Leinster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread XI (The Finals Countdown)

Harry byrne finds a great touch I've noticed.

Good to see Leinster play decent opposition.

Harry Byrne limping off.

Hopefully not too serious. Few errors today, but played well. Think at times he was forcing the pass, but played well generally. Put his centres in good positions to attack.

Liam Turner is built like a fridge.

Dave overtook Rob as Leinsters 6th highest try scorer with his try today.

Job done!

Hard to tell what it means when we have our worst performance in some time with a concussed fly half and we still beat the Ospreys by 19 away from home.

pickarooney wrote: »

It means Ospreys are dung, but it's not a new thing.

I thought their pack looked decent on paper, could have at least matched us if they had a good game.

I think it was around the 70th minute, when the Ospreys had been camped in our 22 for ages, just trucking it up against Leinster's clearly superior pack while ignoring our ramshackle backline. And when they did go wide, they just put it through the hands and got tackled into touch. Genuinely unsure that the Ospreys have an attack coach at all.

Decent outing overall against a pretty stubborn Ospreys side. Bench was good this week. Closed out the game well as we stopped chasing after the 4th try.

We seemed a bit fatigued. Not sure if the Monday game threw us off. We still had a 6 day turnaround.

The pitched looked extremely heavy. The ball just didn't want to bounce on it. Could have been a factor.

Ross Molony was very good today. Carried more effectively than I have seen of him in a long time. Very busy at ruck time too. He can be pleased with his performance.

Milne looked a bit vulnerable at scrum time. But it also looked like the Ospreys were really targeting him. Solid first start for him.

Rhys had a borderline carbon copy of his game last against Glasgow. Very impressive physical showing. Again a deserved POTM.

Penny was very impressive again. Extremely hungry for work. Tackled all day long and hit his rucks. Technically excellent player. Thought his card was harsh tbh. Ospreys just needed to roll over to put the ball down to score. Yes he was illegal but I don't think he prevented the try. Especially when Ospreys gave away about 4 penalties in a row before Tracys try.

Feel extremely bad for Tommy O'Brien. He didn't look in good shape coming off. Foot just got caught under the Ospreys player. It's a testament to his attitude that he was chasing a lost ball as he had just knocked it on. Makes the injury all the more frustrating as it was ultimately unnecessary.

Dave took his try very well but he hasn't really been overly present in the last 2 games. Not a huge amount has come his way. I just would like to see him getting more involved.

Good to have a player like Jimmy in the backfield. He displays a real level head and maturity there. Prone to making the right decision at the right time and his left peg is an asset we have benefitted from the last few weeks.

Sheehan unfortunately backed up a 100% record from touch on Monday with a very yippy performance. 25% return. 2 overthrows and one in too early. Good carrying though. Great to see him stand up and take a 5m tap and go.

Parker looks like he might be a good find. Quietly effective. Hits his rucks, tackles his man, packs down his side of the scrum.

These 2 weeks could have tripped us up but ultimately we have 10 points from 2 away games which is all you can ask for. We've yet to get anything less than a TBP from our 5 games thus far. A nice 8 day gap to our next game against Edinburgh at home.

It's hard to be critical of Leinster. As TG4 put it " obair agus laidir". It was just a functional game today and Leinster do what they do best. It's a credit to them that even when the game is just ordinary they take all the points

And as for Rhys Ruddock for Ireland, it's just another call that most won't understand. And I would be one of those. But clearly there is a reason. As Thomond2006 would say they are unclean in the eye of the beholder. And that is all that matters