First a nod to the retirees. *Nods*
Tonight we have the Little Cup Final, Glasgow v Toulon. The French side are half-way down their league table while Glaes are fourth in the URC, and have home advantage … but I think it will be a close-fought affair all the same. The Home of the Big Yin by 4.
Then tomorrow there’s the Big Cup Gladitorialism of Leinster v La Rochelle. Ronan O’Gara will be rubbing his hands at the prospect, especially after his club side beat the Blue Meanies last weekend in the URC semi-final. But Leinster have made 12 changes to the B-team they put out last week – mostly to concentrate on this Cup, one assumes. BUT Sexton is still injured, which could be a big factor; one of they Byrne brothers is in instead.
It’s a tough one to call too, but I think home advantage will tell again. The Home of Leopold Bloom by 5.
Onna telly this weekend
Friday 19th May
| Glasgow v Toulon | 20:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 20th May
| Leinster v La Rochelle | 16:45 | ITV1 / STV / BT Sport 2 |
Ovally Balls 
Can’t really complain about that card.
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Nope, and I hope LAR win now.
Stupid commentator going on about how the medical team are being over-cautious. Player was clearly out cold as soon as he was hit.
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Yip. Stupid. That’s probably the Cup.
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And that’s it! Amazing comeback!!!
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That was a hell of a fightback by LAR. Can’t say they didn’t deserve to win that, in the end.
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Not undeserved.
Thought Leinster were in overdrive after 30 minutes.
Very happy for LaR.
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That was a great final
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Danty is so important to LaR, and France
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That was amazing! Wow! After the way Leinster started it looked all over bar the shouting, but shit, LA Rochelle just wouldn’t give up or go away. Brilliant!
Does Leo Cullen now regret wrapping his stars in cotton wool last weekend? For a side of their quality to finish the season with nothing is unbelievable.
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It was superb.
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Brilliant from La Rochelle! French club dominance in Europe again.
So Leinster win nothing again, eh?
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My post disappeared so here it is again.
Not undeserved for LaR. Thought Leinster were in overdrive after 30 minutes. Great come-back though.
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ROG screaming “FUCK YES” :-)
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Colombe (sp?) is up and walking around again, which is great too.
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Great, great contest that went exactly according to the DNA of the two teams (in my view).
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♫ Ça plane pour moi ♫
:-)
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Thaum, this is good news but unfortunately these headbutts may have long lasting effects. There should be a way for the rules to forbid the human torpedo.
It’s Georges-Henri Colombe, young prop (25?) previously with Racing.
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Flair – yes, exactly, and that’s why a red and a ban for a few matches.
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That was one helluva match! Really hope we see this kind of quality and close results in the World Cup.
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Flair, Peyper shoulders much of the blame for that, he let the breakdown be a complete mess all game.
Leinster were flying in off their feet and sealing off for the whole match – he called that the LaRoch players “pulled out” a couple of times – they pulled out to stop themselves being hit by the flying torpedo.
The laws of the game do prohibit that flying torpedo, but they have to be enforced by the person with the whistle.
I’m as fed up moaning about referees as I’m sure everyone is reading me do it, but either I call it out as I see it or I remain complicit in something that threatens rugby as a viable sport, the head injuries are terrible and the referees need to take control.
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ROG: We didn’t get the rub of the green from Jaco, but I need to work with referees; I need to work on that. :-D
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Didn’t see your post before posting mine, Ticht, but they harmonise.
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We all know ROG will end up as Ireland coach. And my, if he gets the players Leinster have now, they’d be unbeatable.
Thought Leinster ran out of gas but also retreated in their shell when LaR threatened to win. That shows a surprising lack of confidence in their style.
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ROG is such a thoughtful coach, his post-game analysis is better than anyone else I’ve seen
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I hope ROG will end up as Ireland coach. But who knows, he might go for France; he likes it there!
We all know he’s not very good with the press, but his teams certainly seem to respect him.
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I do hope Peyper get as few games as possible in the RWC. I know I shouldn’t complain as LaR won but his rulings over the breakdown were shocking. Strike that or I’ll be banned. His rulings were idiosyncratic.
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Flair – ha, let’s see if ROG gets banned again for his post-match comments!
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Where are my manners?
Congratulations to Leinster who have been a joy to watch for years. Those first 15 minutes were outstanding. Great brains, great skills, fantastic speed in defence. LaR deserve acclaim for a great come-back but let’s not forget that, save a stupid and dangerous torpedo in a ruck 2 minutes before the end, Leinster were very, very close to score the try that would’ve stealed the win. They were under the cosh for most of the second half and yet could’ve won it at the end. So kudos to them, and long live Irish rugby!
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Sorry to poke an old argument, but fuck the anti-trans people
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Hi all – I’m not much good at watching and posting so always a bit after the event.
As noted here (by me) many times – Leinster struggle with a big heavy pack…. who wouldn’t? And for all the reputation for playing freewheeling rugby – their mainstay is strike plays off set piece (mainly line outs) or the good old line out maul – Sheehan is top try scorer.
Like Munster last week, LAR didn’t kick to touch – apart from the very first play hard to think of an attacking lineout for Leinster.
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That said – it was an awesome defensive stand for most of the 2nd half – but Leinster’s kicking wasn’t good in the 2nd half- Park and Lowe notched up a kick direct to touch and a shank each….
What surprised me was that in that final phase – given the events of last week – Leinster didn’t opt for the drop or on the pen for the Danty yellow that Byrne didn’t go for posts…. worst outcome is LaR having to kick back….(can’t recall I its a goal line or 22 dropout)
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Only saw the final from maybe 45 minutes in so didn’t really get the sweep of the whole game with the comeback and all that as it was a one score game when I switched on. I fear I maybe missed the best of it. La Rochelle very worthy winners on the bit I saw of course, but the tension aside I didn’t feel that second half was the best advert for rugby union as it was mostly just brutal battering away of the dangerous kind and what happened near the end is the logical conclusion. Like Trisk I’m surprised Leinster didn’t kick the pen or go for the drop and also agree their second half kicking was poor and put them under more pressure than they needed to be. I quite enjoy seeing Leinster lose and don’t mind it being to kick-to-the-corner etc that does it, but could have done with seeing a bit more variety to the game though I realise the first half maybe provided that.
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Sad to see AWJ and Tips retire from Wales. I guess they were told they were unlikely to be starters if they made the final squad. AWJ has gone on a year or two too long in terms of his own standards even if he is still definitely good enough to get some game time for Wales. Doesn’t make the difference any more in the way he used to which he did to a remarkable degree for both club and country for so long.
Tips’ international career is a bit disappointing to me as he didn’t get picked really until after we were past our best and it would have been great to see him get the nod and maybe be part of the team reaching another level. He’s obviously still had plenty of great moments and has been amazing for the O’s.
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Leinster’s winning nearly every game they play except the games that count most seems very Stuart Lancaster!
I hadn’t heard ROG speaking much but got the impression from his post March interview that he’s a top bloke..
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This is an interesting thread about Leinster’s unusual (and illegal) scrumming technique
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Try googling “ Stade Rochelais”
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Leinster’s winning nearly every game they play except the games that count most seems very Stuart Lancaster
Element of truth in this, I guess looking back to RWC2015.
Red card at the end was well deserved and this needs to be eradicated.
My 14yo came on as sub in recent U16 final – towards the kick we cleared long and chased – first player tackled the defender and my lad got the jackal – right in front of me…. I was calling “we have….we have” to “encourage” the ref to whistle even as I was thinking of covering my eyes as I saw the inevitable attempt to clear the ruck.
No idea how I’d have reacted to a “clear out” like Ala’alatoa’s….. and no-one should.
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@refit
We very much survived vs SA in the autumn by doing similar.
Porter is worth the risk due to his work in the loose – frees up backrows and 2nds to be carriers, but like Oz in days gone by we don’t want to get a rep that we’re habitually cheating in scrums.
Might be too late now
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@Trisk – I liked the suggestion in the replies, that Peyper didn’t penalise Leinster for this, because he’s too short to see over the scrum.
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They’ve been reading the blog again!
https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/65661051
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Nice interview with ROG, seems like a really good bloke.
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….. who killed the blog. Bastard.
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It’s sad but true that there’s nothing much to say about good people. Evil people (like Chris Ashton, f’rexample) are much more interesting.
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The shrieking of nothing is killing.
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Well I never took to ROG as a player and remember thoroughly enjoying him losing his head in the 2005 grand slam game, but there we are. Preferred the Norn Irish chap who my old next door neighbour was constantly telling me got left out for anti-Ulster bias. Don’t pay much attention to post match interviews though ROG does seem to be vaguely OK as it turns out and the other chap doesn’t always come across too well…
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Of course with it being the elite end of professional sport they’re all likely to have something of the bastard about them even if it’s only lucky/boring/rich/egotistical bastardry. Ranking Irish outside halves in the pure bastardry stakes might be fun though (obviously excluding any particular individual that happens to have gone way beyond that of course).
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Tony Ward. Bastard
Ollie Campbell. Bastard
Skips a couple of generations of Bastards.
ROG: Pure class:
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looks like he would have failed his head test ………………..
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such deep satisfaction here in sw france after LA’s win – both the result and the manner of it – and a number of Gers-born players involved. oh – and of course – beating leinster!
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