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

Brilliant news on Leo.

It's hard not to shake a feeling that Leinster are at least a player light in the second row atm. It seems that (inclusive of academy), Ross Molony and Brian Deeny are the only two fit second rows in the club for this week's game (Soroka supposedly picked up another niggly injury - and is another player who looks more of a backrow).

Over the past 12 months in the position while Joe McCarthy has gone from making his debut to being a full international, and we've signed the excellent Jason Jenkins, we've also lost a lot of players too.

Devin Toner, Jack Dunne and Josh Murphy all gone, and now Charlie Ryan (who admittedly hadn't made a first team debut due to injuries but was highly promising) retired to injury too. We used Josh Murphy almost exclusively as a lock last season (538 of his 568 mins came there imo).

Ryan Baird - 424 of the 604 minutes we used him for was at lock too. He didn't start a game in the backrow till the Munster game in the Aviva in May, and followed that by starting as Glasgow at 6 in the URC QF. This year it's the opposite - he's played 528 of his 606 mins at 6.

All told; last year we split our minutes at lock like this:

Molony - 33%

McCarthy - 13%

Ryan - 13%

Toner - 12%

Murphy - 12%

Baird - 10%

Dunne - 5%

Deeny - 2%

And, crucial to remember, guys like Dunne and Deeny picked up a lot of slack at this exact time of year (trip to SA, fixtures from 6N to European knock outs).

This year, the split is like this:

Molony - 34%

Ryan - 25%

Jenkins - 21%

McCarthy - 9%

Deeny - 8%

Baird - 3%

but there isn't anyone else to call upon. Two academy guys (Soroka and Mangan) aren't really locks. I know Ryan & Baird missed chunks of last season to injury, so the split might have been a little different absent that, but it's still hard to argue that we've lost almost 40% of the minutes we had last year at lock.

Squad overall looks a player light there to me.

Yeah, I think we'll only probably have Conor O'Tighearnaigh going into the academy too in that position, albeit he's looked excellent at underage levels. It's interesting how there's been a bit of chat about Quinn Roux coming back to Ireland, but with Ulster.

You'd wonder if we'd have a role to entice him back to?

Troubled was OTT here from me, but there are rumours elsewhere with disciplinary issues behind the scenes with Ulster this season - late to training, things like this. I've heard it rumoured from people who've played with him before that he's far from the most committed or dedicated pro you'll encounter.

He's been playing AIL most of this season for Ballynahinch.

He signed a new deal though with Ulster as recently as October till 2026 (i think), so unless there was an issue and breakdown with the Ulster coaching team I don't think he's feasible.

I'd rather take a punt on a guy with exceptional raw athletic ability like him though than attempt to sign a plodder, but tbh it's hard to know what kind of guy Izuchukwu is really at this point.