Cardiff v Leinster Sat 19.35 TG4

[curates_egg]

That Nick Williams thug move again: https://twitter.com/andymcgeady/status/ ... 3743853568
Dangerous play: 6-8 week ban if the laws were properly applied. Given how cr@p the Pro 12 is, he probably won't even be cited.

[Fan with smartphone]

Maybe being a wee bit picky, but Pocock played 8 at the world cup, so I'd consider that different to what is going on here. I do think Leavy is covering more of what would be considered blindside duties. At least that's kind of how I'm seeing it. I thought the balance would be off, I remember Waugh and smith doing something similar for Australia and I never liked it, but these two work well together and have changed my mind. Leavy is doing a fine job.

Waugh and Smith is the correct comparison- and they were unarguably great. Not necessarily saying that we should pick Leavy and VdeF for big games- but it's a definite "horses for courses" option. We probably won't win a big bruiser arm wrestle with the top English and French clubs, so maybe try and outflank them- literally...


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The aspects of the game that JVdF and Leavy bring are a) genuine world class tackling on both sides and b) the ability to carry and break the line by their combination of strength (leg) and speed.

JVdF has a superb hand-off and Dan Leavy shows great dexterity in how he moves the ball from hand to hand and off-loads. Both are intelligent footballers who are learning how to win more turnovers at breakdown time. IMO, its worth the gamble for European home games to play them together.
.....................................

I think we are all agreeing that it's working reasonably well here. At the minute I guess it's Leavy competing with Ruddock and JVDF (hopefully) competing with seanie o'brien (although I'd be planning without him for now). Against a big French pack in winter conditions, I'm not sure it's (Leavy and JVDF) how I would start. But it probably is how I would aim to finish and try to, ahem, outflank as artaneboy says. Waugh-smith is probably viewed as a success, I must admit at the time I didn't particularly like it. Warburton-tips was a great success in my opinion, but wales have not often reverted to it. Lydiate is a Gatland favourite and he is clearly a 6. Tipuric for me should be a lion and he gets a raw enough deal with wales.

I actually think Leavy is doing a better job of close in carries, tree chopping and covering than the Aussie pair managed. Hence my previous comments. The Aussies were a bit more box office and out and out 7s. Leavy's putting his head down and his good work is part of the reason why JVDF is looking as good as he is further from the ruck. It's a good partnership. The other part of the reason is how well JVDF is just playing anyway himself. Interesting historical piece from Phil Waugh himself here:
http://www.foxsports.com.au/breaking-ne ... ffeee4015b

It does mess with Hugo's depth chart principle a bit, which otherwise I completely agree with. Get guys who do their own role well, get them to add a bit to that where they can and you have a team which is greater than the sum of it's parts. And that's the ultimate aim with selection I guess.

[artaneboy]

Viewing the rebirth?

Morto....[FLUSHED FACE]


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[Fan with smartphone]

Lol. Alien 3 is on tonight ted.

I haven't forgot about murphy, but it's a case of who knows where he fits in at this stage? Dom Ryan is a similar enough story, although probably has work to do to catch up a bit to be honest.

[simonokeeffe]

Our forward resources and backrow in particular give me a warm fuzzy feeling for our "league team" this year, havent had that for a couple of years

[neiliog93]

Exactly, this is the first time I've felt genuinely optimistic about Leinster since the latter part of the 2013/14 season.

[wixfjord]

I seem to remember ROL throwing a belter of a pass around midway through the second half from left to right out to MCF. He was impressive.

[simonokeeffe]

I seem to remember ROL throwing a belter of a pass around midway through the second half from left to right out to MCF. He was impressive.

Pace to burn too which we need. Almost worth shoehorning him on to wing if Ringrose is available too (lesser league games)? In the name of development

[FLIP]

The saltiness of the BBC Wales highlights of the game is tremendous.

[simonokeeffe]

The saltiness of the BBC Wales highlights of the game is tremendous.

their reporting getting in on it too

Wales captain Sam Warburton will have a scan on Monday after suffering a suspected fractured cheekbone in Cardiff Blues' 13-16 defeat by Leinster on Saturday.

Warburton, 27, was forced to leave the field early in the first half and replaced by Josh Navidi.

The flanker took a heavy blow to the face from Josh van der Flier. not an accidental clash of heads in a tackle

[molloyjh]

The saltiness of the BBC Wales highlights of the game is tremendous.

their reporting getting in on it too

Wales captain Sam Warburton will have a scan on Monday after suffering a suspected fractured cheekbone in Cardiff Blues' 13-16 defeat by Leinster on Saturday.

Warburton, 27, was forced to leave the field early in the first half and replaced by Josh Navidi.

The flanker took a heavy blow to the face from Josh van der Flier. not an accidental clash of heads in a tackle

They really do love to play the victim don't they.

[Raydollard]

Tough wins are always good. It was nice to see the ref standing up to the baying hordes of imbeciles or even the hordes of baying imbeciles.

[molloyjh]

Tough wins are always good. It was nice to see the ref standing up to the baying hordes of imbeciles or even the hordes of baying imbeciles.

In fairness there were a few calls that I can understand them getting frustrated with. Both Heaslip and Sexton were lucky not to get cards. In fact that Heaslip didn't get pinged at all for playing the ball on the deck so blatantly is ridiculous. We'd be up in arms over that. But the ref wasn't in a position to see that one, the AR simply had to call it. Sexton not getting yellow for his offside (despite being warned) was a let off given the Navidi yellow.

That said the Williams incident was a disgrace and should have been caught by the TMO at the very least. It seemed that Phillips just wasn't getting the support he needed from his team as well as having a bit of a dodgy game himself. I still can't believe that TMO tried to award the Leavy non-try. That was almost as bad as Ringrose being pinged for a deliberate knock-on while charging the ball down. The only thing that prevents it from topping that beauty was that it was only 1 official making a balls of it but then being forced into getting it right.

It's a serious concern that we're seeing so many really poor officiating displays already in the season. The knock-on that clearly wasn't for McGraths try last week being another classic example.

[Dave Cahill]

I still can't believe that TMO tried to award the Leavy non-try.

The TMO was absolutely correct. There is no angle that was shown that shows Leavy in touch prior to the grounding. Being over the touchline is not the same as being in touch. The ref made an assumption that he had touched the ground in touch, but there was no camera angle that I saw that actually shows this. The ref should have awarded the try.

[riocard911]

I still can't believe that TMO tried to award the Leavy non-try.

The TMO was absolutely correct. There is no angle that was shown that shows Leavy in touch prior to the grounding. Being over the touchline is not the same as being in touch. The ref made an assumption that he had touched the ground in touch, but there was no camera angle that I saw that actually shows this. The ref should have awarded the try.

+1

[BlueStreak]

That Nick Williams thug move again: https://twitter.com/andymcgeady/status/ ... 3743853568
Dangerous play: 6-8 week ban if the laws were properly applied. Given how cr@p the Pro 12 is, he probably won't even be cited.

Flippin heck! Missed that at the time. That was properly nasty and extremely dangerous. Has the citing window passed?

[molloyjh]

The TMO was absolutely correct. There is no angle that was shown that shows Leavy in touch prior to the grounding. Being over the touchline is not the same as being in touch. The ref made an assumption that he had touched the ground in touch, but there was no camera angle that I saw that actually shows this. The ref should have awarded the try.

We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. Yes, technically you couldn't see any part of Leavys arm or hand touching the ground. But at the same time there was literally no way he wasn't touching the ground unless he has an extra joint in his lower arm somewhere. For me there has got to be an element of common sense to this. Technically I can't see you right now. That doesn't mean you don't exist.



Or does it?

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Yeah I'd be very disappointed if rugby didn't continue to use common sense, we're better at it than most other sports. Remember when England had a try disallowed against us in Twickenham because the TMO saw something that he had no right to rule over? It'd be a sad day if that kind of thing didn't happen.

[Dave Cahill]

The laws have to be applied absolutely and thats the only way you can get consistency across levels, countries, hemispheres and competition. There is already too much space for personal interpretation in the application of the laws, without adding something so nebulous as common sense.

Know, don't guess. Thats the first rule of officiating. The TMO knew, the ref guessed.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Not really, most of the laws are applied subjectively as it is so why not make the right call when it's staring you in the face?

If you applied the laws correctly then there'd be a penalty at pretty much every breakdown and that's not an exaggeration.