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

arsebiscuits1

I also had to catch myself on Harry Byrne. This was his 14th senior game of rugby and his 6th start.

I'm holding him to a much higher standard than his experience probably warrants.

It's absolutely a positive thing as it shows that he definetely has the ability. He will improve his decision making every time he plays. He has certainly smashed any expectations any reasonable person could have of an outhalf on their 6th start.

UAEguy2020

Its a huge positive when he is only 21 and you expect him to slot literally any kick he has no matter where it is on the pitch.

ElisaAtWar

arsebiscuits1 wrote: »

I also had to catch myself on Harry Byrne. This was his 14th senior game of rugby and his 6th start.

I'm holding him to a much higher standard than his experience probably warrants.

It's absolutely a positive thing as it shows that he definetely has the ability. He will improve his decision making every time he plays. He has certainly smashed any expectations any reasonable person could have of an outhalf on their 6th start.

Huge fan. Believe he will succeed once we can get past the ancestor/parent/child model enforced by IRFU. Until the ancestor has passed on there will be no parent visible and certainly there will be no child visible. Sorry about the software association but it's appropriate.

Miriam Gonzalez Durantez

It’s amazing how Hawkshaw completely outshone Byrne at schools level but now they are both pros the shoe is on the other foot. I still think Hawkshaw will have something to say about the outhalf position if he can exhibit a competent kicking game at pro level. He has the attributes of great tens being a pivot like player who can make hard yards when asked and is strong in contact. Hopefully he can come through his injury woes over the coming season and get a few cameos. If he has started a game by season end he’ll be doing very well with the talent lined up in first centre and outhalf.

arsebiscuits1

ElisaAtWar wrote: »

Huge fan. Believe he will succeed once we can get past the ancestor/parent/child model enforced by IRFU. Until the ancestor has passed on there will be no parent visible and certainly there will be no child visible. Sorry about the software association but it's appropriate.

It is appropriate?

I don't think its overly founded to be honest. If a player is ready to step up to international rugby they play.

bayern

yeah leinster's maul has been pretty poor against quality oppo, same with ireland.

RugbyLover123

What do people see Penny’s ceiling being? I’ve always talked down any talk of players being moved on because of a back log but with the emergence of Connors, VDF and Leavy going to warrant a starting role in the coming weeks, it’ll be interesting to see how everything pans out.

ElisaAtWar

arsebiscuits1 wrote: »

It is appropriate?

I don't think its overly founded to be honest. If a player is ready to step up to international rugby they play.

That is not how it works and once you accept that harsh reality then you get to know Irish rugby. So accept or support another team

Clegg

Of the current crop of young backs I think Timmy O'Brien is the closest to breaking into the full strength 23. Seems to have all the good to excel at centre or wing.

Jimmy O'Brien is best placed after him. Has an excellent boot and seems to position himself well under the high ball. Work rate like the below will also.be very appreciated by the coaches. He saved an almost certain Ospreys try and launched the counterattack for Leinsters try in the same phase.

https://twitter.com/Murray_Kinsella/status/1325551167154368513?s=19

aloooof

kingofthekong wrote: »

Even with the scrum penalties we still had crucial lineouts and mauls stolen which still could’ve won the game for us despite getting minced in the scrum

Could've won us the game vs cost us the game are quite distinct, tho. Anyways, not a big deal.

Great to see Leavy back and getting more minutes today.

arsebiscuits1

ElisaAtWar wrote: »

That is not how it works and once you accept that harsh reality then you get to know Irish rugby. So accept or support another team

Right.

arsebiscuits1

arsebiscuits1 wrote: »

Right.

Accept it arsebiscuits1

arsebiscuits1

RugbyLover123 wrote: »

What do people see Penny’s ceiling being? I’ve always talked down any talk of players being moved on because of a back log but with the emergence of Connors, VDF and Leavy going to warrant a starting role in the coming weeks, it’ll be interesting to see how everything pans out.

Comparable to Michael Hooper in some ways. Most notably similar sizes.

Hard to say how far he will progress. I'd be quite surprised if he ended up being a 20+ capped international.

Having said that. It's easy to forget that he's only 21. He certainly is not playing like it. He's playing better than any other Irish openside I can think of in recent years at a similar age. Leavy possibly, I think his breakout season was 22 but open to correction

I think he lacks a physicality going forward that would be required of top end opensides though. His carrying ability, pace and awareness of space all appear to be tremendous, but I think many of these traits will be easily nullified against better opposition.

At present he doesn't offer enough of a point of difference to displace Connors or VDF and obviously if Leavy continues on his rehab then that's another.

If Penny were to move to Munster tomorrow (something I obviously do not want to see happen) I think he'd find himself as first choice 7. He offers more than Cloete already and a chunk of first choice rugby would see him displace O'Donnell and I don't think Hodnett is a tremendous openside. But the downside of that move is balancing the line between development and game time. The game time isn't always there at Leinster, but the development is.

arsebiscuits1

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Accept it arsebiscuits1

Never. I support Cornish Pirates now

kingofthekong

aloooof wrote: »

Could've won us the game vs cost us the game are quite distinct, tho. Anyways, not a big deal.

Great to see Leavy back and getting more minutes today.

Youre missing my point i was talking about leinsters linout mauling attack and defense not being good enough, everyones aware of our scrum deficiency in that game, but a poster saying our scrum was the bigger issue doesnt negate the other issue of our lineout constantly being dismantled by the better teams

AbusesToilets

Rhys with his classic showing cracking form while outside of the Ireland squad. He'll immediately get injured if called up. I've resigned myself to the fact that he will never get the recognition he deserves internationally.

pickarooney

Clegg wrote: »

Of the current crop of young backs I think Timmy O'Brien is the closest to breaking into the full strength 23. Seems to have all the good to excel at centre or wing.

Jimmy O'Brien is best placed after him. Has an excellent boot and seems to position himself well under the high ball. Work rate like the below will also.be very appreciated by the coaches. He saved an almost certain Ospreys try and launched the counterattack for Leinsters try in the same phase.

https://twitter.com/Murray_Kinsella/status/1325551167154368513?s=19

Wait, there's a Timmy now as well?

kingofthekong

O'brien has gotta be the most succesful surname to have if you want to be a professional rugby player in Ireland lol

aloooof

kingofthekong wrote: »

Youre missing my point i was talking about leinsters linout mauling attack and defense not being good enough, everyones aware of our scrum deficiency in that game, but a poster saying our scrum was the bigger issue doesnt negate the other issue of our lineout constantly being dismantled by the better teams

I never said it did negate any other issues. You're moving the goalposts. What you actually said was:

kingofthekong wrote: »

Leinster maul structures both in attack and defense look terrible , it’s what cost us the sarries game

where, imo, the scrum was a far bigger contributor towards costing ye the game (which you seem to agree with me on?). That's the only point I was making.

Enjoyed the game yesterday but it didn't feel like I was watching sport. I had no doubt from the moment we scored the first try what the end result would be. It's nice seeing such a well drilled, effective and hard working side but the complete lack of tension watching Leinster in the league is taking away from the sport.

That might be the most 'first world problems' post I've made on this forum and in years to come I might wish for a return to this kind of dominance but it's becoming almost indecent at this stage.

I also think it's starting to hurt the national team a bit. We look so used to steamrolling opposition that when we face a team we can't run over we lose all composure.

sydthebeat

Deleted User wrote: »

Enjoyed the game yesterday but it didn't feel like I was watching sport. I had no doubt from the moment we scored the first try what the end result would be. It's nice seeing such a well drilled, effective and hard working side but the complete lack of tension watching Leinster in the league is taking away from the sport.

That might be the most 'first world problems' post I've made on this forum and in years to come I might wish for a return to this kind of dominance but it's becoming almost indecent at this stage.

I also think it's starting to hurt the national team a bit. We look so used to steamrolling opposition that when we face a team we can't run over we lose all composure.

some have been saying this for a long time.....

leinster have not lost a Pro14 game since April 27th 2019, and even at that, it wasn't a game they had to win. So thats 24 games in a row leinster have won in the domestic league... and on the way accumulated 14 out of a possible 20 TBPs

the sooner the Bokke teams come in the batter, for the leagues sake.
even if it means a couple of irish teams missing out on play off rugby at the business end of the season.

Buer

Deleted User wrote: »

Enjoyed the game yesterday but it didn't feel like I was watching sport. I had no doubt from the moment we scored the first try what the end result would be. It's nice seeing such a well drilled, effective and hard working side but the complete lack of tension watching Leinster in the league is taking away from the sport.

That might be the most 'first world problems' post I've made on this forum and in years to come I might wish for a return to this kind of dominance but it's becoming almost indecent at this stage.

I also think it's starting to hurt the national team a bit. We look so used to steamrolling opposition that when we face a team we can't run over we lose all composure.

I think part of the reason that I feel so indifferent towards the Pro14 at the moment is due to scheduling. Normally we have the early season games after a couple of months of no rugby so we're chomping at the bit for some televised rugby. But we've been flooded with interpros, knock out rugby and Six Nations. The Pro14 is a bad comparison to that intensity and/or tension.

But we can't get away from how poor the league is right now. The Ospreys went 75 minutes without scoring against us yesterday. For the last 15 minutes, Leinster had a backline of McGrath, Hawkshaw, Kearney, Turner, Jimmy O'Brien, Kelleher and Hugh O'Sullivan and the Ospreys couldn't score. That's a bad joke at this stage.

The Scarlets needed a 76th minute penalty to beat Zebre at home despite having a fairly standard Pro14 line up out with a number of experienced operators there.

I'll be interested to see how Ulster get on tonight. Glasgow would normally give them a solid game in Belfast. If Ulster beat them comfortably, I suspect the entire season is going to be a non-event.

As you mention, this is not good whatsoever for the Irish team or for preparations for European rugby against more competitive leagues.

bayern

not much leinster can do other than show up and perform.. not there problem if the rest of the league is struggling..

sydthebeat

bayern wrote: »

not much leinster can do other than show up and perform.. not there problem if the rest of the league is struggling..

but it is their problem if the league itself is struggling.... not that theyre the cause of the problem of course, but they are affected by the result of the problem

is there just absolute apathy in wales to this??

Synode

bayern wrote: »

not much leinster can do other than show up and perform.. not there problem if the rest of the league is struggling..

It's becoming a problem for Leinster for sure. Fingers crossed the South African teams come in and are the catalyst the league needs to improve. Hopefully the league move away from Eir too. They're awful

Morathi

sydthebeat wrote: »

some have been saying this for a long time.....

leinster have not lost a Pro14 game since April 27th 2019, and even at that, it wasn't a game they had to win. So thats 24 games in a row leinster have won in the domestic league... and on the way accumulated 14 out of a possible 20 TBPs

the sooner the Bokke teams come in the batter, for the leagues sake.
even if it means a couple of irish teams missing out on play off rugby at the business end of the season.

Couldn't agree more. I mean.....Jesus, beating Glasgow and Ospreys away should be challenging, but we did it with BP wins.

At this stage, it feels like only Munster might put up a challenge against Leinster, but it's no longer the coin toss of a result that it was, and hasn't been for a good while.

Saffers will be a very welcome addition at this stage.

thomond2006

It absolutely becomes a problem for the provinces if the Welsh and Scots continue to underperform. People lose interest with viewership and ticket sales (when they return) decreasing.

Ask Celtic if it was really in their interests for Rangers to go under and be out of the SPL for a few years. Hardly.

FellasFellas

If the South African team experiment doesn't work, is it time to look at a 'Premiership' and 'Championship' with promotion relegation with Irish/English/Welsh/Scottish/SA teams.

I think the Italians would be better off joining the Pro D2 or trying to join up with the French league. Regardless of whatever progress they both have made, they would be better off somewhere else.

Buer

The only way I look forward to a Leinster Pro14 game now is if there are fringe/developing players involved. The opening game where the front liners were rolled out to efficiently strangle the Dragons in as efficient a manner as possible without over extending themselves was not appealing whatsoever.

FellasFellas

FellasFellas wrote: »

If the South African team experiment doesn't work, is it time to look at a 'Premiership' and 'Championship' with promotion relegation with Irish/English/Welsh/Scottish/SA teams.

I think the Italians would be better off joining the Pro D2 or trying to join up with the French league. Regardless of whatever progress they both have made, they would be better off somewhere else.

I absolutely would not get into bed with the English clubs as things stand.

There would need to be a Union body within the RFU that represents and regulates them before I'd see the provinces join up.

The clubs are ran at the behest of owners that are focused on their teams and not the health of the league - I just don't see the long term benefit to Irish rugby.