Sat down and watched Munster v Cardiff last night, a match which saw the return of fallen hero Alan Quinlan who produced a match winning performance showing, that even at the age of 35, just why this consummate cheat is so important to the Bogmen.
Now when I say consummate cheat, I mean it in a nice way. I just wish Ulster had someone who could cheat as blatantly and constantly get away with it as Quinlan does. To be able to play the bulk of the game in an offside position is a talent not to be sniffed at and here Quinlan is the master, in fact so strong is the cloak of invisibility that Quinlan wears that it appears to cover the rest of the Munster defence as they spent most of the first half a good yard in front of the back foot.
However Quinlan’s piece de resistance was saved for Horan’s try where he drove through a ruck into an offside position and proceeded to remove the Cardiff defence to give Horan a clear path to the try line for a crucial score. Job well done and exactly the sort of savvy that we are missing.
Quinlan proceeded to spend most of the second half lying on the ball to stifle any thoughts of a Cardiff comeback and even when this came to the attention of the referee and a yellow card seemed inevitable the cheeky chappy still managed to escape punishment thanks to the intervention of Munster captain O’Driscoll in a lesson on how to play the ref.
And what about Edinburgh, ok it’s only two games in but they are the first side to put their hand up for team of the season after their demolition of the Westies and their win in Cardiff. Just Ulster’s luck were the pre-season Heineken Cup “we should get a result against them” now turn out to be the team to beat!
However their performance should give Ulster some hope as, at the end of the day, they are a limited team with few star names. With the exception of Patterson, and it’s only for his kicking, there are none that I would have in my squad but, credit where credit is due they are performing very well as a unit. Everyone knows what they have to do and they are doing it with grit and determination making them a team who will be very hard to beat.
On such performances, from the likes of Quinlan and the entire Edinburgh side, do seasons turn.
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One Response to “Magners musings.”
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Didn’t see them play Connacht but against Kerdiff they had an off load game to die for. If we are going to beat the burgh we’ll have to stifle that off load game and quieten thier back row!!
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