Northern Hemisphere Rugby Season 14/15

[the plastic paddy]

Well it is all happening in Blighty. Saracens langer in chief, Edward Gillepie has gone very public with his wish to see the salary cap in the Aviva Premiership abolished:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ru...ers-record-breaking-move-to-Racing-Metro.html

However, the Daily Mail, I am wearing surgical gloves when I type that be advised, have suggested it might be a pre emptive strike as Saracens along with Bath have been accused of salary cap breaches,

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/ru...-alleged-breaches-salary-cap-regulations.html

Even Austin 'Wiggy' Healy has felt the need to wade into the discussion, proving that a stopped clock etc

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ru...ial-for-Premiership-England-and-the-fans.html

 

[the plastic paddy]

Oh and just to add, Saracens are saying on their website that ticket enquiries from callers with Irish accents will be regarded with "suspicion". Yes, that is right, in 2014 someone can spout such shite. I said some intemperate things about Glasgow today but, fuck me, Scottish rugby deserves a reckoning for letting these twats be in charge.

 

[the plastic paddy]

Good win for Munster in TP last night. Very solid from Munster but Jesus Leinster were brutal. Copeland picked up a shoulder injury which is a concern. Tough game up in Galway on Thursday but I suspect some of the big guns might be back, Cronin hoping to be back for Saracens but John Ryan has really stepped up.

 

[Lee Grant]

A good win by Clermont against Castres despite getting a red card just before oranges.

Tales didn't have his kicking boots on and gets sacked but who is there to replace him as kicker but Parra? Handy.

Chouly and Fofana again brilliant for Clermont: Chouly must be the form no. 8 in Europe now.

Castres surprisingly good despite their lowly position in the Top 14 and playing in Clermont, but they should have taken a penalty goal at the end of the game for the bonus point since they had to score twice to win anyway.

A key moment was when Clermont, hardly a scrummaging powerhouse, got a penalty with seven forwards and Zac Guilford packing down.

Not a bad game at all with Castres having a go themselves and being the better team in the first half when it was 15 against 15.
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[Lee Grant]

Good win for Munster in TP last night. Very solid from Munster but Jesus Leinster were brutal. .

It's just as well Munster got back on the horse after losing three in a row and playing some ordinary footie while doing so. Against Leinster they just played basic rugby, well-executed; it can be a simple game if the other team is off their feed.

They were pretty savage on defence though, and some of the boys in blue must have lost a few fillings.

Not a great performance by Leinster but I thought the yellow card to Fanning was a bit rough - mind you, the Leinster defence wouldn't have suffered much with his absence: he had problems in that department.

Geez, Leinster didn't offer much on attack, and if Madigan had his hand up to back up (or replace) Sexton as out-half for 6N, he put it down again.

PS - it was strange to experience English commentary on BBC Alba which I thought was the Gaelic channel.
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[the plastic paddy]

They can't find any experts to analyse in Scots Gaellic, hence the English which I thought was excellent.

 

[Lee Grant]

^^^^^^

Yeah - Paul Mitchell and John Beattie do a good job.

Beattie was in good form: for those who didn't watch the game there's a link to some of his quotes here:

http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/community/threads/rugby-quotes-of-the-week.12578/page-8

- post #156

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[Hawko]

A little off-topic but I'd love to know what our Irish posters think of the Irish RWC 2013 bid, mostly in terms of feasibility. If it happens I may have to make going to it an early 60th birthday present to myself!

This has got to be a gee-up!? An Irish bid for last year sounds like just another Irish joke.

 

[Lee Grant]

Round 14

At the start of the second half of the season Stade Francais are leading the Top 14 since they beat Toulon in Paris 30-6 - and Clermont lost away at Lyon at the death 16-13.

The remarkable thing is that Stade has a points differential of just +8.

Had they not scored two converted tries in the last four minutes of the game, they still would have beaten Toulon and led the competition, but they would have had a negative points differential !!

Toulon had a goofy side with Habana playing at inside centre. Their discipline was poor and they got two yellow cards. You would have thought the captain would settle them down, until you realised that the skipper was Bakkies Botha.

Well maybe when he was replaced a calmer guy might have taken been put in charge - but no, it was Martin Castrogiovanni.

James O'Connor, who is mainly a reserve in big games for Toulon, didn't get on the park in what would have been his last game before heading to Brisbane.


Toulouse had a boring win against visitors Racing Metro 15-9 in a dire match - five kicks to three.

Racing had a chance to get a losing bonus point at the end when they earned an easy penalty, but Dmitri Szarzewski, the captain at the time, elected to go for a 5-metre lineout.

His coach was screaming for them take the shot at goal. because nobody from either side had looked capable of holding onto the ball in the soft conditions to score a try and sure enough, they lost the lineout.

Perhaps Szarzweski had forgotten that they had changed the losing bonus point system in the Top 14 this season. Now they have to get to within five points of the winners to earn a losing bonus point, not seven as it used to be.

Racing lost by six.
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[Quick Hands]

Jake White is now coach in all but name at Montpellier after a disastrous start to the season.

And the mighty Atlantique Stade Rochelais had an upset win at home over the fancied Grenoble side. It's a long trek back from the Atlantic coast to the alps after losing to a team in the bottom 4.

 

[Strewthcobber]

Ben Mowen's name is still cropping up here on the forum - any news on how he's been going at Montpellier? Have looked at a few team sheets but haven't seen him - injured?

 

[Quick Hands]

The name's Jake, and I'm here to help:

Mon rôle aujourd'hui est d'aider le club

Jake White: "Mon rôle aujourd’hui est d’aider le club." - See more at: http://www.montpellier-rugby.com/ne...rdhui-est-daider-le-club#sthash.zS97dwH7.dpuf
Jake White: "Mon rôle aujourd’hui est d’aider le club." -

See more at: http://www.montpellier-rugby.com/ne...rdhui-est-daider-le-club#sthash.zS97dwH7.dpuf

 

[qwerty51]

Ben Mowen's name is still cropping up here on the forum - any news on how he's been going at Montpellier? Have looked at a few team sheets but haven't seen him - injured?

Montpellier are a joke atm.

 

[Lee Grant]

Ben Mowen's name is still cropping up here on the forum - any news on how he's been going at Montpellier? Have looked at a few team sheets but haven't seen him - injured?

Yeah he's been injured. He made his comeback last weekend after being out since the beginning of November.

He was pretty good before then apart from one shocker he had but he wasn't the Lone Ranger that day.

So far he has started in every game that he has played in which is a good measure of how well he is regarded - though he would have been rotated to the bench for lesser games by now had he not been injured.
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[Lee Grant]

I've just had time to watch a couple of Aviva Premiership Boxing Day matches.

Bath beat Exeter to continue their bid for a premiership. With Aussie Dean Mumm captaining the Exeter Chiefs and Leroy Houston continuing his decent form as no. 8 for Bath, both sides looked like Super Rugby teams in the first half throwing the ball around.

Bath had all the possession but couldn't take advantage because of turnovers but after the score was 14-14 at 45 minutes Bath pulled away, helped by the binning of a Chief.

As usual JP Doyle refereed the game like a gun slinging sheriff of the Wild West.

Sam Burgess who had scored his first rugby union try as a backrower in a B game before Xmas, got only 18 minutes of play at the end of the match. The connection 10 George Ford, 12 Kyle Eastmond and 13 Jonathan George is working so well it is unlikely at the minute that Burgess will crack the starting team in big matches if Eastmond and George are available.

Flyhalf Ford, the son of Bath coach Mike Ford, a rugby league legend, is playing brilliantly, a bit like a Pommy Quade Cooper in style. I remember him starting in his Premiership debut for the Leicester Tigers when he was 17. It was unusual to start a player of the Cipriani type so young, but now he is 21 and has already proved that he can play his type of game for England.

He may be exactly what England need but he will have to have a couple of decent centres outside him; however Lancaster seems to be picking the wrong ones.
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[Lee Grant]

Harlequins took their home game from the Stoop to Twickenham just a couple of kilometres away as the crow flies.

They were playing last years' champions, the Northampton Saints, and instead of getting 15,000 (tops) at the Stoop they got 82,000 at HQ and earned a bit more coin.

Despite being without hooker Dylan Hartley and lock Courtney Lawes (Quins were missing flanker Chris Robshaw, flyhalf Nick Evans and LHP Joe Marler) Northampton, won 30-25.

Quins have had trouble scoring tries - none in their last three Premiership games - and although they scored three of them, so did Northamption who had only 26% of possession and were not helped when their THP Salesi Ma'afu got binned for a high tackle.

Saints were also helped by their dominant scrum, after a bad start, and the 17 penalties conceded by Quins.

Northampton stayed at the top of the table but Harlequins ended the weekend in eighth place.
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[Bairdy]

I think I read Corbisiero made his return in this game. How'd he go Lee, if he featured at all?

 

[Lee Grant]

I think I read Corbisiero made his return in this game. How'd he go Lee, if he featured at all?

He played the last 25 minutes for Saints and was bloody scary for the Quins scrum, which was missing LHP Marler. This made Saints THP Salesi Ma'afu look like a genius.


Geez - what happened to Munster and Glasgow. P. Paddy?
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[the plastic paddy]

He played the last 25 minutes for Saints and was bloody scary for the Quins scrum, which was missing LHP Marler. This made Saints THP Salesi Ma'afu look like a genius.


Geez - what happened to Munster and Glasgow. P. Paddy?
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Munster did their frustrating and recurring trick of thinking they had won and could cruise home. Connacht are no push over for anyone, especially in a hurricane in Galway and were very good for their win. In Bundee Aki and Henshaw Connacht have the best centre partnership in the league and possible Britain and Ireland. If you get a chance check out Marmion's (also outstanding and surely to goodness a better option than Reddan for the 21 jersey) try, it is an absolute cracker.

Didn't see the game in Edinburgh but that and Scarlets win against the Hairsprays leaves the top six in the pro 12 within eight points of each other. Doubtless the Nigels will claim that meritocracy is the reason but I would say that the terrible run of injuries at Munster, Leinster and Ulster has kept the league more competitive this year. I still think Munster will manage a top two finish and a home semi final; apart from anything else, Donncha O'Callaghan's dirt trackers, as I call the Munster team during the international window, is playing better and with more desire than the first team and they will be playing half of the ten games left in the season.

 

[the plastic paddy]

The Internet nearly broke today with the news that JJ Hanrahan is taking up an offer he couldn't refuse to join the Northampton Saints. The rumoured remuneration is £190,000 which is a great deal for JJ but a lot more than I would say he is worth. I do have my doubts whether he will cope physically with the brainless boshery of the English league but wish him all the best and hope he returns to Munster at some point a better and more rounded player. Fingers crossed Keatley will step up now having won this particular battle. Waiting for the bullshit out of English and Welsh supporters about how this is the brave new world.