Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

Where we've had the edge on Ulster (and all the Irish provinces in games that matter) in recent times has been the tight 5, and I feel we don't have that this week.

I agree completely on Culhane - and had the same thoughts earlier. He looked a really exciting prospect at U20s, and while he's shown some good snippets at senior level, we still haven't really seen the same explosive player (some of that has been injuries).

This is as good a time as any to produce a performance.

Same for Alex Soroka - he generates a lot of hype from Leinster fans, and part of that is his personality etc, but this is the fourth domestic derby he's been trusted to start this year, and for me, he hasn't delivered a performance yet in any of them.

• Cahir v Bell
• Kelleher v Stewart
• Clarkson v TOT
• Deeny v Izzy
• Ryan v Henderson
• Soroka v McCann - Probably the closest battle to my eyes
• Penny v Reffell
• Culhane v Augustus
• McGrath v Doak
• Prendergast v Murphy - to be honest this wouldn't be a conversation only Sams form has been so poor lately.
• JOB v Ward
• Henshaw v McCloskey
• Ringrose v Hume
• Keenan v Stockdale
• McCarthy v McCormick
• Byrne v Crean
• Slimani v Wilson - Draw. Slimani and much superior scrummager. Wilson a better all arounder
• COT v Sheridan
• Deegan v Ward - Ward more explosive and in form but Deegan a much better all arounder and l/o option
• Connors v na
• Gunne v McKee
• Frawley v Flannery
• na v Postlethwaite - Leinster have better cover in the backline tbh. Ulster have a lot of single position players

It isn't just about personnel, it's about playing as a unit. This Leinster team has very little time together and some of them have barely featured at all this season, and we have not been good at hitting the ground running this year.

Handy enough win for Ulster.

Ulster are definitely more cohesive as a team and Leinster have suffered from being a bit (understandably from disruption) disjointed which has been a feature of the season. But I do feel there’s enough experience, talent and will to win this. Haven’t been to Ravenhill but it’s no different in hostility to Thomond which Leinster are well up for. Unusual for Leinster going to Ulster as the underdog which may help raise the bar on performance

That is such a shocking Leinster team. It reminds me of Leo Cullen year on year hoping for miracles. To be honest Begles is handily going to win the Champions cup. Leo needs to focus. He keeps doing this braindead stuff. So start with the URC Leo

the issue is the sense of entitlement

It's almost like they'e decided a home quarter-final is good enough and that a home semi-final is just out of reach points wise.

That post looks like something that could have appeared on Truth Social at 4am. "LEO IS A REALLY BAD GUY".

On the selection itself, apart from the back row, it's a pretty strong team. In the back row, we have injuries to VDF, Baird and Doris so needs must, and we have to rotate people in and out, especially the internationals.

This is the fourth of potentially 13 straight matches for us. It's not reasonable to expect full-strength line-ups 13 weeks in a row.

Bringing up the fact that Leinster beat Connacht, first on the Connacht thread and now on this one isn't the win you think it is 😅 The fact that Leinster are better than Connacht doesn't stop Connacht fans having an opinion on Leinster, most Connacht fans want Leinster to do well

This is a great point, take backrow for example. Doris has concussive symptoms after Edinburgh game, JVDF and Baird both went off injured last week. That's our entire starting Back Row carrying knocks into this week.

Joe McCarthy was fairly beat up in the sale game too.

That's 4 of our starting pack who may have needed a week off after back to back 6 day turnarounds.

I agree FtD v2. At the same time I find Leinster a conundrum. Yes Leinster is the major supplier to Irish rugby. And as such Leinster rugby should have very decent set of fall back players. So really my point was that the fall back players selected for tonights game have never been as as weak as this selection. Maybe that's a worry in itself.

Indeed

The goal isn't to make sense.

The goal is to spread discourse. It's not a new concept to them

Looking at stormers matches and they have a rtough run-in. They have connacht, Glasgow at home and Cardiff Ulster away. Leinster could well steal second in the table. They have Ulster (and need to hold on in the last 10 mins), and Benetton away and Lions and Ospreys at home.