Preview: Leinster v Saracens, Sunday April 1, 15:30, BT Sports 2

Dave_The_Sheep

Former Former wrote: »

Garces is probably the best ref in the game right now.

prawnsambo wrote: »

I actually think Wayne Barnes is better. There, I've said it.

I'm on the side of Barnes overall, but they are top two for me right now. Generally great communication, decision making and know when to take others input and when to make their own decision.

AbusesToilets

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

I'm on the side of Barnes overall, but they are top two for me right now. Generally great communication, decision making and know when to take others input and when to make their own decision.

Far better than the overly lauded Owens imo. Would also have Poite and Gardner ahead of him too.

Neil3030

fullstop wrote: »

Agreed, some of his kicking in the last 10 was brainless. The turnover from Leavy's counter-ruck and he just picks it up and box kicks straight to touch when Leinster had loads of backs in space on the far side as well as a couple of other box kicks after that were very poor.
On the Kearney incident, I thought the penalty was very harsh as he's still waiting to see what way Williams is going to go and is not ready to tackle when Williams slips into him...but if he's giving the penalty is it not a penalty try?

Williams had stepped inside so I reckon Tracy had him covered.

baaba maal

Clegg wrote: »

VdF was first choice openside for Ireland in the 6N. There really isn't that much between himself and Leavy. Leavy is the stronger player and VdF the quicker. Up to the start of the 6N VdF was playing great stuff for Leinster and was rightly our starting openside.

I think the one area Leavy has overtaken VDF is his carrying. VDF doesn't seem to carry and pass very often and that is fast becoming a requirement to some extent for all backrows I think.

.ak

swiwi_ wrote: »

Happy with that.

BOD giving MOTM to Leavy is the right call: even God would have trouble choosing between SOB, Leavy and VDF for the starting 7 shirt.

Hats off to James Ryan who was also excellent, as was Nacewa.

For Sarries, I thought Goode was good...

Leinster vs R92 in the final is what I predict...and another star for my Leinster shirt.

Ofcourse there’s a possibility where we could play the following backrow:

08. SOB
07. JVDF
06. Leavy

In fact, the more I think of it, the more I see SOB’s future at 6 or 8. With all the injuries I have a feeling he’ll have lost a yard of pace that’s required to cover the openside.

EDIT: Doh, sorry just seen TRoL’s post...

.ak

baaba maal wrote: »

I think the one area Leavy has overtaken VDF is his carrying. VDF doesn't seem to carry and pass very often and that is fast becoming a requirement to some extent for all backrows I think.

Leavy only passed twice yesterday in 19 carries iirc.

Both Leavy and VDF have very good hands tho, don’t think either stand out above each other there.

Two fairly different 7s, both bring something unique to the party. Jvdf must be worried now tho.

.ak

Peregrine wrote: »

The Leinster midfield did miss a lot of tackles. Ringrose more so than Nacewa. I might watch it back and look a little closer at the missed tackles if I get the time.

Edit: ESPN Scrum says Ringrose made 8 tackles and missed 8. Isa made 15 and missed 7.

Yeah and the majority of those tackles Isa missed were in the final quarter he seemed to be flagging. You get the feeling his time is limited now.

However, one thing I will say is the stats don’t show the effect of those missed tackles, a lot of them were shots out of the line to force the runner back inside, both Isa and Ringrose stopped a fair few try opportunities wuthout actually completing the tackle.

.ak

Anyone have a clip of Tadhg cutting Mako in half? Or RK flattening Williams?

Burkie1203

.ak wrote: »

Leavy only passed twice yesterday in 19 carries iirc.

Both Leavy and VDF have very good hands tho, don’t think either stand out above each other there.

Two fairly different 7s, both bring something unique to the party. Jvdf must be worried now tho.

Leavy was too busy carrying for 82 metres to pass.

Jordi going Nordi, Heaslip retired and SOB forever injured. Plenty of scope for VDF to play alongside Leavy at Leinster anyway

Having Ruddock back is perfectly timed.

GammyHammy

.ak wrote: »

Yeah and the majority of those tackles Isa missed were in the final quarter he seemed to be flagging. You get the feeling his time is limited now.

However, one thing I will say is the stats don’t show the effect of those missed tackles, a lot of them were shots out of the line to force the runner back inside, both Isa and Ringrose stopped a fair few try opportunities wuthout actually completing the tackle.

Yea would generally agree, Ringrose slowed some of their attack’s down by shepherding wide. However I did feel he slipped off a few and can thank both McFadden and Lowe on a few occasions for stepping in at the right time and taking man and ball. Thought they defended well throughout.

Boscoirl

Saracens were really poor. Part of that is down to Leinster not allowing them to play. But for me they were the easily the worst team of the weekend. Absolutely not invention from them. Farrell and Goode had good games but the rest were poor.

prawnsambo

Boscoirl wrote: »

Saracens were really poor. Part of that is down to Leinster not allowing them to play. But for me they were the easily the worst team of the weekend. Absolutely not invention from them. Farrell and Goode had good games but the rest were poor.

It was more than Farrell and Goode. Brad Barritt, Sean Maitland, Mako Vunipola, Jackson Wray and Liam Williams all had very good games. And their bench made a significant impact as well. They were not bad at all. They got hit early by a very good counter attack and were playing catch up from five minutes into the game.

Buer

Boscoirl wrote: »

Saracens were really poor. Part of that is down to Leinster not allowing them to play. But for me they were the easily the worst team of the weekend. Absolutely not invention from them. Farrell and Goode had good games but the rest were poor.

I thought they were very well drilled for the opening 40. They made ground on most carries and dominated possession and territory. They played very much like Ireland, controlling a huge amount of phase play and squeezing Leinster into making errors and forcing penalties.

Take an early try out of it due to a poor missed tackle and Saracens had the better of the opening half comfortably, I thought.

But Leinster have long had a habit of stepping up in the third quarter. Those 20 minutes were as good a spell as I've seen from them.

Time to get the cotton wool out again and wrap up some lads until the semi.

yosser hughes

Boscoirl wrote: »

Saracens were really poor. Part of that is down to Leinster not allowing them to play. But for me they were the easily the worst team of the weekend. Absolutely not invention from them. Farrell and Goode had good games but the rest were poor.

I though Barritt in particular was outstanding. If they had scored from that lineout before half time things could have been a lot different.

.ak

Thought he was poor in defence myself, very hesitant on set pieces. The time Rob Kearney ran it out of our 22 he got completely flat footed in defence and didn’t seem to know where to stand - he was all over the shop and that made it very difficult for his 10 and 13 to successfully call the push.

Boscoirl

I thought they were very one dimensional and only stupid penalties kept them in the game in the first half.

The early try definitely gave Leinster some breathing room. And despite a good purple patch before ht Leinster were comfortable.

Vunipola turned it over too many times in contact

prawnsambo

Boscoirl wrote: »

I thought they were very one dimensional and only stupid penalties kept them in the game in the first half.

The early try definitely gave Leinster some breathing room. And despite a good purple patch before ht Leinster were comfortable.

Vunipola turned it over too many times in contact

He only turned it over twice. One of those was when he offloaded to Blair Cowan's knees.

But he made 20 carries and had a clean break and two defenders beaten. He was one of their standouts, but tired towards the end unsurprisingly.

Their one-dimenionality came from our line speed. They couldn't get the ball wide very often and when they did, they were shepherded away from danger.

Bridge93

I enjoy watching the Premiership on a Saturday afternoon so have seen a lot of Saracens and can safely say that's comfortably in their top 3 performances this year as a collective.

dubal

Bridge93 wrote: »

I enjoy watching the Premiership on a Saturday afternoon so have seen a lot of Saracens and can safely say that's comfortably in their top 3 performances this year as a collective.

I had a quick look at their forum, and it tends to concur. They feel its a sign they are coming into form and are playing better.

pickarooney

.ak wrote: »

Leavy only passed twice yesterday in 19 carries iirc.

Both of them offloads, no?

Champagne player.

BoardsMember

Buer wrote: »

I thought they were very well drilled for the opening 40. They made ground on most carries and dominated possession and territory. They played very much like Ireland, controlling a huge amount of phase play and squeezing Leinster into making errors and forcing penalties.

Take an early try out of it due to a poor missed tackle and Saracens had the better of the opening half comfortably, I thought.

But Leinster have long had a habit of stepping up in the third quarter. Those 20 minutes were as good a spell as I've seen from them.

Time to get the cotton wool out again and wrap up some lads until the semi.

This was my reading of it too, I thought they were playing much the better rugby in the first half they owned the ball and were playing almost exclusively in our half. I was delighted to get to half time ahead, we had been under so much pressure. We came out a different team in the second half, very impressive performance.

AdamD

At the game it seemed like Saracens were overly reliant on Vunipola and Barritt to carry, their back row seemed non existent. Thought Farrell was excellent, brilliant passer.

Spoke before the game to someone about how Dan Leavy and James Ryan seemed to work together as a team during the 6N, then they pull that out of the bag yesterday.

James Ryan 21
Dan Leavy 23

Ridiculous.

Bridge93

The way Saracens went about it in the first half it seemed that, despite not playing at tempo, there was a brutal and clinical inevitability to what they were doing.

Most impressive passage of play were the 20 odd phases I think between Leinsters second and third tries. They absolutely pounded Sarries yet they wouldn't buckle when I can confidently say that any other team in Europe probably would have bar maybe Exeter. It was incredible to witness the tackles going in

stephen_n

Deleted User wrote: »

Spoke before the game to someone about how Dan Leavy and James Ryan seemed to work together as a team during the 6N, then they pull that out of the bag yesterday.

James Ryan 21
Dan Leavy 23

Ridiculous.

Ryan is a very intelligent player with ball in hand, he’s always looking to get behind defenders and get his hands free. Leavy has some eye for a gap too, his pick and goes from the edge of rucks, are exceptional. We seem to be producing forwards now that are capeable of playing really good attacking rugby, it’s a joy to watch.

Faugheen

James Ryan still hasn't lost a game as a professional.

That's an incredible record really.

He's going to be a massive star. He looks like he's been playing at this level for years.

Definitely a future Leinster and Ireland captain, with a ceiling as high as Paul O'Connell's.

Interested Observer

Faugheen wrote: »

James Ryan still hasn't lost a game as a professional.

That's an incredible record really.

He's going to be a massive star. He looks like he's been playing at this level for years.

Definitely a future Leinster and Ireland captain, with a ceiling as high as Paul O'Connell's.

I'm not saying he's there at all yet but his ceiling is potentially higher. He can catch and pass.

Bridge93

Yeah from a playing perspective he seems to have a potentially higher ceiling. Whether he has even a quarter of the intangibles that POC brought remains to be seen given he's only 21

Also, once again Furlong was outstanding. He's got some engine considering the mass he has to carry around the pitch.

pickarooney

Furlong played the full 80 yesterday?

Any full match vids around? I only saw 15 mins.