Leinster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread.

WeleaseWoderick

guapos wrote: »

Finally we will be able to get revenge for the semi final defeat to Cardiff all those years ago in Landsowne Rd. Any idea where i could find the leinster team from that day?

There ya go! http://www.leinsterrugby.ie/matchcentre/match_centre.php?section=lineups&fixid=69531

.ak

Didn't realize Rolland was playing with us right up until then. I thought he quit in the early 90s.

CIARAN_BOYLE

.ak wrote: »

Didn't realize Rolland was playing with us right up until then. I thought he quit in the early 90s.

Rolland last Leinster game was the 16th of August 1997. That match against Cardiff was in his first season with Leinster.
http://www.leinsterrugby.ie/profiles/index.php?player=11842&includeref=dynamic

ray jay

CatFromHue wrote: »

The conservative in my looks at games like today in Cardiff and shudders when talk of enlarging the RDS comes up.

The Cardiff stadium is 26,000 and they had 8,000 there today. It might well have been no one though. Granted we get more than 8,000 to all our games and we wouldn't be upgrading to 26,000 but it is a warning about what could go wrong.

Take last season for example, the regular season home Magners games were:

Leinster 34 - 23 Blues Royal Dublin Society 15,890
Leinster 13 - 9 Munster AVIVA Stadium 50,645
Leinster 19 - 18 Edinburgh Royal Dublin Society 16,786
Leinster 27 - 6 Dragons Royal Dublin Society 10,390
Leinster 30 - 8 Connacht Royal Dublin Society 17,136
Leinster 15 - 10 Ospreys Royal Dublin Society 14,876
Leinster 21 - 16 Aironi Royal Dublin Society 9,790
Leinster 30 - 5 Treviso Royal Dublin Society 10,236
Leinster 26 - 15 Scarlets Royal Dublin Society 11,976
Leinster 34 - 26 Ulster Royal Dublin Society 17,670
Leinster 38 - 3 Warriors Royal Dublin Society 12,318

Excl the Aviva game our average RDS Magners League attendance was 13707. So that approx 75% of the RDS capacity. So other than the home Munster game we didn't sell out any Magners games last season (the home Ulster game was sold out this season). Also how many of these attendance numbers were "massaged" is hard to know.

The regular season HEC games were:

Leinster 38 - 22 Racing Métro 92 Royal Dublin Society 17,936
Leinster 24 - 8 ASM Clermont Auvergne AVIVA Stadium 44,873
Leinster 43 - 20 Saracens Royal Dublin Society 18,500

We only sold out 1 of the 2 games in the RDS (this was the same this season). So in total we only sold out the RDS once of all the games in it.

If you ask me as long as the Aviva is available to us we don't yet need to upgrade the RDS to a larger capacity. When the average attendance in the RDS gets to about 85-90% then it would time to increase the capacity I'd say. Upgrading the facilities is a different matter though.

Take a look at this season's attendances though, every match sold over 14000 tickets. Still not many sell outs, but you can see there's an upward trend.

irishbucsfan

Is increased attendance the year after winning the heineken cup an upward trend or a bubble though?

errlloyd

All rugby attendance europe wide is on an upward trend. At the moment Leinster are ahead of the curve in this part of the world to be fair.

In 50 years we'll be playing in soccer club sized stadiums, and our players will eat cocaine and prostitutes for breakfast.

justsomebloke

Actually the use of the Aviva could actually be detrimental to the attendances of games in the RDS.

I have noticed a couple of people on the forum at different points already say they are thinking of giving up their season ticket due to the fact that there isn't the same need to have one any more. With the big games going to the Aviva there are only 1 or 2 (if even that) games where tickets aren't available to the general public. I know a good few people whos main reason for getting tickets was to make sure they got tickets to HC games but they no longer need to do that so why will be bother.

so they will still go to the big games, but a Thursday night game against Italian team is probably one they will skip

Tox56

errlloyd wrote: »

All rugby attendance europe wide is on an upward trend. At the moment Leinster are ahead of the curve in this part of the world to be fair.

In 50 years we'll be playing in soccer club sized stadiums, and our players will eat cocaine and prostitutes for breakfast.

ray jay

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Is increased attendance the year after winning the heineken cup an upward trend or a bubble though?

Judging by the 2009-10 attendances, it's a return to form. The recession is probably depressing demand for tickets too, who knows what the support will be like in a couple of years (assuming the economy picks up!).

phog

Serious question, should Leinster consider moving one of their less attractive games to a smaller stadium in one of the other counties? Would Leinster have another rugby stadium that would cater for > 7K

CIARAN_BOYLE

justsomebloke wrote: »

Actually the use of the Aviva could actually be detrimental to the attendances of games in the RDS.

I have noticed a couple of people on the forum at different points already say they are thinking of giving up their season ticket due to the fact that there isn't the same need to have one any more. With the big games going to the Aviva there are only 1 or 2 (if even that) games where tickets aren't available to the general public. I know a good few people whos main reason for getting tickets was to make sure they got tickets to HC games but they no longer need to do that so why will be bother.

so they will still go to the big games, but a Thursday night game against Italian team is probably one they will skip

Also the fans that go a few times a year due to financial reasons will be going to games in the aviva since they are big games

justsomebloke

phog wrote: »

Serious question, should Leinster consider moving one of their less attractive games to a smaller stadium in one of the other counties? Would Leinster have another rugby stadium that would cater for > 7K

Not sure if they can as they have to drop an Aviva game for it. AFAIK they have to play a certain amount of games in the RDS so at the moment it is the big games that are the ones they aren't playing there so that they can be played in the RDS

CIARAN_BOYLE

phog wrote: »

Serious question, should Leinster consider moving one of their less attractive games to a smaller stadium in one of the other counties? Would Leinster have another rugby stadium that would cater for > 7K

7K wouldn't fit all season ticket holders.

Leinster has to play 12 games a season in the RDS under contract. To lose one they would have to play one less game in the Aviva which are massive money makers for the province and the IRFU.

durkadurka

The lease says they must play eleven games in the rds afaik

CIARAN_BOYLE

durkadurka wrote: »

The lease says they must play eleven games in the rds afaik

12

Back before the Italian teams joined the Magners Leinster had to play every regular season game in the RDS 9 in the magners and three in the HEC that adds up to 12.

At the moment we have 14 home games and play 2 in the aviva and the Leinster CEO has mentioned in an interview that we play as many games in the aviva as we can.

profitius

Talk of Steven Sykes being granted a realease from his contract and returning to South Africa.

Neil3030

profitius wrote: »

Talk of Steven Sykes being granted a realease from his contract and returning to South Africa.

I don't suppose this would clear the way to sign Tuohy from Ulster

WeeBushy

Would have to be minimum a 12 thousand capacity stadium to accommodate all the season tickets. Coupled with the fact that it would mean one less big game in the Aviva makes it a non-runner imo.

Playing the pre-season friendlies around the province is a good idea.

.ak

profitius wrote: »

Talk of Steven Sykes being granted a realease from his contract and returning to South Africa.

Crazy. After such high hopes... I wonder what's going on there? Certainly he's back to fitness and should be playing games?

ALso any news with berqie?

ongarite

profitius wrote: »

Talk of Steven Sykes being granted a realease from his contract and returning to South Africa.

What a mess although this rumour popped up a few weeks ago saying he was tying up loose ends in Dublin in anticipation of move back to South Africa.
It may be a good thing now with the new NIQ rules as Leinster may get in a replacement from another province.

tolosenc

Neil3030 wrote: »

I don't suppose this would clear the way to sign Tuohy from Ulster

Or the return of this man:



PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE

shaungil

tolosenc wrote: »

Or the return of this man:



PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE

Holding down three Ulster players by himself on Saturday. Briliant

totallegend

profitius wrote: »

Talk of Steven Sykes being granted a realease from his contract and returning to South Africa.

Cue incessant chatter on boards.ie of Ian Nagle moving to Leinster.

That's a shame about Sykes, if true. He obviously has some level of talent and ability to have caught the eye of Leinster in the first place, it would be a pity if he went off home again without ever really showing us what he can do.

With Strauss qualifying as Irish at the start of next season and Nathan White and Van der Merwe both seeing their contracts expire at the end of this season, we could be left with Isa as our only NIQ so plenty of scope to sign someone. And since there is only one other foreign lock in Ireland, then even under the new rules we should be good to go.

I really hope that VDM stays on, he's a massive part of the team.

Big Nelly

shaungil wrote: »

Holding down three Ulster players by himself on Saturday. Briliant

Yeah was class, very funny!!!

irishbucsfan

totallegend wrote: »

I really hope that VDM stays on, he's a massive part of the team.

VDM has been average this season while McGrath has been good. Wouldn't be upset to see him go.

Neil3030

How many more years would Hines have in him, though?

CIARAN_BOYLE

Neil3030 wrote: »

How many more years would Hines have in him, though?

Not many. I think Leinster did the right thing to let him go, Cullen may not have many years left in him either and Leinster really needed to start working on replacement locks.

Toner has stepped up a lot due to more gametime this season.

totallegend

irishbucsfan wrote: »

VDM has been average this season while McGrath has been good. Wouldn't be upset to see him go.

Disagree, think he's been rock solid. McGrath has played nowhere near enough senior rugby to make any sort of judgement, hopefully he'll get some game time during the 6N window.

Honey-ec

.ak wrote: »

ALso any news with berqie?

Was talking to SOB on Saturday and he said Berquist is due back in a few weeks.

.ak

totallegend wrote: »

Disagree, think he's been rock solid. McGrath has played nowhere near enough senior rugby to make any sort of judgement, hopefully he'll get some game time during the 6N window.

I'd have to agree here. I think the reason VDM appears average is he simply isn't firing as good as he did last season. Same could be said for Healy tho. I think they always come to shine after the 6N tho.