Maul of the Same
Brucie Bonus
By Chilly Hax
January 17 2016
On a bitterly cold afternoon at Headingley, Yorkshire Carnegie progressed to the quarter finals of the B and I cup, with a deserved, if not totally convincing win over a Munster Select 15.
The game was over as a contest before half time as the hosts roared into a 31 – 10 lead, crossing the whitewash 5 times in the process. Three of those tries were credited to Andy Saull as he fastened himself on to the back of the rolling maul formed as Leeds took control of line outs close to the visitors’ line. The other two tries were fine individual efforts, Joe Graham finding himself in the clear some 35 yards out and sprinting to cross beneath the crossbar, and ‘Bruce’ Forsyth appropriately scoring the bonus point try with a determined run from inside his own half.
The word at half time was that some of the Munster side were non contracted players and hadn’t played together before, and it showed, so when Saull was again driven across the line on the restart, and Munster had a man sent for a 10 minute rest, we waited for the avalanche of tries to arrive. They did, but the next 3 were all scored by the opposition as Carnegie seemed to accept the job was done.
The visitors reduced the deficit to 9 points, and Yorkshire looked devoid of ideas. However as the game drew to its conclusion, the ever trusty maul returned, and although it didn’t go exactly to plan, replacement Josh Bainbridge added another try to his name, and the game was over.
Not easy conditions to play in, and the home team were so dominant in the scrum, and at the line out in the first stanza that the scoreline should have been much bigger. However, no matter how effective the rolling and driving maul, we do not appear to have a reliable plan B. Today was the opportunity to give the backs some free reign and show what they could do. It didn’t happen, and Goss and the Doc stood shivering out on the wing.
It was 5 points, regardless of what Munster got, but the second half display was poor, and defensively we didn’t look too good. Lots for the coaching team to work on, be interesting to see who plays next week, in what effectively, is a dead rubber.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016:01:31:17:51:38 by Gelbel.
Re: Munster "A" match at Headingley
opuscoitus (IP Logged)
17 January, 2016 20:51
Full marks to all involved for getting game played top effort,
First half B/P job done with some excellent performances Forsyth's try a cracker the rolling maul from the line out is unstoppable and Cassons hit on the 12 were def highlights of 1st half as was Joe Graham's trundle
Went to sleep 2nd half at times and giving away a B/P and very nearly another should be a wake up call as in the league giving away soft B/P can cost at end of season, not many of team had much game time which can hamper cohesion and hard to be critical after a big win but Joel had a shocker at 10 back to hoofing it aimlessly down field and early doors Munster sat back with 4 runners just waiting for him to kick it down their throat, also often running up his own @#$%& but a win is a win and unless a glut of injuries unlikely to feature in many league games
Also thought the Welsh ref had a very good game all too easy to critisise "sir" on here so only fair to give praise where due, he did only look 12 but did well
Almost ran over to doc with my hip flask before hypothermia set in, his only runs were to congratulate try scorers
Sure enough the driving maul is an effective weapon, but it's not going to be enough, especially against a team that doesn't give penalties away at nearly every scrum. Remember London Welsh?
Forsyth's try was a belter and he did show some of the ability on display against Moseley.
All in all dull, but a win, again.
I thought Joe Graham's try was a bit of a turning point for us (I'm not sure I agree with the sprinting description by the way but it was a fine individual effort) and I was pleasantly surprised to be 31-10 up at half time because Munster looked better than that.
We were a bit headless second half but did enough. I don't entirely agree on the wings by the way- thought Doc was pretty smart in defence today.
Still a win's a win!