Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

Neither did I, but by the time he left it was absolutely toxic.

I'll still forever be grateful for what he did for Leinsters and Irish Rugby, just unfortunately seems like he overstayed his time

There’s also every chance that €2m - a not insignificant sum - directed into player pathways will bring some rewards.

But the accusations of “whingeing” at this point are quite the irony…

Because Leinster fans are rightly pissed off that the system is being changed to our detriment essentially because Leinster did too good a job / the other provinces did too bad a job.

This just isn’t true, particularly under Rowntree (and to a lesser extent, the last year of JVG).

And, as the season has progressed, we've backed them more. I expect that to continue next season. We're in the first season under McMillan. Plus we've had Edogbo and Gleeson - our 2 best young players injured for decent spells this season.

From October last season, we didn't have a head coach, so it's hardly surprising Costello went with the older guard.

Casey, Crowley, Ahern, Kendellen, Nash, Coombes, Daly, Nash, Hodnett, Fineen Wycherley - all guys under 30 that now form the core of our team who have been brought thru over that period prior to the last 2 seasons. Ben Healy too, but he obviously moved. Jake Flannery who moved to Ulster. In terms of front row - which admittedly has been poor - we've brought through Diarmuid Barron and Josh Wycherly.

I genuinely believe that, over a longer period, Munster compare pretty well to the other Provinces. And Munsters squads this season haven't struck me as "old", even if we're not backing guys 23 or under as much as the others.

With regards Bryn Ward putting his hand up for Ireland selection, his analog in Munster is Gleeson, who lets not forget was named as a development player in the Autumn Squad, but unfortunately had to pull out due to injury.

Leinster having central contracts doesn't stop those guys getting caps. But in the case of Gleeson and Edogbo, injury does, particularly the latter, who pretty much spent the previous 2 seasons injured. Ruadhan Quinn is still Munster's younger ever capped player. Foy is someone who I would like to see more of, but our back-row is probably the one position where we're very strong.

Sad end to a great Leinster and Ireland career for James Lowe. It was a privilege to watch him grow into the world class player he became. But at the end of the day, rugby is a professional game.

I guess it's the way things will be in the future. More often than not, a lot of the commentary is about older players being kept on too long. It won't always be right or fair, but its quite literally just business.

Natural tendency to hold on that bit too long to great players which doesn’t do anyone any favours. Lowe has been an incredibly important part of the Leinster success story but it does feel like the natural time to move on for a final flourish abroad like Luke another gem for us over the past decade plus. Next generation will be every bit as good despite the media mungering but they do need time to learn through mistakes like everyone else has had the benefit of doing. Lowe is still extremely good but he’s slow for the wing and there is no benefit to him delaying Osborne or Cooney / Tector game time who need to build their story

We're not in great shape for next season really. Losing Slimani and Lowe, along with Snyman on the injured list leaves us with very little in the way of established quality when the test players are unavailable. And seeing as Leinster are the only province producing Ireland players we'll be down at least 20 players for the majority of the season without much experience to fall back on.

It's an exciting time for the younger squad players as there'll be plenty of opportunities for them to play. But not sure we'll be getting far into the Champions Cup with so many Ireland commitments in a World Cup year.

I'd be at a point where if Leo had any balls on him, he'd tell the IRFU where to go with their player management system.

It works when you have the depth to get you by, but as things stand there are going to be a lot of lads taking the pitch next season who, quite frankly, aren't good enough or aren't ready.

Thank you for exposing the reality of the situation. The Leinster administration has chosen to let Lowe go in favour of keeping the likes of RG Synman. This same administration has also paid big money for Jordie Barrett and didn't pick him to start the biggest game of the season the year before last. And the same administration brought in Ioane and didn't get much value for money there. Slimani too seems to have added value more as a technical scrum coach than an actual player.

The IRFU has been both prudent and consistent in it's decision making on subsidising older players coming to the end of their international careers. Lowe is getting the same treatment POM and Murray did at the same juncture in their careers. It was Leinster's choice then to not meet Lowe's contract demands once the IRFU subvention was ended.

I was referring to how old he would be after the RWC if the IRFU were to keep him on for an additional year after it.

Admittedly poorly worded (and also admittedly, he'd only be 35, not 36, bad maths on my part) but I think you can see the point I was trying to make there.

Lowe doesn’t feature much for Leinster anymore but he is still a loss and I don’t see this going down well with Andy Farrell. Lowe is clearly still first choice, 1 year out from a World Cup. Also think it’s pretty poor form not to accommodate him when he is still first choice winger from IRFU.

Said it a few times over the past year, these changes Humphrey’s has brought in will mean no Irish team challenges for Europe in a couple of years. Lowe will now be playing abroad (saw Northampton mentioned yesterday) and won’t be available for Ireland so we can appease some teams who can’t produce their own players. Connors and Frawley won’t have Connacht challenging in Europe. Kelleher and Jimmy O’Brien hypothetically moving won’t have Munster challenging in Europe, but all these losses Leinster will have will certainly affect Leinster.

Hope all of this blows up in the IRFUs face.