Dreary weekend of Irish results as Leinster, Munster and Connacht go down!

 

Dan Leavy

Leinster had an up and down visit to Glasgow - the match see sawed back and forth, but ultimately Leinster squandered a 10 point lead and came away with nothing. There was lots to admire about how Leinster played though, they went there to win, and put together some fantastic plays to score three tries - Jordi, van der Flier, Leavy and Carberry all looking really sharp. Glasgow will know they got out of jail there, they played well, but had to wait for a gift try from Leinster to get them back in the game. Promising stuff.

Munster had an ordinary day at home against Cardiff, just losing their defensive shape as the match went on. In fairness, that's as good a performance as I've seen from the Blues in the last few years, two excellent nines running the game. Munster fell down at scrum half, fly half and midfield. It's tough because they just seem to keep up injuries in the 10-13 positions. But not a disaster, just work to do.

Connacht had another very tough evening at home, this time against the Ospreys. They were right in the match for the first 50 minutes, then leaked a series of tries that really took the game away from them. Their defense is erratic, again a tweak rather than a disaster, and good to see Marmion and Dillane playing so well. I thought they got the rough edge of a few decisions too.

Finally, Ulster made it two from two against Zebre.

Argentina really took it to the All Blacks for the first 50 minutes, but ultimately ran out of steam, and the score blew out to put a gloss on the New Zealand's performances that wasn't really there.

Finally, Australia managed to shade a close match against South Africa. I'd say the All Blacks will beat everyone, but the other three teams are at least winning their home matches against each other.

10 Sep 2016
Connacht     11-32     Ospreys
Benetton Treviso     11-22     Ulster
Glasgow Warriors     33-25     Leinster
9 Sep 2016
Edinburgh     20-9     Scarlets
Munster     23-24     Cardiff Blues
Newport Gwent Dragons     11-6     Zebre



Australia    23-17    South Africa   
New Zealand    57-22    Argentina