Edinburgh Rugby Supporters Club

Tarquin · World Cup Star Joined: 03 Feb 2008 Posts: 169

Not a great performance but munster were not exactly fab either. Some could do better and i agree hugo was a bit weak. I thought Godman was not brilliant either and inevitably we lacked a bit of grunt in the forwards. Take the bonus point and move on, we'll get better.

5,443 crowd apparently which was surprising because it looked poor on tv.

The Nudger · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:34 pm Post subject:

That's a good crowd considering the weather. Shame the boys couldn't raise their game to match.

Just to add to the criticism of Hugo his tacklnig was abysmal - I counted at least 3 missed tackles in the first half and we're lucky that Blair and Mossy are such assiduous cover defenders.

Southwell's supporters have always trotted out the line that he is a solid safe option but the fact is that his boot has completely deserted him and he has no bottle in defence.

I felt that he was a liability at times last season and he seems to have picked up where he left off - getting worse and worse with every game.

I find it particularly galling in both an Edinburgh and Scotland context becasue in order to accomodate him Paterson is shifted to the wing despite the fact that fullback has always been his best position and both we and the national side have plenty of good wide men.

That said Hugo was hardly the only one today and the team struggled to rise above mediocrity. The lineout was a shambles, the kicking was totally aimless with poor chasing and we let Munster make soft yards in midfield. The problem of producing quick ball also persisted.

We'll be a different prospect with Cairns and Rennie in harness who I think are probably our key back and forward despite their use.

Tarquin · World Cup Star Joined: 03 Feb 2008 Posts: 169

Yes we missed key men today. It was a typical error-strewn early season game particularly considering the weather. Hugo is not a great attacking player and tends to offer a decent boot only until it misfires. I think he is going to be dropped soon. I thought our weaknesses in the front 5 were obvious again today.

MikeyBlair2004 · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 11:06 pm Post subject:

yet again we let them get away with murder Evil or Very Mad

when will munster actally play a game within the rules

yet all credit to them playing average and beating us

just hope thats our worst game performance of the season dealt with

Loops · Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 11:17 pm Post subject:

Debaser · International Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 80

I'm also disappointed but credit where credit is due, the Munster backs looked pretty good. Their wingers / full back - back three were far better than ours - they'll proove a challenge for most teams. Actually their centres were pretty good as well.
Hugo did have a bad night, but I don't think Paterson or Robertson were much better. Was glad to have Paterson for his kicking but if it were American football he'd be back off again after kicking his goals.
They deserved the win but I was appalled by some of the refereeing. Was it my imagination or did he really award a try to De luca then change his mind and consult the video ref.
The real positive was despite not playing to our full potential we still kept ourselves in it - thanks to Paterson. Itr's a shame the large crowd were not rewarded with some good rugby.

jrp · World Cup Star Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 416

Paterson scrambled to save at least one try, Blair saved another. Robertson showed a sidestep and pace - I think Southwell once managed that in 96.

I do however think Mossie was to blame for the first try, he came inside when Kittie had his man - but we have young exciting wingers and should play them. Keep Southwell on the bench.

Crichton Gunner · Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:11 am Post subject:

Firstly, credit to Munster. They handled the ball much better than us, and out-fought us for the ball in the rucks. Deserved winners on the night, and good to see them play much more open rugby than usual.

For us, a bad night at the office. Unusually for a match against Munster, it wasn't the set piece and the maul that they had the advantage in. Indeed, I thought we matched them in the scrum, and both line-outs were not exactly water-tight. It was in the other areas of play that we weren't up to standard, notably handling (ok it was wet, but Munster had the same ball and didn't drop it any where near as often), retaining posession in the rucks and mauls, and kicking from hand (3 missed penalties to touch and one kick off not going 10 metres).

No need to panic though;we've had poor games before and bounced back. The great pity is that we had one in front of an excellent crowd of 5,400, and that the game (particularly the second half) was so turgid to watch as a result.

SpecialK · World Cup Star Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 148

I agree CG. I thought the forwards coped reasonably well - we held our own in the scrum and both lineouts were shambolic. And we did win a number of turnovers - some crucial. Not as good at the breakdown as we are with Rennie but hay-ho.

We really struggled with our plan b as our kicking was truely awful all night - Shug was the worst but they were all terrible. Every time we kicked it we found a red jersey, every time they kicked it they found space or a good touch.

We also failed to put any sustained pressure on their defence - we had a number of good breaks but couldn't follow them up cos we knocked on etc.

To be fair, I though Munster looked the part and if they can be bothered with the ML this year, they are going to be up there with Leinster at the end. Also, I think we can now say that Munster are our bogey team and we don't look like we know how to beat them. Perhaps its a consolation that we've met them early in the season when a home defeat is less significant than later on. (trying to find any positives!).

Tarquin · World Cup Star Joined: 03 Feb 2008 Posts: 169

Derrick Lee's #1 Fan · Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 11:24 am Post subject:

Crichton Gunner · Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 11:52 am Post subject:

At least we've got the play-offs to aim for. Oh no, I forgot, that's next season Lol

Derrick Lee's #1 Fan · Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 7:56 pm Post subject:

Sigh...
_________________

Martin Bell · Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 9:46 pm Post subject:

The Nudger · Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 12:34 am Post subject:

Sorry Martin but I fear that DLFN1 has actually rather hit the nail on the head there.

The real worry was for me that many of our failings are long standing problems - the shambles masquerading as a line out, aimless kicking and a real difficulty in producing the quick ball needed to release the dangerous runners that we undoubtedly have.

I have said most of this already (above) but one thougt that occurse to me is that despite De Luca having a good game yesterday I am still not convinced that he is a 12. It will be interesting to see what happens when Houston returns. He runs straight and hard and (before I get accused of hypocrisy, no he's not my idea of a perfect 12) crated space for his outside backs.

Its amazing how despite the fact that running hard and straight is one of the easiest things to do in the game how often we struggle to do so.