URC 2022/23 - Round 4

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Glad Sharks showed signs of life. That's a couple of games I've seen Leinster centres making grubbers and cross kicks, is this a new thing? Doesn't always seem to be with penalty advantage either, so its very aggressive play.

Respectable loss (by their historic standards) from Zebre against the reigning champs and glad to possibly be totally wrong that Glasgow will continue to decline. I'd have expected the Bulls pack to boss them and grind out a win.

 

[big ginger 8]

Glad Sharks showed signs of life. That's a couple of games I've seen Leinster centres making grubbers and cross kicks, is this a new thing? Doesn't always seem to be with penalty advantage either, so its very aggressive play.

Respectable loss (by their historic standards) from Zebre against the reigning champs and glad to possibly be totally wrong that Glasgow will continue to decline. I'd have expected the Bulls pack to boss them and grind out a win.

Yeah we seem to be trying a lot more attacking kicks since Goodman has come in. I like it, our centres are all very capable with the boot and it makes your attack more rounded, forcing the defence to consider other factors.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Yeah we seem to be trying a lot more attacking kicks since Goodman has come in. I like it, our centres are all very capable with the boot and it makes your attack more rounded, forcing the defence to consider other factors.

I wonder if it is considered a response to the disappointment last year against larger, less mobile packs? I hope so and that it works. I don't watch as much live rugby as I used to but I've seen 3 different Leinster centres with attacking kicks this year and I'm not sure I've ever really seen any other centre anywhere do that without a penalty advantage.

Ideally I'd want rules should be making kicking a viable attacking option to give the sport more tactical variety, but I'm sceptical it'll work for Leinster and result in other teams adopting these tactics with the current ruleset (I think you'd need to scrap kicks into touch inside your own 22 to make it consistently a viable option). It feels like potentially quite an important development for the sport to me though.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Benetton cruising 17-0 without having got out of 1st gear really, just nicely efficient at set piece. Seems their crowds are increasing too.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

BP win for Benetton taking them up to 4th and top of their Shield. I think they'll struggle to finish top 10 given the depth in the league but this is all very promising.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Surprised by Bulls dropping too and Lions overcoming their respective Scottish opponents on tour. Lions going backing their up and commers. I'd have thought the losses they suffered would've hampered them. I really rate Vincent Tsituka and Sadie.

Stormers and Sharks are as expected. Stormers grinding out a win against a plucky home Zebre and Sharks B being competitive but falling at the end against Leinster at home both seem like par for the course.

I'm slowly getting to know more about other sides but its difficult to watch as many games as I would want too. Next round's fixtures is looking spicy and that's indicative of a competitive and healthy tournament.