Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

People are massively overthinking this and, as always, defaulting to the most negative assumptions.

Really don't see Northampton capitulating, gonna be a cracker of a match.

It won't make sense if Northampton put it up to Leinster, now I'm not expecting that to happen with or without Barrett starting but stranger things have happened. Just seems like a meaningless risk to take even if the risk is minimal. You only get one chance to make the final. Semi finals and finals in any sport you need to be starting your best players not just because he's the best center Leinster have but because he's arguably the best player they have in any position

There is a test lion playing instead of Barrett. Think people are really overreacting to this. Team is not even out yet sure.

It does make sense when you look bigger picture. He is helping Leinster win it without setting fire to goodwill.

Barrett starting vs benching makes a tiny impact on the likelihood of Leinster winning this weekend. It could even be a benefit to have him coming on strong towards the end of the match, where Leinster fell apart last year.

At the same time it makes Henshaw/Ringrose much happier by giving them one last chance to be in the shop window for the Lions, it keeps the IRFU onside with signings, makes the likes of NZ rugby happy, while also mitigating the risk of the media kicking up a fuss in the lead up to the final.

Again, there are plenty of reasons why Leinster don't have players running for the door when they have options to, one of them is smart management of the wider squad.

For all we know Barrett might be starting or we hear he had a niggle coming into the week but there are plenty of ways for it to make sense that he doesn't start. Good with your proposal to agree to differ.

Leo does this well, let him Jacques & Tyler do their thing !

I think it's a glitch with the colours on the video. Here's a Sportsfile photo of the same training session:

None of Northampton's injury concerns appear to have made it for this weekend. It's stillma good squad, but they're probably 4 or 5 players short of full strength.

The selection is a vindication of Max Deegan. A consistent run of good performances and he makes the team for CC semifinal

100%. Delighted for him and hopefully it shuts the likes of Heaslip up with his constant he should move to a different province comments. I'm sure he is far happier being involved with Leinster at this time of year than having a week off this week like he would have had at Ulster or wherever else Heaslip wanted him to end up.