Heineken European Cup 2012

Oh man poor Fofana..

Gutted for Clermont.would have made for a much more interesting HEC final between a French and an Irish team.instead now there will be two teams who have already played each other at least twice this season.

Still Leinster deserved to get there though.

At least he knows what's it like to score a match winning try, albeit for a min or two!

If Leinster lost by 2 a lot would focused on the kick that wasn't called over. Should we make posts higher or have a mini camera (like a stump cam in cricket) on the middle bar looking up?

Some sort of camera on the posts would make it much easy to call, for what it's worth on the one today I think they got it spot on, at no point did the ball look as if it had gone inside the post. Tight margin but they got it right.

Oh and whoever the idiot here is who passed Nathan Hines up early in his career should be sacked..

Think he was only in the UK for a working holiday in the first place and decided to have a go in a game of rugby over in Scotland, the birthplace of his grandparent, and he went on from there.

In fairness Ulster and Clermont have already played each other twice this year also as they were in the same pool eariler in the compeition. But I see your point a France v Ireland final would be more interesting to neutrals.

Still I'm glad Leinster made it there and hopefully we can go all the way again. Hopefully the scare they got at the end will make them more focused for the final. They can't rely on a 2nd half performance like last years final if they start slowly against Ulster.

Hines was a great servant to Leinster rugby and I felt kind of bad for him being on the losing side today. He's one of those players that seems to get better with age and a very likeable guy too.

Well done to Leinster, didn't see all the game just High lights on our Welsh speaking channel.

Played league for the North Sydney Bears out of high school. One of the sensible old stalwarts at the Bears reckoned he was too tall for mungoball (201cm) and suggested he try rugby, which he did at Manly. In 1998 he did a spot of backpacking around Europe and had a run for Gala. The rest is history.

I couldn't understand him getting hooked from the game either.

Is there anywhere that you can watch highlights of these games online?

http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=316023

Thanks mate, but only available to be viewed for those in the UK.

Then use www.vpntraffic.com to get around that.I use it myself to get onto Oz sites from the UK

If Ulster think they can give Leinster 70% of the ball and defend narrow as they did against Munster and then Edinburgh they are going to be routed. Leinster will win the game easily IMO. Ferris looks like he is completely fecked and without Fez, even only 80% fit, the Todgers have not got a chance. Leinster were good for a much more comfortable win than they enjoyed in Bordeaux, they very nearly managed to do the normal Irish trick, when playing in France, of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Fitness won it as much as anything but that is not luck on Leinster's part, Schmidt has created a squad of such quality that the seconds could put a half century on the Edinburgh first team a few weeks ago.

Question for any neutrals, how did you think the Clermont V Leinster game stood up quality wise compared to, A test rugby and B super rugby? The second one is harder to judge because the games are reffed so differently and Barnes is very, very slack at the breakdown relative to the super refs. Question for you Bardon, what do you think needs to happen to get Ireland playing as well as the provincial teams and especially Leinster?

Paddy I think there's 4 main things that Ireland need to do to take the provincial form to the national jersey.

1) Clear the air meeting:
When Deccie took over 1st he had a clear the air meeting to get rid of the niggle between the players, especially the Leinster v Munster stuff. Another similar meeting is long over due to get the players involved in improving the performance of the national team. This should help get to the bottom of why players like Sexton don't reproduce their Leinster form for Ireland.

2) A decent backs/attack coach:
Don't care what title they use but Ireland need a decent attack coach. Alan Gaffney was absolutely terrible and Ireland's back play is years behind other test nations. Now he's gone there's an opportunity to get a world class attack coach in. Seeing Leinster consistently rip top quality opposition apart on attack shows there's no problem with the skill level of the players and players like Earls, Zebo, Bowe, Murray are at the same standard as the Leinster guys. They just need the direction and a decent playbook. Also I believe this is part of the problem for Sexton (along with point 1).

3) Player clear out:
There are a number of players who've served Ireland well and who can still do a job for their province, but they should be cut from the national squad. Players like Wallace, Darcy, Cullen, Horan etc. should be retained on provincial contracts as they still have a lot to offer at that level, but they shouldn't be picked in Ireland squads. This will make room for the best of the next generation to start playing regularly in green.

Players like DOC and ROG should be retained in the Ireland squad. DOC is very good from the bench but that's where he should be from now on. Sexton should definitely be first choice fly half but he can still learn a lot from ROG. I'd also move BOD to 12 and rotate Earls and McFadden at 13 based on form.

4) Competition for places:
There are so many young players in Ireland who are ready to step up to International level. Deccie is too loyal to some players meaning players are picked even when they are in poor form. Deccie needs to rotate more often and move players on. Players need to think when they pull on the green jersey "I need to have a bloody good game if I'm going to keep this". That's what happens at the provinces.

There's more competition for a starting place at Leinster than there is for Ireland and it's the same with Muster and Ulster. That's not right. There needs to be a culture where players believe that if they put their hands up for their province then they're in with a shout of being picked to start for Ireland. Ireland should be represented by the players who are in the best form rather than who Deccie is more loyal to.

Wow, no discussion, with the final tonight!

LEINSTER:

15: Rob Kearney

14: Fergus McFadden

13: Brian O'Driscoll

12: Gordon D'Arcy

11: Isa Nacewa

10: Jonathan Sexton

9: Eoin Reddan

1: Cian Healy

2: Richardt Strauss

3: Mike Ross

4: Leo Cullen CAPTAIN

5: Brad Thorn

6: Kevin McLaughlin

7: Sean O'Brien

8: Jamie Heaslip

REPLACEMENTS:

16: Sean Cronin

17: Heinke van der Merwe

18: Nathan White

19: Devin Toner

20: Shane Jennings

21: Isaac Boss

22: Ian Madigan

23: David Kearney

ULSTER: Stefan Terblanche; Andrew Trimble, Darren Cave, Paddy Wallace, Craig Gilroy; Paddy Jackson, Ruan Pienaar (1-8) Tom Court, Rory Best, John Afoa, Johann Muller (Captain), Dan Tuohy, Stephen Ferris, Chris Henry, Pedrie Wannenburg
Replacements: Nigel Brady, Paddy McAllister, Declan Fitzpatrick, Lewis Stevenson, Willie Faloon, Paul Marshall, Ian Humphreys, Adam D'Arcy