Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

He also won four league titles and brought Leinster to three other European cup finals (albeit didn't win those ones).

For me, Leinster's whole approach on selection since Lancaster left has been very poor. We were bulk suppliers for two u20 Grand Slam teams yet only Sam has really made the jersey his own. His hand was forced on Sam by Andy Farrell. Selecting Healy over Boyle yesterday is lunacy - Healy might genuinely be the worst of all our LH props - he is completely finished. Yet Leo won't make the difficult decision in dropping the more experienced player. Selecting Henshaw over Barrett is the easy decision for Leo, because he doesn't have to face Jordie next season.

Jacques I think has been good and in fairness our defence has been good for the most part this season. Games like yesterday can happen in rugby.

league titles don’t matter apparently, at least according to players like Andrew porter.

Lancasters return with Leinster was poor, he lost more than he won.

What’s comical however is that the talk is of Lancaster or nbar and not the actual head coach, a coach who has a record of one European trophy in 10 seasons with that team.

defending him or excusing him mostly.

He manages the team ffs. He's the top guy, you could make the argument for me being the manager with zero coaching experience as "the lads will tog out to play".

And Owen Finnegan and C.J. van der Linde.

I know this isn’t the fault of the Leinster team or the fans but the coverage of the Leinster team in the media does them no favours. They’re like deluded cheerleading fans.

I don’t follow much rugby but I did hear the Irish Indo’s preview on Friday. At one stage they were having a lengthy discussion on whether or not they thought Northampton would score in the game. They also said that Barrett would surely start the final.

The arrogance of the media around Irish rugby is just phenomenal. At both national and provincial level we always seem to fail on the biggest stages but it’s just brushed aside and on to hype up the next world beating team that will be win the World Cup, European Cup and X Factor. No individuals at any level or the group as a whole ever seems to be called out or held responsible for all these failures.

If Ireland win a match against one of the southern hemisphere teams this Autumn it’ll be back to the same hype.

While the way the media covers the team isn’t the fault of the team and the fans there was still clearly a huge arrogance brought to this game by the players in their refusal to kick the points and level the match near the end (clearly they thought they were too good to need extra time to win), by the coaches in not picking their best player to start the game and finally by the fans for not turning up to a home semi final. I’d say most were holding off for the final.

It is an Irish player thing - Munster players talk about the cup the same way despite not having been in an asses roar of winning one by getting to a final coming up on two decades.

Correct, you were responding to a single poster. But a reminder of what you've said twice now:

The people who have been blowing the most smoke about the greatness of this Leinster side are those who seem to spend more time moaning about Leinster's perceived advantages than supporting their own team

Leinster being the unquestioned 'best team in Europe' with world class players in every position absolutely comes from the outside, mostly those who can't get over the failure of their own team against others with a smaller budget than them.

So it's completely legitimate to ask you…. how widespread do you think this issue of fans of other provinces calling Leinster the "unquestioned 'best team in Europe'" actually is?

Let's see if you answer.

Doris and Keenan were the only Leinster 'superstars' to play to their own high level. Keenan was hit with a number for high bombs and mostly dealt with them very well. Also looked great in attack when he received the ball.

Leinster needed a huge start to the second half and Doris gave that to them. A try and two turnover steals to shift momentum back towards us. He was excellent and we probably win that game if he hadn't went off injured after 60 minutes.

I feel like none of Furlong, Sheehan, Snyman, VDF had their best games. Which makes this loss so disappointing. Northampton came with an effective gameplay and executed it well. But some of our players just didn't hit the required level. They've been in plenty of semi finals previously and should know what they need to win. But right now that level seems beyond them.

Every game I watch Joe McCarthy play in the more convinced I become that James Ryan is the superior player. McCarthy's defensive and ruck contributions are pitiful in comparison. McCarthy is a strong carrier but he has has a long way to go with the basics of lock forward play. Pairing him up with Synman doesn't work, 2 great guys on the ball but neither put in the grunt off it. Ryan was a big loss at the weekend and is a very underrated player.

It was a complete joke to give McCarthy a 3 year central contract. Commercially maybe it made sense with all the 'Big Joe' hype. But that's all it is, hype.

Irish Times today. We were robbed !!

Your goal post moving never ends.

You built a strawman that I had an issue with calling Leinster underachievers

It’s not “blowing smoke” to suggest this Leinster side have underachieved in the last number of seasons, regardless of what province you support.

When I corrected you rather than accepting that you were wrong you picked up the goal posts and pivoted to attacking me for the claim the OP made, unsurprisingly you never called out the poster who actually made the original comment.

Absolutely typical - as soon as someone catches you in BS, you pretend it never happened and pivot to the next thing.

One of the latest in a long line of pre-ordained 'generational' or 'superstar' players with Prendergast, Baird, Harry Byrne, Larmour etc. Even James Ryan was being billed as some sort of POC-demi-god and Ringrose as BOD 2.0 despite him missing tackle after tackle in games season on season and not passing to his wingers. There'll be another cab off the rank in September no doubt.

I read somewhere that Big Joe missed 6 tackles (Ringrose with 5, SP with 5), starting with the Smith break for the first try. Got nicked by Pollock in the 76th minute. His rucking is absolute terrible for a guy of his ballast and he has a bit of a penchant for stupid penalties. He wasn't the worst performer the other day but you expect a lot better from him.

Still only 24 so there's time to improve but a 3-year central contract for his performances to date in blue and green is hilarious.

And in a surprise to absolutely nobody, you refuse to answer the question.

Why? Because the reality is there isn’t a large cohort of fans of other provinces who declare Leinster “the unquestioned best team in Europe”.

The vast, vast majority recognise they are one of the best teams in Europe; that’s just not the same as what you’re saying.

Instead, you use what one poster has said as an opportunity to have a more generalised a swipe at other provinces fans.