Gerry Thornley
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Appearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Also, we wish he'd been fitter more often.
They might have made the top eight.
Well, I'd say privately the think tank must be wondering about their decision to leave so many front players on the bench against Glasgow because you looked at that match unfold last night and you'd have to think they had a far better chance of beating Glasgow at home than they had of beating Montpellier here.
I know there's a trophy on the line, but ultimately they finished ninth and in the harsh reality of...
Their season's over and they've finished ninth.
A season that had promised so much, it's tough on them.
They accumulated 52 points.
That's four points more than two other previous teams who finished eighth and two points more on the other two.
Never has the threshold been so high.
Two seasons at the eight-place side has got qualified with 48 points.
Another two seasons with 50 points.
So by the same token, I suppose Connacht deserve to be in there.
They finished above Ulster and they're on 54 points and they're in the Champions Cup next season.
I think what it definitely demonstrates is
and reaffirms for me, and Richie Murphy alluded to afterwards, Nathan, is apart from Leinster, the other three provinces do not have the strength and depth to compete on two trophy fronts deep into the knockout stages of both competitions.
They just don't do it.
And that's why one of the best things that happened in 2016 was losing to Grenoble in the quarterfinals of the Challenge Cup.
it meant they had two weekends off on the Pro 12 run-in and they won that.
Similarly, three seasons ago, Munster, beaten at the gate in the round of 16, away to the Sharks in the Champions Cup round of 16, gave them three weekends off on the run-in, they went and went and won the URC.
I think Conrad and Munster both being out of the Champions Cup a little bit earlier than Ulster allowed them to maintain their funnel throttle all the way through in the URC with getting the odd weekend off, whereas Ulster, just the mere fact they were playing every week