Leinster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread XII (The Byrne Supremacy)

Dubinusa

Good news on the lads coming back in. Our depth is nuts. The likes of Brownlee and Tector look comfortable. Liam Turner has stuck out this season. I hope he's signed on, he looks the business.

Kelleher being managed for a hamstring? The man is just back. He has awful luck. If he has any luck. I hope to all God's that he is right for the season's run in.

Imagine losing the quality of Henshaw and Furlong and being this good. Even losing Connors!

Dubinusa

Have you lads seen the size of the lad at Belvo! He's got to be about 6feet 10. Spicer is the lads name. He's 16 or 17, can't remember but, hopefully he can be made into a player like Dev was.

TRC10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120178874#Comment_120178874

I saw a picture. He looks like a much bigger unit than Dev was. I saw one match he played last year and he looked a pretty handy player. Very interesting prospect.

FrannoFan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120178874#Comment_120178874

6'10 and heavily built.

As far as I know been in training with sub academy the last couple of years.

With his size he will be given every opportunity to make it as a pro!

pickarooney

Any pictures I've seen of him he's as thin as a rake.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120179424#Comment_120179424

https://www.sportsfile.com/id/2420210/

Can't copy in the image for some reason, but he's definitely filled out a fair bit.

He also looks like a world weary 44 year old rather than a lad who is probably 18.

pickarooney

So much for Google images! Every result was for a different player.

Dubinusa

Lads is enormous

Dubinusa

Is he any good?

Neil3030

I have it on good authority that he is already better than Etzebeth. Though to be fair, that's not much of an achievement.

Buer

Interesting to read the interview with ROG in The Guardian. It strengthens the idea that Leinster were beaten in open play and around the ruck rather more than anywhere. That was the key focus for La Rochelle; to stop Leinster from playing:

“There was an enormous support behind Leinster for the final but we believed in our plan on how we go about depowering them. I knew our attack would work well but it’s the other 50%, how you depower an attack, that for me is very important. In every lineout situation, when you have Pierre Bourgarit and Jonathan Danty looking after the first collision, and Uini Atonio and Greg Alldritt on the second collision, it’s hard to win the gain line against these guys. I also don’t think there’s an international team in the world with the amount of poachers we have. We have Danty, [Levani] Botia, Alldritt, Atonio, Bourgarit and Will Skelton who is good at it too. There’re about seven of them and no other team has that. These boys are powerful.”

They made sure we lost those collisions in carrying and attacked our ruck ball repeatedly. The result was us scrapping and scrounging for territory before taking shots at goal when they were on offer. When you're faced with fighting to secure your ball and under pressure at your attacking breakdown, going for the posts becomes a far more attractive option than sticking it to the corner.

FrannoFan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120179424#Comment_120179424

He's not thin as rake. He's a pretty big kid

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120178874#Comment_120178874

Is he Kevin Spicers son?

LostArt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120181384#Comment_120181384

yep

Dubinusa

Kevin Spicer?

Dubinusa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120180732#Comment_120180732

Indeed. They didn't give us clean ball and slowed down the ruck. Collisions are tough to win versus these players.

Dubinusa

What a boost for us having Luke and Connors back. Luke is such a good leader and vital for us. I agree, he's not the best scrum half but... he's a fine player. Connors is the best tackler I have seen in yonks.

When Henshaw returns, Ngati on the bench? Osborne? Will either even make the 1st squad?

CIARAN_BOYLE

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120182004#Comment_120182004

London Irish late 90s.

molloyjh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120180732#Comment_120180732

Wasn’t that similar to the year before as well? Messed up the breakdown, got poachers in and won a load of penalties to slow the game down and gain territory?

The cynicism last year was frustrating too. I do feel Barnes bottled it and should have been much stronger in that area. But ultimately we need to learn how to deal with that effectively. Have we is the big question.

The lack of penalties this season would suggest we’ve taken some lessons from it, ie we won’t just accept the 3. We’ll keep going for the 5 or the 7. But in terms of our ruck protection I’m not sure we are much better there or any less dependent on that quick ruck ball.

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120182004#Comment_120182004

Played for London Irish in the very early days of Pro rugby in the late 90's having played in the varsity game for Oxford when that was one of the biggest club games of the year.

Dubinusa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120182692#Comment_120182692

Are both Spicer's Irish? Is the younger Irish born? Is he English qualified? Would hate to see them snap him up.

Lost Ormond

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120183015#Comment_120183015

Theyre parents are irish so it wouldnt matter. way too premature to be talking about being snapped up when still in school

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120183015#Comment_120183015

Kevin went to Clongowes and then Oxford for a post-grad - Like a lot of top end players he played for a few seasons in the UK in the early days of the Pro game when clubs like Richmond and others were throwing money around.

Other than having spent a few years there in college and playing Rugby don't think there's any other UK connections.

Dubinusa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120183164#Comment_120183164

Thanks.

Dubinusa

I just watched the Belvo v Michael's on you tube. Spicer is big, very big. He's a decent looking player.

arsebiscuits1

Am I correct in saying the current year 3s are:

Hanan

McKee

Soroka

SOB

Smith

O'Reilly

Who looks most likely to be kept on?

McKee and Soroka I'd say are the shoo ins.

Hanan could be given a dev deal owing the to RWC next season and we're likely without Porter and Healy. Unless Leinster think they could be ok with Byrne, Milne and Boyle.

The selection of Culhane and the fact he is at this level does not look like good news for SOB getting retained.

Smith looked to be an excellent option but that off day against Chile really might have hurt him. He looks to be very focused on sevens and Cosgrave and Russell seem to be better prospects.

O'Reilly is in a similar boat. He's spent the majority of this season injured. I'm not sure he has the top end athleticism to make the cut. Possibly in a similar situation to Smith in that Cosgrave and Russell seem to be better rated prospects.

Having said all that we're not exactly awash with back 3 options at present. Especially if Kearney moves on. But I can see DK being given a year contract if he'll take it.

I don't see anyone else graduating early. Russell possibly in the conversation with an impressive (if a little flattering) strike rate this year. I don't see any real merit on bumping him to a dev deal unless one of the other provinces come sniffing. And I'm not sure why they would.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120186641#Comment_120186641

I thought Sean O'Brien was injured, otherwise I think he would have been in the side at the weekend ahead of Culhane?

Would agree with McKee and Soroka being certainties to progress, harder to call on the others. The impact of losing so many players to the RWC will probably see more retained than might otherwise be expected.

arsebiscuits1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120186726#Comment_120186726

He has been injured for a little while alright and likely would have been involved.

But Culhane between Emerging Ireland and Cardiff shows he's at least capable of senior rugby which might make the conversation easier.

Afaik all of our back rows are contracted through next season (except Moloney) so a tough conversation might need to be had.

Although similar to the Hanan situation. SOB might be in line for a 1 year dev to tie us over during the RWC.

We're at the very least without: VDF, Doris, Conan and Baird for RWC and with the statistical inevitability of back row injuries possibly without Deegan and maybe even Connors (I'm thinking worst case hypothetical scenario for Leinster - NOT trying to start a which provincial player gets picked over the other)

So we might keep SOB to bolster who would already be in situ - Ruddock (?), Penny, Culhane, Moloney, Soroka

arsebiscuits1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120184357#Comment_120184357

It will be interesting to see if he goes straight into the academy.

I don't necessarily think he should.

But if I were Connacht, Munster or Ulster I would be doing a heap of work to get him into their system and a full academy place would be the best way to do this.

So it's very possible Leinster will need to mitigate against that

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120186785#Comment_120186785

I saw elsewhere, don't know if verified or not, that he's 6ft 11 and 127kg at 18.

Combined with his decent pedigree, and the fact Leinster have had him training with the sub-academy for at least 18 months I think, I think you do whatever you need to do to keep this guy. Wouldn't shock me to see him in the full academy straight away given his unicorn like athletic profile.