourites. We have players of great skills to return. Some combinations are still learning and gelling. Some players need to improve the consistency of their skills. But we are improving and definitely learning how to take a higher proportion of the chances we create which is the hall mark of high quality contenders.

Pretty negative stuff...
Cronin threw brilliantly in toughest conditions this year and you still manage to get the dig in, so much for your earlier comments this week about Tracy being the second coming
And Healy hasn't weakened the scrum one bit this year when's he's played so I don't know where you've got this notion that he takes from the scrum when he plays

[Logorrhea]

Pretty chuffed with myself with my calls for the axis of Healy/Cronin to come in.

Yeah I lol'd at that one. Thanks for all the work Leo.

[cormac]

Just rewatching this morning. They say the most important time in the game is the period just before and after halftime and yesterday is a great example. 10-10 and Hogg misses a penalty we go up the other end and kick to the corner and come away with 7 points a 10 point swing to end the half. Second half Glasgow come out of the blocks at a rate of knots it looks certain they will get a try but mess it up on our line we go up the pitch and get a try, a 14 point swing there.

After the match yesterday I was very jolly and the score had me feeling it was a comfortable win but rewatching it I was back feeling that it was an extremely hard fought fight just like it felt when watching it live. If they bother to stay interested (which we didn't two years ago) I can't see Mont or Exeter going there and getting a win. Super stuff, lots of players still missing and lots to work on.

We could do with Glasgow staying interested in the comp, at least in their home games.

[arsebiscuits1]

Anyone have a full game link? Definitely worth watching again

EDIT: got one! https://youtu.be/VL26BwZ921E

[blockhead]

Great 5 pts away in Glasgow. Sexton is superb, cant see us going far without him. Our pack is very strong and we have about 14 1st choice to pick 8 from. Midfield is a worrry with Ringrose and now ISA out for a bit. SH is an area were we are just OK. So many missed tackles, 1 run from Sarto in the 1st half accounted for about 6 of those.
Exeter's win over in France sets up the December games nicely. If we can win both then the group is over and only we will be coming out of it.
Only 3 groups left with max points so if we can keep this up then a home QF should be doable. A big objective at the start of the season.
Well done lads.

[Ruckedtobits]

18 hours on and a night's sleep but with no chance to review the game, the oldest adage in the game was ........

Pretty negative stuff...
Cronin threw brilliantly in toughest conditions this year and you still manage to get the dig in, so much for your earlier comments this week about Tracy being the second coming
And Healy hasn't weakened the scrum one bit this year when's he's played so I don't know where you've got this notion that he takes from the scrum when he plays

Certainly not intended to be negative but realistic and a little pragmatic.

Have a quick look at the Match Statistics @ http://www.espn.co.uk/matchstats? and decide for yourself. I've now had the opportunity to look again at the game and the only stats which surprised me were those attributed to Dave Kearney's attacking.

Having seen most of M'pellier v Exeter, I certainly believe that we need a win in Sandy Park before we can relax into a home quarter-final. To get that we will need to continue our improvement in scoring when we visit the opposition Green Zone. This has been the most striking aspect of this campaign thus far and long may it continue.

Certainly in no way negative about the result on Saturday, away against opponents we have found very difficult in recent years. But not euphoric about the performance just yet and confident there's lots more improvement to come, and it will be necessary

[yellabelly1961]

We need Johnny to stay fit through the AIs for sure

[Oldschool]

Being realistic we won't beat Exeter away.
They were good value for their AWAY win in France.
They are fit, well organised and have a big powerful pack.
They will analyze us well and exploit any weaknesses.
Both games against them are going to be tight.
Currently we have the advantage with two, slightly fortuitous bps and they could turn out to be very valuable.

[artaneboy]

Being realistic we won't beat Exeter away.
They were good value for their AWAY win in France.
They are fit, well organised and have a big powerful pack.
They will analyze us well and exploit any weaknesses.
Both games against them are going to be tight.
Currently we have the advantage with two, slightly fortuitous bps and they could turn out to be very valuable.

I think Exeter looked a little like us- a work in progress. But I cannot accept our BPs as in any way “fortuitous”: both were the result of a carefully determined strategy and a well delivered tactical plan. I believe it will be a 50:50 shoot out- without Sexton. With him, we have an edge on them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ronk]

McFadden and Kearney did good I thought.

[Dave Cahill]

I think Exeter looked a little like us- a work in progress. But I cannot accept our BPs as in any way “fortuitous”: both were the result of a carefully determined strategy and a well delivered tactical plan. I believe it will be a 50:50 shoot out- without Sexton. With him, we have an edge on them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What was fortuitous was MHR missing two simple conversions to help Exeter with the win today. Four points thrown away in a three point game.