Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

My god Pollard had a shocker of a cameo today - he was awful - couldn't do a single thing right. But the Tigers now have to go fully loaded versus Les Blues as previous posters said as they could mathematically end up 4th in the group.

Aye aye. Agreed. Some quality players rumored to leave.

Not surplus to requirements from the coaches POV as they are there to be used as needed, but surplus to requirements from the players pov, and arguably from Irelands. We have players who are potentially very high level not getting much CC game time in Leinster and therefore not developing at the rate they might otherwise.

It is for Stade, and say, Gloucester last season. But the bigger point is the Irish teams have generally always prioritised Europe more than some of their English and French counterparts. So the minutes played for the provinces is far more indicative of their relative place in the depth chart.

I think Deegan's, Penny's and Frawley's minutes in Europe is representative of their importance to Leinster.

Currently seeding has us playing la Rochelle in the last 16 and makes it likely we travel to Toulouse or Bordeaux in a potential semi final, looks like we'll be doing it the hard way this year.

A top 2 spot really needs to be the aim here and I'm sure Cullen is fully aware of the permutations.

Right now, that is out of our hands as we are the lowest ranked of the pool leaders. However, some tough final fixtures could see that change. Toulouse are more than likely going to top proceedings on 19/20 points as they host Bath (also on 15 so one of them will be on 19). Bordeaux are currently on 15. A win in Pretoria gives them 19 with a healthy PD which makes them uncatchable for us, in reality. Hopefully the Bulls do us a favour and get a win but them resting their 4 current Bok players isn't helping. A lot will depend on what team Bordeaux send down there. They've a 7 day turnaround to play Stade Francais at home so may wish to focus on that. If they lost though, Lyon could pip them to top spot still.

I'll work on the basis that Northampton don't get a win in Thomond. They've played above themselves but they also owe their position to being in a fairly weak pool; I don't see them troubling the latter stages of the tournament.

Top two spot means home games all the way to the final, if Leinster are able to get there. I wouldn't fancy Leinster to win right now if they had to go away to Toulouse or Bordeaux.

Have to beat Leicester first and foremost. Their attack is very poor but, for the first 30 minutes anyway, they were actually going fairly well particularly up front. I'd imagine they'll be looking for a response next week particularly in front of their own support. See the likes of Ulster earlier this season against Racing after being thumped. Leicester are good at home....have now beaten Saracens, Bath and the Stormers in their last games. Leinster should still have too much for them though particularly if their launch plays go so well again (and we saw that Leicester are vulnerable to those in Dublin last season).

I didn't say "aren't important" so I fail to see how my point is disingenuous. But their level of importance is relative.

I'm not convinced it'd make an appreciable difference if, say, Frawley and Deegan left. I'd still expect to see Leinster topping their pool. Just like they continued to do after Carbery left.

Great prediction spreadsheet for the nerds here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XvWj9oH3THjM-6PSyLy6FnH_Zaxe4FF1JnV48qmIPxU/edit#gid=2016284739