Leinster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread XI (The Finals Countdown)

arsebiscuits1

pickarooney wrote: »

Can someone give me a quick overview of the various O'Briens? I'm a bit lost.

Jimmy - ex sevens player. Utilised mostly at 13 but played 15 also. Great feet, skills and pace. Very adept at finding the soft shoulders and seems to have a good brain to defend the 13 channel. Not the most physical player but the stuff he does well compensates for it.

Conor - Mullingar man whose a very strong carrier of the ball. Played on the same under 20s team as Ryan, Porter, Deegan, Stockdale. Similar 12 to Henshaw. Rarely takes a backwards step and prone to some lovely touches. Absolute cannon of a left peg. Breakout season last year and hasn't hit the heights many were expecting of him this year. Struggling for form and fitness.

Tommy - prodigious underage talent who missed a full year with shoulder and knee problems. Very capable outside centre or wing. Absolutely owned the 13 channel at Leinster A this season and stepped up so far to Pro14. Very complete all around skillset.

Sean (Óg) - sub academy 6/7. Don't know much about him. Seems to be a very promising back row. Interesting to see how he develops over the next few seasons.

David - works in accounts. Good fella. Drives an Audi A5. Season ticket holder for 9 years now

pickarooney

Fantastic, thanks

Clegg

Don't forget Sean Sr.

Watersports enthusiast.

Clegg

Looking at the Munster game and you can see the huge gap in quality between us and them. I don't think they have poor players, but the coaching Leinster are subject to is so obviously better. Scarlets were down a man for the entire second half, but Munster weren't able to exploit the space at all. It took Scarlets going down to 13 in the final 10 minutes for them to get the 4th try.

jacothelad

Clegg wrote: »

Don't forget Sean Sr.

Watersports enthusiast.

A font of whizz.......

Shefwedfan

Clegg wrote: »

Looking at the Munster game and you can see the huge gap in quality between us and them. I don't think they have poor players, but the coaching Leinster are subject to is so obviously better. Scarlets were down a man for the entire second half, but Munster weren't able to exploit the space at all. It took Scarlets going down to 13 in the final 10 minutes for them to get the 4th try.

Weather was awful which didn’t help

Casey was a shining light, would love to see him playing for Leinster

arsebiscuits1

Clegg wrote: »

Looking at the Munster game and you can see the huge gap in quality between us and them. I don't think they have poor players, but the coaching Leinster are subject to is so obviously better. Scarlets were down a man for the entire second half, but Munster weren't able to exploit the space at all. It took Scarlets going down to 13 in the final 10 minutes for them to get the 4th try.

In fairness. Conditions were atrocious. Leinster undeniably the better coached team but Munster did the job they needed too.

While we can sit on our high horse about our players I do think that Casey, Wycherly, O'Sullivan,. coombes and hodnett were all excellent and look like really reliable future pros

I know it's not the Munster thread but Chris Cloete is a bit of a liability.

And Toland giving motm to a hooker who lost 5 lineouts is a bit embarrassing.

Scottmactom

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Weather was awful which didn’t help

Casey was a shining light, would love to see him playing for Leinster

Happy for Munster produced players to play for Munster and Leinster produced players to play for Leinster.

Casey grew up dreaming of playing for Munster and happily for him he is fulfilling that dream. Just like Luke McGrath and hopefully the same for the next generation of Leinster Scrumhalves.

Interested Observer

Burkie1203 wrote: »

Saints two tries in 6 minutes v Saracens

Saracens players look a bit disinterested. Very passive so far

Saracens won in the end but I don't know how instructive these games are without Farrell, Itoje, George, Daly, Mako, Kruis etc.

Scottmactom

Good to see Charlie Ryan(5) and Martin Moloney(7) both make their return from long term injuries yesterday in the AIL.

Other Leinster players who played yesterday:

Dan Sheehan - started at 2 for Lansdowne.
Jack Dunne - started at 5 for Trinity.
Hugh O'Sullivan - started at 9 for Clontarf.
Paddy Patterson - started at 9 for UCD.
Tommy O'Brien - started at 12 for UCD.
Gavin Mullin - started at 13 for UCD.
Barry Daly - started at 14 for UCD.

Shefwedfan

Scottmactom wrote: »

Happy for Munster produced players to play for Munster and Leinster produced players to play for Leinster.

Casey grew up dreaming of playing for Munster and happily for him he is fulfilling that dream. Just like Luke McGrath and hopefully the same for the next generation of Leinster Scrumhalves.

I know all this but Casey game would actually suit Leinster

Not sure about the Casey dreaming to play for Munster? Never seen anything to say he has or hasn’t

Casey could look at Murray, was one of the best players in world and has a Pro14 medal to his name in club rugby...or does he even have a Pro14 medal? Then look at McGrath and see the cabinet full

Scottmactom

Shefwedfan wrote: »

I know all this but Casey game would actually suit Leinster

Not sure about the Casey dreaming to play for Munster? Never seen anything to say he has or hasn’t

Casey could look at Murray, was one of the best players in world and has a Pro14 medal to his name in club rugby...or does he even have a Pro14 medal? Then look at McGrath and see the cabinet full

He is from Limerick and a nephew of a former Munster player. There is a picture of him as a child in Munster gear with Anthony Foley. Of course he dreamt of playing for Munster.

https://www.limerickleader.ie/news/sport/477073/craig-casey-playing-for-munster-is-a-dream-come-true.html

In terms of his game he obviously an excellent scrumhalf but his size may be an issue as he progresses especially defensively and his injury profile already is a big concern.

Shefwedfan

Scottmactom wrote: »

He is from Limerick and a nephew of a former Munster player. There is a picture of him as a child in Munster gear with Anthony Foley. Of course he dreamt of playing for Munster.

https://www.limerickleader.ie/news/sport/477073/craig-casey-playing-for-munster-is-a-dream-come-true.html

In terms of his game he obviously an excellent scrumhalf but his size may be an issue as he progresses especially defensively and his injury profile already is a big concern.

I’m sure you could get a picture of Conway, Jones, Carbery etc in Leinster gear as kids. Just look at Nordi going to Ulster and his last post suggested he would come back, don’t think he would now

Things change, especially for hungry players

He had a bad injury last season, didn’t see anything since to suggest a bad injury profile?

The size things is BS....the best 9 in the World is tiny, Dupoint fof France is not a giant either

Scottmactom

Well he had a chance to come to Leinster or stay at Munster and chose to stay at Munster and fulfill his dream as he said in that interview.

He has torn his acl twice and he is 20 along with number of other niggles already. I said his size may be an issue defensively.. Just because it isn't for the top 1% of 9's in the world doesn't mean it may not be down the line for Casey.

realhorrorshow

Would Tom Clarkson be a candidate to move to loosehead? Think the path to first team minutes is a lot more clear on the other side of the scrum. Reconverting Porter would be a waste of his prototypical size and the time put into converting him to tighthead imo whereas Clarkson is built more like a loosehead at the top level.

arsebiscuits1

With a very real possibility that the Ireland France game wont go ahead, the picture for the South Africa tour is now looking very different.

Surely if the game is cancelled we will need to go locked and loaded with the seniors to South Africa to get them game time and cohesion ahead of the Sarries quarter final

clsmooth

That’s assuming that the game will go ahead.. two QF in France too who have put a ban on events with more than 5,000 people attending. If they can postpone those, do they postpone all the QFs?

arsebiscuits1

clsmooth wrote: »

That’s assuming that the game will go ahead.. two QF in France too who have put a ban on events with more than 5,000 people attending. If they can postpone those, do they postpone all the QFs?

You still need the players playing and so far it's looking like they wont have done so for over a month.

Organisers, given the scale of all match postponements will be looking to have every game that can possibly go ahead to go ahead

Squidgy Black

realhorrorshow wrote: »

Would Tom Clarkson be a candidate to move to loosehead? Think the path to first team minutes is a lot more clear on the other side of the scrum. Reconverting Porter would be a waste of his prototypical size and the time put into converting him to tighthead imo whereas Clarkson is built more like a loosehead at the top level.

I doubt it but who knows, he's played pretty much all of his rugby at TH, and we've the likes of Charlie Ward coming in at LH as well as Milne already in the academy.

Kevski

clsmooth wrote: »

That’s assuming that the game will go ahead.. two QF in France too who have put a ban on events with more than 5,000 people attending. If they can postpone those, do they postpone all the QFs?

Isn’t it just indoor events that the ban relates to?

Scottmactom

Squidgy Black wrote: »

I doubt it but who knows, he's played pretty much all of his rugby at TH, and we've the likes of Charlie Ward coming in at LH as well as Milne already in the academy.

Wards unlikely to make academy. Clarkson more than capable of playing LH.

Quin_Dub

clsmooth wrote: »

That’s assuming that the game will go ahead.. two QF in France too who have put a ban on events with more than 5,000 people attending. If they can postpone those, do they postpone all the QFs?

Worst case , would they just play the games in empty stadia?

Rather then cancel, assuming the teams could travel etc.

Clegg

Baird, McGrath, Kearney, Connors and Deegan are back with the Ireland squad after playing for Leinster last weekend.

https://www.leinsterrugby.ie/ireland-squad-update-guinness-six-nations/

Burkie1203

https://twitter.com/CianTracey1/status/1234431765902692352?s=19

thebaz

Put the whole Leinster set-up against France , add CJ, Cooney, Henderson, Bundee and Conway and Irish rugby should be ok ;-)

errlloyd

thebaz wrote: »

Put the whole Leinster set-up against France , add CJ, Cooney, Henderson, Bundee and Conway and Irish rugby should be ok ;-)

Or, to put it another way. Drop Stockdale and Herring?

thebaz

thebaz wrote: »

Put the whole Leinster set-up against France , add CJ, Cooney, Henderson, Bundee and Conway and Irish rugby should be ok ;-)

Make leinster the Ireland first team. Shift everyone around accordingly with other provinces being 2nd, 3rd and 4th teams. That way Ireland would be playing together all year round.

thebaz

errlloyd wrote: »

Or, to put it another way. Drop Stockdale and Herring?

I would drop Stockdale. (I was joking a little , just seams Leinster are firing , and Ireland are stuttering

FrannoFan

realhorrorshow wrote: »

Would Tom Clarkson be a candidate to move to loosehead? Think the path to first team minutes is a lot more clear on the other side of the scrum. Reconverting Porter would be a waste of his prototypical size and the time put into converting him to tighthead imo whereas Clarkson is built more like a loosehead at the top level.

There is a super loose head coming out of school this year.

antietam1

Scottmactom wrote: »

Baird will be starting for Ireland next season so won't be available much to Leinster.

TMMMALC.