Magners and Aviva Finals - it's short and sour this week. Grumble grumble grumble!

David Wallace Picture from http://bit.ly/kY94xZ

Well, it’s going to short and sour this week, with results and scheduling not going my way. First of all, I sit down in front of the TV on Saturday at quarter to three, crack my knuckles, and put the Aviva Premiership final, not in expectation of any running rugby, but some entertainment anyway. Except it doesn’t seem to be on Sky sports 1,2,3 or 4. That’s odd. That’s because it was on bloody ESPN! Which I haven’t bothered to shell out for, because one sports channel is indulgence enough, and Sky always make out like they own the thing, that thing being Premiership rugby. Saracens managed to edge that one by the sounds of things, and fair play to them, their first Premier League title ever, about time some new blood was injected into the system.


Then it was the Magners League final, where Leinster came, they saw, they survived the gangs, but they feckin’ missed out on the double after being pretty comprehensively outplayed by fierce rivals Munster. It was a very Munster win by the men in red, born in the forwards, just hard physical simple rugby, keeping it tight, playing for territory, and grinding Leinster down. Leinster had one bright spell at the start of the second half when they looked like they might do something, but even then several periods of sustained pressure couldn’t get them over the line. Heaslip, O’Brien, O’Driscoll all seemd to lack the fire that saw them home last week. I was impressed by McFadden, but everyone else had a pretty quiet day at the office for the men in blue. Wallace was exceptional on his 200th appearance, and good to see Paul O’Connell back in form, and young players like Jones and Murray are only going to get better. Here are the gory details for the Leinster masochists among us:

Actually moment of the match was BOD, jumping up, shrugging off a medic, and putting in a tackle.
That’s domestic rugby over for the season then, and what a result for Ireland – Heineken Cup Champions, top three in the Magners and Magners Champions, Ulster in the last eight of the H Cup, and Connacht in the H Cup next year.

Shark Bite

Yes please! The Sharks squeaked past the ‘Tahs to win – thank heavens for jet lag! Amazing weekend, for SA teams, first win by the Lions in NZ in living memory, and the Stormers and the Bulls won too.

Magners League

Munster 19 - 9 Leinster

Aviva Premiership


Saturday , May 28

Leicester 18 - 22 Saracens

International Match


Sunday , May 29

England 32 - 38 Barbarians

Super Rugby

Reds 17 - 16 Crusaders

Highlanders 22 - 26 Lions

Sharks 26 - 21 Waratahs

Bulls 32 - 21 Cheetahs

Brumbies 3 - 16 Stormers

Friday , May 27

Hurricanes 34 - 28 Western Force