Leinster Slam the provinces, and Munster get a draw

Tommy O'Donnell (picture http://bit.ly/HU2YvI )

This was another poor weekend for me as a Leinster fan, Twitter was as close as I got to following the match. Ah well, they did OK without me. Leinster put out a strong team, so did Ulster, but Leinster have awesome strength in depth on the bench, and left behind too. It’s something that’s taken a few years to build up, through an excellent academy, and basically giving players their chances. Joel Schmidt has players queuing up in most positions, and 6 out of 6 against the home provinces says it all.

So after missing Leinster and Ulster, I again managed to watch most of Munster and Scarlets. Good to see Munster get the draw, although a win would obviously have been better. They played much better than last week while I was watching. Mick O’Driscoll is an absolute legend, playing as well as, and better than most on the field. There is some serious talent in the team, OMahoney get’s better all the time, as does Dominic Ryan. I thought  Dave Kilcoyne had a really decent outing and Tommy O'Donnell looks like one to watch. Zebo looks great in attack, once his defense is sorted out he’s going to be a real threat.

Apart from that, I saw quite a bit of the Sharks Chiefs match. Please, can someone get a video of Patrick Lambie tackling Sonny Bill Williams and show it to all the Irish teams. Tackle him round his ankles, works every time, works with 99% of players. What I’d love to see is the Sharks put in a bit of passing practice – head height, a foot behind you is no good to man nor beast. With just a few basic skills, they could be contenders…

RaboDirect PRO12 Ospreys 31 - 12 Newport-Gwent D'gons 
Ulster 8 - 16 Leinster
Connacht 19 - 16 Aironi Rugby 
Scarlets 20 - 20 Munster
Cardiff Blues 38 - 13 Edinburgh 
Benetton Treviso 8 - 13 Glasgow