Leinster V London Irish kick off 7pm

justsomebloke

Leinster Team

LEINSTER:

15: Niall Morris
14: Shane Horgan
13: Fergus McFadden
12: Shaun Berne
11: Isa Nacewa
10: Jonathan Sexton
9: Simon Keogh

1: Ronan McCormack
2: Bernard Jackman
3: Stan Wright
4: Leo Cullen CAPTAIN
5: Devin Toner
6: Sean O’Brien
7: Shane Jennings
8: Stephen Keogh

REPLACEMENTS: John Fogarty, Jason Harris-Wright, Cian Healy, Mike Ross, Malcolm O’Kelly, Eoin Sheriff, Kevin McLaughlin, Chris Keane, David Moore, Paul O’Donohoe, Billy Ngawini, Brendan Macken, Girvan Dempsey

London Irish Team to follow.

So first home game since the HEC win so hopefully there should be a good atmosphere and even though it will have no bearing on the HEC matches it may just give the winner a slight Psychological going into the pool games.

Also looking forward to going back to donnybrook

Eoin

I hope it's better than the one a couple of years ago; that really was just a training session.

irishbucsfan

Surprisingly strong team there. Suppose they need a proper run out.

Shame I'm overseas right now, I'll be fast asleep by the time that kicks off. it'll probably be about 3:30 here by the time Leinster run in their 12th try... Hopefully they give Billy Ngawini a good run out and give him a real chance!

Waterfall1975

Is the match on telly?

OldJay

Waterfall1975 wrote: »

Is the match on telly?

No.
Its a warm-up game.

ALH-06

I like the look of that team but I wish they'd not persist with Chris Keane any more at SH. He's a very average player, time to give O'Donoghue a chance to lay claim on the second SH berth. He's got much more potential and needs game time!

Also, is Niall Morris really a good prospect? I seem to remember hime being good but not amazing at schools level. Obviously not much to go on but I haven't seen him play at all in the last few years...

fifth

Is there anyway we can watch this match online?

danthefan

eoin wrote: »

I hope it's better than the one a couple of years ago; that really was just a training session.

That game was played in thirds instead of halfs as far as I remember, was a joke of a game.

Gelio

I'm heading up, Standing unfortunately

justsomebloke

ye just off to the game myself and WOOHOOO a start of another season.

fifth

Whats the London Irish team for tonight?

Thinkin of puttin a few bob now on Leinster -5.0

danthefan

It's not on TV anyway but is there anywhere to even get score updates?

ironingbored

21-5 to London Irish is latest

ironingbored

ironingbored wrote: »

21-5 to London Irish is latest

24-8 now

LEINSTERMAN204

ironingbored wrote: »

24-8 now

Was that the final score?

Four-Percent

ironingbored wrote: »

24-8 now

Aw sheet at least Munster gave them a good hiding...

WeeBushy

funkyflea wrote: »

Whats the London Irish team for tonight?

Thinkin of puttin a few bob now on Leinster -5.0

Did you put anything on in the end

Gelio

Awww jayzus. Awful match but I was happy I went there was a friendly atmosphere around the place. Horgan and a LI player got yellow cards for handbags. The best thing I can say was the match was at a decent intensity. The ref was a B****x. The Leinster Jersey isn't half as bad in real life. Plenty of freebies been given out:D

anonymous_joe

ajeffares wrote: »

Awww jayzus. Awful match but I was happy I went there was a friendly atmosphere around the place. Horgan and a LI player got yellow cards for handbags. The best thing I can say was the match was at a decent intensity. The ref was a B****x. The Leinster Jersey isn't half as bad in real life. Plenty of freebies been given out:D

50 squid voucher.

Game wasn't great, Leinster had a fantastic first five or ten minutes and then kinda stopped playing.

We kept being pinged at the breakdown by Clancy. Not sure if he was the problem or we were, but it cost us badly.

Also, Armitage's try wasn't a try. :pac:

justsomebloke

ye ref cost us a lot last night giving a penalty try to them, a dubious try and then disallowing one of ours. However after the first 10 minutes we did fall apart abit so everything mostly our fault.

However find of the night was the spit roast pig tent foodfare for the win. That and it was great being back in donnybrook

gcgirl

How was Stephen Keogh on the wing?lol

RuggieBear

pretty poor by us in general tbh and the ref was...inconsistent.

we were ****ed in the scrums big time till healy came on and when ross came on our 7 man scrum was pushing their 8 man scrum back which was pretty heartening to see.

we tried to run from anywhere which was crazy but made it exciting in spurts but meant we had no shape (defensively) once we knocked it on (which we did every other time with ridiculous low percentage passing) and were punished consequently.

thought sexton was excellent and his tackling was much improved. Nacewa was great all round.

Berne seemed to be full of tricks but a little soft n the tackle.

hard to really judge anything huge into it as it appeared to be leinster seconds/thirds versus LI firsts/seconds.

LI did bring on a man mountain in the second half at prop. biggest man i've seen play pro rugby for a while.

The two armatages were very very good. and lambs kicking was first class.

danthefan

I've heard basically the pack were awful, the backs looked decent but had nothing to work with. Accurate?

[Jackass]

You can be sure Leinster were looking for a physical game only and had no interest in giving anything away for the Heineken Cup...im sure the opening group game will read very differently

Gelio

I'm really liking mcfadden he'll make a great replacement for bod some day

anonymous_joe

danthefan wrote: »

I've heard basically the pack were awful, the backs looked decent but had nothing to work with. Accurate?

Not quite that cut and dry.

Ruggie summed it up better than I did last night.

The pack were a bit lightweight for the first half, no doubts there, but their real problem was in being pinged at the breakdown constantly.

The backs played very exciting rugby, but as I lamented to my mate, I'd have given a lot to see us give the ball to the openside or the first receiver, and have them bosh into someone, take the contact, and build a couple of phases. We needed more shape, that was the major weakness.

Looking at our team, with a bit more precision in the backs, our seconds/thirds could have wiped the floor with their firsts/seconds. Which would have been very impressive.

So while the performance in that game was a bit worrying, nothing suggests we'd be awful all season. I would however, prefer a bit more power and a bit more speed in the backrow.

Gelio

I miss rocky!

Sangre

How was o'brien? I want this guy to be amazing so badly!

anonymous_joe

Sangre wrote: »

How was o'brien? I want this guy to be amazing so badly!

Ok.

And I wish I could say more than that.

fifth

WeeBushy wrote: »

Did you put anything on in the end

No, I almost did though..backed out last minute because I hadn't seen the LI team.

danthefan

anonymous_joe wrote: »

Ok.

And I wish I could say more than that.

He's been injured for basically the whole summer, bound to be rusty.

anonymous_joe

danthefan wrote: »

He's been injured for basically the whole summer, bound to be rusty.

Absolutely. And did look good enough at the breakdown. But he's not Rocky, and looked to my mind that he had too much work to do at the breakdown.

We need to allow Sean O'Brien play as Sean O'Brien, rather than forcing him to be the next Elsom.

Third_Echelon

The ref was absolutely awful.... I was left scratching my head at a lot of his decisions...

toomevara

Third_Echelon wrote: »

The ref was absolutely awful.... I was left scratching my head at a lot of his decisions...

Welcome to modern day rugby union, fundamentally unrefereeable (is that a word?), surely it has to be one of the only professional, quasi-global sports with a rule book which is, at best, opaque to all but the most erudite rugby scholars/nerds and at worst utterly indecipherable....

I've been watching/playing Union for over 25 years and recently I've been prey to that most uncomfortable of feelings...complete ignorance. I no longer have any idea what's going on at the breakdown or scrum (I used to play in the front row) and struggle to find a rationale for many reffing decisions...

This years' tri-nations represents a new nadir, does anyone know what ruleset they're using...? farcical, it almost like bloody Dungeons and Dragons, (no seriously go with me, on this) It all depends on which edition the DM, sorry ref is using, and interpretation is entirely down to individual whim... you might as well role a dice,crazy stuff. Of course, the fact that the rugby being played could most charitably be described a puke-ball (yes Bokke, I love your rugby traditions, but you stand indicted!!!!) doesn't help. Interesting times....

Crash

toomevara wrote: »

Welcome to modern day rugby union, fundamentally unrefereeable (is that a word?), surely it has to be one of the only professional, quasi-global sports with a rule book which is, at best, opaque to all but the most erudite rugby scholars/nerds and at worst utterly indecipherable....

I've been watching/playing Union for over 25 years and recently I've been prey to that most uncomfortable of feelings...complete ignorance. I no longer have any idea what's going on at the breakdown or scrum (I used to play in the front row) and struggle to find a rationale for many reffing decisions...

This years' tri-nations represents a new nadir, does anyone know what ruleset they're using...? farcical, it almost like bloody Dungeons and Dragons, (no seriously go with me, on this) It all depends on which edition the DM, sorry ref is using, and interpretation is entirely down to individual whim... you might as well role a dice,crazy stuff. Of course, the fact that the rugby being played could most charitably be described a puke-ball (yes Bokke, I love your rugby traditions, but you stand indicted!!!!) doesn't help. Interesting times....

You can't even put Clancy's display on Friday into those kind of issues though toomevara - I can honestly say it was one of the strangest displays i've ever seen.

Gelio

+1

If it was a HC game I would say he was bribed

anonymous_joe

toomevara wrote: »

Welcome to modern day rugby union, fundamentally unrefereeable (is that a word?), surely it has to be one of the only professional, quasi-global sports with a rule book which is, at best, opaque to all but the most erudite rugby scholars/nerds and at worst utterly indecipherable....

I've been watching/playing Union for over 25 years and recently I've been prey to that most uncomfortable of feelings...complete ignorance. I no longer have any idea what's going on at the breakdown or scrum (I used to play in the front row) and struggle to find a rationale for many reffing decisions...

This years' tri-nations represents a new nadir, does anyone know what ruleset they're using...? farcical, it almost like bloody Dungeons and Dragons, (no seriously go with me, on this) It all depends on which edition the DM, sorry ref is using, and interpretation is entirely down to individual whim... you might as well role a dice,crazy stuff. Of course, the fact that the rugby being played could most charitably be described a puke-ball (yes Bokke, I love your rugby traditions, but you stand indicted!!!!) doesn't help. Interesting times....

Great great post, there's a lot of truth in it, but Clancy was just shíte.

Edit: Y'know what's worse, and really pisses me off? That game wasn't on the telly, so only the few thousand of us there know how awful a ref he is. (Well ok, anyone whose seen him knows.) Had that game been watched by a ref assessor (I hope it was) there's not a hope he'd get to ref a single ML game this season.

Trojan

I missed the game, was talking to some LI folks later in the evening and got their perspective. I'm a little disappointed with Leinster but I think it's definitely wise to hold back in this game and I wouldn't make any predictions on the season from this performance

How did the young aussie lad who came on for a few mins do? Billy Ngawini, wasn't it? Any chance of him getting a contract?

Gelio

Very fast, very energetic, very small.
Didn't get any ball but when he did come on he gave everything. (Sprinting everywhere)

phog

For those of you interested there's a thread over in the photography forum with a few pics from the match.

Amazingly, the ref doesn't appear once in them;)

Stev_o

Actually just looking at those pics reminded me that Ryan Lambs playing for London Irish. How did he get on anyone know? Still the same flakey player how has moments of genius every now and again?

Crash

His kicking was top notch all night, looked fairly decent to be honest.

laugh

anonymous_joe wrote: »

We need to allow Sean O'Brien play as Sean O'Brien, rather than forcing him to be the next Elsom.

Did he play at 6?

toomevara

Crash wrote: »

His kicking was top notch all night, looked fairly decent to be honest.

Any charge downs?:)

anonymous_joe

laugh wrote: »

Did he play at 6?

Yeah, Jennings at 7 and Keogh at 8.

Stev_o wrote: »

Actually just looking at those pics reminded me that Ryan Lambs playing for London Irish. How did he get on anyone know? Still the same flakey player how has moments of genius every now and again?

Tore us a new one. :pac: