Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

TOm Clarkson has signed a new contract

We've two games for any of Keenan, Ringrose and Ryan to make a comeback.

If Hugo makes it back I can see Leinster naming a 6-2 bench for Toulouse with JOB the designated outside back cover. It would be harsh on Frawley who has played well, but the former can cover more positions and is the better athlete, which is key for the fast up defence.

Having Ryan back would be huge. He's usually an 80 minute player and combines the better parts of Jenkins and Molony's games without their weaknesses. Even if you only get 50 minutes from him it's worth it.

Last question is do we select Will Connors and ask him to mark Meafou like he did with Skelton. It's a very effective tactic that has worked twice this season. But Meafou has never given us the same problems Skelton has and generally VDF has excelled against Toulouse.

Having VDF come on in the second half is no bad thing though. He's played brilliantly when coming off the bench and adds a lot of impact especially when carrying. He and Conan coming on after 55-60 minutes could give us a big boost.

Would it be likely that Ringrose and Keenan are out for the remainder of the season? I don't know what Keenan's injury is and maybe it's better not to risk him. Ditto for Ringrose. Ringer has shoulder problems? Besides, there's no match fitness for them and resting and recuperating is probably the best choice. Very tough on both lads but from a medical standpoint, coming back completely healthy next season is ideal. Ryan could possibly be in a similar situation.

I think if you’re going 6-2 in such a big game you almost have to have Frawley instead of JOB, just purely for cover at 10. None of our other backs are going to be able to step in, same with having a 9 on the bench

New contract for Connors

Ringrose was running the kicking tee which is usually a sign of being close to return.

I could see Jimmy taking larmour spot which might seem harsh but just think it's a possibility.

Two games to get ringrose and Jimmy match fit after long absence. Keenan if fit by final comes straight in. Big gap between him and frawley and he played more regularly this season so doesn't need the match fitness to the same degree.

Some players who got us to the final will quite likely miss out. Especially if we go 6-2 split.

Ryan is out of the sling anyway. There's a video of him and the other Leinster squad members applauding the team at full time.

I hope that means he's close to making a return anyway.

Have absolutely zero interest in the Challenge Cup personally. If you gave me the option of winning the Challenge Cup or just being involved in the Champions Cup with no guarantees at all would pick the latter every-time.

Happy for Connors. An injury free run would be nice.

Congratulations to Culhane!

A trophy is better than no trophy. But if you consider yourself a big team, you want to win the big trophies. And the Champions Cup is immeasurably bigger than the Challenge Cup. If Leinster lose to Toulouse, I don't think any Leinster players, if you were to ask them, will tell you that they'd rather have been in the Challenge Cup final as they'd have had a better chance of winning. Also, if Leinster won the Challenge Cup, nobody would give two sh*ts and they'd be (rightly) slaughtered for being in the Challenge Cup in the first place.

Interested to see how many armchair psychologists will be building up the Final around how Leinster are in the heads of the Toulouse players and how another loss against Leinster might 'destroy' or 'break' them as a squad?

Toulouse's losses to Leinster over the last few years have been far heavier than what Leinster dealt with from LaR.