Friday, March 27, 2015

The Irish after glow of the 6 Nations should see them all through!

 Leinster coach Matt O’Connor expects all his players to take leadership roles in Sunday’s opening European Champions Cup game against Wasps. Photograph:  Ryan Byrne/Inpho
Matt O'Connor (Picture http://bit.ly/19puZOt )

I’ll keep it short as the matches are just about to start at this stage.

The big match of the weekend is Glasgow’s visit to the RDS. However awful Scotland are, Glasgow are their mirror image, gritty and skilful, rightly top of the league. Joe.ie got my hopes up today with a picture of Matt O’Connor and Conor O’Shea, talking about an exciting move for Conor…to coach Italy. The rise of Glasgow has matched the steady decline of Leinster. With Ireland, everybody knows their job and does it. At Leinster, they’re not on the same page – not everybody has even seen the page! Leinster a have good team out, not their 6 Nations heroes, although a few of those are on the bench, but it’s a hard match to predict, as Leinster just don’t turn up very often anymore. However, I’m going with Leinster as the afterglow from last weekend carries them through.

The same should happen for Ulster as they take on Cardiff at home. That will probably be a better match than at the RDS, the Cardiff Blues have nothing to lose that’s for sure.

Then the little matter of Munster v Connacht, with the Galwegians doing a great job of narrowing the gap between themselves and the big three. Munster have a good squad, but Connacht won’t die wondering. I think O’Donnell, Stander, Zebo and Earls are key for Munster, hard to see them lose, but it could be a lot closer than most people think.

Guinness PRO12
Friday, March 27
Ulster vs Cardiff Blues    19:35
Leinster vs Glasgow Warriors    19:35
Saturday, March 28
Scarlets vs Edinburgh    14:40
Munster vs Connacht    17:15
Ospreys vs Zebre    19:15

No comments:

Post a Comment