Take one player from each province

The only thing that id worry about munster is that they dont seem to have a ton of good props coming through like leinster. However, their senior props are generally quite young .

It's subjective. I would argue Baird & McCarthy are ahead of Ahern and Edogbo obviously; both are full internationals at this point and Baird in particular has played a lot of European rugby and has racked up 8 Ireland caps.

Scott Penny is indisputably ahead of John Hodnett imo at this point in both of their careers, and I rate Hodnett very highly. But Penny has played more games (41 versus 27), scored an incredible amount of tries (23) and been called into the Ireland squad this November, alongside being the Pro14 Young Player of the Year in 2021 and being named in the Team of the Season.

Harry Byrne v Jack Crowley is an interesting debate. Byrne is a year older, but has played a lot more rugby (despite his well documented injury problems). It's not that long ago that he was the great white hope for the future at 10, and if he can remain healthy then by no means is it settled that he's out of the reckoning.

That leaves Craig Casey - indisputably the best established of all 10 players, who looks a bonafide star player and a guy who will pick up 50 caps+, and Jamie Osborne. I'm sky high on Osborne - think he has all the physical tools he'll need for a player so young, and will have a big couple of weeks coming up hopefully playing against Ulster this weekend and then European games after that.

My doubts are based on his size/athleticism. He doesnt seem that big or that fast.

Take that with a giant pinch of salt though. Young backs are hard to figure.

I’ve had Crowley number one for a while. I spent most of last year hoping Ulster could get him when JvG wouldn't play him. 10 is the most important position and in my opinion he has everything. I like Byrne as well but durability is a real concern with him.

Edogbo has an extremely rare skillset and Penny does not. That matters alot to me. More than caps pre 23.

I’d describe most of Penny’s tries as tries that were going to be scored anyway. Doris has an elite rare skillset.

Physique, size and athleticism are part of your skillset imo.

We have like two true tighthead lock prospects. That’s rare.

We might just have to agree to disagree. I think you could RELATIVELY easily replace Penny’s game compared to Edogbo when he is fully developed.

Tighthead locks are rare, especially potentially elite ones, so I rate them higher. Scarcity affects how good a player you are relative to your peers.

To put this another way, Boyle in the leinster academy is not someone they’d give up for someone at another province with alot of production at a young age. Props with his ability at his age, and seemingly all the tools are rare. He isn’t a porter level prospect but its still rarer than most back rows.

Yeah, I agree with that. And I would be high on him as a player. He has a great doggedness about him that's needed in packs today, and seems to have good ability over the ball on the deck. He looks a powerful unit when scrummaging and especially on defensive mauls.

But we haven't seen much of him as a carrier yet, and he is not credited with a single line out win all season in his 6 appearances. So if you're carrying a non-jumping lock, they pretty much have to be a massively dominating Skelton-like presence because you're losing a jumper out of your pack.

This is nonsense, and is perfectly illustrative of the kind of hypocrisy of your analysis.

If the two groups of players we were comparing were at different points in their careers, like one set of 5 were well established internationals at the peak of their careers and the others were Academy players, it wouldn't be acceptable to compare their actual achievements.

But we're not.

We're comparing here two sets of players who are of the same vintage, 23 years old and under.

You're dismissing the facts around the actual achievements of the Leinster group because it doesn't suit your narrative, and basing it all on your beliefs / projections as to what kind of players they might become.

I'm saying, judge them on what they've done so far, first and foremost, because that's not speculative and is much more objective.

https://www.unitedrugby.com/clubs/munster/edwin-edogbo - I was basing it on this, but i think from comparing it, that it seems the line outs won stat is based on hooker's throwing in, so it would only indicate he hasn't stolen one.

I can't recall him winning many, but you could be right that he has won some.

It doesn't change the point that at 6ft 5 and 122kgs, he's not exactly ideal lineout jumping material.