Captain

Cracking first half Munster / Sarries

Munster with all the play and might well rue the missed chances but Sarries reverting to type – dirty team. 3 pens for foul play one yellow and 2 (missed by the ref) high tackles in the first half

Itoje needs to temper his keenness to get involved and stay in the rules – given away a couple of stupid penalties

Will defending for most of the first half cost sarries at the end of the match? Will all those visits to the 22 and no points from them cost Munster?

Sarries step it up in the second half. taking the game away from Munster. Awesome efficient machine – I just wish they would cut out the foul play but when you have a lenient ref like Poite it seems to work. Two more unpunished high tackles including one in the build up to the second try – munster got away with one as well

Wow. Saracens are bloody good aren’t they? Murray was a big loss but there could have been three of him on the field today, and I don’t think they’d have won anyway. If Satacens are the new European standard, then Munster will have to step up again. That was as good as a home game for Munster and Sarries dealt with that very well.

A semi-final seemed like a ridiculous proposition at the beginning of the campaign and given the start that Minster had, losing Foley like that, I think they’ve done themselves proud. Plenty of promising players coming through – a B&I cup victory for the As last night.

Over to Leinster now. Tough away game at Clermont (who I’d happily see win it if Leinster don’t come away with the victory).

Indeed Darcy – their defence in the 22 especially was very good – the amount of possession in the 22 Munster had in the first half but no tries. Ruck work very good as well.

the amount of possession in the 22 Munster had in the first half but no tries

You kinda get used to that watching Ireland in the 6N. 😀

Munster fully deserved that loss. Not because they’re necessarily worse team, but because they opted to play such dull, negative rugby. I remember them passing along the line only one occassion and the (islander?) Centre massacred an overlap. Given the stats, if they had they played with even a little ambition the outcome could well have been a lot different.

but because they opted to play such dull, negative rugby

That was expansive positive stuff for Munster!!

I agree with Wrecker – they kept on trying to bash it up in the forwards and got nowhere. I think losing Murray really hurt them tho – at least once the SH hesitated long enough for a gap to disappear.

Credit Sarries defence as well tho – they really shut them down and denied them space but Munster had enough possession and territory especially in the first half to get a try or two

Given that Saracens butchered three tries (two from the backs and Kruis dropping the ball on the line) the scoreline flattered Munster.

Good chance that Sarries have 5 in the starting 15 on Lions tour! When you look at the ages of them, they should all tour in 2021 too.

I accidentaly stumbled across the ladies Premiership final today between Bristol and Aylesford Bulls. Thats Aylesford in Kent. Aylesford won, which is great!

The reason for my cheer is that the Bulls is my old club, within which i played 13 in the Kent leagues. I hadnt kept up with the club so this was a nostalgic view of things, same club logo as ive got on my 20yo tour tshirt upstairs. Super proud how far the club has come, a pleasure to see – well done ladies!

That Carbafy fella is good isnt he, how have Ireland been picking Karney at 15 all seaso?

Kryters, I walked past the Aylesford team yesterday coming off the training ground on their way into Sixways stadium as I had spent the morning down there refereeing at a juniors festival. Big girls.

Sarries to meet Clermont in the final next month.

Clermont got off to a flying start which won them the game. Ringrose had a good game for Leinster.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/british-and-irish-lions-celebration/lions-team-selector/

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Draw bloody two not 3..arse

Edinburgh won a game in the final minutes? some mistake surely! Mind you it was only the Dragons and it was rather like two bald men fighting over a comb.

English club fans – a wee question for you. do you think Cockerill will be able to sort out Edinburgh? We have the players to be in the top half of the league but play well below our potential and the team makes far too many basic errors and appears to play with no heart. 5 wins all season is really not good enough.
Can Cockers inject some backbone?

I think Saracens are about to get one hell of a half time bollocking

Good win for the Spreys today.

Also, wasn’t expecting that Exeter result!

I thought Luther burrell was meant to be good. He’s been pretty poor against Exeter.

Good Win for the Ospreys – has any team ever won so comprehensively with so little territory and possession? Ulster could have played another 80 mins and still not got in

That’s the way the cookie crumbles 😆 good win for Ospreys

Thugby league player punches ref..had to admit I did laugh at the gallic nonchalance with which the touch judge ambles over the the floored ref!!

[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mXhDfFqrHzk[/video]

I would have no issue with seeing that idiot jailed for that

Yep, that’s worth a criminal charge, surely.

In other French news, have you seen the humping that Castres gave Toulouse today? How times have changed!

Sounds like Talupe is hitting form for Bath, could make that Lions test 8 spot hard to call.

He’s been pretty good for Bath most of the time he has played.
Not sure but their style of play seems to suit him, he always seems to play a more defensive role for Wales.

Top 14 tries of the weekend, nice offload from Carter (story he is considering a return to Internationals which I take to mean Racing are not that impressed with his performance / drink driving charge). A lovely step from Nonu and a gift to the prop 🙂

[video]https://youtu.be/hmQj5CSQxDY[/video]

Who else thinks we’d be better off without the TMO?

I was just watching the Cheetahs/Crusaders game where one of the Cheetah’s props made a terrific bullocking run followed by a deft offload to a winger who ran it in for a great “try” that would have pulled the score back to 15-14. The officials decided to look at the offload and after great pontificating over several slo-mos decided it was most likely forward and disallowed the try although all the TV commentators disagreed and none of the defenders had complained. Then the Crusaders quickly scored down the other end and 22-7 at HT. Game over.

Now the Crusaders would still have won but, for me, the TMO appears to be used to disallow tries. Refs, especially in the SH, seem to almost ignore flat/forward passes most of the time but then, as soon as a try is scored, they go back as far as they can and look for any tiny infringements to negate the try in case they’re seen to be in the wrong. You never seem to see the TMO looking for a reason to AWARD a try.

Refs hardly make any decisions on their own nowadays and TV viewers get stuck watching endless reviews of things. If rugby wants to persist with the TMO they should allow a set number of referrals per team (say, 2) like they do in the NFL or Test Cricket.

Who else thinks we’d be better off without the TMO?

Not me.

I think it’s here to stay and that it fulfills a useful function in a highly technical game that has increased in speed so much. It’s a game of natural breaks anyway and little or no game time is lost, compared to say, scrummaging which wastes shitloads.

The ref still makes the majority of decisions by himself (with the help of his touch judges obvs). Every decision he or she makes can lead to a try in any given chain of events.

For sure, sometimes it’s a pain but overall, questionable scores are mostly settled. Consider the outrage if an obvious no-try is given or vice-versa with tv replays doing the rounds for weeks afterwards.

The ref still makes the majority of decisions by himself

I’m not so sure. I think they increasingly abrogate in favour of the TMO, safe in the knowledge that if anything important happens then they can refer back to it.

In the old days, bloke gets driven over the line with the ball and collapses on it with a pile of bodies on top. Common sense dictated that he’d scored a try but now the refs spend ages looking for the perfect angle. Not coz they don’t think he’s scored but because they’re worried in case he didn’t and they’ve got it wrong.

It does my head in.

Anyway, the TMO gets it wrong plenty of times or is used wrongly or is overruled wrongly so I’d contend that it doesn’t help as much as people think..

I’m not so sure.

Really? Most decisions in open play are still made by the red with no referral to the TMO aren’t they?

For foul play, tackles in the air, “tip tackles” the ref goes to TMO a lot, which is a good thing given that yellow/red cards have game changing consequences in many cases.

In the old days,

They’re gone. Move on.

It does my head in.

I think you’re going to have to learn to love with it at some stage. I don’t think it’s going anywhere for now at least.

I dont mind TMO’s deciding stuff but what pisses me off is when the ref refers it to the tmo and then ignores them and decides from the big screen..thats not a tmo decision thats a replay!

I don’t mind the level of TMO use at the moment. It is a difficult balance but they seem to be doing it well IMO… unlike run and wriggle which seems to use the TMO for every try scored even with the ref 1m away!

Most decisions in open play are still made by the red with no referral to the TMO aren’t they?

I think a lot of non-decisions are made in open play and then if something major happens they run back to the TMO to make sure they weren’t wrong.

In the old days,

They’re gone. Move on.

Sadly, that’s true.

or foul play, tackles in the air, “tip tackles” the ref goes to TMO a lot, which is a good thing given that yellow/red cards have game changing consequences in many cases.

That’s all true but I’d rather they just made a decision on the field and quantified foul play afterwards with all the video. I also don’t think teams should be permanently reduced to 14 anyway. It ruins the game. The miscreant should be sent from the field, his team shorthanded for 10 minutes and then another player should be allowed to replace him.

I think you’re going to have to learn to love with it at some stage

You’re probably right. I just think cricket, tennis and the NFL all do it better.

I think they use the TMO well by and large. I like the 2 questions aspect. ” Any reason not to award the try?” and ” Try yes or no”
On forward passes for a try to be ruled out it must be ” clear and obvious” ie benefit of the doubt to the attacker

The only other way you can do it is by having appeals but I just can’t see how you can do that in rugby.

As it is its limited to foul play and scoring and its build up which I think is right,

Not quite a trip for 2 to the first test but better than nowt!!

Oh man and I thought you got the Rapha Team sky kit! 8)

Looks good, well done.

I got a phonecall last week.
“Hello I’m calling from the Telegraph you enterred a competition to win a trip for 2 to the first test”

“YES!!!!”
“You predicted the same lions 15 as our panel of experts”

“YES YES!!!!”

“Well you’ve come second and win a signed shirt””

“Bollocks”

More shocking is that POC, Johnson, Shane and a token Scot picked 15 Gavin Hensons!!