United Rugby Championship

[Wallpaperman]

Frustrating. Dragons bring on Nott and have a lineout in the Connacht 22 but it’s picked off. Some kick tennis, Connacht get a penalty, 5 metres, and they score. Dragons had had a good spell beforehand. Connacht lead now, 22-20. About 18 minutes to go

[Wallpaperman]

More irritation. Dragons get a penalty in the 22, go for the sticks, and Sam Davies (just on) misses

[Wallpaperman]

O’Brien taken out in the air, yellow card for Connacht. Dragons lineout, Rhodri Williams (who has played very well) knocks on as he is going through. Real chance missed

[Wallpaperman]

Dragons lose their own lineout again, but O’Brien puts in a 50-22. Here we go again

[Wallpaperman]

O’Brien tackled on the line when there was an overlap. Back the other way, massive overlap, Hewitt doesn’t pass and held up over the line. Dragons could have won this already

[Wallpaperman]

But the lineout has turned to shite since Dee came on. Not straight this time. It’s slipping away I feel

[Son of Mathonwy]

Ospreys. God almighty! Five minutes more of composure they'd have won that.

Dominated at the end. All very frustrating

Gutting end to the game but I have to admit Benetton were worthy winners. IMO a mistake from Walsh to go for the kick which got the last try because we had to get the conversion. Better to keep the action near the posts and get a 7 point try especially since Benetton were giving away penalty after penalty. The result is a blow for the Ospreys' chances of salvaging something from the URC this season - losing a winnable match.

[Wallpaperman]

Holy mackerel. Sam Davies drop goal hits the post with 4 minutes to go, Dragons offside from the bounce back, in front of the kicker

[Wallpaperman]

Dragons all over the 22, Davies goes for a rushed drop goal, and gets right under it.

Rhodri Williams mom, we’ll deserved

[Wallpaperman]

O’Brien knocks on on halfway as the clock goes red. A stirring effort but another loss.

Glad I watched this, looks like Cardiff have copped a rinsing on the other channel !

[Sandydragon]

That was a bit frustrating. Dragons really went for that but discipline and lineout let them down. Thought Sam Davies had that first drop goal in the bag. Some very licks Connaught players with a very dubious tackle on a jumping player which only got a yellow and some contact with the hand to the eye area of Keddie.

[Sandydragon]

O’Brien knocks on on halfway as the clock goes red. A stirring effort but another loss.

Glad I watched this, looks like Cardiff have copped a rinsing on the other channel !

Obrian has got some boot on him. Why we aren’t looking at him for Wales beats me.

[Wallpaperman]

O’Brien knocks on on halfway as the clock goes red. A stirring effort but another loss.

Glad I watched this, looks like Cardiff have copped a rinsing on the other channel !

Obrian has got some boot on him. Why we aren’t looking at him for Wales beats me.

He played really well. Not sure why Gatland doesn’t like him.

Agreed re Keddie, the commentary team said that the contact was accidental but you could see that Butler’s fingers were extended, and since when would he bind on in the eye area ?

[Sandydragon]

O’Brien knocks on on halfway as the clock goes red. A stirring effort but another loss.

Glad I watched this, looks like Cardiff have copped a rinsing on the other channel !

Obrian has got some boot on him. Why we aren’t looking at him for Wales beats me.

He played really well. Not sure why Gatland doesn’t like him.

Agreed re Keddie, the commentary team said that the contact was accidental but you could see that Butler’s fingers were extended, and since when would he bind on in the eye area ?

I’ve seen cards given just because there was contact between hand and face area, never mind actually evidence of gouging. Hopefully the citing commissioner will have a look as Keddie clearly felt he had been gouged.

[Graigwen]

But the lineout has turned to shite since Dee came on. Not straight this time. It’s slipping away I feel

That is too kind a view of the lineout! Truly appalling.

[Graigwen]

...IMO a mistake from Walsh to go for the kick which got the last try because we had to get the conversion. Better to keep the action near the posts and get a 7 point try especially since Benetton were giving away penalty after penalty. The result is a blow for the Ospreys' chances of salvaging something from the URC this season - losing a winnable match.

Absolutely. Benetton were clinging on. All that had to be done was to keep trundling forward and Benetton would either have conceded a try under the posts, or lost players to yellow cards. In mitigation, Walsh is inexperienced, let's hope he learns from this, it was a single bad decision that cost a match.

.

[Wallpaperman]

But the lineout has turned to shite since Dee came on. Not straight this time. It’s slipping away I feel

That is too kind a view of the lineout! Truly appalling.

As a number 5, I’m sure you were not impressed. In mitigation, the Dragons lost their main jumper when Screech went off, but they had 2 decent line out targets in Carter & Nott towards the end, and they couldn’t win 2 in a row.

Just as much of a worry was Leon Brown’s scrummaging. Not sure if it was Holley in the commentary box, who kept saying that he was getting much better, but for my money he has been hammered pretty much every time since his return from injury.

I thought that the Dragons would get humped after their sending off, and they did really well to stay in the match, but they could so easily have won.

[Sourdust]

IMO a mistake from Walsh to go for the kick which got the last try because we had to get the conversion. Better to keep the action near the posts and get a 7 point try especially since Benetton were giving away penalty after penalty.

I was spitting feathers when Walsh kicked it. We had penalty advantage, for the 3rd (?) time, under the posts, six points behind with the clock red.

I was praying RM-W would fumble it!

Maybe Walsh was confident from the touchline but that's still a massively stupid call under pressure. He does some good work in attack but he's still not reliable. Some point to his youth, but he's older than Sam Costelow and Will Reed - oh, and Paolo Garbisi! Less than a year younger than Marcus Smith and Romaine Ntamack, too. TBF he probably wasn't expecting as much game time as he's had, but there are players doing more with less.

[Son of Mathonwy]

IMO a mistake from Walsh to go for the kick which got the last try because we had to get the conversion. Better to keep the action near the posts and get a 7 point try especially since Benetton were giving away penalty after penalty.

I was spitting feathers when Walsh kicked it. We had penalty advantage, for the 3rd (?) time, under the posts, six points behind with the clock red.

I was praying RM-W would fumble it!

Maybe Walsh was confident from the touchline but that's still a massively stupid call under pressure. He does some good work in attack but he's still not reliable. Some point to his youth, but he's older than Sam Costelow and Will Reed - oh, and Paolo Garbisi! Less than a year younger than Marcus Smith and Romaine Ntamack, too. TBF he probably wasn't expecting as much game time as he's had, but there are players doing more with less.

Walsh is hot and cold - we did play better with him on (Myler didn't have his best game) but he's unreliable. He threw that one away - the right move most of the time but not at that point, with that score.

[Graigwen]

Just as much of a worry was Leon Brown’s scrummaging. Not sure if it was Holley in the commentary box, who kept saying that he was getting much better, but for my money he has been hammered pretty much every time since his return from injury.

I thought that the Dragons would get humped after their sending off, and they did really well to stay in the match, but they could so easily have won.

Sadly I have to agree with you about Leon Brown. I have in the past rated him very highly and in particular thought he had potential to be considerably better than Dillon Lewis. It does look as if he is still working his way back after the injury and is way off international standard at this moment.

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[Sandydragon]

Dragons doing a great impression of a pub team that’s just met in the car park.

[pompey-zebra]

Nice try though. Unfortunately for the dragons they've conceded 4 tries and are down to 14.

[pompey-zebra]

Good win for the Scarlets, Sharks very powerful but Scarlets took their chances well. Jonny Williams was named player of the match which bodes well if he can stay injury free.

[Sourdust]

That's a proper good win against half of South Africa. Scarlets starting to look consistently un-shit.

Os v Drags was pretty low-quality stuff, but one team was considerably less un-shit than the other. Stadium rather flat despite larger-than-usual crowd. Dragons managed to take Luke Walsh out of the game at the third attempt, and all it cost them was 30-odd minutes playing with 14 men. Os emptied the bench and played the last 30 as if under orders to stop scoring.

Came home and watched the highlights of Wales v Ireland. Oh, yes!

[Sandydragon]

That's a proper good win against half of South Africa. Scarlets starting to look consistently un-shit.

Os v Drags was pretty low-quality stuff, but one team was considerably less un-shit than the other. Stadium rather flat despite larger-than-usual crowd. Dragons managed to take Luke Walsh out of the game at the third attempt, and all it cost them was 30-odd minutes playing with 14 men. Os emptied the bench and played the last 30 as if under orders to stop scoring.

Came home and watched the highlights of Wales v Ireland. Oh, yes!

Both teams looked undercooked