Glasgow-15 Leinster-12

DAN-5 FELIPE-4

With minutes remaining, there was yet another Leinster attacking move which progressed steadily into the Glasgow 22.

They moved through the phases until a promising passing sequence through the backline ended up with a stray pass arriving in front of Shane Horgan down around his bootlaces which he proceeded to knock-on.

Thus was the pattern of the evening. No disrespect to the home side, but surely even the most partisan Scot would admit that the visitors lost this one more than the Warriors won it.

The difference was both in discipline and Dan Parks’ right peg.

Every time Leinster had possession, something would happen to hand it back, be it a turnover, a knock-on, a penalty; it was like we were trying to invent new ways of cocking up each time.

The home side, on the other hand, never threatened to cross the whitewash (legally, that is; they had one try rightfully disallowed) and with people like CJ van der Linde needlessly giving away penalties right under the posts, Dan Parks was repeatedly given the perfect opportunity to defy the blustery conditions and get another three-pointer for his team.

Our offensive shortcomings turned this into a battle of the boot, one which Contepomi was unable to win.

It brings to mind a question that has been festering for a while…if we insist on playing Jonathan Sexton because we feel the need to develop him as an out-half, why don’t we have him taking more of the place-kicks? Surely he’ll need practise under match conditions same as every other aspect of his game?

As for where this leaves Leinster’s season, well naturally the two bonus point Heineken Cup victories more than makes up for the three Meaningless League losses that sandwich them, but if we actually wish to retain our crown, it’s going to take a ten-game winning streak similar to the one we achieved last time around.

With the Dragons next up at home and Nacewa to come back from injury, it is clearly within our abilities to pull it off despite Friday night's setback.

ALL-SPORTS TUESDAY

I have absolutely no time to do an original all-sports post this week, so to honour the new NHL ice hockey season, here's a re-hash post I did on an older blog.

GAME SEVEN – IT’S WHY WE WATCH SPORTS!!!

Zednik gets stuck in against the old enemy

I was browsing through the TV guide before going to bed one evening when something caught my eye.

Live from Boston Garden at midnight, an ice hockey game between the Boston Bruins and the Montreal Canadiens. Normally my decision to set the VCR would be motivated by the fact that I fork out an extra fifteen euro a month to the cable company for the North American Sports Network (NASN) channel, but this time I didn’t need financial persuasion. This wasn’t just to be any old game of ice hockey. This was entertainment guaranteed. This was a Stanley Cup Playoff Game Seven.

Although Ice Hockey comes a poor fourth in American sports culture behind the traditional favourites of baseball, “gridiron” football and basketball, it is the easiest sport for European fans to comprehend owing to its many similarities to soccer. Yet having seen many games in all codes, I have to say that it is by far the most consistently entertaining. What’s not to like – although there isn’t a lot of scoring, anyone can score at anytime. In baseball, only the batting team can score; football, it is generally the team on “offence” and in basketball there’s scores going in all over the place. It is only the proliferation of foreigners especially from north of the border in Canada that makes the American public at large relatively indifferent to the National Hockey League (NHL).

Despite the fact that there is a Hockey World Cup played between nations, anyone with even a fleeting knowledge of the sport will tell you its premier tournament is the Stanley Cup. The 30 NHL teams play a gruelling 84-game schedule which proceeds to weed them down to the best 16, who then play a knockout format to earn the right to lift the enormous trophy. HOWEVER – to get past a team in the playoffs you must first win four games against them. Not easy! The NHL is structured like most American Sports – there is no League Cup, FA Cup or UEFA Cup. There is only one prize. This prize is the Stanley Cup. Once you are eliminated, your season is over, and it’s time to break out the golf clubs. With this in mind it is surely not difficult for a European sports fan to grasp the tension and excitement of a deciding seventh game when two teams have already skated through 6 hard-hitting battles and are locked at 3 wins each.

As if the stage was not set enough by all of this, the Bruins/Canadiens match-up has a long history of rivalry to add spice to the occasion. When the NHL was first formed in 1927, there were but six teams, of which these were two. Throw in the facts that Montreal is in the fervent French speaking separatist region of Quebec and Boston is arguably the center of American patriotism and you have yourself an enmity which is right up there with any Real Madrid/Barcelona or Rangers/Celtic clash.

So allow me to recap. Two bitter rivals, coming off a long hard season, play a winner-take-all game in a sport where anyone can score at anytime, with the victors living to fight another day and the vanquished hanging up their skates until the following season. Are you getting the excitement? As in any sport it adds to your enjoyment if you throw your weight behind one of the teams. Considering I lived in Boston for a year AND had a couple of bad experiences with some grumpy Quebecois on a visit to Montreal, I guess my good guy/bad guy lines pretty much drew themselves!!! With that I donned my Boston cap the following evening and settled into my comfortable armchair to feast on this surefire sporting banquet.

Although there had been no goals, the first 54 of the 60 minutes of the hockey game were anything but boring. Tempers were high both on the ice and in the crowd, with the tougher players dropping their sticks and punching lumps out of each other at the slightest provocation, and home fans at rink side banging their fists furiously off the surrounding perspex at every Canadien transgression. As each second ticked by the consequences of the opening goal became more and more critical. No spectators were complaining, pinned as they were to the edge of their seats. As I had recorded the game the night before, I even had the luxury of fast forwarding through the numerous ad breaks!

Then out of the blue it came. A Canadien player brought the puck behind the Boston net, took an apprehensive shot, after which it took an awkward rebound off a combination of the goaltender’s skate and the goalpost, leaving it sitting invitingly in front of the goal. It was pounced on by gleeful Montreal forward Richard Zetnik who flicked it into the top corner with comparative ease.

All that was left was a frantic six minutes as the Bruins tried to salvage their season to no avail; the Quebecois goalie Jose Theodore had an inspired night, stopping all 32 shots fired his way, and even when Boston took their own goalie off the ice in the dying seconds to give themselves an extra attacker, it was fruitless as Zetnik helped himself to a second into the empty net with 8 seconds left.

Those remaining few seconds were of course an anti-climax, but by no means did they take from what had been an incredibly intense contest. The Canadiens went on to fight another day with their 2-0 victory (I was to receive some consolation as they were to lose to the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay in the next round), while the Bruins players packed their bags and rued the loss of bragging rights to their bitter rivals.

Game Seven is an event rarely matched in any other discipline, and is a phenomenon that fully deserves its place in popular sports culture.

This is why we watch sports.

Worth seeing again I reckon!!!

 

Drico's wonder try...as you can hear from the commentary, even Tony Soprano liked it!!!

Leinster-41 Wasps-11

STUNG

Forgive me for resorting to the obvious wasp-related pun for my headline, but in this case I reckon the cap fits, don't you think?

Now, believe it or believe it not, I actually managed to find a negative spin for Leinster on the back of this performance and result, but I won't share it with you until the end of this post.

After one minute of this contest, when Paul Sackey took the kickoff and shot all the way down the wing to virtually the try line, it looked like it was going to be a long, long Saturday evening in Dublin 4.

But from that moment on, the Leinster boys turned quality on paper into class on grass.

Right throughout the team, and I include subs in that (yes, even Sexton) there were top notch performances.

Sure, I could rave all day about O'Driscolls early brace of tries, particularly the second one, which had me bowing to his greatness (woulda looked a lot better if everyone in the stand did it with me though).

But what made the difference on the day was the fact that our defence remained solid for the entire 80 minutes, just like I said it needed to do.

The visiting English champions never looked like breaching the blue wall they faced, and it took a controversial try (ironically by an Irishman) to post five points on the board and leave the home support nervously contemplating what the second half may bring.

Well, whatever Michael Cheika said to them in the dressing-room, I'd like to bottle it and sell it on ebay cos I'd be able to retire early. Even with the loss of our talismanic Number 13 to an injury which I hope won't rule him out of Ireland's crucial upcoming internationals, we came out all guns blazing and effectively killed the game as a contest from the kickoff with Luke Fitzgerald's touchdown.

And as we looked on in a mixture of delight and disbelief, we secured the bonus point shortly after and even found time to cross the line twice more, completely blanking our opponents for the second half.

So it's two wins out of two for Leinster in Pool Two, a maximum of ten points, and already a six-point lead over the rest. We now have a home-and-away pair of clashes with a Castres team which is now effectively out of the competition.

How on EARTH can I possibly find anything negative about our situation?

Well, it doesn't have to be negative, it just could be. This result, together with what will no doubt be and endless loop of re-runs on Sky News of Drico's wonder try, will surely have Leinster installed right throughout European rugby as favourites to win the Heineken Cup.

If the lads can stand up to that pressure the way stood up to their illustrious opposition yesterday, this could turn out to be a memorable season. We shall see.

Same Rules Apply

No disrespect to Devin Toner, but I have to say I'm glad to see Big Mal O'Kelly back in the second row for tomorrow's crucial home H Cup opener with London Wasps.

This is our big chance to prove that we have the squad that can hold our own with the best in Europe.

Never mind how things have gone in domestic leagues so far this season - just look at the history book.

In the past six years, only three clubs have won the Heineken Cup - Munster, Toulouse and London Wasps.

These guys know how to step up to the plate when it counts. Leinster will need to take their first half performance in Murrayfield last week and stretch it out to 80 minutes if they are to prevail tomorrow, you can be sure of that.

And on a lighter note, my offer of the pint still stands...first person to walk up to me on the day and say "Mr Rugger Blogger, I presume?" gets a pint.

ALL-SPORTS TUESDAY

No need for a long rant on a non-rugby sport this week.

All I have to do is this brief post on the GAA.

I have mentioned several times in the past that the GAA is an organization with too many chiefs and not enough indians.

Yesterday, Ger Loughnane was relieved of his duties as Galway hurling manager.

The decision was a tight one; it came down to just two votes.

I mean 28-26 was pretty tight.

There are 32 counties on this island.

The GAA expects each to play both their codes of football and hurling.

Therefore, there must be as many as 64 sets of selection committees.

If the fact that just ONE of them has as many as FIFTY-FOUR people involved in making a bloody decision doesn't prove my point then nothing will.

Edinburgh-16 Leinster-27

LEINSTER GET OFF SCOT FREE

Edinburgh today went from bogey team to bogus team.

There was only one thing lacking from Leinster in this contest, and that was offensive execution.

Now that may sound strange since we ran in four tries in the first half and collected an away-day bonus-point victory that will be the envy of the rest of the teams in the Heineken Cup.

But if everything Leinster tried on the day had come off, the scoreline would have been a lot closer to the drubbing they handed the same team in the Meaningless League a few weeks ago.

When it came to tactics and defence, we were a class apart from our opponents and although there were a few questionable refereeing decisions and things got a bit tighter in the second half than maybe they should have, the actual result was rarely in doubt.

Clearly Michael Cheika had done his homework and realised that even from deep in side our own 22, punting the ball straight down the field was the way to go and sure enough, when they ran it back at us more often than not we were able to turn it over.

Though it took us a while to get into our stride, it was clear that all we needed was discipline in ball-retention and the tries would come. Rocky Elsom proved that by opening the account with a surge forward from Edinburgh’s 10-metre line.

Then came arguably the defining moment, or at least that is what no doubt home coach Andy Robinson will claim. Having taken a high ball Horgan flung it clearly forward to Dempsey and after a burst from Contepomi and a neat pass, Drico touched down for a killer second.

Though the home crowd, what there was of them in the cavernous Murrayfield, have a legitimate beef, I very much doubt that this decision would have made much of a difference really.

And if things were as they should be and there was an Irish TV network covering this match, I sincerely hope they would have awarded man of the match to Brian O’Driscoll.

Instead, Sky’s so-called experts gave it to Rocky Elsom, and although he did have a good outing, it was more important to Irish rugby that the Leinster number 13 put in a full match display somewhere near his Lions-captaincy form, and with his line-breaks, his passing, his tackling and even sometimes his kicking, Drico was the man in my book.

Of course, there will be a need for improvement as the tournament progresses, particularly in Jackman’s lineout throws.

But overall, five points on the board with three home matches still to come is a perfect position going into next week’s Wasps encounter, and I wouldn’t have swapped today’s score with either the Connacht OR the Munster ones for love nor money.

By the way...it was a struggle to go this long without saying "I told you so" about the need to switch Felipe in to the number 10 slot.  

Complacency Almost Costs Munster

There was ALMOST the biggest upset in European rugby history tonight.

It was meant to be a fairy-tale opening to Heineken Cup rugby at the brand new Thomond Park as Munster were expected to easily take all five points.

Seemingly, their opponent, famed Latino actor Ricardo Montalban (see pic), had other ideas, and he stayed in it right to the death, and with a bit more big match experience, could have won it.

It looks like the scarlet boys have in Keith Earls their own version of Jonathan Sexton in that he seems to be a raw talent not yet ready for the big stage.

And also...with all the extra seats in the new ballpark, was there no room for the famed 16th man we in Leinster have all come to know and envy?  The atmosphere seemed shite from where I was sitting?

Still, the home fans can always call on that old cliche where the best teams can play crap and still win, and no doubt they will.

Just so long as my boys do the biz at Murrayfield tomorrow.

Common Sense Prevails

As a true Leinster fan, I'm happier than a pig in muck this Friday lunchtime.

Thank GOD the Leinster selectors have seen sense and have let the boys sit on the bench while the men take the field in our opening Heineken Cup encounter tomorrow in Edinburgh.

As much as I'd like to see Jonathan Sexton develop this year, it should not be at the expense of our shot at silverware, and with results going the way they have over the past couple of weeks, there really was no alternative for the boys in blue to shift Felipe Contepomi to the crucial out half position.

Just have a look at the back line now. Looks like one that can beat all comers. And sure the forwards don't look half bad either. Congratulations to Devin Toner for securing a much-deserved spot in the second row.

Now all they have to do is play their game and come back to Dublin with at least four points in the bag.

LEINSTER:

15: Girvan Dempsey

14: Shane Horgan

13: Luke Fitzgerald

12: Brian O’Driscoll

11: Rob Kearney

10: Felipe Contepomi

9: Chris Whitaker

1: Stan Wright

2: Bernard Jackman

3: CJ van der Linde

4: Leo Cullen CAPTAIN

5: Devin Toner

6: Rocky Elsom

7: Shane Jennings

8: Jamie Heaslip

REPLACEMENTS:

16: John Fogarty

17: Cian Healy

18: Trevor Hogan

19: Stephen Keogh

20: Chris Keane

21: Jonathan Sexton

22: Gary Brown

EDINBURGH: C Paterson, M Robertson, H Southwell, N De Luca, S Webster, P Godman, M Blair CAPTAIN, A Jacobsen, R Ford, G Cross, M Mustchin, J Hamilton, S Newlands, A MacDonald, A Hogg

REPLACEMENTS: A Kelly, G Kerr, B Gissing, C Hamilton, G Laidlaw, D Blair, J Houston

What could they POSSIBLY be thinking???

Earlier this year, I did a post on my main blog about what was, at the time, the Stade Francais away jersey.

As you can see from my recreation of the post below, the gist was that it was arguably the most ridiculous looking piece of apparel a supposedly tough-looking rugby player could be expected to wear in public, and that was even considering that the club’s HOME jersey was entirely a shocking pink.

Well, I wish to offer an apology for that assertion. Why? Because they’ve only gone and topped it. A picture of their new jersey is at the very bottom of this post.

Feel free to make your own observations for I am beyond belief.

"Sandra?" 

"Yes?" 

"Can I ask your honest opinion?" 

"Oh, no." 

"No, don't worry, it isn't about politics or anything like that, this is kind of a man-woman thing." 

"OH, NO!!!" 

"No, relax, let me elaborate. You know how I'm all for equality of the genders and against sexual stereotyping and all that stuff?" 

"By that you mean you don't mind me tagging along to watch the Six Nations matches when your male friends are all busy?" 

"Something like that - anyway, I have a picture here and I want you to look at it and tell me I'm not a bigoted sonovabitch for thinking it's ridiculous." 

"What is it?" 

"It's the home jersey of one of Europe's biggest rugby clubs." 

"Really? What's so bad...OH MY GOD!!! That's a bloody frock!!!" 

"No, dear, that is in fact a rugby jersey. Worn by grown men. In public." "EWWWWWWWW!!!!"

"And you know the way you're crazy for Felipe Contepomi?" 

"Yeah?" 

"Well if he somehow was transferred to Stade Francais, he'd be wearing that jersey." 

"Oh, NOOOO!!! Why oh why did you put that image in my head???? Hang on..." 

"You trying to picture him without any jersey again?"

"Yes, but it's not working!!! What have you done???" 

"Oh, I'm sorry, I swear I didn't mean to do that... (mwah hah hah)" 

"Well just you wait, I'm going to get you back by finding something Uma Thurman could be wearing to spoil YOUR image of her!!! Um, um, um..." 

"See? Can't be done. My mental image of Uma remains unscathed I'm afraid!" 

I have a funny feeling I'm going to pay for that little exchange. What do you reckon?

Here is the 2008/09 offering.   On my life, there has been no photo-shopping; their players will actually be wearing this as they play, so maybe it is meant to have the opposition laughing so hard they can't concentrate...

ALL-SPORTS TUESDAY

I have a blog for soccer and I have a blog for rugby…might be a bit of a stretch to have yet another one when I want to rant about other sports, so from now on I’ll confine such rants to a Tuesday post on this blog, since stuff rarely happens on that day in the game of rugby.

This week I turn my attention to a unique sport which is only officially played only once a year, for now…

If you’ve read my blogs before you wouldn’t be surprised to learn that I’m not exactly a fan of the International Rules Series.

In fact, I think it is a complete waste of time and effort and although I would buy a ticket for a GAA contest despite always slagging it off, you can rest assured that I will never EVER contribute to anything connected with this sham of a sporting event.

As far as I’m concerned, the IRS is to field sports what professional wrestling is to combat sports. And I don’t just mean the scraps you see in the above YouTube file…what I’m talking about is that if you really think that if you are going along to witness a true fair sporting contest, you’re seriously fooling yourself.

It used to be called “compromise rules”, until they realised that the only thing that kept the spectators interested was the amount of fights that broke out on the field, so they thought it best to take out the word “compromise”.

And even though time and time again there have been calls to scrap the occasion altogether, clearly the GAA and AFL each find they make money from it, so they’re keeping it going.

Well since GAA fans don’t seem to mind shelling out their hard-earned dosh for unnecessary replays then I don’t see why this should be any different.

All this event does for me in highlight just how inferior an organisation the GAA is to its antipodean counterpart when it comes to marketing its product.

For example, we had the All-Ireland football final a matter of weeks ago, so you’d think the season they was over, right?

WRONG. The GAA season NEVER ends, and all over the country right now we have the county club finals spread across the month of October.

Down Under, it’s another story. The AFL plays for 22 consecutive weeks, after which the top eight go into a play-off series culminating in the showpiece event, ie The Grand Final.

Then the players get what is known as the business as a “break” until the following season begins. Seems that it’s a format that has worked well in soccer, rugby, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, I could go on…

But not for GAA, it seems.

And how about the players that actually take part? Do we really think it is the best of the best on each side or is it those who declare themselves willing to make the journey to Perth?

I think you will find it is the latter togging out, but it doesn’t really matter who’s playing, because once the marketing departments of the GAA and AFL put their heads together (and if they hope to maximise revenue they’ll no doubt do whatever the AFL recommends…) and publicise the contests to put enough bums on seats to turn a profit, the right people will be happy and we’ll more than likely do it all again next year.

If someone gave me a ticket I’d love to go around the ground while the game was taking place and see how many people who paid to be there actually knew the rules of the sport they were watching.

What is it they say about fools and their money?

Connacht-19 Leinster-18

WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS?

Mother of all that’s holy, the sporting gods sure did have it in for me last weekend.

Looking at the fixture lists for both the FA Premiership and the Meaningless League back in early August, I’d be forgiven for thinking this was going to be a good Sunday for me.

My Spurs had a home match with newly-promoted Hull City, while Leinster were surely guaranteed an easy ride just before they began their Heineken Cup campaign as they were due to play perennial whipping-boys Connacht.

It appears nobody showed the script to the other guys. Hull won 1-0 at White Hart Lane while out in Galway, the home team squeaked through in what has been described as a “thriller”.

I have a feeling Leinster fans wouldn’t be too thrilled.

I haven’t seen the game yet, since I made a hash of setting the DVR. Apparently Setanta have their pre-game show listed as a separate programme so I recorded that instead of the actual match.

Even though it will no doubt be torture to watch, however, I have made a point of recording the replay this afternoon so I can have a good look at the causes of our poor result.

And if you have read any of this blog so far, you’ll win no prizes for guessing where I imagine the blame will lie…firmly at the feet of our young out-half.

Well, of course it isn’t really Sexton himself that would be at fault per se, rather the stubborn policy of handing him the starting jersey no matter what. I know you could make a case for the Connacht game, but what I really fear is that Cheika will be forced to leave him there when the real season gets underway next Saturday at Murrayfield.

All that remains for me to do with this post is to leave myself a mini-questionnaire for when I eventually watch the match.

Q1. When did you watch it? Monday evening, 8pm

Q2. Would the result have been different with Contepomi at fly-half? Overall, I'd have to say yes; though Leinster's failures were far from Sexton's fault, with the game tight late on I reckon an experienced hand was needed at the rudder, particularly the drop goal from under the posts.  Interesting how Gerry Thornley doesn't mention the No 10 ONCE in his match report - that says it all.

Best Behaviour

My God...I know eye-gouging shouldn't exactly be welcome on a rugby pitch but an 18-week ban when Neil Best actually ADMITS to it?

What would have the sentence been if he denied it and was found guilty?

I have a funny feeling the ban will be reduced on appeal.

I also have a suggestion...how about a second ref on the pitch instead of all this "citing" nonsense???

Meanwhile, back to matters Leinster...it looks like coach Cheika is treating our Meaningless league clash with Connacht much like Arsene Wenger treats the Carling Cup, and is bringing up 5 players from his 'A' squad to make the trip to Galway.

Obviously anything less than a 5-point haul will be a major disappointment.