Munster v Connacht Friday 27th December 19.15

Poor game and poor officiating no doubt but poor selection by Lam once more. You'd have thought one of the lads would have told him how important the interpros are if he doesn't know by now and that Munster side were there for the taking so why not pick your best XV to start?!

His persistence with Duffy and Murphy baffles everyone, can he not see what everyone else sees?

Still seen nothing to give any hope that Lam is the man for the job.

ConnachtBOB wrote: I was down there last night and everyone was saying how bad Dudley was - both Connacht & Munster fans.

2 things really disappointed me though and not sure if they were picked up on TV. Firstly, the Munster fans booed the Connacht team off the pitch. Connacht applauded the Munster players at the tunnel entrance and the Munster fans joined in, however when Munster were applauding the Connacht players, the crowed started booing.

Secondly, during the 2nd half, the stadium announcer felt the need to come on the PA and "politely request that visiting fans respect the kicker with silence. It is a long standing tradition in Thomond Park and is world renowned". Which is fair enough - great tradition and matched in the Sportsground. I didn't really notice any disrespect last night but maybe there was somewhere else in the grounds. However for our conversion at the end to get the BP, large pockets of Munster fans jeered Parks

Not exactly what you'd expect from the so called best club rugby fans in the world

rossie wrote:
I didn't hear the booing at end as I was making my way across behind the north terrace to the bohs bar but I would imagine that it was a reaction to Rodney and Buckley ( two props) having a go at earls on the floor during build up to Connacht try. I didnt get a good viewof it as i was at opposite end of east terrace but friend of mine who left during heavy shower and saw it on TV said that Rodney boxed the head off earls.

murph13 wrote: Poor game and poor officiating no doubt but poor selection by Lam once more. You'd have thought one of the lads would have told him how important the interpros are if he doesn't know by now and that Munster side were there for the taking so why not pick your best XV to start?!

His persistence with Duffy and Murphy baffles everyone, can he not see what everyone else sees?

Still seen nothing to give any hope that Lam is the man for the job.

I was at the game and have also watched it on TV, on Murphy he has served us well and so has Duffy and Parks so stop kicking them to death. I don't know why Murphy was picked ahead of POD but he neither took his chance to impress nor did the coaches move quickly enough to pull him ashore. Early in the first half he got a knock to the head and he was clearly all over the shop but we treated him and left him on, why I don't know. When we were attacking them not far from the line no Munster defenders on the blindside he kept going right, this he has been doing for years and I seriously do not know what our video chap does but its not what he should be doing. Duffy is out of sorts and trying to damn hard to get back to form, Parks needs some confidence building nothing more he is still a quality player and so is Duffy. We still play to flat and we still play a hap hazard type of game we have the individuals to do well but lack the wherewithal which is weird. look what happened in the last few minutes against Munster when we had our tails up. Individuals both backs and forwards have areas to work on, from the wingers to the props. Healy is fantastic going forward but that is where its starts and stops, Fionn still has it but seems either nervous or scared to use his skills and at the moment Robbie is not an outside centre. As for Buckley and Rodney boxing Earls head off it simply did not happen they were trying to calm the little scum bucket down but he would not let it go. and the stadium announcer asking for silence was directed at the home supporters mainly kids that were on the bottom of the West stand but also some adults and they had to be asked numerous times to be quite. The big conspiracy theory about the IRFU makes me laugh.

Frank Murphy has never been a stand out player for Connacht, you can count in one hand the amount of games that he has played well for Connacht (out of 100).

Parks and Murphy are old school rugby players and playing like it. The current game requires a 9/10 that can hold their own in the defensive line, pass, kick and run. Thanks very much but their time is up.

Gavin is still one of the best players to catch a high ball and retain position under pressure, he has lost the pace required at the top level and it showed on Friday with the slide tackle.
Could be an option to play Gavin at 12

Jack Carty has to be given the 10 jersey for the reset of the season and more game time to Darragh Leader

Marmion playing the game is excellent but needs to learn to control the game,needs to read the game, on slow ruck ball get the forwards around the corner until he can get quick ball then go wide and repeat.

Robbie Henshaw ????????????????????????? put it down to no quality attacking ball

Pat Lam - needs to be shown that the shorts path to the try line is straight forward and not side to side, Toulouse Guy Novès tactics in the sports ground was not pass the ball past 12 and they have a world class backline

Every team that has visited the sports ground defends flat and wide, and connacht have failed to break their defence with our backs

Solution:

Simple hard yards made by the Forwards around the rucks and when we get Fionn Carr, Robbie Henshaw, Eoin Griffin, Matt Healy etc up against their front 5 go wide

Last maybe learn to score form 5 meters out

Connacht Abu

Connacht 22 - 10 Leinster

Deadly Dudley had another nightmare yesterday for Bayonne vs Wasps. i've never heard before a rugby attendence shouting at the ref "Phillips, Phillips" all along the last 10 minutes

Dare I ask what he did this time?

Honestly hard to remember all the errors, but they were really one-sided. Example : Wasps 3rd try was an obvious forward pass, and he didn't even asked for TMO. And what peculiarly irritated Bayonne were the reset scrums, I don't exaggerate by saying it took more than 15 minutes overall