Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

I'd like to see him involved in coaching.

Cheers. Very strange outburst from Podge_irl. I just go with whatever the players are known as when I first become familiar with them.

I think the problem, Richie (or Richard, should I say :P), is that you only do this for foreign-born players.

It's always Christiaan Johan Stander, Alexeis Soroka, Vakhtang Abdaladze, and Fua Leiofi Bundellu Aki. I sincerely doubt you first knew about all of these players by these names.

It's never Jonathan Jeremiah Sexton (yes, that is his middle name), Gerald Conor Murray, or William Iain Henderson.

thanks for clarifying that it's your anti racism that moves you to use those names.

On Ruddock, to me it seemed for many years that his role as captain and mentor played a very significant role for much of the league season. A great soldier for Leinster.

On the topic of Rhystopher Ruddock, I would imagine Leinster have little use for him now. He has approximately 100 minutes of game time and that's not going to change in the next couple of weeks. His only purpose for the remainder of the season is potentially being a senior figure on a trip to SA.

He has been mooted for a move into coaching and I noted he was running the water of late, bringing messages onto the field. He might be looking at that move with a Welsh side if there isn't anything immediately on the table in Leinster.

I wouldn't begrudge him any move. Genuinely one of the most reliable and hardworking players of his generation.

I agree with you. The IRFU won't sanction a loosehead with a lot of young depth in the pipeline. I can also see Healy holding on for another year to help out the transition.

At scrum half, do I think they address the position? No I don't. I think they are perfectly happy with their pecking order and happy with the young lads coming through. They will address the position in the next few years if they aren't happy with the development of the young players.

I've seen very little of Coffey but I do like that he is a multi functional scrum half capable of kicking. I really want Gunne and Coffey to push for the 9 jersey before the next world cup. It would really give Leinster a massive boost not having to worry about the 9 and 10 jersey for a decade.

Tighthead is almost a certainty. I didn't see the Koch rumours ( I hope they are true) but I kept seeing news around Leinster being interested in Trevor Nyakane. His contract ended after the World cup and he is now a free agent. I half expect Nyakane to go Japan for a short term deal and then come to Leinster next season but I also wouldn't be half surprised if Leinster picked him up now with Furlong not being around the squad at the moment. He is definitely on the older side but I think Leinster will actually prefer his age profile being a bit older so he isn't impeding the long term development of Tom Clarkson and Rory McGuire.

A bench front row trio of Cian Healy, Ronan Kelleher and Trevor Nyakane would be amazing.

Wales have injuries at back row. From the article:

"Wales coach Warren Gatland faces a potential back row injury crisis, with Jac Morgan, Christ Tshiunza, Taine Plumtree and Taulupe Faletau all injured."

It would be short term cover while they blood young players and get the injured players back. He's 33 so it wouldn't likely be anything other than short term anyway.

And there is even more depth coming down the line with the likes of James Culhane and Alex Soroka. It would be a disservice to Ruddock to keep him in the set up if the opportunities will potentially be few and far between.

JOB has a neck injury and will miss the next few months. Awful for him as he's in career best form over these elast few seasons. Great opportunity for TOB to break into the full strength 23 though.

Jimmy O’Brien has picked up a neck injury and will be unavailable for a number of months.

Martin Moloney has picked up a bicep injury and will be unavailable for a number of months.

Alex Soroka picked up a foot injury in training last week and will be unavailable for selection this week.

There are no further updates on: Charlie Ngatai (calf), Cormac Foley (shoulder), Ross Byrne (arm) and Jamie Osborne (shoulder)