[Tox56]

I'd echo what was said above, with the amount of young and existing talent, I would have thought centre is one of the areas least in need of NIQ.

Second Row and Front-Row are where the priorities are for NIQ's for us I would think, Back-Row, Scrum-Half, Fly-Half, Midfield and Back 3 have excellent strength in depth, nearly all of which is Irish, which is obviously a good thing.

Those positions have so much promising talent coming through, at least some of them are bound to make the step up.

[durkadurka]

My Munster away tickets arrived today for those of you wondering when thry are going out.

[[Jackass]]

Nacewa and the front 5 (particularly second row and tight-head) are the only areas we need imports.

We still need a long term solution in second row though, and I don't know where that's going to come from. Toner, Flanagan, Browne, maybe somehow sign Caldwell and then a top quality NIQ with McLoughlin able to cover would be decent options in squad.

Touch wood squad is coming back together nicely towards the end of this season now. Just hope they can hit the ground running ahead of Ospreys, Munster & Cardiff, and those games all going well, hopefully we can kick on from there with momentum to carry us into the end season shoot outs.

[thomond2006]

If Browne has surgery now, perhaps it would give him a better chance of earning an extension? If he has it in June, he might miss up to half of next season.

[[Jackass]]

Because of the "emergency" in the second row, I'd put it off if at all possible. I think he's done enough to earn a contract extension, but if we put Browne out now, Cullen recovery pending, and Brad Thorne having played 15 months non-stop rugby, anything happens to him and we've only got Toner, McLoughlin and Flanagan to pick from.

I'd rather keep as many people as fit for as long as possible, and presumably we can sort out second row over the summer with a signing or two, and Cullen fully fit for next season too with Browne out for a bit.

I bet he didn't think he'd be this important to Leinster when he signed.

[tolosenc]

Well, it'll be hard to lose first place now...

[molloyjh]

Originally Posted by tolosenc

Well, it'll be hard to lose first place now...

Yeah. If we win our 2 home games now we'll have at least a 19 point advantage. Munster can get a max of 25 points from their remaining games. It's looking good.

[totallegend]

Originally Posted by tolosenc

Well, it'll be hard to lose first place now...

Not sure about that but Aironi did us a massive favour. If we can win our last two home games against Ospreys and Edinburgh, we could have some scope to rotate and rest players in the away games against Ulster and Dragons. Being optimistic, a win in Thomond would be only massive as I think Munster have the easier run-in.

[durkadurka]

A win in thomond after a win over ospreys would effectively end it.
We would be likely to have a 15 pt lead with three games to go.

[ongarite]

Leinster move admin & training facilities to UCD campus:

Leinster Rugby are delighted to announce details of the opening phase of the province's exciting move to the new purpose built facility in University College Dublin...

http://www.leinsterrugby.ie/newsroom/9621.php

[[Jackass]]

Amongst the many facilities that are the best in that country that UCD already have, these might have been posted before, but an elite training centre has been purposed built for Leinster at the new HQ which will incorporate all the state of the art technology in partnership with UCD, but was quoted as being "as good as anything you'll find anywhere in the world" and was modeld off both the Chelsea training centre and American Football style research training centres...also avail of all surface pitches and indoor and outdoor training areas, weather no longer a factor on training schedules..

Some pics...





(couldn't find decent pics that were put up before of entire base)

[CIARAN_BOYLE]

There are Red weights

This should not be

[Tox56]

That is SO COOL!!

[Fireball07]

Looks awfully fancy. Posh boys will get soft using that

[chancer12]

Originally Posted by Fireball07

Looks awfully fancy. Posh boys will get soft using that

Fireball, do you have to?