Hangover isn't too bad because I went home so ******* early.
A lot of joy on twitter to see the billionaire backed, massively budgeted, totally externally grown humble underdogs beat the union backed, massively budgeted primarily homegrown arrogant favourites. Strange what sort of narratives people can make up.
LaR massively ungracious in victory citing a lack of respect? Leinster threw away a virtually guaranteed trophy to prepare for the game. ROG has been watching the Last Dance back clearly. Small team? Do me a favour.
Ross Byrne escaping a lot of criticism despite absolutely shirking his responsibility to step up to the plate and score points in the second half. Bizarre and worrying if that's the standard. We won't win in Europe with him at 10.
Leinster coaching staff also getting it very easy, four consecutive knock out games lost by a total of 6 points? Unlucky, I don't think so, mentally and tactically there's very very few guys who can get this team over the line, and there's a clear pattern of totally losing the rag in these crunch games. I've been very consistent on thinking Lancaster's time has run its course, he did fantastic in the first half of his tenure and they systems he has put in place to bring through talent will be his legacy, much like his time in England. Nienabar can't come soon enough, he's not technically as good but we were technically perfect for 20mins yesterday and it wasn't enough, we need doggedness badly.
It ******* hurts bad though - we are quite firmly the second best team in Europe, and the best team know exactly how to beat us no matter how good we play.
Can't really comment on the Sexton issue, goes back to losing the rag in big games, hopefully it's an apology and a fine or something. Don't think any true rugby fan wants his career to end like that.
Ref - apparently we got the rub of the green, never comes across that way in a stadium obviously and I won't be watching back. I thought he had a couple of real head scratchers when LaR were dominant in the second half, reffing the dominant side favourably is to be expected though. The only call I'm exceptionally annoyed at is the foul play call against Jimmy O'Brien, if I remember correctly that turned from us having the ball in their 22 after enduring great pressure to going right back under pressure and conceding, it was as fair a contest as you could ask for and he nearly won the ball. But we got three points off a very illegal scrum at one point too, shits going to happen.
Thought we had perfect tactics apart from the kick chase, kicking directly to Dulin and giving him time and space to run is very dumb. Literally giving LaR a perfect platform in our half. Tackle counts and territory show how much LaR got out of it.
Might tune in next week and, despite a lot of antics yesterday from their crowd, I hope Munster win. Think I'll go play golf though and forget about rugby until September. It's been a good run on the whole, and I'd always take Irish success over Leinster given the choice but this would have been nice.
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