Edinburgh v Munster

[An Tarbh]

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Edinburgh v Munster

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Munster face an uphill task as they travel to Murrayfield this Friday night to take on the in form Gunners, Andy Robinson has certainly turned the form of the Scottish side around and now sees them lying 3rd in the table only 6 points of the top spot.

Both sides will again be heavily depleated so a chance for the fringe players to impress Kidney especially with the quarter final against Gloucester on the horizon.

The Gunners will be simply looking to consolidate their ***le challenge so little needed in terms of motivation for the hosts either.

So which way will it go???

Again only live in Ireland on Setanta 1.

 

[MunsterMan]

Munster: Denis Hurley, S Payne, D Howlett, B Carney, I Dowling, K Lewis, R Tipoki, L Mafi, J Manning, P Warwick, G Hurley, P Stringer, T O'Leary,

Darragh Hurley, F Pucciariello, T Buckley, F Sheahan, D Fogarty, D Ryan,P O'Connell, M O'Driscoll, A Quinlan, J Coughlan, N Ronan, A Foley, J O'Sullivan.

With a squad that strong and with us facing a weakened Edinburgh team i can't see us loosing

 

[edinburgh_gunner]

Edinburgh side isn't too weakened either though:

15 Hugo Southwell

14 Andrew Turnbull
13 Ben Cairns
12 John Houston
11 Roland Reid

10 Phil Godman
9 Ben Meyer

1 Augusto Allori
2 Andrew Kelly
3 Gavin Kerr
4 Matt Mustchin
5 Craig Hamilton
6 Alan MacDonald
7 Ross Rennie
8 Allister Hogg (captain)

Substitutes: Craig Smith, Steve Lawrie, Fergus Pringle, Simon Cross, Greig Laidlaw, Nick De Luca, Calum MacRae.

Blair and Ford are the biggest losses for us, but Meyer is a very good scrum half and Andy Kelly is very fast around the loss even if his throwing is wayward. Not sure why Gissing isn't in the 22, nothign about him being injured.

Anyway, most of that team has been playing consistantly anyway and we are 3 places higher in the league so it's going to be far from a walk in the park for Munster.

 

[lineens weegie army]

Hogg isnt injured! so WTF hasnt he been in the Scotland squads?

(sorry, slightly off topic - just surprised and wondered if (the) edinburgh fan could tell me! )

 

[Sir Speedy]

Munster should win, their squad looks superb, despite their internationals away. A win by 5 - 10 pts for the Munster-men.

 

[An Tarbh]

Well the whole front row is missing, granted the back up is not too shabby but still at this stage wouldn't start against Gloucester, if O'Connell does start then he won't be match sharp and can be exploited that and the fact that he's grossly overrated should give Edinburgh more confidence and given the form of O'Gara he's a huge loss and the backs outside won't get the same platform.

That said Munster do seem to be taking the league more seriously this year so I won't be surprised if they get something out of the game. Underestimate Edinburgh though at your peril.

 

[shtove]

if O'Connell does start then he won't be match sharp and can be exploited that and the fact that he's grossly overrated should give Edinburgh more confidence and given the form of O'Gara he's a huge loss and the backs outside won't get the same platform.
[/b]

Grossly overrated? Keep taking the pills. The worst accusation against POC is patchy form.

Interesting to see how the outside backs take the ball without ROG - I expect they'll tear through anyway.

Lots of respect to Robinson this season, so it could be an interesting match.

 

[An Tarbh]

He was hailed as the Irish Johnson, that was 6 years ago and we've still not seen the realisation of the claim, he's had a long enough run without injuries including a Lions tour which he got on mainly cause of his form in 04 and where he was an ultimate dissappointment again after being built up, the sooner he starts playing like a second row and not a centre the better off we'll all be. The talent is there, it's just been a few years since he's applied it.

 

[shtove]

No comparison to Johnson. But he's been Ireland's best lock. Mind you, DOC is catching up - although I think you disagree with that as well!

 

[edinburgh_gunner]

Well it's weird that Hogg has been being omitted. He's been playing well for Edinburgh and I don't think he's been carrying any injuries so far this season. Perhaps competition for places means Hadden is trying new things (Barclay, Callam? - who is incidently injured and won't be play tomorrow).

Turns out Gissing is injured, which is a shame cause he's started every game this season for us and has been very good all season.

I think this will be a very close game. As i've already mentioned, the core of that Edinburgh team has played this season. It's not like in years gone by where by they've thrown caution to the wind and brought in academy and youth players 2 or 3 weeks before the game. This is a team that has played together before so I don't see the loss of the internationals as too big a blow. Yes, they've been in great form for us (Blair esp) but the players comming into their places have the talent and the desire to do well and force their way into the team. There's a definate confidence down at 'The Castle' just now and it seems to be down to that man Mr Robinson.

 

[MunsterMan]

Munster: S Payne; D Howlett, R Tipoki, L Mafi, I Dowling; P Warwick, P Stringer; F Pucciariello, F Sheahan, T Buckley; M O'Driscoll, D Ryan, A Quinlan, N Ronan, A Foley capt. Replacements: D Fogarty, Darragh Hurley, P O'Connell, J Coughlan, T O'Leary, J Manning, K Lewis.

What about Reid on the wing? I think Howlett will show him up.

 

[edinburgh_gunner]

Howlett will take him to pieces in terms of gas, but one on one physicallity my money would be on Reid.

 

[An Tarbh]

So Munster get the win but from the sounds of it Godman will be kicking himself for some of those penalty misses. Munster with a late try from Ryan to take the spoils.

 

[shtove]

Ryan showed good awareness for Munster's try - ruck on the line, and he spotted that the Edinburgh last man got distracted by some movement on the blind side and left a gap.

Edinburgh try came from a weird decision by ref at the scrum. O'Driscoll got rucked without mercy, and Monster Buckley was fooled by a slight fumble from the scrum half.

Good defence from both sides. Edinburgh looked strong in contact and movement, but the Munster pack finally got their heads around it.

Howlett had some howlers kicking from deep. Not Munster's finest backline performance. But POC looked up for it.

Ref was a homer.

G'nite.

 

[Gavin]

Good on Munster to beat Edinburgh away. The Scottish club are always hard opponents especially at Murrayfield. Now we just have to make sure that we don't have any more slip-ups and we could have a chance at winning the Magners League.