Leinster (Pro12 runners up) vs Connacht (Pro12 Champions), RDS 29/10 17.15 SKY

Clegg

Kirchner at outside centre is not something I want to see revisited. He played there this season and was poor. If we're losing Ringrose we may.as well give O'Loughlin a go. Although throwing him in at the deep end against Aki might seem a bit unfair.

Think Leinster will have the advantage up front and at half back. Hopefully that'll be the winning of the game.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Ringrose might be at the Ireland camp but is he likely to feature in Chicago, or even go to Chicago?

That said... Olding and Marshall are both injury doubts for Ulster so depending on how they go over the next week Ringrose could well travel.

Zzippy

Deleted User wrote: »

Let the discussion begin:

Note: Guys the Munster v Leinster build up thread really was a disgrace, let's try and keep things a bit more civil this time.

Deleted User wrote: »

At this rate they could call it Leinster A v Leinster B

That civil thing, you didn't really mean that, did ya?!

wp_rathead

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Ringrose might be at the Ireland camp but is he likely to feature in Chicago, or even go to Chicago?

That said... Olding and Marshall are both injury doubts for Ulster so depending on how they go over the next week Ringrose could well travel.

I'm sure Ringrose will be in Irish squad for Training and will probably rightly get capped against Canada. If Olding and Marshall out for Chicago I'd be stunned if anything other than "Henshaw-Payne" in center

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

wp_rathead wrote: »

I'm sure Ringrose will be in Irish squad for Training and will probably rightly get capped against Canada. If Olding and Marshall out for Chicago I'd be stunned if anything other than "Henshaw-Payne" in center

I wouldn't expect him to play in Chicago, but he could still end up travelling. Who else is a viable option at 12/13?

I think Olding is only a minor doubt for this weekend so he'll probably be fine but we're not exactly overwhelmed with centre options if you take the Ulster players (other than Payne) out of the equation.

wp_rathead

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

I wouldn't expect him to play in Chicago, but he could still end up travelling. Who else is a viable option at 12/13?

I think Olding is only a minor doubt for this weekend so he'll probably be fine but we're not exactly overwhelmed with centre options if you take the Ulster players (other than Payne) out of the equation.

Yeah of course he could travel but he would still be available for selection for Leinster this weekend I'd imagine as I doubt he is in Joe's immediate plans

Joe Schmidt

Lads,

You won't believe this, but this morning on my way in I bumped into Joe Schmidt. He was just chilling there on the side of the road for the craic like.

Anyway, I told him about this thread and asked him his thoughts on the whole Marmion v McGrath debate, here is what he had to say:

Joe Schmidt wrote:

Well Venjur me aul'd flower. Y'know, Kieran hasn't really come into the conversation. To be honest, he wasn't meant to be on the South African tour at all but y'know with moy accent some times things get y'know confused so when I said "Marshall" for some reason the boys wrote down "Marmion". Anyway, y'know he spent most of the tour just kinda y'know following Conor around and it got a bit weird when he started dressing the same as Conor and it seemed like he was trying to speak with a Limerick accent. On one of the nights out he had a girl come back with him and he kept on ringing Simon to ask him over." We gave him a few minutes so know one would cop that it was, y'know, a mistake.

Anyway, Luke will be number two moving forward, might put Kieran on the bench for Italy just for the roflocopter but otherwise it's all aboard the McG Hype train

So there ye have it lads, straight from the man himself.

connemara man

Deleted User wrote: »

Lads,

You won't believe this, but this morning on my way in I bumped into Joe Schmidt. He was just chilling there on the side of the road for the craic like.

Anyway, I told him about this thread and asked him his thoughts on the whole Marmion v McGrath debate, here is what he had to say:



So there ye have it lads, straight from the man himself.

Clegg

Never been that impressed with Marmion. Good break but average passer. If we're in a situation where Murray is injured we're goosed no whether it's McGrath or Marmion picked.

Really hope SOB 2.0 starts this Saturday.
The fair weather Leinster fans wont know whats going on.
Would love for Robbie to start too. Bundee's going to get ya!!!!

As for the front row, I think we will need to treat it like the 2nd half against Toulouse, and avoid scrums at all costs.
Weather looks like it should be ok, which will be bad news for Leinster. They wont be able to keep up with our pace.

Kelleher will probably miss out, seeing as he should be heading to Chicago to start...
Who am I kidding, Dave Kearney and McFadden will be in the Ireland squad ahead of him

Clegg

You're talking about injured Dave Kearney and Fergus McFadden? The guys who haven't played in weeks and have no anticipated return to play date?

At least make an effort when you're trying to have a cheap dig.

wp_rathead

[Deleted User] wrote: »

As for the front row, I think we will need to treat it like the 2nd half against Toulouse, and avoid scrums at all costs.

I agree with that although don't think Leinster front row will be as intimidating as Toulouse's was-but no Finlay, Buckley, Tom or even Loughney is a worry

wp_rathead

wp_rathead wrote: »

I agree with that although don't think Leinster front row will be as intimidating as Toulouse's was-but no Finlay, Buckley, Tom or even Loughney is a worry

Leinster are likely to have a front row of Dooley, Tracey, Bent so a pretty dramatic difference to what you played against with Toulouse (not to disparage against the guys at all).

Funnily enough, I don't think the set piece is going to be a dominant fixture within this game and I don't see either side having any major advantages in the pack.

The winning of this game is going to be Connacht having enough up front to gain parity but having a more fluid and heads up approach to back play which an inexperienced and unstructured Leinster defence may struggle with.

If however Leinster / IRFU want the likes of Healy and Ross to get more game time then you can bet we are going to want you to try and run the ball from deep and every time you do the breakdown will get flooded with the hope of creating scrums.

All that said, I gather Leinster are resting a lot of the guys that have played the last 3 weeks so who knows. The IRFU always seem to have some influence over selection for these kinds of fixtures also so will be interesting to see all 4 named sides.

#McGrath>Marmion.

irishbucsfan

It'll be a great experience for a decent young Welsh lad like Marmion to get onto the pitch and play against a leading young Irish scrum half.

wp_rathead

Yaaaawn

Bridge93

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Really hope SOB 2.0 starts this Saturday.
The fair weather Leinster fans wont know whats going on.
Would love for Robbie to start too. Bundee's going to get ya!!!!

As for the front row, I think we will need to treat it like the 2nd half against Toulouse, and avoid scrums at all costs.
Weather looks like it should be ok, which will be bad news for Leinster. They wont be able to keep up with our pace.

Kelleher will probably miss out, seeing as he should be heading to Chicago to start...
Who am I kidding, Dave Kearney and McFadden will be in the Ireland squad ahead of him

Bit rich Connacht fans calling Leinster fans fair weather when their own attendances have gone up almost 500% in the last 7 years
If anything, a bit like Munster, Leinster have started to lose their fair weather fans

wp_rathead

Bridge93 wrote: »

Bit rich Connacht fans calling Leinster fans fair weather when their own attendances have gone up almost 500% in the last 7 years
If anything, a bit like Munster, Leinster have started to lose their fair weather fans

Fairly certain that post was firmly tongue in cheek - as is most of this thread

Zzippy

Clegg wrote: »

You're talking about injured Dave Kearney and Fergus McFadden? The guys who haven't played in weeks and have no anticipated return to play date?

At least make an effort when you're trying to have a cheap dig.

Bridge93 wrote: »

Bit rich Connacht fans calling Leinster fans fair weather when their own attendances have gone up almost 500% in the last 7 years
If anything, a bit like Munster, Leinster have started to lose their fair weather fans

Can people stop being so bloody sensitive when people are clearly just having a laugh? No one is taking Venjur's "digs" seriously, it's just banter, so lighten up folks. :rolleyes:

Bridge93

Zzippy wrote: »

Can people stop being so bloody sensitive when people are clearly just having a laugh? No one is taking Venjur's "digs" seriously, it's just banter, so lighten up folks. :rolleyes:

I'm perfectly light thank you mine is in no way a dig. Look at my comments on the first few pages. Doesn't mean we can't throw out a few facts!

I posted in jest about Connacht being packed with Leinster players expecting to get a bit of a comment back and did about Leinster ignoring those lads. That reply was no different to me bouncing back about fair weather fans. Bringing fact with a bit of fun. No need to get uppity about people replying to posts on a discussion forum.
Should we totally ignore posts that are messing?

irishbucsfan

Bridge93 wrote: »

I'm perfectly light thank you mine is in no way a dig. Look at my comments on the first few pages. Doesn't mean we can't throw out a few facts!

I posted in jest about Connacht being packed with Leinster players expecting to get a bit of a comment back and did about Leinster ignoring those lads. No need to get uppity about people replying to posts on a discussion forum.
Should we totally ignore posts that are messing?

You have to accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative.

Like Connacht's recruitment philosophy.

Bridge93

I had no idea Heffernan was in school with Buckley, Conway, Jordi and Macken. Must have totally missed him

Turnipman

Who'll be reffing the games in the RDS (and Ravinghill)? My personal preference would be for John Lacey - although Clancy would be acceptable.

The Lost Sheep

Turnipman wrote: »

Who'll be reffing the games in the RDS (and Ravinghill)? My personal preference would be for John Lacey - although Clancy would be acceptable.

Nigel reffing Ulster Munster. Lacey is in RDS

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

irishbucsfan wrote: »

It'll be a great experience for a decent young Welsh lad like Marmion to get onto the pitch and play against a leading young Irish scrum half.

McGrath was born in Canada, so I can only assume you mean JGP?

b.gud

The Lost Sheep wrote: »

Nigel reffing Ulster Munster. Lacey is in RDS

I wish it was the other way around, just for the awec rants

thomond2006

The Lost Sheep wrote: »

Lacey is in RDS

Paging awec...

The Lost Sheep

The Lost Sheep wrote: »

Nigel reffing Ulster Munster. Lacey is in RDS

The IRFU are such spoil sports, would have been WAY more fun on here if Lacey was reffing up north.

Zzippy

Someone tweet Nigel and see will he do a swapsie...

I don't know how it will happen, but Lacey is going to make a call of such outrage on Saturday that it will affect the game in Ravenhill the night before.

irishbucsfan

Deleted User wrote: »

I don't know how it will happen, but Lacey is going to make a call of such outrage on Saturday that it will affect the game in Ravenhill the night before.