ROMLEU LUKAKU PROVED his worth to Everton as he scored twice and set up another as Ronald Koeman’s side moved up into the top six of the Premier League with a 4-0 victory over 10-man Hull City.
Lukaku publically questioned the club’s ambition in the days preceding Saturday’s contest to cast doubt over his Everton future, but the Belgian added the gloss to a convincing victory as he moved top of the league’s scoring charts with a late double at Goodison Park.
Having already teed-up Enner Valencia’s strike, Lukaku took advantage of slack Hull defending to move two clear of Tottenham’s Harry Kane in the race for the Golden Boot on 21.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin squandered a terrific chance in the reverse fixture in December, but the youngster made no mistake on this occasion as he nudged in Tom Davies’ cross to give Everton the lead early on.
Marco Silva’s side responded well to going behind, but any hopes of a Hull comeback were all-but ended when Tom Huddlestone was dismissed – harshly so – for a lunge on Idrissa Gueye midway through the second half.
Valencia secured the points just over a minute after coming on, with Lukaku adding a quickfire double. Hull remain planted in the relegation zone, while Everton – who face Liverpool after the international break - move level on points with fifth-placed Arsenal.
Jack O’Donohue may as well go to France, along with Carty. What is Lowe doing in there still?
@Richard James: whatever about the other 2 O’Donoghue needs to oust O’Mahony at 6 for Munster if he wants to get back into the Irish fold. Unlucky man out for me would be Paul Boyle in that backrow.
@Cian O’Toole: he is now a better player than POM in my eyes, but POM brings a X-factor like few can. POM is also lucky to be there but he keeps doing the extraordinary bits.
@Richard James: What is X factor!? He’s either a better player for the team or he isn’t. I actually think he is better than O’Mahony, or certainly would be if he wasn’t being shoehorned into playing 7 all the time which he simply isn’t. Pity as I think he could be a very good 6.
@Richard James: i believe the primary reason Carty turned down Clermont was for a shot at Ireland. (Same with Marmion and Saracens). Sure that’s probably that.
@Richard James: Lowe is a shocking call… rees-zammit tearing down the wing at Lowe is a try 10 times outta 10
@Cathal Carr: do you honestly believe either of those 2 would be first choice at either of those clubs? Get more money to sit on the bench or stay and play at home?
@Chris Mc: I do. Because Mark McCall confirmed as such in Marmion’s case, when Aled Davies was announced a few months after.
Give me Kevin Maggs and 14 Dricos
@Sam Murray: the lineouts might be a potential weakness
Dan Sheehan is a serious underdog. The lads a beast and seriously quick.
I’m surprised the42 hasn’t mentioned that the urc refs review has come down in favour of cloete’s try the other day and reckon that beirne was onside after all. Like a lot of Irish media outlets they were very quick to back Andy friends outburst and join in the kicking of Busby and the tmo when even at the time it looked an incredibly tight call. The hypocrisy around slating rassie for anti-ref opinions and lauding friend sticks out to me
@Tim Magner: they are referring it to World Rugby as they aren’t certain. So maybe hold fire there. The statement read as an attempt to find some way to justify the decision. But to me the laws are clear. A player who is in front of the kicker must retreat to either behind the kicker or behind a player who was onside when the ball was kicked. Beirne very clearly did neither of those things. This “the only part of his body that was touching the ground when the ball was kicked” guff is simply that. If a player tried that on try line defence do you think it would be allowed? Of course not.
@John Molloy: it’s funny cos the whole gist of it after the game was that he was a mile offside
@Tim Magner: it wasn’t reviewed that is the point but Connachts disallowed try was for 2 minutes. It’s called consistency and fairness that’s all anybody wants.
@bullfrogblues: precisely, it’s the inconsistencies that are peeing off Friend and what he actually complained about. And Connacht historically have borne the brunt, and especially so in Interpro’s…
@Tim Magner: Outburst you say?, Hahaha, good one. Friendy is probably the quietest spoken bloke in Rugby, totally un-Australian. The reason the officials were rigthly criticised was they didn’t even review what you admit was at least an obviously very tight call..
@Sea__Point: friend said nothing about anyone reviewing anything. He’s quoted on this site as saying ‘to me, that try and the missed offside, that’s inexcusable’
@Tim Magner: tim the urc backing its officials is one thing but do you in all honestly believe he was onside?
@Chris Mc: I really have no idea, it’s incredibly tight & could have gone either way. The fact the ref gave onfield try negates a lot of the controversy for me. There’s definitely not enough there for a tmo to get him to reverse his decision
@Tim Magner: Yup, he was in-line, doesn’t matter no one wants to hear it. Connacht missed a golden opportunity with Munster offering it to them on a plate. They should be mad at themselves.
The thing we keep seeing is we are not looking at the next world Cup, we are looking at the here and now. As soon as the world Cup is over New Zealand looks at the squad and age profile and starts building, we keep picking players who are hanging on because of what they did in the past instead of bringing through the next players for this and the next world cup
NO.
BOX.
KICKING.