175 : Leinster v Sharks wrap – Harpin' On Rugby
GUEST CONTRIBUTORS
FULL TIME TAKES
Andrew Potts There is a gratuitous physicality to SA rugby, we lost a few players to careless confrontation, hopefully two of them will not be a serious as it looked.The refereeing needs sharpening up as both teams looked confused by what was being applied at the breakdown.Nice to see a very mean Leinster coming out in the second half and all the lads off the bench more than happy to dish it out.Not often Leinster hit 50 points and think it was a contest.One down side was not getting the last try. 60 points would have been nicenicely
Martin Loughrey Watched the 1st half live and just finished the 2nd after feeding the kids/animals. What a game!! So many good things, but the main thing that stands out is adaptablity. How many players were out of position at the end of that 80 minute 20 point win over a good strong opposition? Obviously I hope that Ruddock, Larmour, Ngaitai, but most of all Baird are ok. But a great team performance across the 23. Ringrose obviously impressed on the wing of all places. Byrne came on in the centre, and Martin Mololney and Foley got a lot more game time than originally planned, but the team stayed on course. Rob Russell did very little wrong on his debut and crossed the whitewash. Henshaw was his usual self, as was Sheehan, and Ngatai’s kick for Henshaw’s try wasn’t just incredible for it’s accuracy, but also the awareness in it. All in all a great performance. Roll on next week!
Dave Murray Questionable tackling aside it was a great end to end game of rugby. The addition of the 4 SA teams have definitely improved the league and will make it much more exciting to watch going forward and in Europe.
Richard Collumb Fantastic win, best game of rugby I’ve seen in while. Ringrose class, Foley great with quick ball & Sexton still the master. Tough games like this can only help Leinster (& Ireland) this season.
Roy Thompson Cracking game of Rugby. High scoring, and highly entertaining. Yes, there were errors, but both sides were fully committed, creating and taking scoring opportunities. A great game to watch.
Greg Kelly Not sure how the Baird one wasn’t red. Abrahams makes no attempt to challenge for the ball and flips him in the air causing him to land head first. You take the 2nd Sharks player out and Abrahams would have walked.
Gavin Hegarty Thoroughly enjoyable game. Some great flowing rugby but also some awful defensive mistakes from Leinster so I’d say they are going to have a rough week. The majority of the sharks tries came from our mistakes which created a large overlap for them.
FRONT FIVE ARTICLES
Ferns win as Aussies mourn what might have been | Scrum Queens – John Birch
We dominated the physicality’ says Andy Friend as Connacht kickstart season (irishexaminer.com) – Simon Lewis
Key wins for Clontarf, Trinity, Terenure and Ballynahinch in the AIL (the42.ie) – Dave Mervyn
Ulster ease back to winning ways by running seven tries past poor Ospreys on comfortable night at Ravenhill – BelfastTelegraph.co.uk – Jonathan Bradley
Emerging Ireland hold off Cheetahs to complete unbeaten tour in South Africa – The Irish Times – Daire Walsh
URC ROUND 4 WRAP
Round 4
EDI 19-22 LIO
CON 20-11 MUN
ZEB 20-37 STO
LEI 54-34 SHA
SCA 10-16 CAR
ULS 47-17 OSP
GLA 35-21 BUL
BEN 34-14 DRA
Round 5
FRI OCT 14
OSP V STO
CON V LEI
SAT OCT 15
LIO V ULS
SHA V GLA
EDI V BEN
CAR V DRA
SCA V ZEB
MUN V BUL
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