Lifeimi Mafi finishes nice Munster team try vs Ulster

Brilliant. Both teams not willing to kick it out. Nice running from Earls but he needs to learn to pass the ball at the right moments (he had another opportunity like this in the match).

brilliant try

totally agree about earls. hes my favourite player but can be frustrating at times. i think warwicks departure will be good in a way because earls will move to fullback, where hes best, and muntser will finally start concentrating on developing another great outhalf, hopefully an irish one. feel so sorry for jerry though. hope its only weeks and not months

What Ireland were missing in november series were both flannerys bullets in the lineout not being disrespectful to rory best an co. but the way they throw the ball in is more of a lob which makes it easier for opponents to compete on your ball and Paul o connell who has proved that on his day is in top 3 second rows in the world. I was by the tunnel last night in Thomond and the reception he got was fantastic, however he has been dogged by this injury for 16 months now. Theres two problems with this injury the first being that not one specialist can diagnose what the problem is, the other being that jerry has said when he wants to relax the muscle it tenses and vica versa. It was such a shame because it was 2 months ago he did the injury against Toulon and according to frankie sheehan, Jerry went about sorting the leg with regard to treating it completely different this time around was very confident it would last him. its actually gutting to see him as he is one of the leaders of the munster team, you can get a sense of it from the way he talks and even the barry murphy try his reaction. Lets hope he can make it back. on a sidenote, great try from mafi, Tony mcgahon seems to prefer tuitupou at 12, but he hasnt done anything and offers no spark, i think for toulon in two weeks mafi has to play which will be a cracker!

Oh crap, another media outlet fawning on the cheats and bullies of Munster

Wow. Good one anon.

Great try.
Mafi is maybe one of the only munster player enjoyable to watch. good skills, power and speed

Fascinating try

@ Paul Gormley
Disagree about Tuitupou; very strong ball carrier and solid defender. Mafi is too unreliable. He shoots out of the line far too much and his discipline is questionable. Tends to get binned a lot, mainly for dangerous tackles. A great player if he has an experienced centre outside him like Tipoki. Wud be interesting though if the Kiwis could form a centre partnership, only centre pairing that hasnt really been tried this season

who did warwick beat on the outside? bit worrying for ulster if it's an ulster winger

Kind of diagree with some of the thoughts on Earls here, yes he should've passed earlier, but it was a 2nd row outside him when he looks right twice (even though Ryan is pacy for a lock). I don't think Murphy was in his vision, some would praise him for holding the outside defender, sucking him in, then passing. For the other, he backed himself and failed, he's still learning. Maybe Flannery outside put him off from passing, but Flannery has great handling skills for a forward and the try would've come.

Terrible performance though. 4 tries or not, they're not going to beat Toulon at the minute. Next week will tell alot with a full team out (full of bullies and cheats).

@ MCB
We will agree to disagree! Have you seen Tuitupou make a break yet? I havent missed a match all season and yes the kiwis played together, against leinster? I agree with his defense is superb but he is almost as a liability as mafi when it comes to tackling, With Tuitupou, i cant remember him making a break or indees something creative at all. Munster have come on from the ten man rugby and throwing it out to a crash ball ie halstead and Rob Henderson, What i personally like to see is a combination of mafi and Barry Murphy in the centre. Murphy has looked extremely sharp anytime he has come on recently.

@ Huh!! the 3rd
I have enjoyed some of the clashes we have had through the years but if your thinking about writing Munster off in the Heineken Cup your a very brave man. Munster know they have to go to Toulon and beat them and quite possibly have to rid them of a losing bonus point. They also know they will be bringing London Irish alas another English team at home in a do or die match in a cold january night and probably need the bonus point win, Do not write them off. Remember Perpignan last year? same old same old.

@ huh the 3rd

if he had passed earlier it would have been a 2 on one as the other Ulster defender was too far in field. he probably wouldn't have caught the man before he got to the corner. and if it went wrong munster still had players in field as well.

@ paul gormley

i agree about tuoitoupo (sp). he is a great tackler but the only breaks he's made have been the odd one or two bulldozing runs through the middle, and to be honest, they generally make it more than 10 metres and they don't happen that often.

that said, i don't think munster use him the way they should. they always use him drifting with the rest of the backs and running across field. he should be taking the ball at speed / doing crash balls or making angles. with his size he'd be hard to stop. doing what he's doing now the defense can always see what's happening and prepare to hit him and deal with him easily.

meant to say they don't usually make it more than 10 metres

Munster scored that with 13 vs 15 on the pitch - Flannery off injured and Howlett in the sin bin. Ulster were very unlucky though - they were the better team for 60 minutes with a team of very young and fringe players.

As a Munster fan I am definitely worried about the performances the team has been putting in - the scrum is terrible, the lineout is not great without Flannery and O'Connell, and the backline is also a mess with the disappointing Tuitopu starting ahead of Mafi.

On the other hand, Munster are still in the European Cup and are leading the Magners League, so it's not all bad news.

Oh, and I had to laugh at the troll comment above complaining about the Munster 'bullies' - I'm guessing that we've been joined by a soccer fan :)

PS - Something I never saw before in a rugby match happened there; at 58 seconds in the video the number 8 (Leamy) puts in a cross-kick to the outhalf on the wing...

First of all: great piece of play, nicely rounded off.
Second of all: sometimes I really don't understand the advantage rule. The Ref calls advantage when Ulster kick the ball but he doesn't even wait to see if there will be any. A matter of interpretation maybe.
And third of all: can I leave my best wishes for rugbydump here?! I really enjoyed last years feeds and hope 2011 will be just as good. Cheers!!!

Earls best position is on the wing,without a doubt.the man is a finisher,its what he does best,and with his pace,he could become one of the best in the world.
maybe he fits in well enough at centre or fullback with munster,but he isn't international standard in either of those positions

Anyone else having issues with this vid? It goes blurry and purple like at the top of the vid, and completely black in the rest of it.

@Leeners93 Gotta disagree there. Maybe when Earls started out he would've made a good out and out winger but now he's undeniably lost a significant amount of pace for bulk. I couldn't see him keepin up with wingers like drew mitchell, o'connor, nz wingers, sa wingers nor chris ashton or bowe. fullback would be good or the centre would be good as he picks out the gaps with his acceleration well. i wish he'd slim down a bit though

Deasy forcing the turnover got the whole ball moving, deserves credit for that even if he did miss a crucial tackle earlier in the game.

Can anybody tell me why Mafi is not playing for the tonan national team especially hes of tongan descent?

I know he played 7s for NZ and a u21WC for NZ but he never player for the "real" All Blacks.
Does this not mean he still could go for Tonga at next world cup?
I think they could need a feew good backs!

earls is a fullback as far as i'm concerned. he can run at a line from deep and create holes and run through them. for the lions he was brilliant at full back, apart from his terrible defence against the emerging boks for that try at the end. i just don't think hes centre material. hes good there but not great.
also, munster's scrum. what the hell has happened there? its never been truly great but it has certainly never been this bad. and why are they bringing in foreign props instead of developung home grown fellas? what ever happened to timmy ryan? he was solid enough against the all blacks. and darragh hurley, where are these guys?

Ramme

Once a player has played 7s for a country it counts as playing internationally for the side, so he can't play for Tonga, thats as far as I know, I could be wrong...

me thinks leamy was trying to kick the ball into touch to end the game????

me thinks leamy tries to kick the ball out of play to end the match????
works out well.

no ronan, he'd have kicked it behind him if he wanted to end it. dangerous play but they were so far ahead it made no difference at all so why not.

Ronan, that was definitely a cross-kick. Leamy is like Keith Wood and Anthony Foley, a real footballing forward. I remember watching Foley playing a schools game years ago at number 8, and he took all the penalty kicks to touch. He may also have taken the kicks at goal, but not certain about that.

Thanks Paul G.

But I have to say, the Stuart Barnes and Stephen Jones (writer,not player) of this world will be proven true sooner rather than later. Munster only had 2 decent performances last season (granted, they were probably the 2 most complete performances of the HCup), but there's no consistancy or level headedness being shown. O'Connell might have faults, but he has an incredible calming influence on his pack which is sorely missed.

Ronan

Leamy has put in some beautiful chips and Garryowens in his time. The 06 1/2 final v Leinster, he did a Garryowen inside his own 22, chased the kick and won a turnover on Hickie (or Dempsey I think). Quinlain is an even better kicker. Ire do product some skillful forwards as some above have pointed out, and Leamy is up there.

@ Huh!! the 3rd.
I agree with Leamy, i too was going to mention the garryowen against Leinster haha. But he also played senior cup for Rockwell at outhalf, he also played at no.12 for munster in 2005 when they were badly stuck. I agree with you about the Stuart Barnes, eventually Munster wont get out of their group but you've missed a point, O Connell will miss the next match against Glasgow but he will be free on the 15th to play Toulon, having him back will buoy the whole squad. I would nearly put my house on Munster beating Toulon at home, If you are not from Limerick and perhaps Cork its very hard to fathom what the Heineken Cup means to us.

Ah Paul, Munster is a big place, and you'll find I'm from the Premier, was at both home games and have to say, rugby isn't just for the private fee paying schools of Cork, Limerick and Cashel now. Tipp have several squad members and on some match days could out number Cork or Limerick players.

Also, in the run up to the 08 final, Leamy played 12 v Connacht inside Mafi while Tipoki was rested. Didn't really work and Howlett saved our bacon with an intercept under the posts.

Oh and Leamy never shuts up about his hurling days. From the way he says it, you'd swear he would've made the senior team.