Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

I'm challenging the thread bare idea that Leinster's serial underperformance can be accounted for by players simply not performing, nienbar didn't tell him to knock on, not Leo's fault he didn't kick for territory, etc. These players do it in green and show periods and moments of a very high level in blue, but consistency and delivering under real pressure seems beyond them at Leinster. THIS IS A COACHING ISSUE.

Did anyone say our failures could be accounted for simply by the players not performing? I know I didn’t. All I said was they can’t be given a free pass.

You on the other hand literally just said that when the players mess up, it’s the fault of the Leinster coaches but when they do something good in a blue jersey, it’s because of coaching they got elsewhere.

These aren’t rational or even coherent arguments.

Leinster are excellent (almost) every year, but they’re not alone in that virtue , the top French & English teams do have a say in who wins and only 1 team has more trophies than we do in the European cup. Maybe some are just a tad unrealistic in expectations. We do have a good representation of the Irish team but it’s not the Irish team and the other provinces do contribute exceptional talent albeit not in the same numbers. Tadgh Beirne was arguably this years best Lion and up there with JGP as the most influential Irish player.

11/12 starters and most of the bench for Ireland is the general average for Leinster players. 8 starters on the most recent Lions tour. Is there an equivalent club in world rugby? I don't think so. Yes, there are other excellent teams in Europe and in the league, but literally no club on earth has the relative playing resources of Leinster. Sure, Tadgh is the pick of Irish second rows, but elsewhere you'd be hard pressed to find a Leinster disadvantage relative other provinces. Unrealistic expectations is funny way to characterise an expectation that that team should win in Europe more than once in nearly 15 years.

Baird definitely out for the Toulon match according to the Irish Times today:

"Ryan Baird is unavailable to play due to complications around the initial injury to his leg sustained in November. Baird returned impressively for Leinster’s win over Edinburgh before the injury flared up again.

“It’s not as bad as it was previously,” said McBryde of the Irish flanker."

I think I'd start Jimmy O'Brien over Rieko on the left, with Rieko in the 23 shirt, but I don't expect them to do that.

 but the opposition also have cards to play. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. 

I think the reason people are asking questions is because in Europe, Leinster always lose. Nobody expects them to win every year. Just more than once in 14 years.

or 4 times in 17 years depending on how you look at it. We are the 2nd most successful team in Europe since it started. We have won more cups than anyone else in the past 20 years. We are consistently up there in the last 4 and often in the last 2. That’s quite an accomplishment given the quality of sides in the competition. Toulon are joint 3rd with Saracens each with 3 championships under their belt. We are excellent but not alone in that so despite some disappointing performances due to reasons much discussed, we are in a home semi final on Saturday. And top 4 URC. High end problems at Leinster

And when they haven't won, they've been in the last 4 or last 2 almost every year, which is incredibly consistent. In that time, we've seen the rise and fall of Toulon, Saracens, Clermont, Racing 92, Exeter Chiefs, La Rochelle, Toulouse again and now the rise of Bordeaux.

And leinster has been up there the whole time. No big sustained fall in that time.

Losing is disappointing but if you can't see the value of supporting your team to the semi final or final almost every year, then you're missing out.

That that Leinster team managed to draw 12-12 in 80 mins and only lost 25-20 aet is indicative of how better coached the side was.

Ahhhh heeeyorrr.

Yesterday we were told that, if only we had Stuart Lancaster on board, we'd have won loads of titles, despite the fact that well, we had Stuart Lancaster on board and we didn't, and then he went to Racing where he also failed to win anything. But if he came back now, watch out!

Today we're being told that after two seasons of Matt O'Connor at the helm, we had a brilliantly-coached team. So well coached that we finished fifth of 12 (mainly crap) teams in the league and behind both Ulster and Munster that same season. We fell over the line at home to Bath in the QF and it was a surprise to all and sundry that we performed well in the SF. General consensus was that we achieved the result in spite of MOC's coaching rather than because of it.