Scarlets 23 Connacht 24
Preview: Connacht go into this match with real momentum after an excellent performance in a narrow 33-35 defeat to Munster in Thomond Park and an amazing 36-30 comeback win against the Sharks, having been 7-27 down at half time. However, Connacht’s problem has always been their inconsistency and such heroics will count for little if they can’t back it up against an average side like the Scarlets. This is the sort of match which Connacht have to win if they want to be involved at the business end of the season.
Connacht welcome back Aki for his first game of the season, which means Cathal Forde, last weeks hero at 12 and 10, moves out to 13. Forde is one of the few players outside the Ireland squad making a serious claim for inclusion in the November tests. His blossoming at 12 and 10 means that Jack Carty, so long a lynchpin for Connacht, could conceivably be down to fifth in the out-half pecking order, behind JJ Hanrahan and Ioane (when back fit), Hawkshaw and Forde. Connacht have never had such riches before.
The same is happening at scrum half, where Caolin Blade, so long the only competition for Marmion’s place in the team, is now being challenged by two young gun 9’s, Ben Murphy (son of Ulster coach, Richie) and Matthew Devine, currently away with the Emerging Ireland squad. If only Ireland had such riches at loosehead prop! Temi Lasisi makes his debut at tight head off the bench; it will be interesting to see whether the Leinster academy graduate can make the grade at senior level despite having been let go by Leinster.
Scarlets are coming off a draw away to Benetton, and a home defeat to Cardiff. They’re not a bad team and should make life difficult for Connacht if the latter let their standards drop. However, Connacht have no obvious weaknesses and their bench looks stronger and should be able to close the deal.
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Match summary: I missed most of the Connacht match, so I will let others provide an overall match summary in the comments. Connacht started off very well building up a 14-0 lead and then Bundee got yellow carded for yet another high tackle and the whole momentum of the game changed. Connacht do know how to make life hard for themselves, but seem to have found a real match winner in Cathal Forde. Carty also played and kicked well for the first 25 minutes that I saw.
Scarlets: I Nicholas; T Rogers, J Williams, E James, B Murray; S Costelow, G Davies; A Hepburn, R Elias, H Thomas; S Lousi, M Douglas; J Macleod (capt), D Davis, T Plumtree. Replacements: M van der Merwe, K Mathias, S Wainwright, A Craig, C Tuipulotu, E Jones, I Lloyd, M Page.
Connacht: S Cordero; M Hansen, C Forde, B Aki, P O’Conor; J Carty, B Murphy; D Buckley, D Heffernan, F Bealham; N Murray, D O’Connor; J Murphy, C Oliver, C Prendergast (capt). Replacements: D Tierney-Martin, P Dooley, T Lasisi, Ó Dowling, P Boyle, C Blade, D Hawkshaw, S Bolton.
Bulls 47 Ulster 21
Preview: Ulster are coming off a tough home win against Glasgow and an exhausting loss to the Lions at altitude last Saturday. They’ve had another week to acclimatise but it is difficult to see how a team shorn of three hookers, Herring, Stewart, Andrew, as well as Treadwell, Cooney, McCloskey, Hume and Baloucoune can survive what is sure to be a brutal examination by a Bulls side significantly stronger that the Lions were last week.
Two newbies in the front row, McCormick and Barrett, and with McElroy, a temporary signing at 16, is not the way you would want to face a grizzled all Springbok front row. Unless the Bulls take the day off, anything short of a humiliating defeat could be a win. It could make for painful viewing, and that is just for the spectators!
Match Summary: As expected, the Bulls began by milling Ulster up front but Jacob Stockdale had other ideas, scoring a brilliant try and breaking tackles for fun. Bulls seemed to be winning scrum penalties every scrum and finally got the yellow card they wanted for Barrett. How carding a prop is supposed to improve the safety of a scrum is beyond me. There seemed little point to even playing the game. To be fair, Ulster competed gamely in every other aspect of the play and came close to scoring a try coming up to half time. Unfortunately they could find no way through.
Bulls 21 Ulster 7 h/t.
The Bulls have quality in the backs as well and Canaan Moodie slips through shortly after the break. You can’t fault Ulster for effort but they just don’t have the power. The Bulls seem to be able to get on top at scrum or maul on every occasion and scoring if close to the line. Failing that, their backs are good enough to create scores., Chamberlain dummying his way over. Were it not for some Bulls indiscipline, this could have been a cricket score. Instead Ulster industry is rewarded by an excellent Carson try in the corner, and then an even better one for Moore after excellent interplay with Lowry and Shanahan. 40-21.
Although the result was never in doubt, this was not the humiliation I feared, with Ulster weakness at the set piece compensated, to some extent, by their inventiveness in the loose. Ulster are to be congratulated for their never say die attitude, but this was a case of man against boys in the tight. David Humphreys may yet have to rethink his policy of not allowing the Irish provinces to recruit foreign props.
BULLS: W le Roux; S de Klerk, C Moodie, D Kriel, K-L Arendse; B Chamberlain, E Papier; G Steenekamp, J Grobbelaar, W Louw; C Wiese, R Nortje (capt); M van Staden, E Louw, C Hanekom. Replacements: A van der Merwe, J-H Wessels, F Klopper, S Manjezi, C Gumede, K Johannes, S Gans, A Dyantyi.
ULSTER: M Lowry; W Kok, S Moore, B Carson, J Stockdale; A Morgan, N Doak; A Warwick, J McCormick, C Barrett; I Henderson (capt), C Irvine; J McNabney, S Reffell, D McCann. Replacements: T McElroy, E O’Sullivan, T O’Toole, A O’Connor, N Timoney, D Shanahan, J Humphreys, B Moxham.
Benetton 5 Leinster 35
Preview: Leinster go full metal jacket for a fixture in which they haven’t always had their own way and pick a full International starting XV with Snyman making his Leinster debut. Even the bench contains internationals Ryan Baird and Ross Byrne. Fintan Gunne – another of a new generation of 9’s is preferred to McGrath on the bench after an outstanding cameo off the bench last week where he outshone the established McGrath.
Benetton must be wondering what they have done to deserve such a strong opponent, but they are not short of Italian internationals themselves. The match is virtually a rehearsal for Italy versus Ireland in the Six Nations, but I suspect uppermost in Cullen’s thinking is to get his front liners match hardened for the date against Munster at Croke Park next week-end.
Match Summary: Leinster score two early tries while hardly getting out of second gear. Doing the simple things well. Frawley is adding a new dimension to their game and Gibson Park directs the play exceptionally well. Frawley nails a touchline conversion to make it 21-0. The only area they don’t dominate is, strangely, the scrum, where their Irish front row is getting no change from the Benetton scrum and has conceded two penalties. But everywhere else they look like scoring with every attack and it is 28-0 after just 27 minutes.
Kelleher and then O’Brien have to leave the pitch injured, and the 6:2 bench split means Ross Byrne comes on and the Leinster backline loses some of its shape. Benetton fight back with some spirit but are unable to trouble the scoreboard. 0-28 h/t.
Benetton fight their way back into the match as Leinster lose their shape and intensity. Leinster draw a yellow card for repeated infringements and Treviso finally make the breakthrough through a maul. 5-28. It’s the 67th. minute, so they are leaving it very late. But this has been a poor performance by Leinster after a dominant first half hour. They looked a class apart at first but became very ordinary after that, especially at scrum time. Rugby is a game of momentum and motivation, and perhaps they lost that edge with the bonus point secured so early in the game.
Lee Barron scores off a maul at the end to make it 5-35, so it was job done in the end. The Leinster defence got a good work-out for 50 minutes, but there is something seriously wrong with their scrum.
BENETTON: Matt Gallagher; Ignacio Mendy, Tommaso Menoncello, Malakai Fekitoa, Paolo Odogwu; Jacob Umaga, Alessandro Garbisi; Mirco Spagnolo, Siua Maile, Simone Ferrari; Niccolò Cannone, Riccardo Favretto; Sebastian Negri, Manuel Zuliani, Michele Lamaro (capt). Replacements: Marco Manfredi, Aminu Destiny, Enzo Avaca, Federico Ruzza, Giulio Marini, Lorenzo Cannone, Andy Uren, Leonardo Marin.
LEINSTER: Hugo Keenan; Jimmy O’Brien, Garry Ringrose, Jamie Osborne, James Lowe; Ciarán Frawley, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Rónan Kelleher, Tadhg Furlong; Joe McCarthy, RG Snyman; Jack Conan, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (capt). Replacements: Lee Barron, Michael Milne, Thomas Clarkson, Ryan Baird, Brian Deeny, Fintan Gunne, Ross Byrne, Scott Penny.
Munster vs. Ospreys 7.35pm
Preview: Munster have a lot of atoning to do for last weeks shock defeat away to Zebre, and the heavy guns, Beirne and O’Mahony have been brought in. All the good of a great bonus point win against Connacht was undone. It’s difficult to Munster being quite so bad again, particularly with places in the team to face Leinster at Corke Park next weekend up for grabs. Nankivell is a big loss, but otherwise the team is close to a full first choice selection. Garryrowen centre Fitzgerald, a temporary signing, starts his first game.
Nothing less than a bonus point win will suffice.
Match Summary: Ospreys gifted Munster a try directly off the kick off and were second best for most of the first half played in filthy conditions and the wind favouring Munster. Munster kicked cleverly and were marginally on top in scrum and maul. Three unconverted tries and a penalty were a fair reflection of Munster superiority in the first half, but playing against the wind will be a different proposition in the second half.
18-0 h/t.
The second half was long slugfest in the appalling conditions. Munster finally got their bonus point try in a rare sortie up the field. Archer finally drew a yellow for repeated offences, but the Munster defence held firm. The Osprey’s didn’t lack for effort but didn’t have the wherewithal to find a way through. The whole half felt like Munster were just trying to run down the clock, which they did successfully to the end. 23-o.
MUNSTER: M Haley; C Nash, T Farrell, B Fitzgerald, S McCarthy; J Crowley, C Casey; J Loughman, N Scannell, O Jager; J Kleyn, T Beirne (capt); P O’Mahony, J Hodnett, J O’Donoghue. Replacements: D Barron, J Ryan, S Archer, F Wycherley, G Coombes, C Murray, T Butler, J Daly.
OSPREYS: M Nagy; I Hopkins, O Watkin, P Cokanasiga, R Conbeer; D Edwards, R Morgan-Williams; S Thomas, D Lake, T Botha; H Sutton, A Beard; J Ratti, J Morgan (capt), M Morris. Replacements: S Parry, G Phillips, B Warren, L Jones, H Deaves, L Davies, J Walsh, K Williams.
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Frank Schnittger is the author of Sovereignty 2040, a future history of how Irish re-unification might work out. He has worked in business in Dublin and London and, on a voluntary basis, for charities in community development, education, restorative justice and addiction services.
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