Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

Didn't see him going off was it serious

Was on crutches at the end. Not sure what exactly happened to him.

“catastrophic disaster” does not seem like a balanced perspective

Look Leo is a great guy, Leinster Legend and I have nothing but fond memories of him as a player. That semi v Clermont is my all time fav Leinster game and Leo was ace that day, gave everything. It's horrible to see him struggle through these conferences with the media post another loss. He is really struggling to find anything to say. Leinster are in the top few teams on Europe and will be going forward but ultimately we need an aggressive edge and a more ruthless coach to close the gap and set the standards. It's time for a change and I say that for Leo's sake too.

Rose tinted glasses there. We played good rugby in fits and starts in those finals.

But with Sexton marshalling us in most of those we frequently underperformed and struggled to get any sort of attacking flow.

In reality Lancaster was just as culpable as anyone for those defeats and eventually I hope people realise that.

I have read the last 4 pages and it is hilarious that everyone is not calling for Leo to be sackedit is an embarrassment of his coaching ability not to win this game

Can you imagine a soccer manager failing on a similar scale he would be left in Bilbao

It really sums up Irish Rugby that there is no real chance of Leo being sacked

What his Captain Doris said in is press conference is embarrassing, how can a captain be happy after losing howany finals

LBB is 22.

Perhaps I'll be proved wrong. Just haven't seen it.

I haven’t read the past 4 pages and won’t be but I find it hard to believe nobody is calling for Cullens head. This Leinster forum, along with me, has wanted Cullen gone pretty strongly since the Northampton loss.

Leinster were up against it today as Bordeaux are up there with Toulouse as the best club team out there, but that performance was, once again, unacceptable.

If he had anything about him he should resign tonight. I have said it for over a year now, 10+ years is too long in any job, not to mention pro sport.

Leinster is the Irish team without Beirne and Crowley, 2 players (and good players, a great one in Beirne) don’t make that much of a difference. The difference is the coaching. And it has been a dreadful season. Anyone who has played rugby to even a half decent level would know the issue is the coaching. Cullen needs to go, Nienaber was worth the appointment but it hasn’t worked, Leinster have never looked so poor defensively. He needs to go. Robin McBryde has been around for God knows how long and doesn’t appear to add anything. The attack is dogshit all year, Bleyendaal has added the square root of 0. Not too sure what Sean O’Brien adds either as the skills and handling has never been as bad.

Doris can’t come out and start ranting, as much as I’d love him to. But again, It’s been said numerous times, this team is far too friendly. Can you imagine Sexton after that today? I’d be surprised if he even did the interview.

Completely unrelated but Irish provincial rugby is going one way with Humphreys changes. Anybody can say what they want about that squad but for Leinster to consistently be in the top teams of Europe for this long is good going but Leinster are going to lose important players to prop up the other provinces because the actual issue isn’t being tackled that one 1 team is providing players to Ireland (Ulster notwithstanding who have some good players coming through) .

A few years time is going to be mid table for all Irish teams while none of them will put a glove on the French teams and we can all argue between each other about who is less shite than the other. All the while 2 teams in particular will be bailed out with Leinster produced players and imports because their underage systems are so poorly run. Ridiculous situation to be in and almost punishes 1 branch for having their house in order.

Anyway onto next week and rant over.

The two lost finals against ROG sting and 2024 was the year we drew in spurs new stadium?

This hurt we've had done to us what we did to Ulster all those years ago.

yeah, JGP wasn’t ’getting slow ball’, he often just waited before passing. Seemed like a tactical choice, ensuring everyone was in place, including Bordeaux’s defence. Basically meant that Leinster had no speed in phase attack, or guile. Looking at Leo’s interview again he does actually seem a little out of his mind, just another game, sure we’ve a 1/4 final next week. That’s rugby. His PR schtick has worked for a decade so not surprised he’s still trying it on. Mister nice guy strikes again.

Was painfully obvious the second a bit game came around Henshaw would be show up. He's a gain line 12 who can't get over the gain line. He also has terrible hands, can barely pass a ball.

It probably is time for change. Ten years is too long for any coach and Cullen, for all the good he’s done, just seems to have run his course. Getting to all these finals is an immense achievement but we need to change something to kick on.

People getting so bent out of shape about that interview, I’m not sure it matters tbh, but he must have said five times about how clinical UBB were and that was the main difference yesterday. They took every chance they got, we butchered a number and made critical errors to give them easy entries. Cullen and Nienaber have to ship the blame for that, but so do the players.

Any change in coaches will be pretty pointless without some shift in on-field leadership. We have no one to pull the team together and steady the ship once things go wrong on the pitch. For all the world class talent we have, I don’t see a strong captain figure like Sexton, Nacewa, Heaslip or Cullen himself. Leo wouldn’t have stood by and let yesterday happen if he’d been on the pitch, which is an odd situation I suppose. The downside of producing so many home grown players is it limits your ability to go to the market and fill gaps, but if there’s an opportunity to sign a real leadership figure, we need to demand IRFU allow it.

I think we saw yesterday why so many of us were hesitant about Byrne being brought in, the poor guy had a shocker, and unless SP improves massively over the summer, this is a big problem. I see a lot of posts about letting the wrong OH leave, tbh I don’t think that will be borne out either.

The frustrating thing about yesterday is just how easy we made it for them. If you’re going to lose, you want to make them work for the win, but we didn’t. The intercept try, the butchered overlap by TOB, there’s no way UBB make those mistakes yesterday. They got a lot of luck too. That ball brushing Keenan’s fingertips goes from good field position for Leinster to a five metre scrum and try for Bordeaux. Their fourth try pinballs around before eventually ending up in Penauds arms and they’re in again.

Anyway, the URC is the big one, right? Onwards and upwards.

Is Scott Robertson available? Leinster need brand new voices in charge.

Does anyone actually think Cullen would be offered a job anywhere, if Leinster let him go?