Leinster stage a comeback

Cardiff 22 - Connacht 6

Ulster 19 - 17 Glasgow

Leinster 13 - 9 Munster

Magners League
 
The result of the weekend has to be Leinster's win over Munster. Experts - what do they know? Not a lot by the sound of things. Even though there are certain teams that treat the Magners as if it was sponsored by Disney (Leinster, Munster, Cardiff, Ospreys I hope your ears are burning) neither side wanted to lose this match. As a Munster supporter said to me, I guess Leinster wanted to lose it less.The wet conditions made ball handling difficult, so the quality wasn't the highest, but you couldn't match it for passion. Leinster seem to be getting back some of their verve as Carney and Fitzgerald found their dancing feet and Munster...I don't know what to say really, they should have won this match on this season's form. I think they are missing Paul O'Connell a lot. Hat's off to BOD for popping up in the right place at the right time. 5 in row? Wow.
 
The Aviva seemed to be rocking, and the blue light display at the end was awesome - did they have some red lights on stand by if need be? I wonder if the lights were left over from the Buble concert?
 
In other Irish action, Connacht lost but didn't disgrace themselves against a Cardiff side who look like they could easily balance the Irish national deficit with all those foreign stars. Fionn Carr must be knocking on the National sides door.
 
Ulster sorted out Glasgow - maybe not as easily as they should have, but the big news in that match was the impressive debut of Ruan Pienaar, who is going to be an excellent buy for Ulster I'm sure. Hope they find game time for Williams as well. They could easliy be the form Irish province this season.
 
Exiles
 
London Irish stomped all over Leeds 40-24 to remain top of the heap
 
Shark Bite
 
Sharks 56 - Leopards 6
 
What's the adjective for a score like that? The Sharks obliterated the Leopards in a 9 try rout - still wouldn't have been satisfied with anything less though.

The fable of the Magners League, and ultra quick review of Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connacht

The Fable of the Magners League

There was once a rugby King who had three daughters. There was Princess Internationals, fabled for her outstanding beauty and Princess Heineken Cup also known as a looker. He had another daughter, Princess Magners League. Rich princes came from far and wide to try and win the hand of one of his daughters. Princess Internationals was spoken for, but there was intense competition for the hand of Princess Heineken Cup, whose beauty was said by many to rival that of the great southern princess, Princess Super 14 (although many in the south thought this was a load of cobblers). The King selected a suitor for Princess HK, making sure the prince was rich enough to support his daughter in the style she had become accustomed to , and as a sweetener promised the prince that Princess International would be lending her sparkly stars to Princess HK often as they improved her already outstanding appearance.

Interest in the family dropped off after Princess HK was married, but eventually a poor prince arrived, saying ‘I believe you have another daughter?’. The King brought out Princess Magners League, who was a comely country girl (there could only ever be one answer if she asked ‘Does my bum look big in this?’) with only the faintest hint of a mustache. The King, sensing hesitation from the suitor, put in a good word for her ‘Her squint is but a trick of the light, she applies cream to her warts every night, and those braces should eventually sort out her buck teeth. She scrubs up really well, especially when Princess Internationals lends her those sparkly stars which she does all the time (when Princess HK isn’t using them). And anyway, you’re no oil painting yourself’. The poor prince knew he was going to get slagged by his mates but she was the daughter of the rugby king after all and she did have a certain rural charm. They lived happily ever after (but the poor prince did wonder sometimes when Princess Internationals was going to lend her those sparkly stars).
Magners League on telly

Fri Sep 24

EDINBURGH v LEINSTER, ML, RTE2, 19:05

SAT SEP 25

Connacht v Ulster, ML, BBC2/TG4, 19:30

On Friday Leinster drag their sorry asses over to Edinburgh who are in pretty diabolical form themselves. Edinburgh must be pleased Italy have been added to the Magners League if only for the fact that it means Aironi are propping up the bottom of the table and not them. There’s nothing like a bit of desperation to liven things up and hopefully Leinster will need no more excuses and will put in a performance worthy of a recent Heinken Cup winning team.

Munster welcome back Wallace and Mafi, and should be able to put Glasgow away – it hasn’t been a vintage year for Scotland so far.

Saturday sees a top of the table clash between Connacht and Ulster at the Galway Sportsground. Not often you get to see all those words in the same sentence. The Ulster men are packing a lot of South African beef, the pick of which is Johan Muller – Botha and Wannenberg are past their best IMO. Would love to see Connacht win but I think their party is getting to get pooped by Ulster.