Disappointment Turns To Unfettered Joy

MUNSTER V GLASGOW on Viaplay on Friday night was a tough watch. I got the impression in the opening quarter that several of the Warriors' team had, like John Barclay, been delayed in a Cork pub, as they sampled the Beamish. After that slow start, Glasgow never really clicked and it was downhill all the way.

Even without the rested Peter O'Mahony, Munster's pack were too “streetwise” for Glasgow; (this is 21^st century parlance for – they cheat better): also, every time Glasgow appeared to be making inroads into the start they handed their hosts, they would find a way to mess-up and let the reigning Champions back into the game.

It wasn't all bad, this Glasgow maul is becoming a real weapon, yielding all five Glasgow tries on the night, but, with Sean Kennedy and Dunky Weir not clicking at half-back, and Weir having a rare off night from the tee – although he produced a string of exceptional touch kicks from hand – the Glasgow backs were seldom seen as an attacking unit, and, when they were, Munster's exceptional line speed cut them down early-on.

Glasgow were repeatedly pinged at the breakdown, for “Not rolling away” or for interfering with a Munster player. In this respect, I felt South African referee Marius van der Westhuizen showed himself to be a definite 'Homer' – sure, he could see Glasgow players interfering with arriving Munster men at the breakdown, he could warn Stafford McDowall, the Glasgow Captain about his men doing this, but, he then suddenly became blind when a home player did exactly the same thing.

To sum-up, how do we rate this result? Disappointing, certainly, a set-back, for sure. However, as the BKT United Rugby Championship goes into its recess for the opening European games, Glasgow will remain no worse than in second position – assuming Leinster win at Connacht, and that is by no means a given. So, perhaps a wee bit of balance rather than the default Scottish setting following a bad night at the office – Private Frazer mode – is called for.

THINGS looked up on Saturday, and Ulster v Edinburgh. Again, the Scots began slowly and but for some terrific scramble defence might have been beaten after half an hour. However, they hung-in there and when Ben Healy kicked 'Burgh ahead on half time, the game changed.

Sean Everitt earned his corn at half time, as the visitors came back out and dominated the second half, before easing off at the end and seeing the Ulstermen narrow the gap and clinch two points from the game.

However, given the two Scottish clubs' record in Ireland, it would be churlish to carp about an away win and the lack of a bonus point. Now, Edinburgh have set the standard, Everitt will be determined to see them maintain it.

In my preview, I said I was looking forward to the first scrum. In the end, it was an anti-climax, with a rare slip by WP Nel, who got his feet all wrong and hinged, to give Ulster a scrum penalty. So, 1-0 to Stephen Kitshoff. But, that was the only time the double World Cup winner got the better of his fellow South African-born player, and, with Pierre Schoeman dominant on the other side of the scrum, Edinburgh forced a stream of scrum penalties.

Jamie Ritchie, after his disciplinary problems against Benetton was much-more like his real self in Belfast, winning the Man-of-the-Match award. Ben Vellacott led from the front – the arrival of Ali Price has clearly inspired him, while the young locks Marshall Sykes and Jamie Hodgson performed well.

This result lifted Edinburgh to fifth place in the table, an excellent boost for the start of the European campaign.

Mind you, one of the highlights of watching the game on Viaplay, was the banter between Steven Ferris and John Barclay; these two guys are worth the monthly subscription charge alone and Saturday's broadcast was worth it just for Barclay's brilliant pre-game 50/22 touch kick.

THE WINTER weather all but wiped-out the Club programme on Saturday, even all-weather pitches proved unplayable with just a handful of games surviving.

With the entire Premiership fixture list wiped out, top game was the National 1 clash between second-place Highland and Biggar. This ended as a 15-15 draw, a result which was well-received by the idle league leaders Ayr.

In the only National League match to survive, in National 2, Newton Stewart beat Kirkcaldy 41-17, a result which lifted the Galloway boys up to third place and right into the middle of the promotion race. Those were the only National League games to beat the freeze.

Apparently there were some games played in Regional Leagues, but, in spite of being more over-staffed than an old style nationalised industry, the SRU website, on Sunday morning, is devoid of the results.

OK, it is perhaps sloppy journalism to simply blame Buddy and the Elves for being hopeless – but, that will not stop me doing so. However, perhaps the clubs ought to be better at using their social media. I know, somebody has to do it, but, my own club, for instance, has never recovered from the death of their social media guy three or four years ago now.

Whereas he used to post just about everything that happened in the club, nowadays, nobody bothers consistently and this appears to be a common problem across the game. Mind you, twitter has gone to the dogs since it changed hands and became X, while Facebook is all about advertisements and five day old posts “suggested for you,” which are only of passing interest to me.