URC 2022 / 2023 Round 2

[The Seeker]

Glasgow came to play this week. We Are Warriors!

 

[dullonien]

Scarlets v Ulster put on a show. Scarlets still need to shure up their defense though, because they won't win anything shippibg 55 points at home! Ulster looked good mind.

Kicking games were the difference between the sides. Ulster competed for everything, regaining lots of their own box kicks or drawing yellow cards out of Scarlets, whilst Scarlets kicking was very poor, far too long and Lowry especially punished them for it on the counter.

 

[saulan]

Massive first result for the Stormers. I had us down to win by 3, but a win with a BP is way more than anticipated. I thought we would struggle more in the forwards without our Springboks, but I saw we were winning penalties with our scrum. To be fair, we probably only got the BP because of the Aki red card (deserved and disappointing to see his reaction), but they were clinical in finishing off getting the fourth try in the final play.

In my mind, we just need to try get as many points as we can without our Boks and minimize the damage/not have the terrible start we had last season. I expect next week to be tough, but hopefully we can get across the line.

Also, Blommetjies was quite instrumental in our second try. Hopefully coming to the Stormers helps him to really step up as a player as it has for a few others like Roos and Libbok.

 

[Tooting Carmen]

Oh, if Jack Walsh scored that penalty! 2nd round and it already looks like a washout for the Welsh teams (I cannot see Dragons beating Munster tomorrow, bar some extraordinary miracle).

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Zebre could end up losing every game and finishing mid table on 30+ points at this rate. If they can find a way to compete in the first 20mins (which seems highly doutbful) they might be on to something. Benetton put to the sword against the bizarrely strong early season Leinster selection (Culleln last week specifically said extra time off for those playing in NZ series then picks that side) and heartache for Edinburgh. Got to feel for Mack Hansen having to 'tackle' Roos in open play. Some crazily high scoring matches. Sometimes internationals and the leagues look like different sports.

I'd expect Ospreys to beat Lions at home. Hopefully Scarlets can beat Ulster at home too, but it'll be a close game I think. Given this weekends results I'm also hopeful for Cardiff away at Glasgow. My hope for an improved Dragons was misplaced, so Munster will probably beat them handily!

Now that is how you apply the kiss of death. You did the Dragons last week then 3-in-1 this week

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Good win first up for the Stormers. I wasn't worried about the scrum despite the absentees. We held up well against a huge Sharks scrum in our preseason friendly. To some extent I am almost scared for Dweba and Ntubeni to come in for the line out. I trust we will be working on the line out. It is a known weakness.

Will be interesting to see how much the line up alters next week. I think Fourie, Nel, Jantjies, Dweba and Moerat will come straight in. Considering the game time they had with the Bokke I would not be surprised if Kitshoff, Malherbe and Willemse only come in later on in the season. Hope Senatla comes good. That was really crazy from Aki. I don't know when to expect Zas to return either.

I think we should be on a level with Edinburgh so it will be a bounce of the ball or a call this way or that that settles it I expect.

 

[Tooting Carmen]

Well done Dragons. They held on to beat a much stronger Munster team than the one which lost to Cardiff last week.

 

[AWJ5GOAT]

As an Ospreys fan I'd like to congratulate the Dragons! WD

Pity we blew it against the Lions..

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

As an Ospreys fan I'd like to congratulate the Dragons! WD

Pity we blew it against the Lions..

The Lions are a banana peel side. They beat better sides randomly only to fall to the lowest ones. They are the only side that beat the Stormers past the opening rounds of last season then our side went on to claim the ***le. And they beat us well where I felt we threw the game away in our loss to Benetton round 1 and drew with Edinburgh. Only side to beat us at home as well if I recall. Anyway, I'm just rambling now. My point was that you are unlucky to lose to the Lions but they have two or three upsets in them every year.

 

[dullonien]

Well done Dragons. They looked genuinely good tonight, certainly wasn't a lucky win. If anything they dominated Munster in most facets of play, but a couple of quickfire try's at the end of the first half brought munster back into it and Dragons lack of confidence started to show.

I said before last weeks game that Dragons now have a decent squad and that was the case tonight when they had the luxury of bringing Rob Evans, Dee, Carter, Wainwright and Clarke off the bench.

Dragons still need to work on their attack, they built nicely all match v Munster, but struggled to get over the try often enough. That may be a confidence issue though which results like tonight might help to change. They have dangerous players like Dyer and Hewitt + dynamic forwards so they should be capable.

 

[Welsh Exile]

Yeah well done dragons and don't mean to take anything away from but WTF was going on with Munster? They were awful. Deserved win though as Dragons were the better team. Great solo try from Dyer.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Well done Dragons. They looked genuinely good tonight, certainly wasn't a lucky win. If anything they dominated Munster in most facets of play, but a couple of quickfire try's at the end of the first half brought munster back into it and Dragons lack of confidence started to show.

I said before last weeks game that Dragons now have a decent squad and that was the case tonight when they had the luxury of bringing Rob Evans, Dee, Carter, Wainwright and Clarke off the bench.

Dragons still need to work on their attack, they built nicely all match v Munster, but struggled to get over the try often enough. That may be a confidence issue though which results like tonight might help to change. They have dangerous players like Dyer and Hewitt + dynamic forwards so they should be capable.

Yes, you are vindicated. But yes, strangely poor start from Munster. Hopefully just a hiccup while they transition to a different style.

Compared to last year Munster could be taking a sizeable step back. I'm not really seeing anyone who missed playoffs last year sticking their hands up for a spot this year though. Early days.