Ireland V Wales is the BIG one, and could be pretty close!

  

 Luke Fitzgerald

 The BIG one this this weekend is Ireland v Wales. The Welsh have come with their  A list players, so the backline is huge – North, Cuthbert and Roberts must weigh more than a double decker bus!  Ireland, meanwhile are still tinkering a bit, there are first starts for Sexton, Murray and O’Connell, but Earls, Dave Kearney and Fitzgerald are all on the fringes, and fairly small too, so defence is going to be a challenge! Everyone seems to be talking up an Irish win, but I reckon this is going to be really really close – and who knows what role ring rustiness may play?  Jordi Murphy has another opportunity to shine – he’s played a blinder so far, and I’m wondering if this is shaping up to be the best loose trio combination.

For the provinces, Leinster take on Moseley, with Isa starting, and Bowe and Trimble start for Ulster. Both of them must have nailed on spots in the Irish squad, and team.

We also have Scotland taking on Italy where the Scots should build on last week, and probably the most entertaining match of the weekend will be the Barbarians v Samoa.  Three matches on a Saturday afternoon though, nearly all at the same time!

Ireland: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Dave Kearney, 13 Luke Fitzgerald, 12 Robbie Henshaw, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Conor Murray, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Jordi Murphy, 6 Peter O'Mahony, 5 Paul O'Connell (c), 4 Iain Henderson, 3 Nathan White, 2 Richardt Strauss, 1 Jack McGrath
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 Tadhg Furlong, 19 Donnacha Ryan, 20 Sean O'Brien, 21 Eoin Reddan, 22 Paddy Jackson, 23 Felix Jones

Wales: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Scott Williams, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 George North, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Rhys Webb, 8 Taulupe Faletau, 7 Justin Tipuric, 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Alun Wyn Jones (c), 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Tomas Francis, 2 Ken Owens, 1 Gethin Jenkins
Replacements: 16 Scott Baldwin, 17 Paul James, 18 Aaron Jarvis, 19 Luke Charteris, 20 James King, 21 Gareth Davies, 22 Rhys Priestland, 23 Hallam Amos

Fri 28th Aug 15
Leinster v Moseley Donnybrook 19:30
Edinburgh v Ulster Goldenacre 18:30

Test Matches
Saturday, August 29
Japan vs Uruguay    09:00
Ireland vs Wales    13:30
Scotland vs Italy    14:15
Barbarians v Samoa    15:00

The Lion and the Ba Ba lay down together - but the Ba Ba didn't get much sleep

Picture http://bit.ly/13wJWGh

The Lions racked up a big score against the Barbarians in Hong Kong yesterday, scoring 8 tries in total. The match was never really about the result though, more an opportunity for fringe players to put their hands up, and work on a few combinations. Mike Phillips and Justin Tupuric were the players that stood out for me, always on the ball, and instinctively good. Owen Farell put his hand up as well, to say – I’m not really sure why I’m here. I’m not giving out at him, it’s just too much responsibility too soon for him – he doesn’t even start that often at 10 at Saracens. Sexton came on and immediately put his stamp on the game, just adding control, and some dangerous incisive running lines. I would have said the 9/10 will be Phillips and Sexton, but if they want to pace on the game then Youngs and Sexton would be a great combo.

 Jamie Roberts is a class act, and Hogg looks like a good impact player. Connor Murray came on and looked really good, a young Mike Phillips. And Heaslip was pretty impressive in his time on the pitch – I thought Faletu and Lydiate were solid but unspectacular, nowhere near as dynamic as Tupuric.

Finally, Irishman in the making Jarred Payne is a classy relaxed player who when he’s qualified could add a lot to the Irish team.

British & Irish Lions
Barbarians 8 - 59 British & Irish Lions 

The Lions and Ba Ba's get it on in Hong Kong!

The Lions kick off their new adventure against the Barbarians in Hong Kong tomorrow at 11.30. The team they’ve picked looks like maybes selection – lots of players will be trying to put their hands up for the big team. Pick me sir! From an Irish perspective, it’ll be good to see Jared Payne doing his things with the Barbarians. That’s as well because the Lions team is pretty light on Irish players – just the one like, although there are a good few on the bench. Lion’s coaches are always so cagey about revealing their first choice team and any tactics. How about going for it, being big and brash, and just saying, this is who we are, this is what we do, have go if you think you’re hard enough. Obviously I don’t have a career in coaching ahead of me :)

It’s not as crazy as it sounds – your defense wins the match – your attacking play determines by how much. Defense sytems don’t get learnt in a day, why not get you’re a team out there practicing it? As we two teams who hardly trained with each other, I’d say we can expect a few trys :). Bring it on!

Barbarians: 15 Jared Payne, 14 Joe Rokocoko, 13 Elliot Daly, 12 Casey Laulala, 11 Taku Ngwenya, 10 Nick Evans, 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 8 Sergio Parisse, 7 Sam Jones, 6 Samu Manoa, 5 Dean Mumm, 4 Marco Wentzel, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Schalk Brits, 1 Paul James.
Replacements: 16 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 17 Duncan Jones, 18 Jim Hamilton, 19 Imanol Harinordoquy, 20 Andrea Lo Cicero, 21 Kahn Fotuali'i, 22 James Hook, 23 Mike Tindall.

Leinster aim to cut back from triples to doubles

The final of the Rabo Direct Pro 12 is on at the RDS this weekend, with both Leinster and the Ospreys having recently smashed an Irish Province. I’ll do my best to not stray too much into hyperbole when I talk about Leinster, but they certainly were in record making form last weekend.  It’s pretty miraculous that the Ospreys are here at all. They suffered an exodus of stars at the end of last season not matched since Moses lead his people of Egypt. Then they shed their coach mid season, and possibly face a further downsizing for next season as all the Welsh sides economise.  Well, Munster would have been happy to see a bit of that upheaval when they were being spanked in the semis, where the Ospreys  were definitely the form team out of all four. They are full of Welsh stars, anaiming to end their season on a high.  Leinster’s team in fairness was bit cobbled together that weekend, with one eye on the HCup. They have a full team to pick from this weekend, and massive depth on the bench. The Ospreys have a bit of talent on the bench but not too much. Both teams are fairly evenly matched in style of play, and the difference could easily be home advantage.  Plus , you know the way they say the crowd gives you anextra 5%? Well, I’M going, so that’s an extra 6%at least. It’s going to be a forward battle and backline contest par excellence,  where the 6% will tell, and Leinster will win!

The final of the Aviva Premiership is on Saturday, and pits Quins against Leicester. Hard to see how Quins are going to match the physical power of the tigers, so Tigers it is for me.

The Ba Ba’s take on what must an England Lite side on Sunday, which could be a fun match to watch.

Finally, what a massive cock up the RFU have made of the promotion/relegation  this year! If I saw on their CV that they had given marital advice to Tiger Woods and financial advice to the Greeks, I wouldn’t be surprised. Imagine if they got to run a World Cup? Oh…

RaboDirect PRO12
Sunday , May 27
Leinster vs Ospreys

Champagne rugby from Leinster and Munster, 2l value cider rugby from Ulster

Leinster played Treviso Stadio di Monigo   in a entertaining match. OK, I would say that because Leinster won and won well, and did it with a good portion of the front line players absent. And a lot of fringe players put their hands up and staked their claim for a first team spot. Fionn Carr goes from strength to strength, Jamie Hagan played well as did Rhys Ruddock , and Johnny hard to say second name at 8 had a stormer. And in the back line, O’Malley, McFadden and Madigan all looked the business. Treviso played well as well, handling was good, and with a bit of luck they could have won this match. They had good home support, and their fans had something to shout about.

Now if the Leinster match was champagne rugby, drunk from crystal wine glasses, then the Blues/Treviso and Glasgow/Ulster matches were 2 litre bottles of Tesco value cider, drunk straight from the bottle on a canal bench with only the swans for company. Ugly, painful rugby, abysmal skill levels, that had you wondering why even the handful of spectators had bothered to make the effort.  The Blues at least eventually managed the four point bonus try, but Ulster – Jesus wept. They’ve got Darcy, Cave, Spence and Trimble in the backline and they should have been making merry with the ball. Instead of standing around like interested bystanders while Humphries kicked. At a minimum, they should have been going for a bonus point out of the match, but in fairness, they way they played they didn’t deserve anything. Connacht also lost out to Connacht. Wed I watched AC Milan/Barcelona, Thursday the Blues, Fri Ulster – I’m going to go over to the dark side and start watching soccer just now.

I also watched bit and pieces of the Munster match and it’s obvious there is a gulf in class between high flying Leinster and Munster, and the ghetto of Ulster and Connacht. Munster’s young guns showed us what they had, with Barnes, Zebo , Archer , Keatley, Holland and O’Dea all showing they are ready to step up. They could work on their defence a little, as the Scots crossed for a few easy enough trys.
London Irish put in a good win against Wasps, which I didn’t see, and the last match I saw the Ba Ba’s get thrashed by the Aussies. Poor Ba Ba’s rather than excellent Aussies, but they could only play what was in front of them. O’Connor did well at fly half, and Victor Matfield, as always, shone in his final outing, a giant amongst giants.

Benetton Treviso 20 - 30 Leinster 
Connacht 6 - 17 Ospreys 
Munster 34 - 17 Edinburgh
Scarlets 22 - 12 Newport-Gwent D'gons 
Glasgow 17 - 9 Ulster
Cardiff Blues 38 - 0 Aironi Rugby
London Irish 21 - 17 Wasps
Barbarians 11 - 60 Australia

Leinster in Italy, and the Ba Ba's take on Australia

James O'Connor (Picture http://bit.ly/uoNyyZ )

Leinster head off to Italy to take on Treviso this weekend – a few years ago the main concern would have agonising over the right trainers to pull the  signoras, after having thumped the Italians. Things are different these days though, and Leinster are not going to be arriving with a B team if they want to win. Fergus McFadden is apparently back in the frame, which would be great, and Damian Brown could return as well. I’m still expecting Leinster to beat Treviso, but bearing in mind that they drew with the Ospreys in the HC cup last week, they will need to play about 60% as well as they did in the first half, for 90% of the match to win. A win then.

Ulster should have enough firepower to take out the Warriors, even at Firhill, while I’d expect there to be unhappy hunting for Connacht against a still classy Ospreys side. Munster are going to have their hands full against Edinburgh, who’ve had a new lease of life with Irish coach Michael Bradley, who’ll obviously have an inside track on the men in red. But if Munster can beat Castre away, they’ll beat the Scots at home.
Scarlets and Dragons, with the current form of the Welsh, could be the match of the Pro12 weekend.

The Exiles take on Wasps at the Madjeski in a London derby, with Irish hoping to put behind their Heineken cup disappointments. I’m backing them to win.

Barbarians vs Australia

This is a decent looking Ba-Ba’s side, where I’m particularly interested to see Robbie Fruean show his stuff, alongside Mortlock who could really still have something to offer Australia. Hope Stringer has a good match as well. The Aussie side is out, with Pocock as captain, good move, and James O’Connor is going to be playing ten. The Ausiies had a fairly disappointing WC by their standards, so hopefully we get to see what they could have done on Saturday.

Barbarians: 15 Isaia Toeava, 14 Sam Tomkins, 13 Robbie Fruean, 12 Stirling Mortlock, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Adam Thomson, 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Victor Matfield (captain), 4 Simon Shaw, 3 Sylvain Marconnet, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Eusebio Guinazu.
Replacements: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Salvatore Perugini, 18 Jason White, 19 Marco Bortolami, 20 Nemia Kenatale, 21 Richard Kahui, 22 Seru Rabeni.

Wallabies team

15. Adam Ashley-Cooper , 14. Lachie Turner , 13. Rob Horne , 12. Berrick Barnes , 11. Digby Ioane , 10. James O'Connor , 9. Will Genia , 8. Ben McCalman , 7. David Pocock (captain) 6. Scott Higginbotham , 5. Nathan Sharpe , 4. Rob Simmons , 3. Salesi Ma'afu , 2. Tatafu Polota Nau , 1. James Slipper ,

Replacements:16. Stephen Moore , 17. Ben Alexander , 18. James Horwill , 19. Dave Dennis , 20. Matt Hodgson , 21. Nick Phipps , 22. Ben Tapuai

Thu 24 Nov 19:30 Blues   v   Aironi Cardiff City Stadium  
Fri 25 Nov 19:05 Scarlets   v   Dragons Parc y Scarlets BBCw
Fri 25 Nov 19:35 Warriors   v   Ulster Firhill Stadium ALBA/ni/RTE
Sat 26 Nov 15:00 Treviso   v   Leinster Stadio di Monigo  
Sat 26 Nov 18:30 Connacht   v   Ospreys Sportsground S4C/TG4
Sat 26 Nov 20:30 Munster   v   Edinburgh Thomond Park Stadium TG4/ALBA

Barbarians take out Wales in the final minutes

Gavin Henson picture from: http://bit.ly/lZ07xa

So in fairness it’s not much of a rugby review this weekend as all I caught was the extended highlights of the Wales/Barbarians match, and that was in Welsh. And to say the least, my Welsh is um, non existent. But rugby is an international language and there was lots to appreciate in this match. Hats off to Wales for picking new faces, even some orange faces (Henson take a bow), running the ball and taking the attacking line outs. It didn’t quite come off in terms of the result, but if you can’t take some chances and entertain the crowds once in a while, we may as well all pack up and go home. I thought Jonathan Davies had an awesome match, he looks fast and sharp. George North took his try well, and the forwards showed they can grind out the trys if they need to.


This was a super Barbarians side, all the more amazing for the fact that apart from Parisse, Nacewa and Rabeni, none of these players are in contention for their national sides. Seru Rabeni welcomed Gavin Henson back to international rugby – hi Gav, why are you lying down Gav? The touch of class that proved the difference between the sides was (drumroll) Isa Nacewa, who’s been in devastating form for Leinster all season, scooping up the ball in one hand, evading several tackles and running ¾ of the pitch to score the winning try.

Shark Bite

Yes! The Sharks continue their good run chomping the Cheetahs away from home. With two rounds left to play they are looking good.

Saturday , June 4

Wales 28 - 31 Barbarians

Super Rugby

Hurricanes 38 - 27 Lions

Blues 11 - 16 Chiefs

Reds 14 - 22 Brumbies

Cheetahs 18 - 23 Sharks

Friday , June 3

Highlanders 14 - 21 Western Force

Melbourne Rebels 3 - 40 Stormers

Bulls 23 - 17 Waratahs

Last gasp draw for Leinster, things get murky at Thomond Park, and the Ba Ba's triumph

Fergus McFadden from http://bit.ly/hmlZzb

Scarlets 17 - 17 Leinster

Munster 16 - 9 Cardiff Blues

Ospreys 33 - 16 Edinburgh



Scarlets 17 - 17 Leinster

I was out fishtailing in my car for most of the match and so I only caught the last ten minutes of this. Having said that, I think I saw exactly the right ten minutes. Or maybe I saw exactly the right 9 minutes, two awesome flowing tries from Leinster, followed by an absolute howler from Sexton. A legendary howler from Sexton. When he wakes up sweating in the night, he’ll see his fumble over and over again. Let’s hope that he’s got his kicking and catching blues out the way in time for next week. In the bits I saw Fergus McFadden and particularly Sean O'Brien were in hugely impressive form. O’Brien must be breaking the door down into the Ireland team.

Scarlets are an exiting looking outfit, not stuffed with Welsh stars, but stuffed with performing Welsh players.

Barbarians 26-20 South Africa

The Barbarians scored a good win here over a disjointed Springbok side. The Ba Ba’s scored three tries in the first 20 minutes through a porous defence. , then Boks made a come back in the second half to make the score look respectable. It was a second string Bok side, and apart from a good run out for Elton Jantjies, no one put their hand up for the 1st team, I’m starting to feel really old skool here though – in the olden days the touring team used to play their full team, never kick penalties, and played against mainly Northern Hemisphere players. These days it’s half strength squads, a host of overseas players, and more cautious play all round. This is the way it was:

Munster 16 - 9 Cardiff Blues

A couple of things stood out in this match. The first was the sight of Tony Buckley charging along, ball in one hand, Paul Tito upside down in the other, with another Blues player hanging on for dear life. The second was Paul O’Connell back in red on the pitch again. The third was what I didn’t get to see which was the last ten minutes of the match, as Munster built up a lead and then cannily let the fog out. The Blues could easily have scored two tries in the last 5 minutes (and probably did for all we know) and no one would have been the wiser. The commentary, as gaeilge, wasn’t shedding too much light on the proceedings either. Did Thomas O’Leary get on? I didn’t see him, but then Jonah Lomu probably made a guest appearance as well. Munster had an indifferent first half, then did enough in the second to bag the points.

So two out of two for the two Irish provinces hard enough to play, with softies Connacht and Ulster postponing their matches.

Exiles

It was another glum day at the Madejski Stadium as the Tigers ran out 23-14 winners. That’s 5 losses on the trot now, come on Irish wake up! Their front row is looking extremely dodgy at this stage, can Faan Rautenbach finally be put out to pasture please?

Wins for the Barbarians, Springoks and Australia

Saturday , June 5


Australia 49 - 3 Fiji

Wales 31 - 34 South Africa

Friday , June 4

Ireland 23 - 29 Barbarians



Friday night saw an experimental Ireland side take on the Barbarians at Thomond Park in Limerick. The Barbarians were in much better from than against England, and looked like they could run away with it at one stage. The injection of a little bit of quality near the end told for Ireland as the class of Tommy Bowe and Tomas O’Leary made a big difference, and if the match had been 5 minutes longer…Ireland could have won. Alan Quinlan playing for the Barbarians was a walking penalty and yellow card opportunity, high tackles, lying all over the ball and coming in from the side – he must have a real puppy dog look every time the ref speaks to him to stay on the field. So not the result Ireland wanted but it wasn’t their best team anyway. Sean Cronin is going to have to learn to throw in straight if he want’s to make the side on a regular basis, while John Muldoon took a big step up, and could be in contention against the All Blacks.



On Saturday, Wales came against the Boks at the millennium stadium with all the predictions being for a Welsh victory. The Boks obviously hadn’t read the script, and if this thrown together side can come up with a win like that, the rest of the world should be scared for their main team, as the Boks stamped size 12 boots all over the match in a 40 minute spell in the middle of the match. Wales , who in fairness have some big names missing, played in fits and starts, and again if the game had been 5 minutes longer, could have come up with a win. Wales just don’t seem to be able to close out the big ones. Several of the fringe Boks held their hands up, with Dewald Potgeiter and Juan de Jong in very good form. De Jong has a brilliant step, a big heart in defense and a big future with South Africa.



Australia came away with a easy win the end over Fiji, depite only leading 14-3 at half time. Their main concern will be losing prop Ben Alexander to injury.

International Warm Ups- Barbarians, Wales, Springboks,Fiji,Australia, Ireland

Ireland Vs Barbarians


This is real experimental Irish team with 4 new caps and it’s hard to know what to expect as the Barbarians looked like they weren’t quite up for it last week against England. Well ,the atmosphere at Thomond Park will be a lot cosier than at Twickenham, so let’s hope we get the real spirit of the Barbarians coming out and see some good running rugby.

Australia vs Fiji

Australia have named a strong team for this match, practically full strength apart from star player Will Genia who’s out injured. I don’t rate Luke Burgess, and he won’t have played much with Quade Cooper, so that may disrupt them a bit but they should still be way to strong for Fiji. Fiji has increasingly better players but coaching and playing time together are big issues

Wales vs South Africa

This is the pick of the weekends matches. Wales are on a high at the moment with the Amlin Cup and the Magners League trophy in the Cabinet. They are looking good as far as injuries go, and there is so much potential in this team it has to come out some time. The South African side is pretty experimental, consisting mainly of overseas based players and fringe players from back home. However, these are all big strong men, and are going to be ‘bringing the pain’ in their own inimitable style. This could be a lot of fun, and Wales should get one over the Southern Hemisphere as the half the Boks haven’t even met before.

Bulls Leicester Ospreys Super 14 Guinness Premiership Magners League

Leicester 33 - 27 Saracens


Bulls 25 - 17 Stormers

Leinster 12 - 17 Ospreys




Super 14


The premier rugby competition in the South closed up in Sowetu of all places, as the Bulls and Stormers went to war at Orlando stadium. Last year the Bulls absolutely smashed the Chiefs, so badly they still haven’t recovered a year later. This time it was the Stormers stepping up to the plate. The tournament prides itself on running rugby, the rules favour the attacking team and there are normally tries galore. This was no free running affair though, more like two tanks engaged in mortal combat. The score at the end was pretty close , but from about 20 minutes in there only looked like there was going to be one winner as wave after wave of relentless Bulls attack and defense smashed the Stormers back. This wasn’t rugby for the feint of heart, and there are bound to be a few frosty moments when the players meet up in the Bok camp. It was carnage on the field and carnage on the ears as the vuvulezi droned on at an unbelievable volume. The Bulls look like they are laying the foundations of a dynasty to rival that of the Crusaders.

Guinness Premiership

You have to hand it to the Tigers, much as I would have loved to see a new name on the Premiership trophy, you have bow down to the canniness of Leicester as they delivered the sucker punch and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Saracens will be absolutely kicking themselves (well Brendon Venter will probably doing that for them quite well) as they hauled themselves back out of the abyss and came within a whisker of a famous victory, only for it all to turn to ashes in their mouths as one lapse in attention let the Tigers in for back to back premiership titles. It was a good advert for the Premiership, and for rugby in general, tries drama and a heartbreaking end.

Magners League

Now I don’t want to boast – much – but that is three out of three predictions as the Ospreys went on a smash and grab in Dublin. It seems a long long time ago that Irish rugby was standing on the pinnacle of European rugby with the Grand Slam, the Heineken Cup and the Magners League all in the cabinet. There’s going to be quite a bit of soul searching in the off season, and maybe a chance in the tour down under for them to rediscover their mojo. Welsh rugby took another step forward as the Ospreys turned on the style, scored the tries and made it look all too easy as they downed Leinster at home at the RDS. It’s hard to put your finger on what’s wrong with Leinster, it just looks like the self belief is gone.

Finals Finals Finals Guinness Premiership, Super 14, Magners League

Saturday 29th of May

Leicester vs Saracens 17:30
Bulls vs Stormers 17:00
Leinster vs Ospreys 18:00

Sunday 30th May

England vs Barbarians 17:00


Super 14

It’s back to Orlando Stadium for the finals of the Super 14, where either the Bulls or the Stormers will be crowned king of the southern hemisphere. Is the meanest defense in the tournament going to be able to survive the onslaught the Bulls are surely going to bring? It could come down to the gamebreakers – Fourie du Preez, Morne Steyn, Pierre Spies, Bryan Habana, Schalk Burger, Jaques Fourie. It could also come down to 15 large gentleman from Pretoria jumping on the heads on the Stormers, and this is the most likely outcome. The Bulls managed to pinch it at home from the Sharks in Durban in 2007, but although they are going to get bloody trying, it’s hard to see the Stormers winning this.

Guinness Premiership

It’s going to be a big day at Twickenham as Leicester Tigers defend their title against Saracens. Coach Brendan Venter conducts himself with good old fashioned South African charm and diplomacy and this has rubbed off on the Saracens – they play a no nonsense direct style of rugby, featuring several large South African men. Brendan is going to have to watch the match on TV due to his ban.The Tigers are the perfect foil for Saracens, they do all the simple things well and grind teams into the dust before really letting rip. Saracens have never won a league title, is that going to change this Saturday? Self confidence doesn’t seem to be a problem for them, but Leicester are old hands at this finals game, and that should help them claim back to back titles.

Magners’ League

This looks to be a really good match, Ireland’s finest taking on the Opreylians at the RDS. Leinster have had a good Magners League this year after falling short in the Heineken Cup. The Opreys have been ticking along nicely this year, they will feel unlucky to have lost to Biarritz in the Heineken Cup and would love to claims some silverware. Normally I’d be backing Leinster all the way and home advantage is formidable, but without Leo Cullen I think they could struggle – so I’m going for the Ospreys to join Cardiff with a cup of their own.