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Leinster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread.
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thomond2006 wrote: »You'd swear Munster kidnap Leinster players, stuff them into vans without license plates, and drive them down to Munster by reading the above!
If a player is out of contract, how in god's name is he "poached"?
Don't forget that those players are owned by Leinster.
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thomond2006 wrote: »You'd swear Munster kidnap Leinster players, stuff them into vans without license plates, and drive them down to Munster by reading the above!
If a player is out of contract, how in god's name is he "poached"?
Alright, with all due respect, I suppose a history lesson is in order here.
There was a time when Munster could very credibly, and without argument, call themselves the best team in Ireland (and later Europe), but this was also the post-Matt Williams era, and around the Declan Kidney era (:mad:) when Leinster were in bits, and in a very short space of time, amongst MANY others, lost players like Cullen, Brennan & Casey (three second rows) and Jennings (back-row) and signed a couple of Munster players as squad cover, i.e. Stephen Keogh (back-row) and Trevor Hogan (second-row).
Stephen Keogh had about a season in the Leinster team before Heaslip emerged and has been a solid part of the Leinster first team, at 28, for the last 6/7 years.
Hogan featured in and out of the team up until about 2008, but was always a squad player. These were players more or less "released" by Munster, who Leinster took on, do to the shortage of players (and remember, most of this period was pre-academy days).
As history has shown, Leinster academy first came through around the 2006 season and by 2008 we won the league with a lot of academy players, particularly guys like Sexton, Fitzgerald & Kearney starring. This was the beggining of the Leinster renaissance, and all fueled by the academy.
Since then, to name but a few, we've produced international quality players (in terms of senior and A caps) such as Healy, Hagan, Toner, O'Brien, Heaslip, Ruddock, Ryan, McLoughlin, Ronan, Sexton, Madigan, Keatley, McFadden, O'Malley, Fitzgerald, Carr, Rob & Dave Kearney, Conway, Felix Jones etc. etc. without naming the ones who haven't been recognised at international level yet...
Now, if you were to measure this against a munster list of young, international quality players produced in the last, circa 5 years, it would be a hell of a lot shorter, and if you were to look at all the junior representitive teams and who are the most promising players at every level, Leinsters numbers consistantly double Munsters, at least....
So when I say Munster are sniffing around like a dirty old man, I'm not saying they're throwing people in the back of vans, but whilst Leinster are producing all of these players, Munster are trying to live off the scraps of the Leinster academy..
Example being the well documented expelling of Felix Jones, because he was "tapped up" behind closed doors, without any knowledge of Leinster of the IRFU, by Munster, who promised him first team rugby if he signs with Munster and doesn't take his senior contract with Leinster..he looks at the recent Lions tour including the likes of Fitz and Kearney, and guys like Horgan and Dempsey flying at the time, and the signing of Nacewa etc., and he looks at Munster and sees Dowling and Hurley....and it makes an easy decision for it, but Munster were slippy little scumbags about it, and did it on the sly...and hence the reason Jones was expelled from Leinster training for his last 6 months as a Leinster player...
And Luke Fitzgerald was made the exact same promise by Munster, EXCEPT, Luke's father told Leinster of the offer and demanded a senior contract from Leinster or they'll send him to Munster, hence the reason Luke was never in the Leinster academy and was playing Magners rugby by 18, which doesn't usually happen, despite the massively obvious talent, they usually give them a year or two in the academy no matter what...another sly move by Munster...
Now look at Ruddock...an embarresed photo of him with Munster players giving the thumbs up and a "M" (for Munster) Limerick style gang sign (lol :rolleyes: munster) being throw up in the middle, which appears to suggest another behind closed doors poaching. Basically, Poaching = a team producing nothing, and playing crap academy players, looking at Leinsters NEXT generation, who won't get game time now, and contacting them in international camp, and / or on the sly, and doing a deal with them behind closed doors and without knowledge of Leinster or IRFU, which the player is entitled to seek employment elsewhere, but Munster make promises of first team rugby because whilst they need to work in Leinster, Munster would kill to have them in their team today, and instead of developing players, are skipping a generation of established players, and trying to nab the next generation of Leinster players by fast tracking them now, because Munster have nothing to offer, and the player wants to play now, rather than earn it, but going to a team that is desperate to find players from anywhere.... Downey is also signing as the Munster answer to 12, nuff said. Next season Munster will have 2 home grown players in their back line (assuming they want to phase out O'Gara), which is Earls and Murray (who's rubbish) and perhaps 6 local first choice in pack (MAX - and half that international quality), and more than half the "Munster" team will be non-Munster players....
It's desperation and it's poaching.... nothing I said is false, and feel free to name JJ Halloran (or whatever his name is) and Danny Barnes as evidence otherwise, and it'll just make the argument comical. Munster are sniping, and Foley is trying to fix a hugely limited number of players with his knowledge, and hence the back to old Munster game plan recently of negative rugby played by limited rugby players, desperately trying to sign anyone, and Kidney calling them all up to Ireland, getting expert coaching and knowledge passed on to them...and it's working, fair enough, but in my opinion, Munster have come back from the brink of absolute collapse as a club to holding on, but they're still only a major player by their finger nails, and whilst Leinster can cope with the loss of some players, but for Munster these are major major signings, and how long can this go on? Leinster have regressed slightly this season, but for the most part are getting better and better every year and will for the forseable future....Munster are and will be living off scraps and past players and the over 40's such as O'Gara for the foreseable future.Deleted User wrote: »lol Jackass
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![[Jackass]](https://w3.vanillicon.com/v2/3178d191648ad5d2fb7722b96c5c616c.svg)
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