Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

Jesus wept lad. You're picking apart pointless semantics for the sake of having a row. What are you hoping to achieve?

We signed Fardy and Triggs to do it on a rainy day in Newport (SO TO SPEAK - just in case you're going for semantics again)

We didn't sign Snyman for that. We didn't sign Thorn for that. There is my comparison.

The elephant in the room is that, despite finally getting a run of games, Snyman made zero impact at the business end of Munster's season.

Well, if he performs to the same level, either in quantity or quality, as he did for Munster last season, it certainly won't be a good signing.

I'm not sure if I need finger puppets or not here but I'll say it as clearly as I can.

He. Hasn't. Played. A. Single. Game. For. Us. Yet.

You've just said a load of ifs. We don't know anything yet.

He might be a bust. He might be the greatest ever signing. But people bitching and moaning about injury profile, previous form etc have absolutely no bearing on him until he actually starts playing.

Let the fella play a bloody game before letting the crystal ball opinions fly.

He's a double world cup winner. He's obviously an excellent player.

I'm not sure if I need finger puppets

A more coherent point would probably be more helpful tbh, but if you're more comfortable with finger puppets, go for it.

I don't need to see him play for leinster to consider it a bad signing. I don't recall this being a necessary criteria to call Barrett a good signing.

And this my friend is where I tap out.

You don't need to see a player play before considering it a bad signing?? 😂

There is a lot of barely moderated insanity on this site. But this post has to take the cake

Honestly, if Snyman has a handful of moments that are close to what he can do at his best in big games, even off the bench, Leo will look like a genius.

..

Played 4 seasons in Toulouse where he won the Top14 and the Champions cup.

He was a Toulouse registered player when he won the World Cup in 2019.

We’ve heard a lot about Snyman being a top class double World Cup winning lock. Maybe some context would be useful.

Snyman has never started a Rugby Championship game. Ever. Not a single one.

The only RWC games that Snyman has started were against Canada and Namibia in 2019.

Snyman has barely started against tier 1 opposition either. He started against Wales this year, but let’s face it, Wales are awful right now. He started against Argentina in the RWC warm ups in 2019. You need to go back to November 2018 to find the last time he started a Test match against quality opposition. He started vs Wales and Scotland that year, but not against France or England.

Snyman has 37 caps for South Africa, only 10 of which were starts. 3 of those starts came in his first season. Another 3 came in 2019 for the RWC (warm up game + 2 minnows).

This isn’t the profile of a world class lock. He has plenty of potential, but primarily through injury, hasn’t really turned that into very much. His performances this calendar year have been very underwhelming and he really doesn’t look match fit at all. It’s not a crazy opinion to hold that he isn’t the signing some are cracking him up to be.

I’m not completely sure tbh. As a bench option to bring some power in the latter stages of games? Helped no doubt by Neinabar being head coach. Overall I’m very concerned about where Leinster are at right now and am far from convinced that Neinabar suits us given how our attacking game absolutely collapsed last season.

What did he actually do during the RWC though? It’s all well and good to say he has 2 RWC medals. But if that’s all people can point to as opposed to actually talk about the impact he has on games or the big plays he comes up with, then it’s hard to know exactly what that means.

Fergus McFadden has multiple 6Ns medals to his name and was a regular bench option for Ireland across 2014 and 2015. Dave Kearney was a regular starter. These guys weren’t world class players, or even among the best players in their positions in the NH. But they have more medals than many of those better players at the time.

I’m not saying Snyman is a bad player. But this whole “one of the best in the world, double RWC winner” talk is, in my own opinion, blowing him and his performances up beyond all recognisable proportions. If you have to go back 6 years to find the last time he started back to back Test games then he can’t be all that. And when you struggle to point to his accomplishments in the last 12 months as a player (as opposed to his teams accomplishments) then is he really living up to the rep?

Yeah, simply being part of a great squad cannot make you world class, you need to show it on the field and RGS has simply never done that.

I think the issue with him has been that he arrived as a World Cup winner, so we all assumed he was awesome, then we spent four years saying "when he gets back to fitness, he'll be amazing", but no one here had ever seen him perform to the levels being attributed to him.

It's only a month since posters here were claiming he'd be the best lock at Leinster on his first day in camp, one of the best players in the squad full stop, a game changer on huge money etc.

Now he's he finally got a run of games for Munster and SA and he's been underwhelming at best.

So now we don't know if a) he was never as good as claimed, b) all the injuries have taken their toll or c) he's still working back to full fitness and form and Leinster will see the best of him.

Obviously I'm hoping for c but my money is on a.