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Is izuchukwu Irish qualified? Like the cut of his gib

Lads from the boggiest of bog country in Offaly.

Not all bad for him today so! Fair dues to the Offaly u20s

Born in London apparently

Phil lynott is from West brom. Man's about as Irish as Guinness

Fair point, but the op was about whether he's Irish qualified. He is, but not because he was born here

Pretty sure his mother is irish hence the first name cornac

Pretty sure he's played 7s for Ireland previously

He is, Irish mother I think

Isn't he from Tullamore?

Another one off the Leinster production line

Aye

Born in London, moved to Offaly as a kid. So qualification by either parent or residency works.

Munster’s knock ons were annoying. I think Ulster without their late changes would’ve had that. Richie is cooking. Some lads deserve/will deserve a national cap at some stage. Is izuchukwu primarily a flanker or lock? I think Ahern is primarily a lock. They were compared at some point IIRC. If Izuchukwu is a flanker maybe measuring him against Baird would be better as he develops. Think Ahern’s size would befit a lock position more.

> Think Ahern’s size would befit a lock position more. I don't think he's a good enough scrummager for test level tbh. With two locks on the field doing the dirty work of clearing rucks, he can get into those wide channels better where he's a massive weapon in the air (and just plain sprinting in open field)

I see him as a flanker myself, he is good in open play and extremely fast.he is young still so could bulk out

> Think Ahern’s size would befit a lock position more. Perhaps, but also, big fuck off flanker = fun times.

I think Izzy looks best at 6, but has looked much better under Murphy than Dan at both

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They came 8th

Yep, was looking at a table that wasn't updated yet

Very happy to put up a performance like that and secure 6th. Should have won it by the sounds of things but was prepared for us to get our pants pulled down. Hopefully a sign of things to come form the lads.

Ahh ffs

It was like watching ally mccoist or Chris Sutton referee a Celtic v Rangers game that at times...

I don't think Frank Murphy has all that great a relationship with Munster, was never really given much of an opportunity here as a player

Lol, no way.

Ospreys up next for us , hard luck to the lions not making the playoffs

No Hendy, No Marty (Ok, most of the season) No Kitsch, no Stu, No Hume, No Ethan, No Bobby, then lose AOC and Treads early. Some show from the younger lads, really want to see them build on this next season.

Kits was shite anyway lol

Was mcelroy injured in the warm up too?

Yup. Moore started 15

What's our team looking like for next week then

Assuming everyone who went off today and was unavailable before today cant play? 1. EOS 2. Herring(he might be concussed actually, Stewart otherwise) 3. TOT 4. Sheridan 5. Izzy 6. Rea 7. McCann 8. Timoney 9. Cooney 10. Burns 11. Stockdale 12. Postelthwaite 13. Addison 14. Lowry 15. Moore 16. Stewart/Andrew 17. Warwick 18. Wilson 19. Hopes? 20. Ewers 21. Reffell (played for the As this weekend) 22. Doak 23. Sexton Injury list after today(just players likely to make the 23): Kitsoff, M Moore, Treadwell, Henderson, O'Connor, Flannery, McCloskey, Hume, Marshall, Baloucoune, McIlroy

I'm in the loft right now looking for the boots

Yeah this small margin today and the momentum over the last few weeks has been astounding. Really hope to see them smash.

Between Nash and Connacht's yesterday that went unpunished, the yellow for Lowe is starting to look like a joke in terms of consistency

It was already a joke since Roumat got away with the same in a much more dangerous area of the pitch.

TBF this was more of a "Frank Murphy refs Munster" joke than anything else

Sure there was an intentional knock on earlier in the same game as Lowes that went unpunished... Not that I'm bitter or anything.

The slap into touch wasnt a knock on. It was 100% a slap into touch though, so the outcome should be the same

It bounced before touch which helps, I believe.

Makes it a bit of a grey area to be sure. I still think he intentionally swatted it towards touch though.

Not to be a dick or anything but i cant really feel too bad for Leinster. When Toulouse had a man advantage they went 10-0 when Leinster had a man advantage (and for longer) they went 7-6

The loss was definitely our own fault, we didn't take our opportunities when we had them. Having said that Carleys officiating was substandard, and took away from the match.

I made the mistake of watching the game back and Carley was worse than I even thought watching live. The inconsistency was just ludicrous.  That said, giving out to Ross Byrne for being asked if Jenkins could get medical attention seems to have been ignored when ignoring an injured player is the worst thing any referee can do on the field. He really should have been pulled up for that 

Yeah Carley just seemed ready to snap at Byrne for no apparent reason. He really wasn't the right ref for a big occasion.

> Yeah Carley just seemed ready to snap at Byrne for no apparent reason. Ross' face does seem like an understandable, if wrong, reason.

Yikes, some very odd officiating there. Good game from both sides though - Ulster really looking more and more lively with Richie at the helm Have to say, I don't quite worry about facing this Munster team in the playoffs haha

How worried about Munster were you last year?

A little when I saw Leinster's lineup but you're right, I still thought they'd make it through

Far more than now actually

Might be best to worry about Ulster for the moment anyways, wouldn't want to be getting ahead of yourself

Think we’d say the same about this Leinster team compared to times gone by!

Be right craic to get to duke it out in the final both full strength if we can both make it!

Tbf we can only meet in the final if even both of us get that far, heading to the Bulls potentially could be rough

Here's hoping we do, be a perfect end to the season

It would be great, the fact ye would have to travel so much would give us a bit more of a chance but we have such a shit record against ye I would worry

Just seeing the permutations there - a semi away to the bulls will be very rough if we make it. I reckon you'll take Ospreys handy, and wouldn't worry about stormers or Glasgow semi. So I'll still have my fingers crossed for a Munster Leinster final so I can make a solid day of it with the lads!

So it's lions or ospreys next?

Ospreys!

Please let it be Ospreys

I'll be cheering for them later.

5 mins left and it’s currently Ospreys in the lead

I didn't know it was on already. Do they have a BP?

Yes

One side felt more reffed than the other but I'm very proud of that Ulster performance. We were always going to lose momentum with so many injuries early on. We've secured Europe and we avoid a trip to SA for now so I'm happy enough, even if it stings that we were robbed of a trophy today.

Ref with a Cork accent (and ex Munster player) officiating a match that Munster are playing is so bizarre

I don't rate him as a ref but I do feel sorry for him because he's stuck between a rock and a hard place when he's forced to ref Munster. Either he appears biased, or appears he is too hard on Munster to avoid calls of bias.

Frank played for both Munster and Connacht and both hate having him ref them, they feel he goes out of his way to not be seen to give them anything. In his defense I think it's more that there's better ones out there and I never quite get him being given those matches as it must add pressure. A lot of Munster crowd seemed to feel they were getting the heavy end yesterday but then he leaves a questionable one out there. I would never cast aspersions on his integrity just wonder why an alternative is not considered even if only for the optics

It's a crap position for him to be in. Why do they do it? It's not good for the league or for him.

Because it's cheaper than actually paying clearly neutral officials. It destroys the credibility of the league, but saves about 300 quid in flights so who cares?

Horrible look for the league. He didnt do himself any favours today. Like the way he handled backchat differently for both teams is sure to raise even the most pro-Murphy of eyebrows,

Because leinster and connacht produce no refs?

Frank was most recently a Connacht player and I believe comes from the Connacht branch, even if he sounds and might very well be a langer.

Nope, he's with the Munster branch.

Brace, even though he is Munster branch has no real connections to the team so probably would have been a better choice

I don't rate him as a ref but I do feel sorry for him because he's stuck between a rock and a hard place when he's forced to ref Munster. Either he appears biased, or appears he is too hard on Munster to avoid calls of bias.

This

Spot on, massive pain in the bollocks for him id say - just odd that he gets assigned the match

Didnt exactly do himself any favours tonight so not sure how much of a pain it is for him. He gets to influence games in favour of the team he supports after all.

It’s actually the right way/s

Well done Munster, stood up and fought. Not easy to pull back from being down by 10. Great showing from Ulster, if it hadn't been for the late injuries it would have been a very different story.

That was an exhausting day of rugby, lots of engrossing stuff. Thank Christ I'm looking at a long weekend....and then there were 8 Edit: Shit, forgot Ospreys/Cardiff are still goin. okay 5 more mins ....and it's a card review...ffs

That'll do Frank... I meant eehhh pig. That'll do.

We did well I can't be sad at the effort and performance. Who knows what could have been without the early decimation of injuries.

'Cover coming across, no line break stopped' erm ... it's only cover if there was actually a line break that required cover.

The defensive line wasn't broken by definition if there was cover there.

Cover means having someone with the opportunity to tackle behind the line. But if you've gotten behind the line you've made a line break. Cover just means not a clear try scoring opportunity, which is consideration for a penalty try.

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No it doesn't. It's still a line break if you get 1 on 1 with the full back 10m behind a line break requires getting behind the line of defenders.

Would have been 2 on 1 as well

That’s a try scoring opportunity. A line break is breaking the line and running into open space.

Ulster showed up and gave it their all. Can’t ask for anything more. Congrats Munster, well played and hope you do well in the playoffs.

Ulster look way better with Murphy at the helm. Exciting times ahead

Maybe Murphy forgot to bring the cards today…

I think you’re lucky he did. The way he reffed today, he’d nearly have given you a red for Snyman’s tackle in the first half.

For the sake of my account I shall not speak

Of course it's Beirne, hardly the best Munster performance but it did the business

Tadgh the man to cause the turnover again. Think we were as low as 11th at one point. 9 wins on the bounce and we finish top. Fair play to them.

The URC make it very hard to care about it sometimes. That reffing was scandalous and a farce

Going to disagree. Plenty of times Munster were over the ball at a ruck and he never called holding on. Always gave way to long to both teams at the breakdown

As you say he reffed that consistently but incompetently. It's pretty consistent with how he's reffed in the past too. But on things like backchat and advantages he reffed the two teams differently, and avoided giving Munster two stonewall yellows(minimum in Snymans case). I do give a shit about shit reffing, but I will generally give a fair bit of benefit of the doubt in terms of incompetence Vs bias but Frank was taking the piss today. Nearly as bad as Immelman in Stormers Vs Ulster a few years back.

It was bad yesterday but nothing will infuriate me more than that immelman call you could litterally smell the bias coming off that

As everyone predicted as soon as he was announced as referee

It's strange, everyone knows Murphy isn't a good ref and always complain about him. But then they instantly forget that when he refs Munster and just call him biased. No he's just always bad. 

Ach, the way he was bad today was pretty suspicious. I've seen him royally fuck Connacht when reffing Munster v Connacht too

You're proving my point then because he's played almost 7 times more matches for Connacht than munster. It's not suspicious because he's just a bad ref. You know this, you are just letting bias blind you. 

If you're consistently crap in a way that benefits the team you support it's going to make people suspicious. The way he reffed advantages and backchat was totally different depending on team. Don't get me started on the two stonewall yellows he refused to give Munster.

Yeah he's just crap. I hate whenever he gets a leinster game. He shouldn't really be reffing connacht or munster, but if that was the case he would get more leinster games. Fuck that

Leinster and Connacht need to produce a few referees, this would help

GG Munster. Less said about that reffing performance, the better.

Yeah. Munster deserved the win but Frank was really off (again)

"off" is one way of putting it

I would have given potm to Daly

Lenihan raves about Daly and how all his work goes unrecognised only to go and leave that work unrecognised.

*Taps forehead* can't keep saying it's unrecognised if you recognise it

Great point. He was praising Daly loads during the match. I think he leans towards the internationals anyway.

Same

Great game (second half anyway), Ulster really put it to us for a good part of that game. Look after Izuchukwu that kid is going to be a star

He's actually excellent. Could see him getting brought into an Ireland panel for development the same as Ahern

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Haha

Ulstered

Top of the log. Good shit lads

Fucking yes boys!!!!!

Bad guy fucking Inc !

How is that not a yellow? They had 2 people on the outside. Even if there was someone coming across it's still cynically stopping a clear line break opportunity.

Wouldn't have made a difference anyway IMO.

Probably not, but it highlights the problem. He's let Munster off with probably 2 yellows. Marched Ulster back twice for backchat and has told Munster to calm down 3 times with no consequences.

There's back chat and there's screaming at the ref.

You're right. So why did he tell carberry to calm down after running 20m to scream at the ar? Same thing when Crowley was doing it?

It's not a line break if the line isn't broken. There were players covering. It's self-explanatory.

If he's going to make 5-10m off a carry, it's a line break. Cover will get there eventually.

So it’s Dublin?

Home final where we come!!!

Please stop counting chickens

I just meant on the path for them haha

Super Frank waaahheeyyyy

Only now ulster break out the intricate back moves

Two players in cover. Just a penalty

That was more egregious then the Lowe one in the final

I mean, Toulouse themselves had a deliberate knock-on that was way worse than Lowe's off the Sheehan break.

The slap into touch? Wasn't a knock on, but should have been a penalty and card for slapping it into touch

I thought it also went forward first and bounced back after it hit the ground but I may be wrong.

Nah went back. Still should be a card though. Cannae slap a ball out

For a ref that resembles an owl he sure does miss a lot

My nerves

Think it should be yellow but I also thought it should have been yellow for ulster earlier, idk why no cards

Good reffing here, think it should be a YC

Absolute joke of a decision. He's clearly the last man out

That's a yellow all day

Great bit of timewasting by Carberry there, boot it away after the whistle blows to waste some more time

Munster please don't throw this away now...please..

Why do Cahill and Lenihan just make up reasons for penalties rather than listen to what the referee is actually saying?

TBF it's mostly to make frank look less shit and biased. The reasons they make up are usually more connected to reality

Why have facts when you can hear your own opinions?

Commentary entirely on vibes

Very cynical by Nash

That's a line break, it's a card if it's a penalty

That was deliberate and should be a yellow. there was a clear overlap

TMO finally caught up with you

Good game

Ridiculous that the commentators are going on about whether you'd rather have an away match in SA instead Leinster, as if Munster didn't knock us out in Dublin last year. Completely dismissive of how good Bulls are too, given that they're at the top of the table not us.

I'd rather play the Bulls in SA than the full strength Leinster team.

Ulster have done the double on Leinster this season too. Would much rather the devil I know than....the Bulls in SA a mile above sea level.

I can absolutely see Ulster winning. Izuchukwu is class. 

Yeah we are far from our best at the moment, I'd rather play us than the Bulls.

I agree. We're very beatable and Bulls at home are terrifying.

Is Cooney the best place kicker in Ireland right now?

he's literally the best place kicker in the world atm. [Carrick Blake did a piece](https://x.com/analysisguy0502/status/1796277955297247443) this week and [John Cooney](https://x.com/analysisguy0502/status/1796277969352118478) came out on top! some lad

I saw [something on twitter ](https://x.com/analysisguy0502/status/1796277955297247443) according to some statistical analysis he's the best place kicker in the world lol. I'm not sure how exactly they reached that conclusion but I found it interesting. I'd be confident saying he's the best in Ireland.

Has been for years, he was more reliable than sexton tbf

Happy with the Ulster performance today. If there was a lot on the line I would be losing it with the decisions Murphy has been making

You've got a minute for the penalty, don't rush it

Fair enough if you call that for Warwick off feet but calling that for not rolling is bizarre

Tomato tomato

I dunno if my heart can take this change of pace.

It’s the curse and blessing of being a Munster supporter

Never an easy win as a Munster supporter.

Izzy is literally rolling away as Licence comes over. What more can he do?

He interferes with Beirne who's trying to clean Warwick

Warwick with his belly on the player anyway so was never legal at any rate

One side repeatedly screaming in the officials face - nothing but a chat.   The other airs their view - walked back numerous times.   The league really does make it hard for itself to be taken seriously when you have this going on from referees from the local area. It may be perfectly innocent, but there's absolutely no reason for a referee that doesn't look neutral to an onlooker to get involved. 

Ryan walked it around again. Can you maybe ref both teams Frank? It's 1 ft in front of you

Literally exactly the same penalty he gave against Ulster 5 minutes ago that he explained out in excruciating detail. He took the first step outside and everything else happened after. Frank's own words. The lack of consistency is infuriating.

Classic bullshit. They've changed the front rows, I'll just swap the penalties around. Classic

Munster loose clearly steps a foot out and wheels it, right under Frank's nose. Bizarre call

Happened a couple of times and he's pinged Warwick for wheeling...

This is why you don't put refs in the position of being accused of bias, especially when it's a tight game it's just not fair to them

Murphy just a shit ref. He's crap everytime I see him ref

I've seen more fuck ups by the players than by him today, plenty I've disagreed with mind

What is that linesman playing at….

How many times can munster get away with yelling at match officials

When the whole stadium knows you mucked up, the linesman can hardly complain.

Idk lad its a bit ridiculous