Keith wrote:People will complain about the ref but sarries were the better team end of. They looked like scoring every time they had the ball unlike us.
Agree, our try took such hard work and their tries were much easier. Kills me to give them any credit, so i won't.
We were a bit naïve at times and could have kicked in behind them to make the defence work harder. Bit late to worry about that now though.
I'm sure it was a good game for the neutrals though.
I had to watch this on rugbypass.
The commentary was by KCR radio with coverage sponsored by something garden centre and something concrete. The crowd sounds were muted and the commentator was complete muck. "Tadhg furlong
the man from Campile in the county of Wexford going like an Express train through Wellingtonbridge" sort of shyte, pure fcuking torture
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Frustrated as if we had gone in with a seven point lead at halftime we had every chance. Really poor last five mins of the first half having done all the hard work to get 10 up. Box kick was just the wrong thing to do end of story and it cost us dearly. Unbelievable performance from Sarries in the second half, fair play to them and unpopular as he may be Billy V was a monster in the second half.
Ruddock exceptional when he came on. Henshaw tireless and took so much punishment.
Support looked great on the tv. Fair play to McCall and co, excellent job so many turnovers and intercepts tells its own story.
Every Leinster player ran themselves ragged, well done lads!!!
It looked like there was 50 men in the pitch at some stages, not a feckin inch available for either side. Very entertaining to watch.
Team arriving at airport now. Tough to go down in a final we had
absolute control over for the first 38 minutes.
Much as it sickens Me fair dues to Sarries- they deserved it in the end.
True to form they are cynical and clinical in equal
measure. How many times do you see them strangle
teams to pull away in the final quarter.
We had no variety to our play and ultimately it
cost us.
Normally we're the team who score at the end of the 1st half. Credit to Saracens they kept us under pressure and took their chances.
We weren't far off. Fardy's card hit us hard and it wasn't even replayed. Kearney got hit in the air by two different players and I was surprised it was only a penalty.
Great teams can overcome that amount of bad luck. There defence was excellent.
tingman wrote:True to form they are cynical and clinical in equal
measure. How many times do you see them strangle
teams to pull away in the final quarter.
We had no variety to our play and ultimately it
cost us.
They certainly used the strangle approach and got away with it most of the time.
Absolutely agree about the lack of variety. When plan A wasn't working, they could have kicked in behind or kicked for position.
Of course it gives possession away but its easier to force a mistake playing closer to their line.
At least our fans won the battle in the stands. The noise sounded great, pity it didn't turn out better for them.
There were quite a few names, no longer at Leinster, or injured, that could have been on that team sheet that would have made a difference.
Post world cup there will be a lot more names missing and I imagine Nucifora will move another few players.
Last years team was our best, this years was good but not quite good enough to beat Sarries, next years will be weaker still.
Box kicking itself isn't the problem. It's that teams have gotten better at neutralising them.
They can only do that if they know it's coming and can focus on it. Attacks that find the weak spots are hardest to defend. If you can't vary they you are only hitting a weak spot through the opposition's failure.
Laighin Break wrote:Luke McGrath's decision making to blame for that try. Clock in the red, kick it out or run it, don't kick the ball to the other team
Did McGrath know that the time was up they had to bring a screen on to the pitch for the ref when they went to the tmo.
We didn't play badly at all, we just didn't manage to play the exceptional game we needed to play to beat such a talented, motivated and well-coached opposition side. Saracens are strong everywhere ... really good set pieces, outstanding defense, good footballers, physically strong, deep squad and a threatening attack. A couple of things didn't click for us, but that happens.
Thought that Cian Healy, James Ryan, Jack Conan and Rob Kearney were particularly good for us.
