[2013 Pro12] Round 2

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Round 2 Fixtures

Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff (Friday, 19:05 GMT)

Ravenhill, Belfast (Friday, 19:05 GMT)

Stadio XXV Aprile, Parma (Friday, 18:30 GMT)

Murrayfield, Edinburgh (Friday, 19:30 GMT)

RDS Arena, Dublin (Saturday, 18:15 GMT)

Parc y Scarlets, Llanelli (Saturday, 18:30 GMT)

​

 

[Feicarsinn]

Ah yes, the annual Ospreys home debacle. Looking forward greatly to this one, should be a good chance to see FmcF, Leo, Locky, Luuuuke and a few of the other boys back in action.

EDIT: Also my first Leinster game since Glasgow at the tail end of the 2011/12 season. It's been too long eh?

 

[dullonien]

All four regions are in with a shout of winning their matches this coming weekend. Blues should turn over Connacht at home, likewise the Scarlets v Treviso (although that's far from a given). Edinburgh are a little sh*t atm, so the Dragons should be targeting a good away win to build on their win against Ulster. Leinster away is always difficult, any news on whether any of their Lions will be involved? If not, the Ospreys should fancy their chances with what's likely to be a fairly strong squad.

I'm guessing we'll see a few of the Ospreys Lions players back in for this. Ian Evans, Hibbard and Adam Jones will likely start after coming off the bench last week, and given his limited game time in the tests down under I see no reason why Tipuric shouldn't either. I'd also like to see Lloyd Peers in at lock with King shifting to blindside instead of Tom Smith.

 

[Feicarsinn]

All four regions are in with a shout of winning their matches this coming weekend. Blues should turn over Connacht at home, likewise the Scarlets v Treviso (although that's far from a given). Edinburgh are a little sh*t atm, so the Dragons should be targeting a good away win to build on their win against Ulster. Leinster away is always difficult, any news on whether any of their Lions will be involved? If not, the Ospreys should fancy their chances with what's likely to be a fairly strong squad.

I'm guessing we'll see a few of the Ospreys Lions players back in for this. Ian Evans, Hibbard and Adam Jones will likely start after coming off the bench last week, and given his limited game time in the tests down under I see no reason why Tipuric shouldn't either. I'd also like to see Lloyd Peers in at lock with King shifting to blindside instead of Tom Smith.

I wouldn't count on any Lions involvement, but we should be able to put out a strong enough side. If I were the O's I'd target the scrum all day. I predict we'll put out something like:

McGrath, Strauss, Moore, Cullen, McCarthy, McLaughlin, Jennings, Murphy, Reddan, Madigan, Fitzgerald, D'arcy, McFadden, Fanning, D Kearney

That'd be a good side.

 

[Peat]

If we don't perform a fair bit better we'll get hammered. Fat Nick, Henderson and Olding should all be back in contention.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

I suspect Leinster will make a few changes. Ross, McCarthy, McLaughlin, McFadden and Madigan could all come into the team.

 

[dullonien]

I wouldn't count on any Lions involvement, but we should be able to put out a strong enough side. If I were the O's I'd target the scrum all day. I predict we'll put out something like:

McGrath, Strauss, Moore, Cullen, McCarthy, McLaughlin, Jennings, Murphy, Reddan, Madigan, Fitzgerald, D'arcy, McFadden, Fanning, D Kearney

That'd be a good side.

Yeah, decent enough side, but the O's should be far closer to full strength. I predict an O's side of:

Bevington, Hibbard, Jones, Evans, King/Peers, King/Smith, Tipuric/Lewis, Bearman, Tibaldi, Biggar, Walker, Beck, Bishop, John, Fussell.

I think Ryan Jones took a knock in the Treviso game, so I've left him out as I'm unsure he'll be fit for this one. I wouldn't mind seeing Ben John in the centre alongside Beck, with Hassler on the wing, but this probably isn't the game to expose Hassler to Pro12 rugby from the off.

 

[Amiga500]

If we don't perform a fair bit better we'll get hammered. Fat Nick, Henderson and Olding should all be back in contention.

We lost 4 league games all last (regular) season.

Play like we did on Friday night and we'll be halfway to that loss total in just 2 games!

The only men that emerged from Friday with any amount of credit was Ricky Lutton and Callum Black. The rest need to take a long hard look in the mirror.

 

[Groundhog]

Want to see more Stander really. Hasn't had a bad game for us yet. Wouldn't mind seeing Hanrahan given a run out. Looked sharp in pre season, I want to see us testing his hype this year.

 

[Peat]

We lost 4 league games all last (regular) season.

Play like we did on Friday night and we'll be halfway to that loss total in just 2 games!

The only men that emerged from Friday with any amount of credit was Ricky Lutton and Callum Black. The rest need to take a long hard look in the mirror.

Nothing like getting the mini-crisis out of the way early doors I suppose...

Ulster squad

Forwards (13): Niall Annett, Tom Court, Callum Black, Ricky Lutton, Nick Williams, Declan Fitzpatrick, Johann Muller, Dan Tuohy, Chris Henry, Roger Wilson, Iain Henderson, Sean Doyle, Rob Herring


Backs (12): Jared Payne, Luke Marshall, Paddy Jackson, David McIlwaine, James McKinney, Paul Marshall, Darren Cave, Chris Farrell, Andrew Trimble, Ian Porter, Michael Allen, Ricky Andrew.

Hope Henderson and Fat Nick will be starting. No Olding makes me sad.

 

[big ginger 8]

LEINSTER:
15: Dave Kearney
14: Darragh Fanning
13: Brendan Macken
12: Gordon D'Arcy
11: Luke Fitzgerald
10: Jimmy Gopperth
9: Eoin Reddan

1: Jack McGrath
2: Richardt Strauss
3: Mike Ross
4: Devin Toner
5: Mike McCarthy
6: Kevin McLaughlin
7: Shane Jennings CAPTAIN
8: Jordi Murphy

REPLACEMENTS:

16: Sean Cronin
17: Jack O'Connell
18: Martin Moore
19: Tom Denton
20: Rhys Ruddock
21: Isaac Boss
22: Ian Madigan
23: Darren Hudson

Strong team would have liked Hudson to start though.

Ospreys

15 Richard Fussell
14 Ben John
13 Andrew Bishop
12 Ashley Beck
11 Eli Walker
10 Dan Biggar
9 Tito Tebaldi

1 Ryan Bevington
2 Scott Baldwin
3 Joe Rees
4 Ian Evans
5 James King
6 Tom Smith (Capt)
7 Sam Lewis
8 Joe Bearman

REPLACEMENTS
16 Richard Hibbard
17 Duncan Jones
18 Adam Jones
19 Tyler Ardron
20 Morgan Allen
21 Tom Grabham
22 Matthew Morgan
23 Jeff Hassler

Think we really should win.

 

[BRSTLDRGN]

Interesting to see how the CAP pitch goes in rainy conditions.

 

[Peat]

6-3 to Ulster after 16 minutes. I refuse to be optimistic yet.

 

[Feicarsinn]

Televised?

 

[Feicarsinn]

Also, bloody hell! What are Munster at???

 

[big ginger 8]

Televised?

BBC 2

Van Der merwe is lucky that posts are padded.

 

[Feicarsinn]

Torn between that one and the Connacht game. They're currently 3-7 up away to Cardiff. That would be a result...

 

[Feicarsinn]

What was all that about at the end of the half in the Ulster game?

 

[Peat]

Bit weird wasn't it. Bit knacker like.

Not a great game. Roger Wilson's looked useful. 12-6, refuse to be optimistic.

 

[Feicarsinn]

I haven't seen too much of Wilson at six before, has he played there much in the past? Could be a handy option of Ulster if they want to keep Henderson in the second row.