Leinster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread.

The Squad Broken Down:

Props: Cian Healy, Stan Wright, Van Der Merwe, Mike Ross, Jack McGrath, Ronan McCormack

Hooker: Richardt Strauss, Jason Harris-Wright, John Fogarty

Second-Row: Leo Cullen, Nathan Hines, Ed O'Donoghue, Devin Toner, Eoin Sheriff, Trevor Hogan

Back-Row: Shane Jennings, Kevin McLaughlin, Jamie Heaslip, Sean O'Brien, Rhys Ruddock, Paul Ryan, Stephen Keogh

Scrum-Half: Eoin Reddan, Isaac Boss, Paul O'Donohoe

Out-Half: Johnny Sexton, Shaun Berne

Centre: Gordon D'Arcy, Brendan Macken, Brian O'Driscoll, Eoin O'Malley, Fergus McFadden

Back-Three: Luke Fitzgerald, Andrew Conway, Shane Horgan, Rob Kearney, Dave Kearney, Isa Nacewa, Niall Morris

I really like the look of this squad and am very excited in some of the new prospects making the senior squad. Definitely doing the right thing now and bringing in the youth nice and early instead of making signings for squad depth, and let them have a season or two to break into the team. I reckon this will be the season of Jason Harris-Wright.

We're crying out for a hooker, and his competition haven't exactly set the world alight, and it would be great to see this lad come through and establish himself in the number two jersey this season. He'll get his oppertunity. I hope he takes it.

Also great to see Jack McGrath in there. It will be interesting to see how he does in the pecking order. He will surely surpass McCormack, but there's tough competition to make the bench even from there. Hope he gets some game time though.

I think our second row looks very strong now. Three very good first team options Cullen, O'Donoghue & Hines, and good back-up specialist in Toner and Hogan is reliable, lots of depth there. I presumed Sherriff is being considered a second row, but he may more likely be seen as back-row, but there's so much depth there, he's better off sticking to second row. We're told that there's going to be a back 5 forward signed also. I'd like to see this in the second row. Another very good option and we'll have 4 very good options for second row, which is depth that will stand to us.

The backrow is sublime. Jennings, McLoughlin, Heaslip, O'Brien have all been superb over the last couple of saeason, and the Leinster back-row has been a dominant force in every game we play. Deffinitely one of the very top Leinster stregths and attack platforms is the Leinster back row. Add to that Rhys Ruddock, the wonder kid back row that could be pushing for first team rugby this season ahead of McLoughlin, but also one of the most promising sevens in the country, Paul Ryan, will be looking for game time. An out and out 7 and if these lads came through as strong as expected, our back-row options will be ridiculos. Also the old hat of Stephen Keogh there for depth. Had a very good season last season for the parts he played.

Scrum-half is extremely strong. Along with Out-Half, it's the only position I never thought I'd see the day we'd have multiple strong options, but we do now. All 3 are top quality imo, and the competition will be excellent, and all very contrasting styles too. Would be interesting to see how Sexton would play off Boss. Sexton is a strong runner with the ball, and coming onto Boss' shoulder from nippy breaks, they could form a lethal combination together.

Out-Half: By far, the weakest aspect of our squad. Sexton is a strong performer, but is still looking to find that optimom consistency and clinicalness. He's ahead of schedule and i doing superbly well, but I think the complete lack of out and out 10 cover is hurting us. Also, no real definied replacement kicker, depending on who's on the field.

Centre: Wow.. D'Arcy & O'Driscoll, still as awesome as ever in midfield. People don't talk it up so much any more, in fact, it's fashionable to put them down now, but they're linking up better than ever imo, and tear teams apart. McFadden is a superb option who is more of a 12 than a 13 in my opinion and that's where his future lays, but excellent 13 and a real top class player. Will hopefully have a long term partnership with Macken, who is incredibly young to be at this point already, snd if his reputation is anything to go by, he's the next big thing. Then with the likes of O'Malley who was superb last season, and Isa & Berne also able to cover, we're in very good shape here.

Back-Three: Tough to know which I prefer, our back-row options or our back-three options...both are mouth watering...Nacewa, Kearney & Fitz, along with Horgan this season, have all formed a superb back-three unit for Leinster. Horgan's inability to kick makes him the impact man, but not starter, but what a superb option to have, and the other 3 are lethal, both in defence and attack...but then the likes of Conway coming through, ridiculosly young again, and skipped directly to a full professional contract, not development...the last guy that did that went by the name of Luke Fitzgerald. Amazing options there. Dave Kearney and Morris provide adequete, if not spectacular cover.

All in all though, an extremely strong squad. This season, lots of competition for places, rotation giving the young guys an oppertunity, this squad could really develop into something spectacular if ALL of these young players live up to their promise. More consistancy this season and more killer edge and street smarts in the knock outs, but even with a horrific group, I think we weill be contenders again this season, if not champs, but you never know, Magners should be high priority again also.

Really looking forward to seeing the lads in action next season, and also really excited about the new coaching ticket. He said he wanted to give youth a chance, we've had loads of academy promotions, and I'm very very excited about this new chapter about to begin in Leinster rugby.

We're making good time and are on schedule for developing excellent options for the loss of D'Arcy, O'Driscoll, Horgan in a few years...actually, not much of the old guard left now from the gelacticos...maybe Cullen also along with the above, but that's about it, we've done an excellent job of phasing in new players.

The rest of the squad except for those guys are either young talented players or lads with plenty of years left in them.

And of the 39 squad members, 20 have come from the Leinster academy. Over the half of the squad were all academy players...that's impressive. I'd be interested to see if any other squad in Europe has such a high rate of academy promotions and of such high quality...Toulouse maybe, but not much else. Very promising for the future.

Can't wait for season to start again! Really exciting time to be a Leinster fan! Forget the disapointment of last season, I've a feeling our glory days are only just begining.