Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

Jenkins played a blinder. I think that's one of his better outings for Leinster. He has found some really good form. Watching Luke, he was poor with his passing. A couple of shoelace passes along with a couple of high passes.

I think Jenkins has really come into his own this season. Whilst he has made his presence really felt in the last couple of months, his performances earlier in the season were fairly decent too. He made some good contributions in earlier games too without the eye catching moments.

I don't know if we really knew how to get the best out of him or play a style that he worked well with last season. Nienaber seems to have been able to spark some life into him and he's really started delivering. He was a big unit who was very mobile around the park during his time in SA and that's what we've seen more recently with some really effective carries as well as excellent line out work which isn't something we normally associate with a 124kg tighthead lock in Ireland.

Not a must win but you'd imagine it would be an important one for them and a big knock to momentum if lost. Leinster have lost two semis at home on the bounce. While they shouldn't fear going away I wouldn't imagine they would be thrilled with the prospect of it.

The scenario of having to go to SA in the semi can still be in play whether we win or lose against Ulster.

There are also several scenarios where Leinster lose both URC games and don't end up travelling to SA in the semi. A game can't be a 'must win', like the OP claimed, if you can lose it and another one and still end up avoid the negative outcomes.

The idea of going to SA isn't ideal but this team should have nothing to fear going down there, even with the associated travel and the impact to the following week. I'd argue this team seems to rise to that kind of adversity pretty well, at times better than when they're clear favourites.

If you have two ends of the spectrum - 'must win' and 'nice to have', I don't see any real argument that the game this weekend is anywhere close to the 'must win' side.

That semi was the type of scenario I was talking about.

Leinster sleepwalked into that semi and I feel they would be less likely to if they were playing on the road.

That has absolutely been true from a Leinster team perspective, though in this situation I'd give Porter some grace that they probably needed to push that message post a loss like that.

Leinster's personal opinion about the trophy however doesn't change others talking out of both sides of their mouths about the competition.

You either value winning the competition or you don't.

Such a misjudged interview. All it did was pile the pressure on for the champions cup final.

Matthew Carley will be referee for the Champions Cup Final.

Jaysus Luke Pearce must have rightly pissed off someone up the food chain