Castres Vs Leinster Fri 20th Jan 19:45 (Sky Sports)

[matt]

So we want two of Racing, Exeter and Toulon to win tomorrow.

That would do nicely & us in as 2nd seeds if Racing & Toulon won.

















Likely.

[CiaranIrl]

A lot of mistakes tonight but missed Sexton & Nacewa.

Unfortunately 4th seed means if we beat Wasps we will probably have to go to France v Clermont in SF which is the worst possible outcome.

Think Munster & Clermont will win this weekend so have to hope Toulon beat Saracens we get no 3 seeds probably home to Toulouse/Connacht.

Yeah, likely line up now is

Clermont v Toulon
Munster v Glasgow
Saracens v Connacht or Toulouse
Leinster v Wasps

We want Toulon to beat Saracens, making it

Clermont v Saracens
Munster v Glasgow
Leinster v Toulon
Wasps v Connacht / Toulouse

... I think. My maths might be off?

[Oldschool]

Hopefully come QF and SF time we'll have Carberry back alongwith SOB, Cronin and Triggs.
Add in Dave Kearney and Fergus McMadden - our cup runneth over

[ronk]

Did very well to prevent a try at the end but boy was that an error filled performance or what? Some serious try butchering all night long allied to a series of shocking missed tackles and a couple of unforgivable lineout c~*k-ups made for very ugly viewing. There was no way that we should have failed to beat such an ordinary side. Luke McGrath had such a dreadful game that you would long for Chris Whitaker or even Boss. It does seem that 9 is our Achilles heel. Isa was very unIsalike with some exceptionally poor kicking.

Lets hope that Jonny is ok

That's the sort of game we're building.

A lot of play that was threatening But cracks appear, especially when a few injuries go in and a few chances have already been missed.

We overdid it a bit, but looks like we don't have a season to learn our lesson.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Frantic...we lost all composure once they scored and Sexton went off. Thought we were a bit too loose even when we built a lead but it was working so that was okay. But when things started to go wrong we had no plan B. There were times when you just knew we'd be turned over if we ran it back or ripped apart if we kicked it aimlessly yet that's what we kept doing.

Some of the tackling was dreadful. We sorted that to an extent but lost focus on our actual defensive jobs.

Lineout really cost us too. Just when we looked like gaining control it made us lose all momentum.

Plus the mistakes...the hundreds of mistakes. Ringrose probably made more mistakes tonight than his career combined before this. Still did some great things too though.

Thought Molony improved a lot in the second half. Get the impression others don't agree but thought he stood up well after an awful first half.

[Dave Cahill]

Frantic...we lost all composure once they scored and Sexton went off. Thought we were a bit too loose even when we built a lead but it was working so that was okay. But when things started to go wrong we had no plan B. There were times when you just knew we'd be turned over if we ran it back or ripped apart if we kicked it aimlessly yet that's what we kept doing.

Some of the tackling was dreadful. We sorted that to an extent but lost focus on our actual defensive jobs.

Lineout really cost us too. Just when we looked like gaining control it made us lose all momentum.

Plus the mistakes...the hundreds of mistakes. Ringrose probably made more mistakes tonight than his career combined before this. Still did some great things too though.

Thought Molony improved a lot in the second half. Get the impression others don't agree but thought he stood up well after an awful first half.

No, I'd agree with that alright.

It was all mistakes, either technical or mental, but it was mistake after mistake after mistake - it was a f%~king dread.

The only thing to be said is that we didn't lose and its out of our system. Next.

[wixfjord]

23 missed tackles tonight. 4 for Molony, 3 for Toner.

[neiliog93]

So, predictions:

Clermont 26
Munster 25
Sarries 25
Leinster 23
Wasps 22
Con 19/21
Glasgow 18
Mont 16

Wasps in the Aviva potentially?

Mainly right but I think a resurgent Toulouse will steamroller Connacht, especially with all the injuries.

[jezzer]

To be fair Castres played well.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

23 missed tackles tonight. 4 for Molony, 3 for Toner.

Tbf to Toner, Smith did unbelievably well for one of them. Not sure if Dupont's try was counted as a missed tackle for him but that was all Molony IMO.

[Gearzbox2]

To be fair Castres played well.

To be fair, we were cr@p

[Donald]

RDS home QF against either Wasps or Sarries. Two of the best teams in the premiership by a long stretch. Difficult games.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

To be fair Castres played well.

And if the ball bounces up for Kearney then we're probably all delighted with a win in France!

So many mistakes but still...small margins and it's not a disaster. Might not be a bad thing to have a wake up call like that. We've had a kick up the arse but still likely to have a home QF...result.

[Dave Cahill]

RDS home QF against either Wasps or Sarries. Two of the best teams in the premiership by a long stretch. Difficult games.

It'll be in the Aviva

[munster#1]

RDS home QF against either Wasps or Sarries. Two of the best teams in the premiership by a long stretch. Difficult games.

Imo if ye get Sarries ye really should play the match in the RDS.

Home adavantage in that game would be massive.
But unfortunately, money talks and it will more than likely be the Aviva.

[hugonaut]

To be fair Castres played well.

Yeah, I thought so too.

That was a decent result in my book, given the way the game turned out. They were camped on our line for six of the last seven minutes and we didn't give up a point, even when we had a man in the bin. They turned up and played some really good stuff; they had the look of a well-coached team. In terms of ability, I was very impressed with the scrumhalf Dupont and the winger Caminati in particular.

We produced lots of sloppy play, but some really good play as well, and we didn't seem to get the bounce of the ball at any stage. It certainly took a strange hop between Rob Kearney and Garry Ringrose when they were both in the clear in the second half, and ROL was unlucky with his Try/No Try in the first half.

I thought a bunch of players played well: Robbie Henshaw was excellent yet again, Rob Kearney did really well when he came on - and ditto Ross Byrne, who has logged a lot of European gametime over the last month – AB+ was really good, Tadgh was really good and Jack Conan put in a really big shift. Ringrose did some outstanding things and a more than his fair share of iffy things, but sometimes that's how it pans out.

Obviously Luke McGrath and Ross Molony had absolute stinkers [Molony in particular couldn't seem to put a foot right] and there were a lot of mistakes, but we we're a young team [nine of the starters were 21-24 years old] and lost a couple of really key players in the first half hour. Playing in France and getting results against a motivated French team isn't a piece of p*ss!

[Xanthippe]

Nerd Stat of the week: This is our 150th match in European competition, 147 in the HEC/RCC and 3 in the Challenge Cup. Between them, Jamie Heaslip (88) and Victor Costello (53) have started 143 of those games in the No.8 jersey.

You are normally right Cormac so it is with some trepidation that I say......

I have us on 148 games in both comps. Which would mean that the QF was the 150th. 97 wins 47 losses and 4 draws.

That's an amazing stat about Jamie and big Vic. 20 years of pro rugby and those boys missed 7 games.

Bonus nerd points... The 17585 people at the RDS last week brought Leinster's total Euro gate numbers over 2.5 Million

Hate to say it but I have it that the game against Montpellier was our 150 Euro game (99W; 4D; 47L)

You are correct Xan, took my quite a while to find out why too. The fixtures and results page on the Leinster Rugby site is missing the away game v Borders from 96/97. Will need to add that to my spreadsheet.

I have a full list of all our European results if you need any

[desperado]

Likely to be a home QF against Wasps.
Away SF against Clerment.

Any permutation that would lead to Semi v Munster them at home in Lansdowne ?.

Well, if' I'm right and Clermont only get 4pts - either cos they can't be too arsed or Exeter put up a fight, then Munster will seed 1 with a 5 pointer v Racing (v likely).

[desperado]

Any rule nerds out there confirm if you're allowed slide in with the boot (as happened to stop ROL dotting down). Garner wasn't too sure himself; he seemed to be told by his TMO or assistant that it was ok 'cos ROL didn't have control of the ball (at least that's what I heard).

[nc6000]

Any rule nerds out there confirm if you're allowed slide in with the boot (as happened to stop ROL dotting down). Garner wasn't too sure himself; he seemed to be told by his TMO or assistant that it was ok 'cos ROL didn't have control of the ball (at least that's what I heard).

Not sure about the exact rule but it was basically a slide tackle which I'm pretty sure isn't allowed. The ref should have known either way.