Get thee to the bold step, Marcus Horan!

(Picture http://bit.ly/HCiyOl )

The only match I really got to watch this weekend was the Munster/Leinster match, which was a bit of pity because it was a pretty crappy match. I’ll take the win all day long, but it just wasn’t a great match to watch. The scrums were a fiasco – that’s three weekends in a row I’ve been watching the front rows eat grass. Marcus Horan should have been on the bold step, never mind getting a yellow card. When a complete front amateur like me can tell you he was hinging, but he wasn’t called up on it, there’s something wrong.

Then there was Munster’s overall performance -  I know they are missing some big guns, and when you have a shortage of power, just add some  O’Connell for an instant power boost – just use the power wisely. But there does seem to be a gap in depth opening up between Munster and Leinster – I might have blue tinged glasses on, but for me out of the 46 players and reserves, the best two 10’s, 9’s and 2’s were in blue. Little bit harch on O’Gara, whose place kicking is much better than Madigan’s but Madigan’s general play was better. Munster can and will turn it around, put O’Connell, Murray and Ryan back in and they’ll be a 100 times better. I think it’s time for a big shake up though, between Kidney and Tony McGahan, that’s 7 years of continuity, some new thinking is required.

What about Leinster? Without a decent scrum platform they struggled, and their lineouts weren’t too flash either. They got going in the last 20 minutes, and then never looked back. Kearney is in imperious form, and Nacewa – why don’t they just give him the man of the match before the match while his jersey’s clean? Leinster are picking up steam nicely ahead of Cardiff next weekend.

Elsewhere, There was a great away win for Connacht, and Edinburgh did well against the Scarlets.

RaboDirect PRO12
Ulster 45 - 7 Aironi Rugby 
Edinburgh 26 - 23 Scarlets 
Glasgow 31 - 3 Cardiff Blues 
Newport-Gwent D'gons 19 - 27 Connacht
Ospreys 41 - 10 Benetton Treviso 
Munster 9 - 18 Leinster