Leinster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread.

irishbucsfan

totallegend wrote: »

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Championship is a fair way below RDP12 standard, but I do hope connacht give these guys a chance to come home.

While I agree with the sentiment, Connacht need front-rowers and half-backs, the likes of Keating should be well down their list.

I meant Irish guys as a whole. Copeland wouldn't get game time. Although I think Keating would be an improvement over Tuohy.

slippy wicket

bamboozle wrote: »

Keating has 9 or 10 trys so far in the english championship, himself and Robin Copeland at Rotherham (12 trys playing at 6) would be useful additions to the Connacht squad.

AFAIK Copeland has had talks with Guinness Premiership teams, so if they had any thoughts in that direction they might want to make a move.

profitius

Its good to see so many Irish players going to England and making it even when they miss out on provisional contracts. A few English teams have copped onto the fact that there are good players outside the provinces. Gareth Quinn-McDonagh was the latest to go to Doncaster a few weeks back.

roycon

some of the lads over in the championship from what i hear say that the standard of the forward play is quite high. just as good as rdp12 but that the back play and standard of coaching is poor, nearly as low as ail divsion 1a in some cases.

another former leinster man peter synnott is playing 6 for esher at the moment and taking the conversions and penalties.could be a unique solution to the connacht problems off the tee

http://www.esherrugby.com/news/article.cfm?id=1757

profitius

roycon wrote: »

some of the lads over in the championship from what i hear say that the standard of the forward play is quite high. just as good as rdp12 but that the back play and standard of coaching is poor, nearly as low as ail divsion 1a in some cases.

another former leinster man peter synnott is playing 6 for esher at the moment and taking the conversions and penalties.could be a unique solution to the connacht problems off the tee

http://www.esherrugby.com/news/article.cfm?id=1757

I doubt that! Munster pack took Northampton apart a few weeks back (except for the scrum) and Northampton won all their games getting promoted from that division a few years ago.

roycon

the number of front row and backrow players who come up through to the premiership from the championship is quite high but i cant think of any backs who have made it. norhtampton scored two penalty tries from absolutely annihilating the munster scrum in a match in which they had nothing to play for. northampton probably should have won down in thomond and were heineken cup finalists last year. they're hardly a poor side

a side like exeter for example have mostly the same forwards team now as they did when getting promoted from the championship and are maintaining a solid mid table position in the premiership.

.ak

profitius wrote: »

Its good to see so many Irish players going to England and making it even when they miss out on provisional contracts. A few English teams have copped onto the fact that there are good players outside the provinces. Gareth Quinn-McDonagh was the latest to go to Doncaster a few weeks back.

Interesting enough, how many English players play in the league, or in Irish teams in general? Nothing springs to mind....

CIARAN_BOYLE

.ak wrote: »

Interesting enough, how many English players play in the league, or in Irish teams in general? Nothing springs to mind....

Declan Fitzpatrick, Dan Tuohy, Michael Swift and Mike McCarthy:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

molloyjh

roycon wrote: »

the number of front row and backrow players who come up through to the premiership from the championship is quite high but i cant think of any backs who have made it. norhtampton scored two penalty tries from absolutely annihilating the munster scrum in a match in which they had nothing to play for. northampton probably should have won down in thomond and were heineken cup finalists last year. they're hardly a poor side

a side like exeter for example have mostly the same forwards team now as they did when getting promoted from the championship and are maintaining a solid mid table position in the premiership.

Northampton had a relatively easy enough run into the final all things considered. Perpignan for example completely bottled it in the semi. In the pool Castres, Edinburgh and Cardiff weren't exactly world beaters last season and only for a good win at home to Edinburgh they didn't look all that convincing. I just had a quick look at last years pools and no pool had less tries or points scored than the NH pool. Similarly no pool had less try bonus points or more losing bonus points.

They have a powerful scrum that beats it's opposition by cheating, plain and simple. Take that away from them and even with Ashton and Foden they have precious little else. Once Leinster beat them in the scrum in the HEC final they collapsed. Once Munster showed that the scrum wasn't enough to beat them a couple of weeks ago they collapsed. They were poor at home to the Scarlets too.

irishbucsfan

I play in England at the moment and the standard isn't as high. I'd rate championship teams only slightly higher than UBL teams, if that. There is a big gulf in there though.

GerM

The issue with the Championship is that, whilst the top few teams are solid, the bottom 4 or 5 are very weak compared to any fully professional outfit. There's far more benefit to playing for any Pro12 side against professional and international players every week than there is from strolling to victory against the likes of Esher. There's far too much of a disparity in the league for it to be a really useful breeding ground for players. Those who end up there are generally there because they weren't wanted by anyone else. Div 1A sides in teh AIL would give a number of Championship sides a good run for their money.

.ak

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

Declan Fitzpatrick, Dan Tuohy, Michael Swift and Mike McCarthy:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

I must admit, I did not know with the exception of Swifty that they were all UK born. However, what I really meant was active UK players plying their trade here. Like UK qualified players that haven't tried to become Irish qualified...

Seems more Irish players go to the UK than the other way around, or am I wrong there? Suppose it makes sense with more professional teams to join...

CIARAN_BOYLE

.ak wrote: »

I must admit, I did not know with the exception of Swifty that they were all UK born. However, what I really meant was active UK players plying their trade here. Like UK qualified players that haven't tried to become Irish qualified...

Seems more Irish players go to the UK than the other way around, or am I wrong there? Suppose it makes sense with more professional teams to join...

with the NIQ rules it doesn't make much sense for Irish teams to sign 6Ns internationals. Danielli and Hines are the only two in the last year

smurphy29

roycon wrote: »

the number of front row and backrow players who come up through to the premiership from the championship is quite high but i cant think of any backs who have made it. norhtampton scored two penalty tries from absolutely annihilating the munster scrum in a match in which they had nothing to play for. northampton probably should have won down in thomond and were heineken cup finalists last year. they're hardly a poor side

a side like exeter for example have mostly the same forwards team now as they did when getting promoted from the championship and are maintaining a solid mid table position in the premiership.

Yeah, hard to think of many backs coming through from the Championship. One that springs to mind is yer man Hopper at Harlequins who broke into the Saxons team. Looks talented enough. He was at Cornish Pirates last year.

Oh yeah, and Chris Ashton! I don't know if you can count him because of his League background, but his first season in union was in the Ch'ship with Saints. He scored about a bazillion tries for them.

Neil3030

roycon wrote: »

some of the lads over in the championship from what i hear say that the standard of the forward play is quite high. just as good as rdp12 but that the back play and standard of coaching is poor, nearly as low as ail divsion 1a in some cases.

another former leinster man peter synnott is playing 6 for esher at the moment and taking the conversions and penalties.could be a unique solution to the connacht problems off the tee

http://www.esherrugby.com/news/article.cfm?id=1757

Synnott's actually a 7. I can see him moving to the much popular 6/8 slot eventually though.

Amazotheamazing

smurphy29 wrote: »

Yeah, hard to think of many backs coming through from the Championship. One that springs to mind is yer man Hopper at Harlequins who broke into the Saxons team. Looks talented enough. He was at Cornish Pirates last year.

Oh yeah, and Chris Ashton! I don't know if you can count him because of his League background, but his first season in union was in the Ch'ship with Saints. He scored about a bazillion tries for them.

David Strettle?

GerM

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

David Strettle?

Was in the Premiership when he came through. When it became clear that Rotherham didn't have the goods to get back up and he was too good for the Championship, Quins picked him up.

WeeBushy

HURRY UP AND SIGN THORN!!

Sorry, I'm a little impatient.

Can't wait

tolosenc

WeeBushy wrote: »

HURRY UP AND SIGN THORN!!

Sorry, I'm a little impatient.

Can't wait

I'm expecting something along the lines of this:

http://youtu.be/FjNJRQ_Blow

bamboozle

Neil3030 wrote: »

Synnott's actually a 7. I can see him moving to the much popular 6/8 slot eventually though.

kicked for Belvo in the SCT maybe 3 seasons ago, spent a season with Clontarf also. Good player.

.ak

Probably a little OT... but, anyone else HATE the new dart music they play whenever we score a pen/conv/goal kick?

Hate to say it, but Hookie is right about Rugby turning into pop concerts...

To be fair though, I'm into a bit of a fanfair, but the furthest I'll go is the Spanish matador whistle thingy, or maybe the little snippet of the Fratelli's.. :P

totallegend

Team for tomorrow night: http://www.leinsterrugby.ie/matchcentre/9491.php

15: Isa Nacewa
14: David Kearney
13: Eoin O'Malley
12: Fergus McFadden
11: Fionn Carr
10: Ian Madigan
9: Eoin Reddan
1: Jack McGrath
2: Sean Cronin
3: Jamie Hagan
4: Damian Browne
5: Devin Toner
6: Kevin McLaughlin CAPTAIN
7: Shane Jennings
8: Rhys Ruddock
REPLACEMENTS:
16: Richardt Strauss
17: Heinke van der Merwe
18: Nathan White
19: Leo Auva'a
20: Dominic Ryan
21: Isaac Boss
22: Noel Reid
23: Brendan Macken

Big Nelly

totallegend wrote: »

13: Eoin O'Malley
12: Fergus McFadden

The future 12 and 13 for Leinster and Ireland. I would love to see EOM and McFadden given a chance against Italy for Ireland. Will never happen.....

Can't wait to see how they play together......

irishbucsfan

14 IQ players during the 6N is impressive. Go us. Boo everyone else.


Hope that front row impresses, props particularly.

.ak

SCARLETS:

15: Dan Newton
14: Liam Williams
13: Gareth Maule CAPTAIN
12: Scott Williams
11: Andy Fenby
10: Stephen Jones
9:

1: Rhodri Jones
2: Emyr Phillips
3: Deacon Manu
4: Sione Timani
5: Dominic Day
6: Josh Turnbull
7: Johnathan Edwards
8: Kieran Murphy

REPLACEMENTS:

16: Craig Hawkins
17: Phil John
18: Peter Edwards
19: Damian Welch
20: Ben Morgan
21: Liam Davies
22: Adam Warren
23: Viliame Iongi


_______________________


Really like the look of the Leinster squad, especially the backline. Interesting to see how the front-row fairs, great to see McGrath and Hagan getting starts.

Seeing the Scarlets team the only change I'd make to the Leinster 23 is I'd have Cooney over Boss. That's not saying anything against Boss, but I'd like to see Cooney against a second string Scarlets and also Boss will need a rest, considering how many games he's likely to play over the 6N now...

Burgo

totallegend wrote: »

Team for tomorrow night: http://www.leinsterrugby.ie/matchcentre/9491.php

15: Isa Nacewa
14: David Kearney
13: Eoin O'Malley
12: Fergus McFadden
11: Fionn Carr
10: Ian Madigan
9: Eoin Reddan
1: Jack McGrath
2: Sean Cronin
3: Jamie Hagan
4: Damian Browne
5: Devin Toner
6: Kevin McLaughlin CAPTAIN
7: Shane Jennings
8: Rhys Ruddock
REPLACEMENTS:
16: Richardt Strauss
17: Heinke van der Merwe
18: Nathan White
19: Leo Auva'a
20: Dominic Ryan
21: Isaac Boss
22: Noel Reid
23: Brendan Macken

Really like the look of that team. Will be interesting to see how the front row performs, and that back five!

Mr.Applepie

That's a strong team. If Reddan can provide Madigan with some quick ball those back could do some real damage

totallegend

A very strong team in light of ten first-choice players being unavailable.

Poor Browne is getting flogged like a rented donkey, his injury is never going to heal at this rate, I'm not sure if Flanagan was considered but I'd like to see more of him.
Delighted to see Dom Ryan back in the squad, hopefully he can get back up to speed quickly.

Massive night for McGrath, he'll be up against Deacon Manu who is a big unit. I wonder is this Joe planning for a future without VDM? Either way, it's good to see it.

No great surprises otherwise.

.ak

Just noticed Ruddock at 8. Not a huge fan of him there. Anyone else remember the disaster against Ospreys (iirc) earlier in the season? He had a shocker at 8. In fairness that was then, this now, etc., etc. I doubt he'll repeat that performance any time soon...

20. Ryan


yes please!