Rugby videos of tackles, tries, funny incidents and more: Ospreys beat Leinster to win the Magners League Grand Final

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Ospreys beat Leinster to win the Magners League Grand Final

Ospreys became the only side to ever win three Celtic League titles as they beat Leinster 17-12 in the inaugural Grand Final of the Magners League at the RDS on Saturday. First half tries by Tommy Bowe and Lee Byrne proved the difference between the two sides.

The home side managed four penalties from Jonathan Sexton, but it was ultimately a frustrating day for them and a disappointing send off for coach Michael Cheika.

"We're just disappointed that we didn't play well enough in a final," Cheika said. "That's the key thing. We had enough opportunities to build pressure on the opposition but we didn't take them. When we eased off they took advantage and took their chances. There's no excuses. Two teams went out there; the Ospreys played better than us and they deserved to win," he added.

Both tries for Ospreys were well constructed and finished as the outside backs showed their class. Leinster mustered a bit of a comeback in the second half, but were held off by the experienced Welsh region who held on for the well deserved win.

"As somebody who has been to every single Ospreys game, it's pretty much up there I can tell you - it's a special night," said coach Sean Holley. "I wouldn't say it was our best performance, but certainly one of our most courageous and determined."

"We went out to try and win it, we went out to score tries and we did that. There aren't too many teams who can come here and score tries against Leinster. To score two in the first half, it just gave us a little bit more belief that we could try and push on and win it.

"We tried to lose it in the second half, by giving away some penalties, but our defensive effort in the end was outstanding," Holley added.

This clip is of the tries from the match. The new format of having playoffs and a final seems to have been a success. Do you prefer it this way, or like things the way they were before?

Time: 04:38

first!! ha.. put that in your pipes and smoke it!

By Anonymous, at May 30, 2010 9:11 pm
Bowe - quality winger. Good pace from Byrne there too. Having a final seems much better than the anti-climactic situation in the past.

Congrats to the Welsh.. and kiwis :P

By Scotsdale, at May 30, 2010 9:12 pm
second. to author of above comment: you're a numpty

By whippet, at May 30, 2010 9:12 pm
Well done to the Ospreys, good defensive performance, especially from Bishop, he had BOD in his pocket all day.

The play-offs are better too, with some teams having so many players away on international duty, this makes it fairer in my opinion

By Anonymous, at May 30, 2010 10:10 pm
So many fucking knock ons in that match. So frustrating to watch.

By Anonymous, at May 30, 2010 10:23 pm
Good save from the commentator for the first try 'Tommy Bowweee....collects the pass'

By Anonymous, at May 30, 2010 11:11 pm
Its frustrating as a Leinster fan to see the the boys have a shocker on the final day.

Well done to the Ospreys, trys were sick!

By Anonymous, at May 30, 2010 11:18 pm
I'm just glad that the ospreys ended up with something this year...they've come close to a few things, only to lose out.

By keogh, at May 31, 2010 3:04 am
This match was a great advertisement for the Magners League, it was probably the best quality final of the weekend.

By Anonymous, at May 31, 2010 3:04 am
Leinster what the hell? I am not happy about this one bit.

By Kearney for tests, at May 31, 2010 3:42 am
Love the playoff/final format. Makes for a more interesting end to a season - as opposed to the season essentially being over a couple weeks from the last matches in some years with a team so far out front.

Well done Ospreys - thank you for pulling in some hardware this year after coming up short so many other times. Congrats!

By KLu33, at May 31, 2010 6:07 am
Two superb trys from the ospreys, both simple but executed to perfection.

Two chances two trys.

Good game all round to be fair.
What a great weekend of rugby.

By goodNumber10, at May 31, 2010 8:25 am
Gotta hand it to the Ospreys, they turned up on the day and were by far the better side. Should've had at least another try in the first half, but they butchered a 3 on 1. But they were a better team all over the park - superb defense.

Leaving the RDS after such a relatively poor performance by the team was hard, but getting to the HC Semi final and the final of the ML isn't something to be sneered at. We'll have to see how well we do without Cheika - not to mention Mal and Dempsey (heartbroken for him not to have gotten on).

By Dave Whelan, at May 31, 2010 9:56 am
Loike OMG Dorce and the lods having a roight mare at the RDS! Fock sakes loike, I spilled my half cafe de frap a chino on my new dockors...not enough 'Nure boys on the squad mmore loike. Focking gutted but the Llanelli boys played a stormer!

By D4 Dave, at May 31, 2010 9:56 am
Thanks for the tries RD, I missed this one live. Good efforts by both Bowe & Byrne

By Benson, at May 31, 2010 11:09 am
good game.no actually great game. but our SH teams defence is not as good cuz our ball from the breakdown is much quicker.defencive lines must organize themselves real quick.thats when great tries are being scored.thats the difference.ive watched a couple of NH games now and the allround rugby quality is really good.the tries arnt that good cuz the defence are more organized.I think a clash between the bulls and ospreys would be tough.

By Unknown, at May 31, 2010 5:44 pm
Great tries from the osprey's. Wonderful running angles

By M, at May 31, 2010 6:54 pm
best final of the weekend? Pah. GP takes that crown.

By Anonymous, at May 31, 2010 10:43 pm
Well done to Leinster fans - great sports and the model which most fans could hope to base themself on.

By TheWelshFire, at May 31, 2010 11:26 pm
"Anonymous said...
best final of the weekend? Pah. GP takes that crown."

In your opinion, which is worth very little if thats all you bothered to write.

Great game with two well worked tries. Andrew Bishop has to start at 13 for wales.

By WelshOsprey, at June 01, 2010 12:16 am
Well done to the Ospreys, two well taken tries.

I did wonder about the sequence of closeline tackles (ie arms straight out, neck height connection by the forearm) over the last 20 mins by the Ospreys thou. How many was it? 6 or 7? If that becomes team policy, what should the ref do?

Looked like they knew he'd let them away with it, so they kept it up.

Not even a word in the captain's ear, to tell them to calm it down. Strange, as it completely stopped rugby being played, and was obviously persistent.

Thoughts anyone?

By mise, at June 01, 2010 3:29 am
Decent game, but the play is slow.
No wonder there's so few tries and line breaks, they take forever to clear rucks and pass the ball.

By Tim, at June 01, 2010 3:31 am
Mise are you saying they were head high? Cuz there's no such thing as a close line tackle in the laws.
If they were proper head high shots, and there were 6 or 7 of them then the ref is blind as a bat.
If you mean they just ripped blokes down in a clothes line fashion, then that's fine, it just sounds like good defense.

By Tim, at June 01, 2010 3:33 am
As a welshman I was supporting the ospreys and always support welsh sides (apart from sometimes cardiff) but hats off to the irish. Great sportsmanship in staying behind after the game to see the lifting of the trophy. They always have great crowds and never boo the kickers. I wish welsh regional supporters would do the same.

By Geraint, at June 01, 2010 11:19 am
As a Leinster fan no complaints - Ospreys deserved to win that great game.

I thought Leinster were trying to force it from too far out with plenty of time left ; couple of attempted miracle balls off the deck leading to knock-ons, killed momentum and loss of position. Unlucky with injuries to the back row but that's not why they lost - two class tries by Ospreys.

By Eoghan, at June 01, 2010 2:07 pm
Tim: yea its the former, the sequence of neck and head high tackles. Chris White saw them, blew every single one of them, but left it at that, even though it was obviously a pattern/tactic to prevent play from happening.

(Btw I think that, notwithstanding Leinster actually finishing on top, the Magners really needs this sort of a playoff ending. For the two main national competitions in the NH, the Top 14 and possibly also GP, I'm not so sure. But with the best players dropping out for internationals in the Magners, the top isn't really the top if you see what I mean.
Basically the top four need a cup final ending to sort it out)

By mise, at June 01, 2010 5:51 pm
anyone hear at the beginning:

"9 months, 182 matches, 330 tries"

At first, I thought that meant the Magner's League was a snoozefest:

With two teams in 182 matches, that means you had 364 teams scoring 330 tries, an average of less than one try per team per game.

However, it seems upon closer inspection, the commentator was taking out his arse:

He said: 182 matches, which he took 10 teams, playing 18 regular games each = 180, plus 2 semis.

He should have said: "92 matches". 2 semifinals, plus 90 regular season matches. (10 teams, so five games per week. Need 18 weekends to play your nine opponents twice. so 5*18 = 90)

That comes out to 1.8333 tries per team per game. Perhaps a bit more reasonable, and entertaining.

By cheyanqui, at June 01, 2010 7:37 pm
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

By Anonymous, at June 02, 2010 5:36 am
D'arcy was shocking for both tries. Thinking about it, he's been poor in a lot of recent games.

Also, as an advocate of giving Shane Horgan a ticket to jump off a very high bridge, couldn't help but chuckle when he made that intercept, had a 3m start on Ryan Jones (who ain't exactly the fastest backrow) and over 20m chopped him down. Luckily he's starting against the Baa Baas so looks like he won't be near the 22 for NZ and Aus. How he makes the Leinster 15 ahead of McFadden (I know he's a centre but still) is beyond me. McFadden may not be as flashy as Earls or Fitzgearld but he'd be one of the first names on a lot of teams.

Finally, great to see Kearney hitting form in time for the SH. Leinster's best player Sat and for the last few weeks.

By Huh!! the 3rd, at June 02, 2010 9:16 pm
The rugby was good, and Ospreys absolutely deserved the victory based on the days performance, however, it was the worst possible result for the game of rugby!

The Ospreys cheated their way to the final and should never have even had the opportunity to win the League! If they had had to travel to Glasgow as they would have done had they not deliberately delayed their disiplinary hearing for previous cheating, they would never have made it through.

I feel sorry for Glasgow more tha anyone else as this was their big opportunity this year, what with Dan Parks and other big names moving on next season (says a lot about both Glasgow and Scotlands recent form) and if Leinster had played that badly in the final then i can't see how DP and co could have lost!

As i said, on the day it was the correct result, but it just goes further to increasing the image of rugby sliding to footballing lows of cheating and that cheating being rewarded!

By Impartial Onlooker, at June 05, 2010 8:28 pm