In the stand, if you believe the boos, comments here, comments all over the Internet etc we can only blame one person but I blame the urc. How did they put that referee in the position that he can be blamed? It’s outrageous that he be put in that position. Any other ref could be chosen so that the “he played” nonsense wouldn’t be am issue.
Regardless, you play the decisions, and adapt.
Well done munster, good luck on the 27th.
Craig Grehan
As an out & out leinster fan. We disrespected munster in cup rugby by not selecting our best team.
A team that does that, does it at their peril. We took the gamble and lost to the MUCH better team on the day.
Andrew Potts
A disappointing day for Leinster fond the demands of a month of weekly knock out rugby a step to far today.
Could have won it but Munster could had a few tries.
Frank Murphy did nothing today but enhance his reputation as a very flawed Ref and biased against Leinster.
In the first minute a player leaves the field unconscious. The result of a high tackle.
I thought three questions had to be answered by the Ref
Was there contact with the head?
Was force applied?
Any mitigation ?
It’s a card but only what colour.
The sanctions must have changed.
The length of time Leinster were defending under advantage was ridiculous, certainly he was a factor.
John Hyland
Munster were the better side today. For right or for wrong, Leo has prioritised the fifth star. This was always going to be a tight game. Let’s hope Munster can do the biz in SA.
TWITTER
Munster deserve it. Leinster played badly. Frank Murphy should not ref these games. All of this is true, go on and win now Munster. #leivmun
Seeing a lot of this. Unsure it's anything like a big loss. I get that teams who haven't touched a trophy in seasons don't like other teams with more W, but every dog has its day. A gambled kick through on 72 mins turned out to be a pivotal error, a missed conversion likewise. 👍 https://t.co/e95VfHl4O1
I know we played Toulouse just last season but for our latest TT I thought it best to go back a bit further to 2019 when we met them in the final four having already played them home and away in the pool phase.
That’s not exactly the kind of run we Leinster fans have gotten used to over the years, and coming as it did right after Ireland’s disappointment in Cardiff to round out the Six Nations, we’d be forgiven for having our expectation levels set at ‘apprehensive’ going into this Easter Sunday battle with our fellow four-star bearers.
But if our experience under the Cullen/Lancaster ticket has taught us anything, it’s that they know how to dig deep and find our A game when a big occasion demands it of them. And there was a hint of that in the run I mention above because on the one day the result actually meant something to Leinster’s season, we managed to find a way to win.
But with all due respect to our northern cousins, this semifinal was a step up again. Three of our titles have been won since Toulouse earned their fourth, yet this season they were starting to show that kind of form again, as we saw ourselves back in October, and the entire Top 14 has seen throughout the domestic campaign.
It was pretty clear that if there was even a hint of the lack of accuracy on Sunday that we had shown in recent weeks, we would be punished. And while we have been welcoming a host of our ‘elite’ squad members back to the first team lately, it was essential that they hit the ground running.
What a curious opening spell it was. For the first ten minutes we had only about three phases of possession, while our guests had built series of 6, 8 and 9 – yet thanks to our stringent defence, we came out of it with the scores level at 3-3.
Then came the game’s first major unforced error, when Toulouse’s full back Thomas Ramos put his restart over our end line giving us a scrum at halfway.
We had an earlier put in but it resulted in a free kick which Conan tapped quickly, so after twelve whole minutes we finally found ourselves in an attacking situation, or to put it another way, we had an opportunity to show the rest of Europe just how able we were to put the previous four weeks behind us.
What followed gave everyone the answer and then some. 10 well-thought out phases, with carries accompanied by good clear-outs, gain-lines broken regularly, offloads timed to perfection especially by Cian Healy, and eventually James Lowe, who probably wouldn’t have featured had Jamison Gibson-Park been fit, showed his usual mix of pace, strength and determination to get the ball down.
Now we know for sure which Leinster team has turned up. The only question left that needed answering was could the French outfit raise their game to meet us.
For me, that had already been answered. In that first pool meeting in round 2, they threw the kitchen sink at us and prevailed by just one point. In the return fixture in January, I felt they tried to adjust their game to knock us off our stride and failed badly.
Here I think they may have been guilty yet again of showing us too much respect. To be fair, they were without Zach Holmes and Ntamack was carrying a knock, but for me if an out half is good enough for the bench he should be good enough to start.
Antoine Duponte is a pesky scrum half who can definitely out shine his 10 on occasion and having impressed against Racing in the quarterfinals, there was definitely a case for him to do a job in the playmaker role.
But while we were setting about finding our best game, they appeared to be hell bent on tinkering with theirs, and if you’re going to do that on a stage like this one, you have to be absolutely sure it’s going to work. And it didn’t.
A look at Leinster’s defensive charts might raise an eyebrow as ten of our starters were ‘credited’ with more than one missed tackle. But as often is the case when crunching these numbers, it doesn’t tell the whole story. A high percentage of those missed ones were made up for by tackles made by a team mate.
We were generally hunting in groups of two or three, and often the offloads we would expect from Toulouse weren’t forthcoming. Conan led with 18 tackles, both our starting locks had 16 and perhaps most crucially our centres had 25 between them, with one or two by Ringrose proving particularly key.
So attack after attack was being shut down, even when faced by the ridiculous pace and guile of Kolbe, who after a couple of trademark runs made some inroads, grubbered one along the touchline only to be tidied by Jordan Larmour.
In the ensuing play, we had one of those rare moments on a rugby pitch when you can throw the ball forward to a team-mate and it can legally benefit you. I always thought this was an area that needed tidying up in the laws, but I wasn’t complaining when Larmour ran with the ball from behind his try line before chucking it ahead to James Lowe for him to take the drop out.
Always full of confidence to try something to catch the opposition napping, Lowe dinked a mini drop kick to himself and retained possession for us, and when the ball eventually went through the backs, Robbie Henshaw spotted a gaping hole in the Toulouse backfield and booted a monster kick to find touch on the far side of the pitch.
Yoann Huget retrieved the ball and was clearly keen to get keep the tempo moving so he took a quick throw and found Ramos. Maybe the full back had his overcooked restart on his mind, or maybe he was generally affected by not being trusted with the 10 jersey, but whatever the reason he hesitated and his kick was not only charged down, but pretty much the entire Leinster pack smelled blood in the water and eventually a combination of Fardy, Toner and Ryan wrapped him up in his own 22 to force a scrum.
So to summarise, from a situation where Toulouse’s danger man was running at us at pace in our 22, just moments later we had won an attacking set piece way down the other end of the park. Now we needed to go for the kill and turn this territory into more points.
I’m sure Richie Gray has gone over this moment in his mind several times, even after his 10-minute spell on the naughty step. And I actually think he was making a conscious effort to show Wayne Barnes he had no intention of waving his hand at the ball on the floor of the ruck yet his hand did it anyway. So to make matters even worse for his team, we now had an extra man into the bargain.
And with the iron even hotter than the Dublin Easter sun, we struck. Lineout, maul, over the line, Luke McGrath try. Just like that, we’re up by fourteen in a match I thought for sure would never have a margin of more than seven either way.
But here’s the thing – while this was definitely a day when we brought our A game, that doesn’t mean we always showed it. A lineout would go awry here, a carrier would get himself isolated there, and immediately after our second try Devin Toner struggled with the sun in his eyes and knocked on the restart. Time for Toulouse to have the prime attacking position.
And the repetition was to continue when a Leinster hand got in the way of a Toulouse attacking move. While pounding our try line with carry after carry, a pass to their prop Faumuina was swatted at by Robbie Henshaw and Barnes rightly flashed his yellow once more.
Was that a penalty try? There was certainly a case for it. Had the prop taken the ball his run would have gotten him over the line. That said, had he taken the ball then Scott Fardy and Johnny Sexton were in position to get under him. Call me biased if you want but I’m not sure that was a certain try.
But whatever about that debate, there was definitely a big game error from the French outfit when they sent the kicking tee onto the pitch before properly taking in the situation.
Had they considered that it was now 14 v 14 surely a kick to the corner was the way to go, yet they had to make do with just the three points, and despite the clock reaching 46 before the halftime whistle blew (thanks to a James Lowe try that was rightly disallowed for a block by Conan), there was to be no further score in the half.
Notice how long it took me to mention the name of Sexton? And even then it was in a defensive context? That might seem odd seeing how he was named man of the match, but that doesn’t mean I think he was unworthy. It was one of his more understated performances all round, but it was still one that was in stark contrast to the distinctly-less-than-assured outing by his opposite number.
This put the French coaches into one of those halftime quandries…do we leave things as they are and hope they work out or do we make a switch and admit we were wrong? Well they went for the former and the decision got exactly what it deserved when Duponte threw a pass straight into touch on 48m. Whatever out half prowess he had displayed before, he just couldn’t find it on this day.
And from there, Leinster’s ability to work their way to a crucial score kicked in once more. From the lineout following the Duponte error we stretched their defence through 6 phases before Sexton slipped through an immaculate grubber that sat up perfectly in the 22 forcing Kolbe to play it.
Now on an average day, even deep in his own corner, you wouldn’t bet against the Springbok dancing his way down to the other end of the pitch in a matter of seconds, but further proof the writing was on the wall for Toulouse came when that man Ramos mucked things up again by colliding with his team mate and forcing him into touch – suddenly it’s a lineout to Leinster within sight of the try line.
A penalty advantage and a bunch of phases later, this time it was Scott Fardy crashing over, and with nerves of steel his captain Sexton slotted over the crucial extras meaning the visitors now needed three scores to catch up with us.
NOW they make the switch, bringing on Ntamack and moving Duponte back to 9. Gate locked, horse bolted?
Well they did manage to switch on their famed offloading game and it was having an effect, with series of 13 then 11 phases getting them deep into our 22 before Médard, another who surely could/should have started, dinked one over our defensive line only for Garry Ringrose to make a last gasp lunge for the ball and force a simultaneous touch down.
All they could take from the visit was another three points and such was the order of the day. Sexton added another penalty minutes later to restore the lead and was immediately replaced by Ross Byrne, who got his own name on the score sheet with a penalty with minutes to go.
The final fifteen minutes were way more comfortable than anyone could have imagined going into the match. Ironically the last touch of the game went to young Hugh O’Sullivan, on for Luke McGrath in the closing stages, and possibly thanks to the form of James Lowe, set to take part in a European final in a few weeks.
So after a run of disappointing results, Leinster certainly found a way to produce the goods when it mattered. But despite the impressive display, it was clear at times that we had another level to reach for as well, and with Saracens awaiting for us in Newcastle, we will have to find it.
Thankfully we don’t have any season-defining rugby in the meantime – our trip to Belfast next weekend won’t affect either side while our guaranteed first place finish sees us idle the following week.
Meanwhile, Saracens will have two tough Premiership battles against teams with playoff intentions; first they return to the scene of their European semifinal triumph to face Wasps, then they get a chance to make up ground on league leaders Exeter.
I guess you could make arguments both ways on which is the better way to prepare for a major final but this I know – Leinster have proven time and time again that they can shift into the required gear regardless of what has gone before.
There will be no assumptions made by fans ahead of kickoff in Newcastle, but there will most certainly be an abundance of belief. Bring it on. JLP
Welcome to my 80+ column, a weekly post featuring final thoughts from the week of rugby just gone.
FANZO GUINNESS PINT PREDICTOR LEAGUE RESULT
Well, this got awkward…
“Back in the day” we used to hold competitions under a format I called “the unriggable raffle” where we got 100 entrants to earn a square on to a 10×10 grid and the winner would be determined by the final score of our feature rugby match of the weekend. We only stopped doing them because the admin became too much but one thing you can say for sure was that I had no possible say in the winner.
Since those times we have had a few more conventional competitions and the latest one was in conjunction with the FANZO app which ran a prediction league for the Six Nations. There were pints on offer for getting individual results right but you also won points on a league table so over the five weeks we were working towards an overall winner.
HOWEVER…to encourage people to join the league even after the Six Nations kicked off, we had an extra prize for Best Score In A Single Round and going into Super Saturday it looked like Andrew Byrne had posted an unassailable 67 in round 3. As I was in town celebrating the Grand Slam a mate texted me to point out that I had gotten TWO of that Saturday’s winning margins bang on (including Ireland’s) which meant not only had I jumped to the bronze medal slot in the overall league, I also won the bonus prize with my score of 70!!!!!!!
Now the reason my mate was interested in letting me know was that he could also tell me that he actually jumped to second overall ahead of me!!! And in a final twist to the whole thing the overall winner was actually fellow content creator Stephen “Master of None” Murphy, who also won his own Fanzo competition!!!
We plugged the competition with lines like “see if you can beat the experts”…I suppose with the exception of Ken, ye couldn’t ha ha ha….and just in case I need proof of my predictions here they are…
Seriously though, many thanks again to the FANZO crowd for getting involved it definitely added to the experience over the past couple of months.
CHARITY RAFFLE
Please get involved in the actual raffle below, an awesome prize for an extremely worthy cause.
Johnny Sexton has donate a signed, match worn jersey from this years’ Six Nations campaign!
We will be raffling this off over the next few weeks for two fantastic causes. All r/t’s appreciated to help us reach our goal
Obviously it was an even greater pleasure to wrap last weekend’s match, and many thanks to Conor & Kino for being on hand to help me do so. It was great to be able to say the words “Grand Slam” out loud on the pod again although shortly before recording I came up with a loophole for future years…once I make it clear that I’m actually talking about an elderly relative’s cooking, ie “Gran’s Lamb”, then I should be able to say it freely in future years.
If you missed it, check it out here or on most major platforms.
HARPIN ON…SIMON EASTERBY & IRELAND’S DEFENCE
For the bonus clip this week we looked at what I consider to be the bedrock of Ireland’s success and wait until you get a load of the stat Kino highlights about tries conceded…it’s mind-blowing.
If you’re playing the clip above maybe pop over and subscribe to the channel too? That’s where we post our Preview Show as well as other content throughout the week.
IRELAND’S RWC CHANCES TIK TOK
Two TikToks to share this week, first a great point made by Kino as he wrapped up his pod contributions…
…and this other one I’ll just link to (click here) I vowed to break my “Grand Slam” embargo as soon as possible after full time if we won so what you see is a rather drunk me talking to my phone outside a pub on King’s Street Dublin between 7 and 7:30 Saturday evening…
STEWARD’S ENQUIRY
Much has been said about that Freddie Steward red card all over social media I know, including by yours truly on the pod, but I still have a few final points to make.
First, while I try to be open minded and take in views from the other side on decisions like this one, I now have a policy whereby should I hear something like “that was no way intentional” then I just stop reading or listening. It’s not about intent. It’s about duty of care. And reckless can also be red.
Finally I’d like to show receipts from my views expressed on the pod. When we see Twitter clips of the Steward/Keenan collision they always make it look like the two players’ starting positions were just feet apart, with the implication being that Steward had little or no time to react.
IMO this photo tells a different story. Steward came from a good bit away and Keenan was always his man so he had a lot more time to prepare for the collision than many are letting on. And again…to be very clear, that doesn’t mean he set out to clatter him in the head, I’m just saying he had more time to prepare better for contact.
You could even argue that those saying he had little time to react are effectively saying he’s a shit full back because one of the most important roles they play is seeing all that is happening in front of them!
I mean, even if he WAS just “bracing for impact” like he claims, you can do that in many different ways and when you do it by turning your elbow you put yourself in a position to cause damage. THIS is why the decision is red, in the hope that he, and others looking on, will change their behaviour in future. But that objective becomes trickier when a host of commentators, including decorated former players like Matt Dawson, try to make it out like nothing was wrong about it.
UPDATE : the commission ruling has since dropped…
The player denied that he had committed an act of foul play worthy of a red card as described in Law 9.11. Having reviewed all the evidence, the Committee decided that: (i) head contact with an opposing player had occurred; (ii) there had been an act of foul play in breach of Law 9.11 in that the Player had been reckless in his actions and in his upright positioning as he approached and came into highly dangerous contact with the other player; and (iii) there were sufficient mitigating factors including the late change in the dynamics and positioning of the opposing player which should have resulted in the issue of a yellow card rather than a red card.
On that basis, the Committee did not uphold the red card and the player is free to play again immediately.
Guinness Six Nations press release
Obviously social media is going to be full of “I told you so’s” over the next few days but FWIW I still hold my own opinion expressed above and I’m really not sure what this outcome does to help the overall intent of these guidelines which I thought were designed to change behaviour. It also makes a mockery of Jaco Peyper’s on-field interpretation.
GRAND SLAM GROAN SLUMP
Can we not just have at least a couple of days to be happy about a double Grand Slam??????? I mean, is that too much to ask???
To be fair, I expected the taunts from outside of Ireland, like the “bet you still won’t get past the RWC quarterfinals”, so that isn’t included here.
But to see tweets from Irish fans, clearly still upset that so many from the 23 were from Leinster no matter what the achievements of the team, drudging up the age old debates about provincial selections and “private schools” and such was really really disheartening.
I mean, let’s be clear, those debates are worth having, but no matter what the composition of the team at the weekend, it was still Ireland, and they won the tournament comfortably which makes the selection process extremely difficult to argue against.
Even on the subject of supposed favouritism towards Leinster, which I already harped on last week’s version of this column, there is news of change going forward with the proposed Munster Centre of Excellence, so maybe if it’s balance we’re looking for we could also bring it to the discussion from the other side as well.
One area where I didn’t mind a spot of post-Grand Slam negativity was with women’s rugby. Things in general are improving for the Irish team and I wish Nichola and all the squad the best of luck in their Six Nations campaign which kicks off next weekend.
But there are still a host of issues which have yet to be addressed and one of these is that members of the heroic 2013 Grand Slam squad were unbelievably without tickets for Saturday’s decider despite their being celebrated during the week. Also there was an article in the Indo by John Cronin outline many of the outstanding problems (here’s the link though it’s unfortunately behind a paywall) so clearly it’s a case of some things done, more still to do.
WORLD RUGBY BLUEPRINTS
An exclusive this morning in the Telegraph about World Rugby’s plans for the future, also behind a paywall, but above you see the main points. Here’s what I thought about it.
First glance of World Rugby blueprint – looks like most of the bigger CVC cake goes to Tier 1, with crumbs to tiers below. Are we surprised? On World League, meh, like any comp if your country wins it will be great but not seeing a lot of worldwide growth for the sport pic.twitter.com/zCUOoD6xhZ
Many congrats again to Richie Murphy and his Under 20s or “Wolfuppies” team that also won the Grand Slam with their own convincing win over England at the weekend, the similarities in that game in Cork and Saturday’s in Dublin were uncanny.
But on the competition overall I’d just like to find a tiny kernel of fault if I may…as you can see from the table below, the Italian Under 20s did an amazing job in finishing 3rd on the overall table and I have no doubt that it will do the sport there a world of good and we can hope that these underage squads will go on to serve their test performances well in the years to come.
However, as much as we Irish fans would much prefer to see Italy above England in any league table, I wonder if it’s fair that they got ahead of them here. All I’m saying is that when we’re using bonus points, while I get why points difference is an important tie breaker, I’m not so sure it should be the first on the list behind matches won. Sorry, but IMO England’s 3 wins should beat Italy’s 2 and I reckon we’d be shouting from the rooftops if an Irish team missed out this way, especially in the senior Six Nations where the financial difference between 3rd and 4th is great.
WORLD CUP DRAW
Here’s a pair of tweets I agree with, despite the fact that they contradict each other. In the first one, a Leicester Tigers podster shares my view that we might be making too much of this “World Cup draw” situation. Is it a fiasco? Yes. Is there anything we can do about it before RWC2023? No.
Wow, it didn’t take long for people to turn from celebrating the Grand Slam to re-moaning the RWC draw.
We all know it’s shit & done far too far in advance.
But, it is what it is, we all knew the ludicrous timing (hence the rush to get top 4 3 yrs ago!).
That said, it was interesting to see this mock up of how the RWC2023 draw would look had the rankings been based on current standings, although I do wonder if the draw would allow for three from the six nations to be in the same pool.
By the way, the picture on the left is what the World Cup draw currently looks like, and the one on the right is what it would like if the draw was being done now based on current rankings: https://t.co/zNmZP3Nrappic.twitter.com/PouoJxvoDS
Biggest downers from Saturday for Ireland but more immediately Leinster were the early withdrawals of Messrs Keenan & Sexton, and the injury reports do not look good although neither were ever going to feature in the the top of the table URC clash on Friday against the reigning champion Stormers.
It was however extremely good news that Tommy O’Brien and Ed Byrne are back available for selection and while I have a feeling there won’t be too many changes to Leinster’s 23 than the one from Edinburgh, they could feature on the bench…
POSSIBLE 23 FOR FRIDAY
Cosgrove, Larmour, Turner, Frawley, Kearney, H Byrne, McGrath
Barron, E Byrne, Clarkson, Deeny, Connors, N McCarthy, Tector, T O’Brien/Russell
(note – the above team is purely from my imagination, it’s certainly not one of those quasi-leaked Thornley teams which are always 22 out of 23 correct)
INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Tommy O’Brien: has returned to full training after recovering from an ACL injury
Ed Byrne: has returned to full training after recovering from a knee injury
INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Garry Ringrose: will continue to follow the Graduated Return to Play Protocols with Leinster Rugby
Hugo Keenan: will continue to follow the Graduated Return to Play Protocols with Leinster Rugby
Caelan Doris: will continue to follow the Graduated Return to Play Protocols with Leinster Rugby
INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Johnny Sexton: will have a scan today on a groin injury picked up in Saturday’s game against England
Jamie Osborne: Sustained a knee ligament injury in the game against Edinburgh and will be unavailable for a number of weeks
There are no further updates on:
Rónan Kelleher (shoulder), Joe McCarthy (ankle), Cormac Foley (hamstring), Martin Moloney (knee) and Charlie Ngatai (hamstring)
Meanwhile on the Stormers side of things I hear they could well be bringing a few Springboks to the RDS so that should make it a very interesting occasion indeed.
MLR UPDATE
This week I decided to check in on the Eastern Conference for once and no better match than the rivalry between the New York Ironworkers and the New England Free Jacks.
The Irish interest in the lineups wasn’t as strong as I thought it would be all I could see was the New England scrum half John Poland who played for Ire U20s and had a cap for Munster before moving stateside – on the New York side there was just their Aussie-born outhalf Sam Windsor who has 8 Ulster caps from the 2015-16 season.
It was played at the Memorial Stadium at Mount Vernon in New York – I winced at the sight of both gridiron and soccer lines on the pitch but in the end it wasn’t too bad.
Overall although New York led a couple of times including as late as 55m, the visitors were always in control as their halfbacks Poland and Jayson Potroz always seemed to have a score in them and once they got back the lead going into the final quarter there was only to be one winner and they will be more than happy with a 5-0 points split away from home, especially as the teams went into the game level at the top of the conference.
More on the league next week.
ROUND 5
NOLA 37-14 UTAH
ATL 10-35 SD
OGDC 29-3 TOR
CHI 24-22 DAL
NYI 18-33 NEFJ
ROUND 6
OGDC v NOLA
NEFJ V DAL
UTAH V TOR
HOU V ATL
CHI V SEA
HARPIN’ PREDICTION LEAGUE
Obviously there has been no change in the league since the last time I included it in this column but I thought I’d post the table again anyway as there are just three rounds left and it’s getting close at the top, if not so much at the bottom!!!
THE NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
The original plan was to have a bonus pod to look back over the Six Nations but I chose instead to give myself the week off; this has been an enjoyable period for content creating here at Harpin Manor of course but also very hectic admin wise so we could do with the few extra days without another pod to process.
Then we turn our focus back to the URC and the visit of the Stormers with a preview show before, a wrap pod after and also all the other usual features in between so be sure to follow us on any or all of our social media platforms to keep up with it all. In the meantime, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
Ryan Baird immense ..kudos must go to all coaches n staff and squad
10 tries conceeded in 2 6 Nations campaigns combined telling stat..hats off to Simon Easterby for defensive work especially
James Griffin
England brought physicality but not a lot of game nous. Ireland, while not always as precise as in previous games, matched their physicality but in addition, had good game management and made good decisions at crucial times. Delighted for the entire squad; a fully deserved slam.
Gavin Hegarty
Not a good Irish performance but always great to get a slam.
Up for discussion is where rugby is going. A red card should be for a malicious act, not for what steward did. His offence was a yellow at most.
TWITTER
The best part of all this?
After the trophy is lifted. After the job is done.
Seeing who they are. Kids in tow, joy, delight, banter.
Utter professionals week to week, but they let the emotions lose once it's done.
Cried looking at POM and Sexton with their kids.
Wholesome
— IrishWomensRugbySupportersClub (@IrishWomens) March 18, 2023
Conor Cronin The wins in the previous 3 rounds with a big injury list, outdone by getting through that game in spite of the injuries.
We allowed the scots to dictate big parts of that game but once we took charge we’d 2 quick tries and that was it. raging for James Ryan not to get the score or the assist with that fine supporting run, and not to have got the BP.
Players really stood up and were counted, and while there were mistakes it’s the attitude of getting up and getting the next phase right that is the core of this team right now.
James Griffin What a very special group of men! To play through so much adversity and win is why they have the ranking they have. Speedy recovery to the injured.
Mark Jackson Think that covers most contingencies ..struggling to come up w new ones ..maybe Hugo Keenan as a LO jumper…Jukebox finally kicking for goal.
Kevin Kelehan Dogged in the extreme, not much more could have gone against them, the disallowed first try, the smashing of Doris in the air in the line out and no sanction, then Sheehan and then Henderson so early in the game. Today was proof that even a much improved Scotland with tails up in front of a noisy crowd could not derail Ireland seriously discommoded by injuries. Time to nail Farrell and Catt down for a contract extension before the World Cup!
Lee O Farrell They always talk about the rub of the green but the lads today made their own luck.
An incredible performance. One of the things that sets this group apart from previous Irish teams is the headspace. And these lads have it in spades!
Andrew Potts Every benefit of the doubt was given to Scotland by the Ref.
Even the fact he was joking around when Ringrose was being attended to for a serious injury was completely tone deaf.
TWITTER
Incredible to see folks on here saying the win will gloss over Ireland's rocky first half, yes, it will, it's an 80 minute game.
I'd love to see a side not struggle with the level of churn that went on
Josh was throwing in the lineout lads…. Let the slack out the rope there
Can you imagine tuning in half way through the second half and seeing JVF throwing the ball into the line outs and Cian playing at 2 – you’d be wondering if you’ve had some funny mushrooms at lunchtime 😂
Brian Nisbet Grand Slam still very much on. 7-22 in Edinburgh. Very scrappy match and concerning injuries, but still, it’s a win and any issues will be forgotten after the fifth win next weekend.
Marc Fritsche The players will be in nothing but ice baths for the week, that was extremely physical
