Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

we could focus on the positives.

People predicted we’d be destroyed in the scrum, it was the opposite. Porter destroyed Sinckler at every opportunity and Cahir did very well in his cameos.

We played some lovely rugby. Flowing moves, changing the point of attack, nice support lines.

We defended well, for the most part and managed the 13-man period very well. Yeah it got very ragged in the last 15 minutes, but overall pretty solid.

Ioane was outstanding as was JGP.

We had a lot of bad luck with injuries, cards, kicks gone astray, and we were still considerably the better team. People are quick to sh1t on us when the scoreboard flatters us but today it absolutely flattered Toulon.

And a very respectable crowd.

We’ve three weeks now to talk about how UBB are going to tear us apart. Maybe just for today we can enjoy being in the final.

I got sneered at yesterday for suggesting we cheer up and enjoy the rugby. That’s fine. Some people only want to follow rugby to complain and rant, I think it’s a bizarre way to “support” a team and an even more bizarre way to spend your free time, but each to his own.

We’re in a final, we deserve to be there, we played well, I’m going to enjoy it.

The scoreline flattered Toulon in all honesty.

We lost Robbie after 15 mins, Josh after 45 mins and Conan after 55 mins.

No one will ever convince me that JGP knocked that ball on.

We played 10 mins with 13 players and scored a try and forced them into a YC in the process. Harry got a YC for offside in the 22. Toulon were living offside just before the Doris try and nada. Not to mention Sinkler's scummy shot on JGP not looked at.

We're now in a final with everything to play for with hopefully a few lads (Baird?, Lowe, Furlong) back in contention and positive experience for Penny & Soroka. If you're not in you can't win.

Even easier... stick Hugo on the wing and Sam at 15. He's played there a few times already this season after coming on as a sub. Just plain daft sticking him on the wing particularly given how lethal Dréan is

Nobody said anything about it being unfair, give it a rest with the strawmen.

Simply pointing out your assertation that he doesn't get any scrutiny is complete nonsense.

"I didn't say he didn't get any scrutiny, I said something that means pretty much the same thing but used different words!!"

Yeah alright.

Leo is right everyone is jealous of Leinster's success and are only happy having a go. If its not the players, its the coaches or the IRFU. This thread is full of non Leinster supporters having a go, trying to talk us down. Well we are in the final, a great achievement despite adversity. Keep going lads it's a great motivator, hopefully some day your team will make a final. We are very very happy to be going to Bilbao.

Lets be honest, you could focus on the lack of Champions Cup trophies, but since the 2008 win there hasn't been another club as consistent in Europe. Some have risen and fallen... maybe on the way back up again, Toulon, Saracens, La Rochelle and Toulouse, but there isn't anyone else who has won the competition and consistently competed at the business end as much as Leinster. You could argue they should have won it more often and threw a few away but to win it for the first time in 2008 and then follow up with 3 more wins and 9 finals in 15 years is rightly the envy of all other clubs in Europe. Knockout sport can throw up surprises at any stage but that's a ridiculous level of consistency.

Some say it's a rich club and basically a national team but the budget is nowhere near some of the French powerhouses or even some English clubs. Irish rugby is managed conservatively and wisely, or so it seems. Even the "little" La Rochelle are operating with bigger overall budgets and player pools than Leinster. In a country where it's our 4th sport, it's great to see our provinces representing the country at both levels of finals. We've become a bit complacent about reaching finals and it should be celebrated more, regardless of the outcomes in the final weekend. We might yet, with a bit of luck, end up with 4 Irish teams back in the Champions Cup next season too to top it all!

The IRFU are almost certainly absolutely delighted with the job Cullen has done over the last decade, he is churning out players for the national team and the national team has had an era of unprecedented success over that time.

Watched the game back. Scoreboard doesn't reflect Leinster's dominance across the pitch. Our attacking game isn't quite there yet, but there were more signs that it's clicking into place, I think. We're starting to fix defenders again before passing the ball and it's creating gaps and soft shoulders to run at. Was notable how Osborne was far more direct with his carrying in this game. He was looking to get across the gain line more often rather than passing out the back.

The Nienaber defence won us the game though. Might not be to the taste of some posters here but it shut down Toulon for large parts of the game, especially when they were trying to build between the 10 metre lines. They just got stuck with nowhere to go. Gael Dréan was given nothing to work with. A 13 man Leinster suffocated Toulon in their own 22 and forced a rushed box which we eventually scored points from. That's remarkable.

A negative though, was our poor fielding. Byrne's contestables weren't great and didn't give us the chance to compete. Toulon, on the other hand, were far more successful at regathering possession from kicks. It was one of the few routes they actually had at pressuring Leinster yesterday. Bath especially could exploit that. And we know that, even if we defend as well as yesterday, if we get even one yellow card, Bordeaux will murder any side on transition.

Atmosphere yesterday was incredible, as good as I’ve been to in a long time whether in blue or green

maybe on the Munster thread

Here, only “you goys” or “youse” are acceptable