I was at the Ireland Scotland match and they’ve figured it out. They fixed the atmosphere!! Turns out it wasn’t the mascots or the music or any of that was the problem. It was the ould grumps giving out about it. If we replace all the ould grumps with women and kids it’s class.
Seriously, was one of the best atmospheres I’ve been part of.
Hadn’t been following, what knock has he got?
Cardiff v Stormers
Ulster v Glasgow
Edinburgh v Connacht
Leinster v Ospreys
Munster v Lions.
First off, I’m doing this off top of my head looking at the tables so if I’m wrong let me know.
Leinster
Leinster win: 62 points (63 with BP). Wait to see what happens with Glasgow and Stormers for final position.
Best 1st
Worst 3rd
Leinster Lose: (0 BP) Bulls beat Benetton with a BP Leinster finish 4th.
Leinster Lose: (1 BP) Bull best Benetton with BP Leinster finish 4th.
Leinster Lose: (2 BP) Leinster finish 3rd.
Connacht
(Doing these next since they impact all the others)
Win: 53 points. Win with BP 54 points.
Best 5th place.
Worst 9th place.
Connacht get into playoffs with a win in all circumstances except if Ulster, Cardiff and Munster win and Lions get 1 losing bonus point.
Lose: Out of playoffs.
Munster
Win:
In playoffs.
Lose:
If Connacht and Cardiff and Ulster Win: out of playoffs.
Lose without a BP:
If Connacht and Ulster Win and Cardiff get 2 losing BPs: out of playoffs
If Connacht and Cardiff win and Ulster get 2 losing bonus points: out of playoffs.
Losing with BPs.
Connacht win and either of Ulster or Cardiff lose with less losing BPs: in playoffs.
Ulster
Connacht Lose: In playoffs.
Win: In playoffs
Unless Connacht win with BP AND Ulster don’t get one AND points difference vs Connacht swings the other way by 53 points AND Cardiff and Munster win but the Lions get 2 Bonus Points.
Lose & Connacht win:
Cardiff Lose: Ulster need more losing BPs to get in.
Munster Lose: Ulster need 2 losing BPs to get in.
For my money Ulster are in biggest jeopardy. Glasgow going to be going full blast.
Connacht in a good spot to beat Edinburgh.
Munster have a tough one against Lions but all other results would need to go against them too to be knocked out.
(Long summary) TL:DR - Leinster fantastic during the Sin Bin. Toulon barely got over half way.
35.23 - Porter Yellow Carded.
Ball just outside Leinster 22 and penalty kicked to 8m out. Toulon fail to get the maul rolling because James Ryan disrupts through the middle and JVDF is very unlucky to not get the turnover.
35.59 Harry Byrne practically in Croke Park, he's that far offside. He makes the tackle after the ball comes out of the ruck and Pearce has the arm out. Two more phases (big tackles from Dan Sheehan and Dorris/McCarthy).
White orchestrates a really well-worked try here. Albornoz and Jaminet are stacked slightly to his right as he emerges from the ruck. Ribbans, Brex, Baubigny and Mezou all working into the space. Albornoz and Jaminet start the sprint left and White distracts everyone with his movement and carries left and it's 5 v 4 with Gibson Park covering, wrong-footed by White's movement. White to Jaminet skips 2 of Leinster's 4, Jaminet to Albornoz makes it 2 v 1. TOB has no choice but to come in and try stop Albornoz, he's late and Albornoz to Tuicuvu 15m out with nobody in front. Try.
36.44 Harry Byrne Yellow Carded with 8.40 left on Porter's Yellow Card. Conversion missed and 14-11 with Leinster with 13 men on the field.
Series 1.
JGP kicks the restart to Jaminet who exits with a really deep kick to Keenan. Garry Owens back to Jaminet and Albornoz then kicks to Ioane on his own, when he badly misplays it. JGP cleans it up and a couple of phases later JGP kicks the exit to Leinster's 10m line. Ioane gets himself into the eyeline of the touch judge and then goes down for treatment to the headknock (Dark arts, you say?), which gives time to call attention to the tackle and then the review. (And Leinster to regroup and reorganise a bit.) Ultimately nothing done and Toulon lineout just inside Leinster's 10m. Short one and quickly spread to midfield, where the blitz D messes them up and they knock on under pressure from Ringrose and Ioane. Cullen picks some kid out of the crowd to go on at Loose Head and Leinster win the scrum penalty. End of the half. 41:31 on the clock.
Series 2
JGP kicks the restart to the corner near Toulon's 5m line. Toulon try to play out and JVDF misses the blitz tackle but completely disrupts them (and then recovers and makes the tackle anyway). They go to play out again and Jamie Osbourne cuts off the second pass. Another ruck and Toulon have gained maybe half a meter from where the restart landed. Toulon go for a high box kick at Tommy O'Brien that lands inside the 22. Leinster possession. (JGP covering the wing far side and Hugo Keenan up quick to play scrum half and gets it out of there before the counter ruck has a chance.) Leinster play 8 phases on short carries before on the 9th one, where Ringrose makes 5/6 meters of a break. Sheehan/Kennan have another 5m carry 4 phases later and Dorris picks up another 2 more on the next phase. VDF inside the 5m next phase. With Leinster 1m out and 20 phases in, Toulon stray offside and Pearse has the arm out. Ball held up over the line on that carry from Ryan. Review happens for the head contact on VDF and Toulon down to 14 at 43:02. Leinster score 2 phases later off the tap from JGP and the ingenious bounce pass technique from VDF to Ringrose takes out 3 Toulon defenders. Ringrose has never kicked a ball under the shot clock and misses the kick.
Porter back on and it's 14 v 14.
Series 3
JGP exits the restart that Toulon try to play out from their own half. They have 6 phases and don't cross halfway and then kick it away. JGP kicks it back again and finds touch that Toulon try to play quick and play out. They have 4 phases before knocking on, again failing to get across the half. Byrne comes back on. Porter and Sheehan annihilate the Toulon scrum and win the penalty. Byrne kicks it from 40-odd meters out. 22-11. 48.09.
12-odd minutes with guys in the bin and Leinster increase their lead by 3 points. Toulon were already inside Leinster's 22 when Porter was carded. They barely crossed halfway for the rest of the time. Gibson Park, Dorris, Sheehan, Ryan, Van Der Flier were immense during the period. Say what you will about wider performances but that 12 minutes was the winning of the game.
Note when he makes the “stick the boot in” comment he locks on a particular journalist instead of scanning the room like the rest of the time he’s talking.
Actually think he played quite well today. The kicks were wayward and that needs to be better obviously but was defensively good, moved the attack well, got playmakers int the game.
Easy to confuse a bad day off the tee with a bad performance.