Munster away 10 Oct

[The Feral Goat]

Really don't like Whitehouse.

Pen against duhan for holding the guy was round his stomach no where near being on the ball.

Decent physical aggressive start though.

[doedin]

Despite almost a full team, dominating the set piece and having lots of ball we are playing utter SteveWalsh against a jamesmatthew Munster team. These guys and the coaching team need a long hard look at themselves. Four yellow cards, no structure to our game and head farts on a regular basis is just not good enough. Healy just not good enough at 10 and the whole team suffered as a result. The ;lack of depth at centre is really showing, O'Connor looks like a last minute and desperate throw of the dice and aint up to it. Awful display!

[The Feral Goat]

Hate Whitehouse he is a dreadful ref but some.of our play was brain dead.

Should have won that.

We never seem to make universal progress, physicality was good today, defence for most part was. He were lacking that last season but we looked better in attack in the latter half of last season. 4YCs is ridiculous some of the pens were stupid some of the decisions stupid.

LawrenceBryce maddening.

[Frank]

Felt we were really unlucky, but also with a bit of self destruction. We had Munster's number for most of the game and thought we were worthy for more than a LBP. Four yellow cards is not acceptable and considering our forward dominance, that was almost as disappointing as not taking the win. We could be sat with 10/10 points if we had kept the head instead of close to propping up the table. At the moment it looks more like attitude than aptitude.

[The Chiel]

Felt we were really unlucky, but also with a bit of self destruction.

For me it was the other way round - self destruction mostly, with some bad luck / poor reffing. 15 on the park and we walk it. So frustrating.
Three of the YCs were nailed on, albeit the Munster 9 cutely fired the ball directly at Young. But he shouldn't have been there in the first place. Douglas I thought was just too quick for Whitehouse. It was Whitehouse's failure to see that we were clearly on top in the scrum that irritated me.

I said beforehand that there was no way that Richardson should start before Douglas, and I stick to that. But only fair to say Richardson had a very good game. And also a mention for the lineout, which from memory I think was pretty faultless ?

But the big problem for me is how Darcy Graham can seemingly be involved in nearly everything, but DVDM just didn't seem to get near the ball. Poor tactics ( DVDM seemed to be lurking behind the midfield often enough waiting for the pass which only came once, maybe twice, and I don't think he got more than one pass on his wing ) or simply not hungry enough ? Or a mixture of both ?

[joe soap]

dominant all first half especially,. Dominant scrum even when a man short. Bucket loads of possession, including much in their 22. but unable to put enough points on board. Reason is such poor half backs, Vellacott is a waste of space, Healey isn't going to cut it
Cards all probably fair enough even if a couple were maybe marginal, so hard to say it was a bad discipline problem if you get my meaning but 30mins a man down, 10 of them 2 down.............
Also tries conceded - apart from first one, a cock-up, the rest were poor close in defence. Kept thinking a player would be held up, but players seemed unable to see the opportunity.

Plenty of talent in that squad (apart form half backs), unacceptable loss to a frankly pretty clueless Munster side

[Pitfitter1105]

Really don't like Whitehouse.

That’s an outstanding understatement.

[Castlecannon]

Disappointing to say the least. This was as weak a Munster team as I can remember , in part weakened by injury and resting of Beirne and Crawley . No more O’Mahoney , Murray , Zebo , Snyman , Earl , Stander and the likes . They were there for the taking and Edinburgh looked well up for it in the first half . We threw everything at them other than cool heads and game management through phases . Ref didn’t help to be fair , particularly Douglas’s card and injury to Paterson and Muncaster unfortunate . On the plus side Liam McConnell was excellent, as was Richardson and Darcy Graham . Lang put in a decent SteveWalsh but the connections and game management clearly requires more work .

[doedin]

dominant all first half especially,. Dominant scrum even when a man short. Bucket loads of possession, including much in their 22. but unable to put enough points on board. Reason is such poor half backs, Vellacott is a waste of space, Healey isn't going to cut it
Cards all probably fair enough even if a couple were maybe marginal, so hard to say it was a bad discipline problem if you get my meaning but 30mins a man down, 10 of them 2 down.............
Also tries conceded - apart from first one, a cock-up, the rest were poor close in defence. Kept thinking a player would be held up, but players seemed unable to see the opportunity.

Plenty of talent in that squad (apart form half backs), unacceptable loss to a frankly pretty clueless Munster side

We are pretty thin at half back and centre, even allowing for injuries. A couple of experienced SHs in Velacott and Shiel, who gets limited game time, and then we are into academy players. Stand offs are Healy, Thomson and Scott, who like Sheil has had limited game time. I would argue that none of these guys are going to challenge for a place in the Scotland team, some are just squad fillers. Centres are also light - Currie and Lang are a good pairing and are up to the job - but after that we have McCaig - untested at this level and out injured for some time, Tuipilotu - raw and O'connor - multi club journeyman. Again none good enough to get a place in the Scotland squad apart from Currie but he faces strong competition in the likes of Sione, Jones, McDowell, Hutchinson, Redpath, Jordan, etc.

The balance of the squad is awful, we have lots of solid international level forwards but are paper thin and lacking quality at half back and centre. It is no wonder our best international class backs in Graham, VdM and Goosen barely see the ball and when they do is is usually with two or three defenders. I am amazed the SRU have left Everitt in charge but even more amazed that they have allowed him to create the squad we have! Without decent half backs and centres we are going to really struggle this year.

[The Feral Goat]

I am not quite so negative on Vellacott, I think we play a game that does not suit his or Sheils natural running style which you have to question why we retain them as 9s or a coach that plays a style that does not fit his players.

Half backs definitely an issue i like Lang but we are missing someone to make the hard yards like Dean used to do. All this constrains our back 3 who tend to be getting SteveWalsh ball.

Wonder if Harry Patterson could play 13?

[Castlecannon]

Would be pretty sure Harry P could cover 13 but to be fair to O’Connor has had little or no good ball as yet to show what he can do . Noted on looking back at the game he did Put in some solid tackles , breaking up the Munster attack . Currie and of course the unfortunate Tuipolutu will hopefully be back for at least the second half of the season and both players and in particular Currie finished last season strongly . Tuipolotu is a classic game line breaker who of course replaced Dean - a player I miss tbh- and who latterly seemed at odds with the change in coaches post Blair & McCrae.