Whither Rob Penney now?

I don't normally watch Munster games all the way through in the Rabo, but last night was morbidly fascinating watching them. This must be the worst Munster team of the professional era. Both Sherry and Varley are hopeless at 2 and between the two of them still wouldn't make a half-decent hooker. That some rate "Killer" good enough to grace a RABO squad, not alone the national team, really is a savage indictment of the lack of props in this country. He's AIL standard at best. Botha is a parody of the player he was, and he seems unable or unwilling to change his technique and stop giving away the half dozen penalties he does every match. The back-row weren't half bad with O'Donnell in particular putting in a good shift. O'Connell will get better with the match time. Donncha: it's time to go!

Williams and Sheridan are clueless at 9. Why aren't Munster playing Stringer, and why haven't we signed him up before Munster realise the error of their ways? O'Gara is shot, Downey a one-trick bosh pony who has funnily enough affirmed Kidney's decision never to pick him for Irish squads by his performances in red this season. You can also see why Johne Murphy and Jones never made it at Leinster. Dreadfully limited players.

The one plus for Munster before the trip to London next weekend is that Quins are poor at the moment too.

Clueless RTE punditry? Surely not? :evil:

I'd say some people are judging them by their HEC record of one win this season, though even then they were competitive in all the games in a fairly tough pool. Their only really bad result this year was away to Munster in the Rabo, and they paid that back with interest last night.

Exactly and people in ireland should realise that this glasgow squad has 15/16 scittish internationals in it and a few from elswhere as well. People seem surprised(not just here) that they are as good as they are which is a bit disrepectful. The nite they beat ulster recently they were missing 14 scottish internationals ( senior) but rtes pundits didnt seem to know that and tipped them to win only on basis ulster were missing their irish contigent they won with a bp that night without a kicker playing their b team which was poss more impressive that last nite.

That said last night was unforgivable. To give up is unacceptable.

phatguerilla wrote: Glasgow are 10/3 to win the Pro12 grand final with PP, only leinster ahead of them at 8/11 which is based more on past experience and home advantage than present form imo (although those two things do count for a lot). Glasgow only have the league to worry about although that could change for Leinster fairly quickly. They have been really impressive this year, you would never have planned to tune in to a Glasgow game looking for exciting rugby before this season.

They were pretty decent last season too, this season they have just pushed on again. Bringing in the likes of the quality of Maitland, Matawalu & Strauss does help of course...

Glasgow are 10/3 to win the Pro12 grand final with PP, only leinster ahead of them at 8/11 which is based more on past experience and home advantage than present form imo (although those two things do count for a lot). Glasgow only have the league to worry about although that could change for Leinster fairly quickly. They have been really impressive this year, you would never have planned to tune in to a Glasgow game looking for exciting rugby before this season.

Every week is different but this result doesn't reflect well on our efforts last week.

Glasgow are playing some seriously good rugby. The number of bonus point wins they have had in recent weeks is astounding. They were unlucky at the RDS last Saturday too.

Must say I'm surprised how well they were doing but they have a good team there now and they are probably the most exciting team in the league to watch at the moment, confidence is high and they are prepared to give it a go from anywhere.

For Munster you'd have to be seriously worried, their league hopes are well and truly buried with 3 rounds remaining and a daunting European tie awaits them next weekend away to Harlequins. Munster will circle the wagons during the week but the bottom line now is that no serious side has any fear of playing them especially at home. Rather than qualification for the last 8 kick-starting Munster's season its gone from bad to worse for them.

Worrying times for Irish rugby in general.

May be a bit harsh to say it but the result from Glasgow tonight just goes to show how bad our performance last weekend was. Either that or we're in for a shellacking for Eric's final game....

I suppose Marmion had run a good length of the field and was running out of gas which made him keep looking back for support

Pass to POC looked marginally forward. Marmion should have definitely pinned his ears back. He took enough looks to realise there was no support and only ROG to beat.

Cheers BD, just what we need of a Monday...

Never mind the Outside, if he'd made his mind up Kieran could have cut through him for a short-cut.
He just didn't back himself, probably a symptom of the overall performance...

Hi all,

ive started a youtube channel for highlights to Connacht matches. have been sick of not being able to find any highlights in the past so have started doing them myself.

Heres the channel:

www.youtube.com/user/ConnachtRugbyVideos

here are the Munster v Connacht Highlights:

POC Try


Varley Try


Marmion Break


Varley Try 2



Was at the match. we were simply outclassed by munster. henshaw didnt have a great game. sickened by the marmion break, i reckon he could have had radge on the outside.

salmson wrote: Lastly I should apologise for sneering at the necessity for re-doing Musgrave Park. Now I've been, I can see it's a case of tear it down before it falls down

Given the love-in between the GAA and IRFU, there could be a case for upgrading one stadium in Cork, Pairc ui Chaoimh for both codes. I always like PuC, good atmosphere when it's full.

Was at the game (shame the team didn't show up), couple thoughts:

I thought Kearney's yellow was deserved (and dumb as a bag of hammers) but the Munster fans round me, to a man, thought O'Gara "bought that wan". They were also amazed Harris-Wright didn't get binned at some stage.

They also couldn't believe we turned down 3 kicks at goal when Munster went off the boil in the second half. Funny enough I wasn't that shocked.

Hard to pick any of our players out for mention (who was least worst?) but for Munster, POC asides,
I thought Tommy O'Donnell stood out.

Lastly I should apologise for sneering at the necessity for re-doing Musgrave Park. Now I've been, I can see it's a case of tear it down before it falls down

This game brought us back to 7 years.Shipped some terrible early tries ,so panicked and ran everything .Couldn't string more than 3 passes together without knocking on or losing ball in ruck.Didn't take easy kicks as we were still chasing for the 7 ,ending up with zero.

General thougth's taken from this game.

1/Backs can't pass/catch/ruck/offload.
2/Backs are innovative,enterprising and can run like greyhounds,but not with ball in hand .
3/Forwards having little ability to run ball from a ruck.
4/Forwards are sporadic in rucking.
5/Don't understand why Marmion keeps getting replaced on 60 minutes or what it's supposed to achieve/change.
6/Nikora's kick from hand has improved immensely.
7/Forwards really need to be more dominant and controlling.
8/Kearney should be dropped to send a message.Grace did something similar earlier in the season and it can't happen again.
9/Our defence can be excellent .
10/ We have buckets of potential individually ,but offensively we rarely play as a team.
11/ Would've been a cricket scrore if Munster didn't start making a lot of changes from a very early point (50 minutes onwards).
12/Munster looked very very good .Not sure if it was good defence or some fault of Munster that kept the score down for 1st 50 minutes.

Coaches from Eric down definitely have to shoulder more of the blame for that than any other poor performance this season. We can't keep treating the first game back after a few weeks break as a pre-season friendly to blow away the cobwebs. Our injury list was pretty short, missing a pair of locks and 12's, but that's about it. For whatever reason, the team was mentally, whatever about physically unprepared when it started the game.

However, the usual criticism is that the coaching staff got the tactics wrong, but that doesn't apply here. You need to have the ball to employ tactics, and we didn't have it. When as pro-players you can't get past 1 phase without losing possession, then it's not about tactics or the coaches, that's so substandard that it is the players fault.

borders- i was wumming and im surprised you were the one to ite. there is validity in the piint though.


umm- read the comments since my post and relate them to this 6ns.