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

redmca2

Weather forecast for Saturday v cold, match could be called off

Podge_irl

redmca2 wrote: »

Weather forecast for Saturday v cold, match could be called off

-2 overnight and 4 on the day? If the game is called off for that its piss poor planning and logistics. It'll be fine.

scott1974

The 42 saying could be available for Saturday, that would be a real boost.
https://www.the42.ie/ringrose-return-six-nations-5330424-Jan2021/

Richie_Rich89

There's talk that Ringrose might be available for selection. I think it would be a mistake to pick him. Henshaw is so much better in attack at 13 than he is at 12.

I think once Conor O'Brien returns Leinster's most potent centre pairing might be 12. COB, 13. Henshaw. Frawley could bench, covering 10, 12 and maybe 15.

Buer

It will be Frawley at 12 and Henshaw at 13 for this weekend, I expect. It's not out of the question that Ringrose starts this weekend with the 6N coming up but I'd put it as the less likely of the two scenarios.

He will get a start against the Scarlets to get some match time under his belt but that may not be enough in advance of the 6N.

COB might well be without a contract at the end of this year. As promising as he was,he only has 4 starts in almost 2 years with the last start coming in February 2020. With the financial implications of the pandemic and trimmed down squads, teams are going to need guys who are injury free with proven records of availability; they can't carry fringe players who might be unavailable for lengthy periods.

bayern

Neil Francis on academy changes

The whole academy system is now being reviewed and it will be streamlined – significantly.

Peter Malone is no longer the director of the Munster Academy and Peter Smyth, the head of elite player development, is currently seconded to the Munster Academy. Nobody knows how long he'll be there or what the next step will be.

The plan currently being proposed is for a national academy based, say, in Athlone or even Blanchardstown. All the provincial academies would be discontinued and all the talent would be schooled in the national academy.

At the end of the season the talent would be farmed out.

If Munster need a prop or Ulster need a centre they are picked out of the national academy, irrespective of where they live or were brought up or whether they always dreamed of playing in blue, red etc.

Some of the provinces have had slim pickings from their academies in recent years – others (like Leinster) have been spectacularly successful in sustained excellence in the quality of players that they have produced.

Go through the Leinster team when it is announced on Friday and see how many in the squad are academy graduates.

This, in theory, is an efficient way of distributing talent throughout the four provinces – but it will do serious damage to Leinster who have already provided too much talent for everyone else.

Buer

April Fools.

The provinces wouldn't stand for it. Not just Leinster. Munster would be disgusted to run the risk of the next Craig Casey being sent to Dublin or another Thomas Ahern going to Belfast.

It makes sense from an operational perspective but I just don't see how it will work in practical terms in Ireland. We went away from a national academy to a provincially based system 15 years ago and it has been a huge success.

Richie_Rich89

Buer wrote: »

It will be Frawley at 12 and Henshaw at 13 for this weekend, I expect. It's not out of the question that Ringrose starts this weekend with the 6N coming up but I'd put it as the less likely of the two scenarios.

He will get a start against the Scarlets to get some match time under his belt but that may not be enough in advance of the 6N.

COB might well be without a contract at the end of this year. As promising as he was,he only has 4 starts in almost 2 years with the last start coming in February 2020. With the financial implications of the pandemic and trimmed down squads, teams are going to need guys who are injury free with proven records of availability; they can't carry fringe players who might be unavailable for lengthy periods.

Somewhat misleading statement. You have to go back less than 15 months to find his last four starts. He has 9 starts in the last 24 months.

Podge_irl

I'm sure the academy players would love working in Athlone while trying to do university degrees.

Buer

Richie_Rich89 wrote: »

Somewhat misleading statement. You have to go back less than 15 months to find his last four starts. He has 9 starts in the last 24 months.

It doesn't really change the point though.

4 starts in almost 15 months is insufficient. He didn't play a game for 7 months before that. At this point, the guys durability has to have a major question mark over it.

FrannoFan

Podge_irl wrote: »

I'm sure the academy players would love working in Athlone while trying to do university degrees.

Exactly. This isn't the NBA draft where guaranteed millions when you join the system.

The private school nature of a lot of the talent would suggest parents will put a premium on education regardless of talent. It's no surprise virtually all the academy lads are in third level.

Provinces and players will resist it and therefore it won't work.

Lost Ormond

Podge_irl wrote: »

I'm sure the academy players would love working in Athlone while trying to do university degrees.

If it was to happen it mightnt be Athlone but the students would most certainly still be able to continue their studies in Dublin if academy wasnt based there,

Hasnt stopped players studying in Cork and training in Limerick or studying in Limerick while in Connacht academy in Galway,

FrannoFan wrote: »

Exactly. This isn't the NBA draft where guaranteed millions when you join the system.

The private school nature of a lot of the talent would suggest parents will put a premium on education regardless of talent. It's no surprise virtually all the academy lads are in third level.

Provinces and players will resist it and therefore it won't work.

Provinces probably will resist it. Players mightnt and i dont see it happening
Dont see why having attended a fee paying school means parents have put more a premium of education.
Nearly all academy players are in third level as provinces/IRFU insist on it as well as it keeps them occupied with other work. It helps ground them that theyre not superstars etc as well.

armchaircoach

The 4 teams frequently dip into the academies during the season to cover injury crisises/international periods /just to get a look at how they will perform.

Under the new system how would that work? Would all teams get to choose from anyone. Would playing once for a provence geo-lock that player?

There is a lot of unknowns to work out with a system like this.

FrannoFan

armchaircoach wrote: »

The 4 teams frequently dip into the academies during the season to cover injury crisises/international periods /just to get a look at how they will perform.

Under the new system how would that work? Would all teams get to choose from anyone. Would playing once for a provence geo-lock that player?

There is a lot of unknowns to work out with a system like this.

Seems pretty unworkable.
It would probably cost more than current system
Most academy lads live at home.

So many issues around it

Lucas44

Podge_irl wrote: »

I'm sure the academy players would love working in Athlone while trying to do university degrees.[/quote

Doesn’t matter where it’s based cause academy players don’t work

Podge_irl

Lucas44 wrote: »

Doesn’t matter where it’s based cause academy players don’t work

Being in the academy is work

VANG1

And they are studying, few make it and they need an education to fall back on

stephen_n

Buer wrote: »

It will be Frawley at 12 and Henshaw at 13 for this weekend, I expect. It's not out of the question that Ringrose starts this weekend with the 6N coming up but I'd put it as the less likely of the two scenarios.

He will get a start against the Scarlets to get some match time under his belt but that may not be enough in advance of the 6N.

COB might well be without a contract at the end of this year. As promising as he was,he only has 4 starts in almost 2 years with the last start coming in February 2020. With the financial implications of the pandemic and trimmed down squads, teams are going to need guys who are injury free with proven records of availability; they can't carry fringe players who might be unavailable for lengthy periods.

Tom Daly MKII

ElisaAtWar

Buer wrote: »

It will be Frawley at 12 and Henshaw at 13 for this weekend, I expect. It's not out of the question that Ringrose starts this weekend with the 6N coming up but I'd put it as the less likely of the two scenarios.

He will get a start against the Scarlets to get some match time under his belt but that may not be enough in advance of the 6N.

COB might well be without a contract at the end of this year. As promising as he was,he only has 4 starts in almost 2 years with the last start coming in February 2020. With the financial implications of the pandemic and trimmed down squads, teams are going to need guys who are injury free with proven records of availability; they can't carry fringe players who might be unavailable for lengthy periods.

Ain't no crystal ball needed in Leinster. And Ireland for that matter. But then what exactly is the difference other than the coach. And I have to admit I wouldn't object in the slightest if Mr Cullen were offered the Irish job. For a completely inexperienced coach, what an incredible job he has done in such a short space of time at Leinster

Thrashssacre

ElisaAtWar wrote: »

Ain't no crystal ball needed in Leinster. And Ireland for that matter. But then what exactly is the difference other than the coach. And I have to admit I wouldn't object in the slightest if Mr Cullen were offered the Irish job. For a completely inexperienced coach, what an incredible job he has done in such a short space of time at Leinster

It wasn't a instant success by any means but he really built something strong, he must be our longest serving head coach at this point?

arsebiscuits1

Thrashssacre wrote: »

It wasn't a instant success by any means but he really built something strong, he must be our longest serving head coach at this point?

He has been our longest serving coach since last season I believe.

One could definitely call him inexperienced a few years back. But would be a stretch now.

El_Duderino 09

arsebiscuits1 wrote: »

He has been our longest serving coach since last season I believe.

One could definitely call him inexperienced a few years back. But would be a stretch now.

He has only been a coach at one club - both assistant and head coach. And he seems to excel at the director of rugby role rather than the tracksuit coach role which Lancaster is head of. And things started going really well when he moved to the director of rugby and Lancaster started as on field coach.

He has very deep and narrow experience. It would be mad to break up the Leinster setup to make him a national coach. Absolutely bonkers

bayern

needs to sort out his area of expertise(lineout) first.

VANG1

Narrow Leo, knows nothing about lineouts, only been at one club, he really isn’t great.
We should just keep training him in at Leinster and keep him forever.
It’s great you guys who know so much about coaching

Dravokivich

VANG1 wrote: »

Narrow Leo, knows nothing about lineouts, only been at one club, he really isn’t great.
We should just keep training him in at Leinster and keep him forever.
It’s great you guys who know so much about coaching

It's great you know so much about "1 club" Leo.

VANG1

Just look at his record

bayern

it's hardly controversial to say the lineout as a unit is malfunctioning this season and he needs to get it sorted out as the lineout coach.

VANG1

Lost one match with a scratch team all season, cop yourself on

arsebiscuits1

VANG1 wrote: »

Lost one match with a scratch team all season, cop yourself on

Both opinions can exist.

No one is calling for Leos head. But there are definitely areas under his remit that I think need improvement

But I'm in agreement that there has been times the lineout has let us down. Frequently in the opposition red zone where you need to be taking them because in knockout rugby the opportunity to get there is rarer.

Per the stats Jackman tweeted the other day Leinster have the 4th most successful lineout this season in the pro14 (something that surprised me, I thought we'd be a tad lower) at 88%

This also doesn't factor in Europe where we had a few go awry against Montpellier and Northampton.

The most disappointing thing is there have been numerous examples where we are not getting jumpers in the air, lifters are banging in to each other etc.

One thing that frustrates me at times is we rarely threaten the opposition lineout either. We just rarely seem to get a good read on what the opposition is doing

Buer

The line out is a major weakness of ours at the moment particularly when we're in opposition territory and it hasn't mattered who is on the field. In fact, I would suggest the number of personnel is one of the issues. We've very little continuity in our pack. Tracey has the most starts by a distance this season but has been throwing to any one of a number of combinations. We're spreading game time between Ryan, Toner, Baird, Molony and Fardy along with Dunne having the odd involvement from the bench. Further to that, the back row is a complete merry go round of selections with little continuity there beyond 1-2 games.

There have been several instances of players not even getting into the air which suggests people don't know their roles properly or are unfamiliar with calls. They appear hesitant when the ball is being thrown as if they're scared to make the wrong move and are waiting on others to jump or lift. It doesn't help that none of our hookers are particularly well regarded throwers at the best of times.

It's on the forward coaching team to strip that down and build it back up so all those on the field can go out there as a unit.