Heineken Cup - Munster v Leinster

Ok my mistake.

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Originally Posted by $Leon$

Don't no why you feel Leinster has an unfair bias towards Dublin players. Dublin accounts for approx 54% of the population of Leinster and the vast majority of the rugby playing population. Below shows that almost 50% of this years starting 15 (according to leinsterrugby.ie) are not Dublin born

D'Arcy = Wexford
Horgan = Meath
Contepomi = Argentina/Carlow
O'Kelly = English Born
Green = English
Jowitt = Samoan
Easterby = English born

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Great post $Leon$. Lets not forget Rob Kearney from Louth, or previous Leinster players like Shane Byrne (Wicklow) and Bob Casey (Kildare). As Superhoops said, half the Leinster hurling team is from Kilkenny. It shouldn't surprise us that the majority of players on a team would come from the area where the sport is strongest.
In fairness to Finlma, I'd say a lot of Leinster people will be behind Munster. There seems to be a closer affinity with this Munster team. They're kind of the people's team. I'll still be supporting Leinster. In my opinion, they play the nicer rugby. In saying that, no man deserves to win something more than Paul O'Connell, the outstanding sporting figure in Ireland at the moment.

Hmm he's inspirational but I'd have BOD above him!

While D'Arcy may have been born in Wexford he went to Clongowes and therefore might as well have grown up in Dublin. The same man who had "Southside" inscribed in his boots.

Its a Dublin team with very little ties to the rest of the province. Bringing foreign born players into the equation only harms your argument.

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Originally Posted by TheJamaicanP.M.

.....no man deserves to win something more than Paul O'Connell, the outstanding sporting figure in Ireland at the moment.

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Agree, but not this year!

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Originally Posted by $Leon$

Don't no why you feel Leinster has an unfair bias towards Dublin players. Dublin accounts for approx 54% of the population of Leinster and the vast majority of the rugby playing population. Below shows that almost 50% of this years starting 15 (according to leinsterrugby.ie) are not Dublin born

D'Arcy = Wexford
Horgan = Meath
Contepomi = Argentina/Carlow
O'Kelly = English Born
Green = English
Jowitt = Samoan
Easterby = English born

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Shane Horgan is from Drogheda
Jamie Heaslip is from Naas
Reggie Corrigan is from Greystones
Bryce Williams is a New Zealander
Des Dillon is from Carlow
Adam Byrnes is Australian
Brendan Burke is from Leixlip
Christian Warner is Australian
John Hepworth is English
Simon Crawford is from Meath
Ben Gissing is another New Zealander

That's a fair part of the squad who are not from Dublin.

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Originally Posted by Soko

While D'Arcy may have been born in Wexford he went to Clongowes and therefore might as well have grown up in Dublin.

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Since when did Clongowes become part of Dublin? That's the same as saying Geordan Murphy went to school in Newbridge so he might as well be from Dublin. By all accounts D'Arcy is a proud Wexfordman and always supports the county's GAA teams.
The majority of the Connacht team is from outside the province but I don't think many Connacht people would support another province above their own.

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Originally Posted by finlma

I'm from Leinster but I'll be cheering for Munster. I don't feel any affinity for Leinster, which is basically just a Dublin team. I've supported Munster for years and a guy I played rugby with in Kilkenny is on the team.

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Finlma

Your stance is perfectly logical. Your county borders Munster with Decie to the South and Tipp to the west. And besides ye all work in Waterford anyway :D

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Originally Posted by Soko

While D'Arcy may have been born in Wexford he went to Clongowes and therefore might as well have grown up in Dublin. The same man who had "Southside" inscribed in his boots.

Its a Dublin team with very little ties to the rest of the province. Bringing foreign born players into the equation only harms your argument.

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Soko

Being born in Wexford is not an issue. Even going to a snobby school in Kildare is not a problem. But I draw the line at inscribing Southside in his boots...the guy is a snob :D

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Originally Posted by Aberdonian Stu

Hmm he's inspirational but I'd have BOD above him!

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Aberdonian Stu

BOD one of our Belfield Rugby Academy lads if I recall correctly :D

Wicklow, Kildare, Louth & Meath to lesser extent are like Dublin suburbs now so could really be renamed Dublin South, West, North etc...

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Originally Posted by Superhoops

Shane Horgan is from Drogheda

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Cheers for the adtional info there.
Not trying to nit pick but Horgan although born in Drogheda ( like 50% of Meath population) is from Bellewstown, Co. Meath. he played minor football for Meath in his day before committing full time to rugby as he could make a living out of it.
My origional post was a quick post with info from scrum.com and leinsterrugby.ie. From your above post the Leinster team is less Dublin based than even I thought.

Ridiculous thread. How many of the Munster team from Clare/Kerry/Tipp (one each max) Who gives a ****? They are not representational sides anymore. They are full fledged clubs who can sign anyone they like. Obviously we'd all hope to see the sides packed with talented Irishmen but would Leinster fans complain if Contepomi scores winning try or Munster afsn if payne does likewise?

And Pete thats blatant trolling, if I did likewise on the Corkie board you'd be moaning so leave it out...

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Originally Posted by $Leon$

Cheers for the adtional info there.
Not trying to nit pick but Horgan although born in Drogheda ( like 50% of Meath population) is from Bellewstown, Co. Meath. he played minor football for Meath in his day before committing full time to rugby as he could make a living out of it.
My origional post was a quick post with info from scrum.com and leinsterrugby.ie. From your above post the Leinster team is less Dublin based than even I thought.

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he played his rugby for delvin rugby club which used to be based on the southside of drogheda until u14, before moving to their then bitter enemies drogheda rugby club then on the northside of the town. the two clubs have since merged to become boyne rugby club.

like most people from bellewstown, he went to school in drogheda and played most of his sport in drogheda.

as for the current topic - i would consider it a inclusive leinster side anyway, and never consider it just dublin. really hope they get to the final, and put the media darlings from munster in their place ;)

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Originally Posted by CollegeTillIDie

Finlma

Your stance is perfectly logical. Your county borders Munster with Decie to the South and Tipp to the west. And besides ye all work in Waterford anyway :D

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I work in Galway but I'll forgive you that one. My old man is a Wicklow man, played rugby for Bective and was a selector for Leinster juniors but like me supports Munster. For the real rugby fan there's more of a passion and romance about Munster.

That said I've nothing but respect for the way Cheika is making Leinster play - its some of the most exciting rugby I've ever seen.

The great thing about the semi is that I won't really be disappointed by any result and I'm delighted that I'll be cheering on an Irish team in the final.

Presume everyone got this. I'd say there's a Leinster version about too...

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Originally Posted by some e-mail

Choose Munster................
Choose heroic failiure,
choose to follow your team to the South of France but not down the road on a wet Sunday, Choose Pres or Christians or Ardscoil Ris, Choose to believe that Athenry is in Limerick, choose bandwagonery, Choose the SinBin, Choose to ignore Ulsters European Title, Choose to lose to Northampton in a Euro final, Choose a bloke at 10 who got 16 slaps in the head without the guts to throw one back, Choose to move to Dublin for the Work ( Cap in hand, twisting it behind your back ), Choose to scream at a crying baby for not staying silent during Rogs kick, Choose social climbing, Choose to believe you were there in 1978 because you went to see Alone it Stands, Choose Queenstown. Choose to whinge about Neil Back, choose to believe Tony Ward was from Limerick, choose to believe you are a son of the soil when the nearest you get to it is at the English market where you buy sun dried tomatoes,
Choose to congratulate yourselves continually,
Choose to believe that a pantomine cow is the height of humour, choose to believe Wallace can tackle and Horan can scrummage, choose Alicante (like) Choose Redshirts (all the bloody time), Choose injured aging backs, Choose a scrum half trying to sell underwear, choose to believe Stand Up and Fight is an original tune, Choose to condemn any foul play except from a Munster player when it becomes something to be proud of, Choose Smug, Choose to undermine other Irish provinces by interviewing their coaches before their biggest games of the year, choose to accept Leinsters sloppy seconds, Choose to give contracts to as many non Irish players as possible, Choose to believe you have the monopoly on passion, choose lower average attendances then Leinster (even for Celtic league games), Choose Body odour.... Choose to ignore your own Private school background to claim Working Class credentials, Choose not to play the game, Choose to accept Brian O'Meara back(!), Choose 10 man rugby, Choose fewer Lions, Choose to accept consistent failure.... Choose Munster

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Originally Posted by finlma

..... My old man is a Wicklow man, played rugby for Bective and was a selector for Leinster juniors but like me supports Munster....

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It gets even worse! A county man of mine supporting Munster ahead of Leinster. :eek: :eek:

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Originally Posted by Superhoops

It gets even worse! A county man of mine supporting Munster ahead of Leinster. :eek: :eek:

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And a Hoop from Wicklow.

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Originally Posted by Bald Student

And a Hoop from Wicklow.

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Check out his sig you muppet.

To be fair......

Choose Leinster

Choose the leinster senior cup, choose private schools, choose to teach
ur kids to chant violently in unison.....Choose Gonzaga, Clongowes,
Blackrock & Terenure .....Choose to have pathethic schoolboy spats in
the south of spain....Choose the Burlington.

Choose the Donnybrook Friday night experience...choose Kielys...
choose 4 course pre match meals in the berkley court with a guestspeaker...
Choose 4*4's, a villa in marbella...choose Lillies....

Choose a centre who uses his position as irish captain to slurp his way
to personal riches...choose another centre who gets 'south side'
emblazoned on the tongues of his boots...choose third choice munster
scrum halves...choose a left wing who wants to sell you some pipes...
choose ollie Campbell ahead of tony ward...choose to try to
eliminate from existence 1 of your fellow provinces because they might
take ur Heineken cup place...choose the blazers..

Choose blueshirts, choose Bank of scotland ....choose noveau trendy
gaelic names likes ruairi & oisin when 15 years ago u wanted to deny the
gaelic language even existed... choose not to support your team on away
trips eventhough ur filthy rich.....choose apathy instead of blood,
sweat & tears....choose not to beat the all blacks.

Choose a snob value career in law, banking or stockbroking where u hope
ur private school education will compensate 4 ur lack of ability..choose
old boys reunions..choose to take a half day from work to go see a
senior cup game...choose.. ...choose to turn out on Saturday with beer
belly attached for blackrock z team...
choose to be a west brit, choose the queen, choose sterling...choose...

Choose Leinster

Looks like I will be getting a ticket to the Semi final :D

Yeah me too !!!!

Just heard got a stand ticket.

Any predictions? Leinster obvious favourites which will suit Munster.

I think, and I hope, Munster will win.Of course Donkeypony and co. will be dangerous, but I think Munster will know exactly how to combat this.I wouldn't be surprised if it was a low scoring match, with a few of the Munster forwards touching down for a try or two through pinning back leinster, and slowing down the game, y'know, not giving the leinster backs any space at all.

"There's only one ball and if you don't have it you can't win"


Come try get the ball off us ladyboys

If Munster win, they'll win ugly. As a Leinster man, I hope we come through. However, I don't think anyone could begrudge Munster a win. Men like Paul O'Connell deserve to play in European Cup finals.

I begrudge them. Come on Leinster

Don't brace ye'reselves for a classic anybody. I'd say this is gonna be as dour an encounter as you'll get. I reckon a wee punt on no trys to be scored at usually around 20/1 would be a wise bet( probably be a wide open feast now:D ).

Leinsters pack, although they fared pretty well in Toulouse, will find this a totally new, and very dfficult experience. Try telling any of that Munster pack, or half-backs that Lansdowne Road isn't a home ground for them. Rog and Stringer too. Don't expect the ball to go beyond 10 for most Munster possession.

Munsters experience of these situations, together with the TRUE current legend of Irish Rugby, Paul O'Connell, will bully their way into the final on a scoreline of 18-12..........I hope !!

If your having a bet on this game - hold off until sunday morning weather may play a significant part in this game, a nice bright sunny day would be right up Leinsters street

Fair play to Munster. They were by far the better team - more experienced and hungrier. Once again, Paul O'Connell demonstrated why he is the greatest sportsman on this island.

hopefully this year will be our year now,y'know third time lucky and all that:)

Have an outside chance of getting a couple of tickets for the final, a company we deal with has a few seats at the Millenium and one of our guys has told me he'll see what he can do as he's got them off them in the past and was at the last one against Leicester.

Would feel a bit of a fraud considering I've never been to a Munster game but hey, it's not as if I'll turn it down!

well done to all the fans who created a fantastic atmosphere.......if only it was like that all the time for the football. Munster's pack were frightening yesterday, POC and the back 3 would have frightened the French big time.

From the very first whistle to the last, it was sheer one sided destruction. Contepomi went to pieces and as a result so too did Leinster. Their first touch was a knock-on from O'Kelly, and it just got worse from then on. Hickie was their only semblance of an attacking threat but because Contepomi was so bad, he rarely got to see the ball.

I know Paul O'Connell got the official man of the match, and its hard to question that. I personally would have given it to O'Gara. He was under a lot of pressure simply because Contepomi showed him up the last time they met. Yesterday he was sublime. Almost everything he did turned to gold and the exuberant celebration of the try showed just how much it meant to him.

It was a day that I will never forget. Good old fashioned rugby, attitude and determination won on the day. I only pity the thousands of genuine Munster fans who didn't get tickets. That is a shame. I had to endure a 40 something lady from Foxrock who never was at a game in her life, and spent the entire game comenting to her friend on other spectators appearances, hairstyles and make up. This is in between times she wasn't on her mobile.

Roll on Cardiff.

Leinster need to change their mascot as that Lion has no courage! :D

Munster mascot did great halftime show with those Heineken Cup balls.

O' Connell was class alright but we've come to expect that now everytime he goes on the park which is a mark of how far he's come in the last few years.

Have to say I almost felt sorry for Contepomi, it's very rare to see a player self-destruct like that and he's a better player than what he showed yesterday.

Hmm, any Leinster fasn out there who got tickets and don't fancy going to the final then just PM me to take your allocation off your hands.