No Heineken thread ?

Well its another weekend for Heineken , and should be sell outs for the Ulster and Leinster matches .  Mind you the amount of rain that has fallen here in Belfast and district in the last 24 hours is serious and my garden back and front is waterlogged , and its still going to rain all day on top of that . Dont think Dublin will escape heavy rain either from what I saw on weather predictions.

Ulster are about 1/6 which is about right given last weeks performance , Leinster about 2/5 which is a bit short I think given the quality of Clermont .  But the French sides traditionally dont play as well away from home , and the ground conditions will suit "Munster style " rugby which Leinster may play . Munster might be value at around 2/1 which you might eke out on here  , certainly would not be lumping on Saracens at 4/7 or so .

Connaught first up tonight , amazed that Biarritz are 1.14 which to some obviously seems like buying money , but think there must be better 1/7 shots around .

Could be a big weekend .

**Connacht**

Old habits die hard , Pull , thats the way I was taught to spell the province when I was at school many moons ago .  Or maybe its tacht to spell it ! Cheers .

Hope Connacht get a result, couldnt give a f*ck about the others!

Pitch not playable in Biarritz from what I see . Wouldn't feel safe playing myself , or watching any of mine trying to cope with those conditions safely .  Couldn't race horses in that even .

iswear to god kelly,i think yre a half prod

who do you vote for kelly? i think us free staters deserve to know yre colours?

yeah ,i ave got your number m8

Insightful stuff , kingrat . This is a rugby thread .

Dire conditions in Biarritz tonight alright. Was going to back Connacht on the Hcp (+16), would have been raging if I had with a sloppy try conceded at the end scuppering that bet. In fairness though, the bet should have been down ling before that. It was a poor performance from the Irish province, having played 20 mins of the second half with a man-advantage after the French side received 2 yellow cards. You never would have known that they had a man less at any stage of the match.

not aftertiming but those 2 scores connacht conceeded in the dying seconds in both fixtures were luck on my side.  I had over 35.5 points last week, and biaritz -14 tonight.  Connacht defended well tonight, but tbh they rarely got out of their own half.  As I was watching I couldnt make out the team colours due to the muddy strips.  Delighted to see and hear the Connacht fans in full voice tonight in those conditions, but we are well used to them in Galway.  Parks had 1 kick at goal, and that was it for us.  I think Ulster will progress the most this year, I also hope Ulster havent peaked too early.

Still doubt the wisdom of playing that match tonight , and hopefully the player stretchered off is not severely injured . The last minute try for Biarritz was lucky and added to that an unlikely conversion from the sideline must have cost some people .

Unfortunately I think the bad weather will have the pitches pretty wet tomorrow , just hope the rugby is better than we saw tonight , Connaught were not good at any stage of proceedings this evening .

Leinster were outplayed more or less all over the field .

Ulster stuttered and spluttered , had plenty of chances but could not get any rhythm going .

Looks like its down to Munster to save a bit of pride this weekend !

hope best is alright kelly ...my cousin is the ulster doctor , david irwin ..not been in contact with him since my brother died ...never saw a team drop so much ball ..incredible ....

David was a very good player , workrider .  Thought it was Tommy Bowe stretchered off though .

Increasingly rugby is about the survivors , nearly everybody gets injured at some time during the season , too many games .

you're correct kelly it was bowe ..david broke his leg and lost a half yard , you cant stay at the top level when you lose that half yard ....ulster have done really well this year ....a lot of people down here seem to forget that ulster were the first irish team to win the hineken cup....

Yes they were , workrider , but it wasn't very competitive that year compared with now .

Had cartilage problems myself way back , once you lose that snap any game becomes harder , even golf . Must be worse for pros though when its your living .

he had a good practice to fall back on....the pro game was before his time really ...trying to pull myself away from the racing and go play a few holes ...my wonderful wife bought me a new set of callaways for xmas ..sadly i'm not allowed us them before xmas....

Too wet for golf at moment workrider . Unless its a links .  Good luck with the new clubs .

Hope Munster put a smile back on our faces , yesterday was hard enough viewing for Leinster and Ulster supporters , and our westernmost supporters must have had their hearts in their mouths re injury potential every time the ball went towards the shallow end on Friday night .