Munster 17/5/24

[dolf_lundgren]

Huge game for us tomorow night. lose and it is a bit of a shoot out next week vs Benneton, albeit even winning that might not be enough to get into the big cup next year if the Sharks win the diddy cup.

Team selection is pretty much as expected, with Vellacott the only change. We are still using square pegs in round holes in the back 3 due to injury, I would expect Munster to target Currie in defence.

Munster needing to win doesnt help either, would have been nice if they had sown up 3rd and had nothing to play for, but they could still end up top of the pile.

Huge farewell moment fo Bill ad WP too, arguably the of one 2 of the most infuelcial players for Edinburgh over the past 10 years. Hopefully the team can channel that emotion.

Edinburgh Rugby team to face Munster at Hive Stadium in the BKT United Rugby Championship
Friday 17 May (kick-off 7.35pm) – live on Premier Sports

15. Wes Goosen (30)

14. Matt Currie (37)
13. Mark Bennett (106)
12. James Lang (55)
11. Duhan van der Merwe (90)

10. Ben Healy (21)
9. Ben Vellacott (59) CO-CAPTAIN

1. Pierre Schoeman (113)
2. Ewan Ashman (18)
3. WP Nel (205)
4. Sam Skinner (23)
5. Grant Gilchrist (203) CO-CAPTAIN
6. Jamie Ritchie (112)
7. Hamish Watson (157)
8. Viliame Mata (136)

Replacements

16. Dave Cherry (91)
17. Boan Venter (64)
18. Javan Sebastian (15)
19. Marshall Sykes (60)
20. Luke Crosbie (98)
21. Ali Price (15)
22. Cammy Scott (10)
23. Chris Dean (151)

Unavailable: Emiliano Boffelli (back), Connor Boyle (back), Tom Dodd (bicep), Darcy Graham (groin), Jake Henry (hamstring), Robin Hislop (knee), Harry Paterson (quad), D’Arcy Rae (ankle), Scott Steele (hip), Nathan Sweeney (groin), Glen Young (ankle).

[The Feral Goat]

A Darcy Graham away from full strength maybe Boffelli in for VDM so no excuses on that front.

Would like to see our best outing of the season tonight, the physicality we got under Cockerill with a bit more risk and invention in attack. We need to win.

[The Feral Goat]

Good performance still own worst enemy but Munster did what Munster do.

That has to be yard stick for effort and physicality.

Great that Nel got the standing O he very much deserves.

[Pitfitter1105]

What game was the ref watching?

[Frank]

Disappointing end. Thought the team fronted up well and got a few 50/50 decisions went against us at critical points. The scrum 5 decision when they were held up was a new one for me. The Venter try hardly evened things up.
We need a win in Treviso next week or we are missing out on Champions Cup and URC playoffs again despite what looked like a promising season. Somehow, I find myself shouting for Leinster, Munster and the Weedgies over the next few weeks

[liveinhope]

Could have? Should have? draw perhaps about fair!
I was in the Murrayfield Stand for the first time.Disappointed with the booing when Munster came on (especially being led out by a player on his 200th appearance) Look I don't like Munster any more than most supporters but as Nigel Owens said "this ain't soccer"!standing.
Looks like virtually every URC game today has a bearing on us-certainly four games that will have a big impact on our
standing in the table.

[The Chiel]

As already said, a disappointing finish. But overall a really committed performance, with Munster having to dig deep to get the points, using all their experience,"guile" and and dog. I'd hoped that might be a bit lacking with O'Mahony missing, but Beirne dominated the ref. They're not champions for nothing, and Crowley I thought looked excellent. They looked far slicker moving the ball, and I thought just about shaded it overall. As seems traditional, all our backs looked decent ball in hand, but just not the cut and thrust of Munster's interplay to create openings. TBF Bennett has absolutely mastered the old one / two off the opposition.

I may be in the minority here, but despite wanting it desperately to be a try, I'd never have given the TMO decision on Ventner's try. On the ground yes, but over the line ? Countered the first Munster try of course, which included a pass that looked well forward ( any other country's "neutral" touch judge would have called it ) and of course the nonsense with Mata.

A repeat of that performance against Benetton and I'd be very hopeful of getting into the top 8.

[dolf_lundgren]

Totally agree on the backs, we need to find a way of creating more depth/time/space for them, something Kinhorn managed to do when he played 10, with loops and dropping the ball off to a second distributor, I dont think we have done that at all since he left. We just shovel it down the line and hope for some magic. Munsters try off the scrum was a great example of a bit of decpeiton and slick hands done at pace, not complicated, but ripped through us.

Not sure on the Venter try, the ref was probably in the best place to decide, so it may have depended on what question he asked. Munster certainly went behind the posts and looked like it was a try.

Ref wasnt good, anyone know how many pens we conceded in the first half vs the second? It felt like very few vs quite a few, although not a mssive number many were at key moments.

Id like to have seen the Snyman "tackle" on Healy again, looked to be a pen to us as a minimum for a late tackle, yet we got penalised, it felt very harsh and odd there was no real replays on the screen, assume the TMO did look at it?

[The Chiel]

Not sure on the Venter try, the ref was probably in the best place to decide, so it may have depended on what question he asked. Munster certainly went behind the posts and looked like it was a try.



Id like to have seen the Snyman "tackle" on Healy again, looked to be a pen to us as a minimum for a late tackle, yet we got penalised, it felt very harsh and odd there was no real replays on the screen, assume the TMO did look at it?

My view from TV on the above.
Ventner try - totally left to the TMO. Didn't hear any try / no try call at all from the ref. TMO Stuart Terheege did all the work and eventually decided he could see enough. Hmmm.
As an aside, I'm not sure why there was an English TMO, especially as he's the one recently caught on microphone saying he couldn't review a wrong decision because Austin Healey had shown it on TNT ? Is there another Tereheege from SA ?
Snyman - the tackle was marginally late but other than that OK. A pen at most but no more, and I'm pretty sure it was going to be given. The problem arose when Snyman just carried on lying on Healy, who took exception, BBM arrived and dived on trying to get Snyman off, everyone else piled in,and the ref reversed the penalty against Bill. Not really justice, but tbf you could see why he did it.

[Castlecannon]

I thought all backs performed well last night as individuals with Goosen excellent and at last Bennett upping his game however too one dimensional and no plays that create lines into holes and space for back 3. Munster attack of course has Crowley but overall look better coached . Pity as our pack were aggressive and won a lot of ball.

[liveinhope]

Glasgow not doing us any favours!
Lets hope Stormers and Leinster can win to make up for that.

[The Feral Goat]

It is unbelievable tight 6th to 9th all on 49 points, let's hope Ulster get nothing v Leinster

[dolf_lundgren]

I dont think the combination of results could have gone any worse for us. Although it probably doesn't change much, we need to beat Benneton to guarantee the playo offs. We will know by then whether 8th is enough to get us into the champs cup too, but I would think the Sharks will have too much for Gloucester, neither in great form.

We need to play like we did on Friday and possibly get a wee bit more luck, Benneton are a really good team. Suppose if we cant beat them though then there is not much point in being in the play offs or big cup anyway.

[Tichtheid]

I'm very late to the party, but what the heck...

Snyman on Healy was a terrible decision. I don't think it was late, it was one of those that every forward wants to get in on a fly half and a former team mate makes it even more delicious. However, the law states that the tackler has to roll away and get up immediately. Snyman held on to Healy, drove him back over the try line, possibly made head on head contact, grabbed Healy's shirt and forced his fist into Healy's face.
The angle that shows all that clearly also shows Bill coming in, grabbing Snyman around the torso and attempting to roll the 6ft 9inch, 21 stone lock off the fly half, to no avail. A second later there were at least four Edinburgh players trying to get Snyman off Healy and he was not shifting. Bill did not escalate anything, it was a bollcks decision.

Anyway, I still think we are a very good inside centre away from being a very good side, but we need better from the coaches, the difference between us and the top teams in the league in that department is stark. Everitt was brought in to stop us losing and he's been very successful in that - 11 wins with a game to go versus 6 in total last season. He's been playing against a bit of a loaded deck with all the back three injuries and Kinghorn moving to Toulouse (he's done brilliantly there). I would've liked to have seen more faith shown in Cammy Scott. The bottom line is that we need to get those backs playing as if the preseason lasts for a couple of games, not eight months.

As per every season at this time, here's hoping for better next year.

[Castlecannon]

Agree with Ticheid , Ref lost the plot but TMO did not help with review of Snymans blatantly illegal nonsense on Healey . They did not replay the incident on the Screen in the ground , so the ref was reliant on his immediate recall and had little or no clarification from either his linesmen or upstairs . Officiating team of 4 ultimately responsible for mistake .
Would echo the points on our back play but not sure the 12 is the issue ? Munster’s spark and slickness in their back play epitomised by the superb Crowley at 10 . Is it coaching? whether it is the individual players I am not sure, but there is a lot of noise surfacing around the standard of attack coaching . Whatever the issue , the attack is not where it should be given the players we have . Why is Dean rarely played at 12 ? Some of our best play came off him admittedly in tandem with Kinghorn in past seasons . Lang too is quality but again we are not seeing the best of him although preferred it seems to Dean.