BaggyTrousers wrote:
Points of note:
I thought CL was heroic last night, he was absolutely crunched my hits from Munster, several late, he was never going off and I think that was his best performance, FFFS he even managed a few superb line kicks.
Not just the try saver but I think McCluskey was as good in defence as I have ever seen him, wonder did his partner help that, eh? Waddya think.
Gilroy, I know we tend not to overpraise him, but I like him, especially when he has Cave to position him
, he showed a great bit of fight last night & took two tries really well.
Lyttle, the lad is a real threat and seems to have a good brain on him, his little kick that put Zebo in trouble was a peach and he too was never found wanting when there was a ruck to be cleared, the entire backline did more of that than we've seen all year and as a result, there was a lot of quick ball for Cooney in the 2nd half.
Cooney has simply been a revelation, the treatment of Pienaar remains a disgrace, the impact is much less than we had feared/expected. Says an awful lot for Cooney and I do fear it won't be long before Uncle Joe comes calling, he's not Murray but he is streets ahead of the rest on current form.
Like others I think Charless is no fullback, he makes almost no try-saving tackles ever, but he fought hard to and most times put some pace in the attack. I just wish he would stop doing a Bob so often, shilly-shallying about, then picking someone to run into & lose the ball.
Last but not least, Cave, same old Cave, doing everything right, making the right calls and doing the organisation, shouting the odds to keep the outside backs & McCloskey in position, a wee peach of a try skinning a man & then outpacing 3 or 4 (clearly they must have been walking, eh
) then his wee deft kick which I must confess at the time I thought WTF, because I hadn't seen Gilroy ..... a bit like the Munster defence. I lost count of the number of rucks he cleared, he was quickest to Zebo after Charless's raker in behind him. Will Kiss understand that he chanced upon the best outside centre in his squad? I'll not put money on it but that was Cave at his best & that is good enough for this team.
The forwards were devoured in the first half, utterly destroyed, take out 3 men who hadn't played for 2 months and all changed, I thought O'Connor was good throughout, Timoney looks a player to me & Jones both in the lineout and around the pitch was good & Matty Rea was outstanding. Herring got his game together after halftime. Within his limitations Black has been outstanding this season, even his handling and work rate were right up there and without him, our LH is a shambles, The Canned Hunter also did well.
So LOOK ...........were are not brill, not close to brill and were playing a team we absolutely should have beaten, but when guys actually show the fight, the desire and the character to come back from the dead .........that's brill, proper brill. That is more important than going out and routing Munster seconds from the off, bound to bring a lot of confidence to a team so apparently lacking in it ...........just as long as the head clown doesn't fu@k up selection as usual.
I loved that second half, the cards were decisive but is anyone saying they didn't come from pressure and weren't deserved? Wee Sammy laid out Leali'ifano twice in a minute with high hits, he was a red every day of the week.
When the players so obviously still have the will & fight in them, there is hope. That I suspect has little to do with FOLK.
My brother said to me a couple of weeks back, nobody seems to be able to just enjoy a win anymore. I think that has a lot of truth in it, so I just enjoyed that 2nd half & win last night, immensely.
