Good results for Leinster, Munster and Ulster, and a lucky escape for Connacht!t!

 

 John Ryan

I missed Leinster's first three tries, and Edinburgh first as I was out running, but still thoroughly enjoyed the match. Leinster are starting to get their tempo back, we're stating to see play more of a vintage of Joe Schmidt and Michael Cheika, and it's engineered by Gibson-Park and Carberry. Great to watch, and more fun to play I'm sure. Unfortunately, there's also been the unwelcome return of some ladyboy tackling - the defense rushes up at a rate of knots, but fails to make the tackles. But hopefully that can all be sorted out by Stuart Lancaster. Impressive return for Isa Nacewa, and Dan Leavy is on fire this year! Edinburgh played some good rugby too, and deserved at least a losing bonus point.

Munster are putting some good plays together, the size of the team these days is just monstrous! They weren't entirely convincing against the Dragons though, Rodney Parade can be a tough fixture, but Munster had plenty of chances to really finish the game off which they squandered. Even their last try a bit all over the place where it needn't have been. Connor Murray is pure class, but they're still looking for more direction from 10. Player of the match for me was John Ryan.

Ulster's good start to the season continued with a win over the Scarlets. And finally Connacht at last had a smidgen of luck as their match against Zebre was called off at half time with the men of the West 9 points behind!

Cardiff are looking good this year, they got a great win against Glasgow. The only surprise really is that they haven't been better before, they have the players!

The All Blacks didn't break sweat sorting out the Springboks. They did a lot of damage just by exerting pressure and taking the opportunities as the Springboks cracked. The Boks are stuffed full of talented players, just a lot of young and inexperienced players. Elton Jantjies is really struggling at this level, he needs a guiding hand and  less pressure.

Finally Australia accounted for Argentina pretty easily too, they looked like they had left it all on  the field last week against New Zealand. They play the reverse fixture in London, taking a lot of the Pumas home advantage away.