11/11/2011 12:28:43
ormondbannerman
County: Clare
Posts: 390

1067205 Munster 23 for northampton
J Murphy; D Howlett, D Barnes, L Mafi, D Hurley; R O'Gara, C Murray;
W du Preez, D Varley, BJ Botha; D Ryan, P O'Connell capt; P O'Mahony, N Ronan, J Coughlan.
Replacements. D Fogarty, J Ryan, J Hayes, D O'Callaghan, D Leamy, T O'Leary, I Keatley, W Chambers

Ryan for DOC is a clear form call, and will be a welcome kick up the hole for DOC too.
You cant argue with the call for barnes over chambers, who hasnt really clicked yet.
Delighted for Donnacha and Danny, But cant understand Ronans inclusion,
he is too light and not good enough to play in our back row especially as it means excluding O Mahony.
If Leamy was dropped because of penalties, cards given away etc then why wasnt Ronan who gave away 3 really stupid penalties.
Hopefully leamys impact of the bench will be massive.

the Bull is on the bench hopefully he comes on for HEC cap 100 at some stage. Gwan the Bull!!!

Leinster 23 to face Montpellier
Rob Kearney, Isa Nacewa, Fergus McFadden, Gordon D'Arcy, Luke Fitzgerald, Jonathan Sexton, Isaac Boss
Heinke van der Merwe, Richardt Strauss, Mike Ross, Leo Cullen, Damian Browne, Kevin McLaughlin, Sean O'Brien, Jamie Heaslip
REPLACEMENTS:
Sean Cronin, Jack McGrath, Nathan White, Devin Toner, Shane Jennings, Eoin Reddan, Ian Madigan, Eoin O'Malley

Ooops meant to say excluding leamy.....

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 11/11/2011 12:37:49    1067214

Halfway through the 1st half of their 1st ever heineken cup game and connacht are winning 10-9 against harlequins after some very good play ending in a good try scored by Tiarnan O Halloran

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 11/11/2011 20:26:12    1067578

11/11/2011 20:26:12
ormondbannerman
County: Clare
Posts: 392

1067578 Halfway through the 1st half of their 1st ever heineken cup game and connacht are winning 10-9 against harlequins after some very good play ending in a good try scored by Tiarnan O Halloran

Halftime connacht losing 19-10, playing well so far

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 11/11/2011 20:47:27    1067587

stand up! for the ULSTER MEN stand up! for the ULSTER MEN stand up! for the ULSTER MEN stand up! for the ULSTER MEN Great win tonight well done lads.

fortyfive (Tyrone) - Posts: 5929 - 12/11/2011 17:37:01    1067780

ROG does it again what a game well done MUNSTER!!!!

fortyfive (Tyrone) - Posts: 5929 - 12/11/2011 19:53:43    1067831

12/11/2011 19:53:43
fortyfive
County: Tyrone
Posts: 3665

1067831 ROG does it again what a game well done MUNSTER!!!!

Wow, what a day
classic night of Heineken Cup rugby in Thomond Park tonight, backs against the wall, English opposition, one point down and 4 minutes into extra time before Ronan O'Gara assumes the position and kicks the winning dropgoal.
Does anything come close to the HC in terms of sheer drama, atmosphere and competitiveness?

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 12/11/2011 21:49:00    1067887

ormondbannerman:

Does anything come close to the HC in terms of sheer drama, atmosphere and competitiveness?

Lots of sports have drama atmostphere and competitiveness have you for gotten cluxtons winner in the all-ireland this year, even look at clares winning of the all-ireland in 97, leahy had a chance to win the game for tipp with practically one of the last pucks of the game only for davy fitz to pull off a save, so in short yes othe sports have the drama, atmostphere and competitiveness and you don't have to go to far to find them.

Hag_and_Cheese (Tipperary) - Posts: 6103 - 13/11/2011 11:38:20    1067911

Brilliant weekend for Irish sport and the biggest and best club competition in the World is back in a big way. Was at Ravenhill for the Ulster game and it was electric, after a shaky start we pulled it out of the bag and continued our superb home record. Such is the nature of the HC that a loss yesterday and we would effectively have been knocked out, we need to win all our home games and go to Clermont or Leicester and pick up a win there. Didn't get to see the Leinster match and only saw the end of the Munster game but what coolness from Sexton and particularly ROG, there's no other man I'd rather have in that position than him. Two wins and a draw when it could easily have been three defeats, you've got to be happy with that. Tough luck to Connacht as well, they battled hard and will definitely pick up a few wins in the competition

pplocal (Tyrone) - Posts: 5878 - 13/11/2011 13:39:14    1067958

Hag_and_Cheese
County: Tipperary
Posts: 6024

1067911 ormondbannerman:

Does anything come close to the HC in terms of sheer drama, atmosphere and competitiveness?

Lots of sports have drama atmostphere and competitiveness have you for gotten cluxtons winner in the all-ireland this year, even look at clares winning of the all-ireland in 97, leahy had a chance to win the game for tipp with practically one of the last pucks of the game only for davy fitz to pull off a save, so in short yes othe sports have the drama, atmostphere and competitiveness and you don't have to go to far to find them.

Of course other sports have lots of drama. yesterday after playing my own match which we won and that combined with the excitement of the munster match had me pumped up. Its in my opinion that the H Cup is one of the best sporting competitions around, but while im a follower of all sports rugby is king to me. Just like hurling is your fav sport

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 13/11/2011 18:45:39    1068154

Again a case of what if's for our lads. A game where with 15 minutes to go we were within 2 points of Quins and on top of them, and we let them back into the game. Again this experience of closing out games and kicking on will come with more experience of top level rugby. Huge game on Saturday, the big one in terms of prestige in the group and hopefully the lads will have the same passion and pride as last Friday and we get a fair bit of luck and you never know. Special mention for Jonny Muldoon. The man is an absolute warrior. One of the greatest players to have worn the Green of Connacht. He was fantastic on Friday and hopefully will be leading us to a famous victory on Saturday.

Leinster i'd say will be more than pleased with the draw in France, especially after Glasgows suprise win yesterday. Sexton saving the day again, but maybe if he'd been consistant and taken other chances that went abegging Leinster may have walked away with the full 4 points.

Ulster had a great win. Clermont are no mugs and any victory against them is a decent win. They have a very hard group though and if they do come through it in the end they will be more than deserving of their quarter final place. Doesn't get any easier though on Saturday with a trip to Welford Road...

Munster, well what more can be said about this team. They just do not know when they are beat. 41 phases at the end of the game to rescue it, to be driven back as far as they were and then to drive back up the field and snatch it.......Brilliant, brilliant stuff. Probably Dougie Howletts best game (bar the error for the try) in a Munster jersey. Peter O'Mahony seemed to be everywhere, as did a Mr O'Connell. Superb. And only one man would have slotted that at the end.

tribeinbrum (Galway) - Posts: 4155 - 14/11/2011 09:32:57    1068388

The Munster squad is unchanged for the trip to toulouse to play castres, should be a tight game with munster winning by a score
Munster Squad: M Horan, J Ryan, W du Preez, BJ Botha, J Hayes, S Archer, D Varley, D Fogarty, D Ryan, P O'Connell, D O'Callaghan, M O'Driscoll, B Holland, P O'Mahony, N Ronan, J Coughlan, D Leamy, C Murray, T O'Leary, P Stringer, D Williams, R O'Gara, I Keatley, S Deasy, J Murphy, D Howlett, D Barnes, W Chambers, L Mafi, D Hurley.

Big game of the weekend has to be in Galwey with european aristocrats Toulouse coming to play Connacht.
The Connacht players need to ignore the hype about the significance of the occasion, what it means for the province etc; they just need to focus on getting a result because a loss at the weekend ends any hopes of progressing either in the HC and probably in the Amlin too.
Since Friday, we've been hearing that Connacht gave a great account of themselves at Harlequins, didn't let themselves down etc. Well that's all well and good, but they came away from that match with no points on the board from being in a position when they could have won and should have at least got an LBP

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 17/11/2011 11:51:11    1070549

Will be a huge game alright Ormond.

A sellout, Galway will be going green for the day. But like you said, if we have any hopes of any kind of prgoression from this group (however unlikely) a win is the most important thing. Gloucester showed at the weekend that Toulouse can be got at.

It's one of those days you hope the wind get's up a bit and maybe the French Aristocrats won't fancy it!!!!! (That's more hope than expectation, Toulouse are made of sterner stuff than that).

Munster have a tricky tie against Castre, but after last weeks result there tails should be up and should go there for the win. Ulster have a really tricky one, but if ever there was a time to face Leicester, maybe it is now. Ulsters group is a minefield so they could do with a positive result.

Leinster need a win, and to be honest with a bp to put them back in charge of their group. They are more than capable of achieving this though so all in all lets hope for a record 4 Heineken Cup wins in the one weekend for all 4 provinces....

tribeinbrum (Galway) - Posts: 4155 - 17/11/2011 12:16:00    1070570

Connacht team to face Toulouse in the Heineken Cup at The Sportsground:

Gavin Duffy, Tiernan O'Halloran, Eoin Griffin, Dave McSharry, Brian Tuohy, Miah Nikora, Paul O'Donohoe, Brett Wilkinson, Adrian Flavin, Rodney Ah You, Michael Swift, Dave Gannon, Mike McCarthy, John Muldoon, George Naoupu

Replacements: Ethienne Reynecke, Ronan Loughney, Dylan Rogers, TJ Anderson, Ray Ofisa, Frank Murphy, Niall O'Connor, Henry Fa'afili

Hopefully these 23 lads will go down in history as the players that beat Toulouse.......Come on the Boys in Green, You're destiny awaits 2moro evening!!!!!

tribeinbrum (Galway) - Posts: 4155 - 18/11/2011 16:11:31    1071520

Magnificent Munster! Magnificent Peter O'MAHONY And Outrages RoG for the second week running take a bow son.......

fortyfive (Tyrone) - Posts: 5929 - 19/11/2011 17:37:39    1072033

Niall Ronan justified his inclusion yesterday ormond.

jonny1951 (Mayo) - Posts: 1431 - 20/11/2011 20:11:18    1072658

Bitterly disappointed with Saturday. The lads froze and the occasion got to them. Too many basic errors and Toulouse punished us. But these are the games Connacht rugby wants and needs if we are going to progress. We have a tough couple of games now in the Rabo before the Gloucester double header so we need to get some league points on board and go into the Gloucester game with a bit of form.

I have no doubt we will be getting points out of the Gloucester games. Great crowd, wonderful atmosphere and hopefully that can transfer over to the league games.

Bad result for Ulster too. I thought at one stage they were going to sneak a result but to leave without a losing bp could be costly in the long run.

The Leinster bandwagon back up and rolling. Job done, bonus point win and now they know if they do the double over Bath the 1/4's await.

And finally Munster. Christ knows what it is with them and this competition but if you could bottle it and sell it you'd be a multi millionaire. 2 games in. 2 wins, 2 last minute drop goals by Ronan O'Legend. They do not know when they are beat and fair play to them. Again, if they do the double over the Scarlets the 1/4's await. Be a very nice Xmas down Thomond way if that happens.

As an aside was the greatest Heineken Cup game ever played at Edinburgh on Friday night? 48-47????? I've never seen the likes of that in any game of rugby....

tribeinbrum (Galway) - Posts: 4155 - 21/11/2011 09:23:52    1072789

20/11/2011 20:11:18
jonny1951
County: Mayo
Posts: 1052

1072658 Niall Ronan justified his inclusion yesterday ormond.
He did play very well, better than ive ever really seen him play but the facts are that he regularly gets blown out of the collisions for the ball dispite being 100kg. Id much rather someone like Tommy O Donnell play at 7.

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 21/11/2011 11:48:29    1072917

I agree he does sometimes get cleared at the breakdown. However, like against Leinster he is left isolated a lot because he is the only one at the breakdown. O Mahoney is going to be class.

jonny1951 (Mayo) - Posts: 1431 - 21/11/2011 12:27:16    1072943

This was posted as a new thread but as the subject matter is the same it has been incorporated here.

legendzxix
County: Kerry
Posts: 1530

02/12/2011
14:55:42

Pro 12 Match Predictions


Predictions for the weekend:
Connaught to beat Treviso.
Rangers to beat Cardiff Blues.
Ulster to be beaten by the Scarlets.
Munster to beat Ospreys.

Administrator (None) - Posts: 2275 - 02/12/2011 16:22:20    1079149

As posted on the new thread

ormondbannerman
County: Clare
Posts: 468

02/12/2011
16:03:51


02/12/2011 14:55:42
legendzxix
County: Kerry
Posts: 1530

1079085 Predictions for the weekend:
Connaught to beat Treviso.
Rangers to beat Cardiff Blues.
Ulster to be beaten by the Scarlets.
Munster to beat Ospreys.

When did leinster become rangers????
I think there is a alright chance of all 4 irish provinces winning

http://www.hoganstand.com/forum/MessagePage.aspx?TopicID=69861
Thread open already

Administrator (None) - Posts: 2275 - 02/12/2011 16:25:27    1079152