Leinster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread.

iamjenko

I was always a fan of the jersey they wore in the inaugral year of the celtic league. The one with the this white stripes across. Still wear that one to games now!

irishbucsfan

Farrelly in the Independent says that Leinster are lining up Berrick Barnes as a replacement in case Sexton does decide to go to France.

Have to say I never even gave the idea of him leaving to seconds of thought until I read that. Even if it is just as likely to be rubbish!

sock puppet

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Farrelly in the Independent says that Leinster are lining up Berrick Barnes as a replacement in case Sexton does decide to go to France.

Have to say I never even gave the idea of him leaving to seconds of thought until I read that. Even if it is just as likely to be rubbish!

If the Barnes bit is true it seems a little strange. He seems to have won his place back in the Aus side and they've a Lions series coming up. With the talent they have he'll struggle to get back into the team if he leaves for a season or two.

I'd be devastated if Sexton left. We could replace almost any other player in the team bar him.

durkadurka

sounds like brinkmanship to me -

Sexton says I might go to france for more money, unless you pay me.
Leinster says thats fine we won't pay silly money to keep you, we'll replace you no problem.

Then in a few months time they settle on some middle ground and everyone's happy.

maherro

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Farrelly in the Independent says that Leinster are lining up Berrick Barnes as a replacement in case Sexton does decide to go to France.

Have to say I never even gave the idea of him leaving to seconds of thought until I read that. Even if it is just as likely to be rubbish!

This was your first mistake

durkadurka

The Evening Herald is worth buying today for the first time ever because it has a pretty decent Leinster calendar in it.

[Jackass]

durkadurka wrote: »

sounds like brinkmanship to me -

Sexton says I might go to france for more money, unless you pay me.
Leinster says thats fine we won't pay silly money to keep you, we'll replace you no problem.

Then in a few months time they settle on some middle ground and everyone's happy.

God I hope you're right, I couldn't bare to lose any of the new generation, we've waited too long for this..

Sexton, O'Brien & Heaslip, please follow Cian's lead and sign new contracts. Thank you.

roycon

dont think it would be as much of a disaster to lose sexton as it would be to lose healy or heaslip. mckinley and madigan are both only 21 and progressing very well.

WeeBushy

roycon wrote: »

dont think it would be as much of a disaster to lose sexton as it would be to lose healy or heaslip. mckinley and madigan are both only 21 and progressing very well.

But neither of them are ready to be our 1st choice outhalf next season. If Sexton were to leave we would have to sign a NIQ outhalf as there is no one good enough available to take over from next season.

Were we to lose Healy or Heaslip, as terrible as it would be, we have very good options already available within the squad.

TheHighRoad

WeeBushy wrote: »

But neither of them are ready to be our 1st choice outhalf next season. If Sexton were to leave we would have to sign a NIQ outhalf as there is no one good enough available to take over from next season.


Were we to lose Healy or Heaslip, as terrible as it would be, we have very good options already available within the squad.

It has to be said though that at least if Sexton went to a different club in France then the whole country would get behind him.

WeeBushy

TheHighRoad wrote: »

It has to be said though that at least if Sexton went to a different club in France then the whole country would get behind him.

Pfft. Petty tribalism. If people want to deride someone on the Irish side because of the club they play for then I wouldn't want their support.

Sexton or Strauss would be the biggest losses to Leinster imo.

They are the places where we simply don't have adequate replacements.

Shockingly enough, we wouldn't be severely weakened if Heaslip left. McLaughlin did so well when Rocky left that even though he wasn't Rocky, we didn't feel the hurt as bad as we could have. I reckon the same could be said about Jamie.

But boy do I hope we hold on to them all!

wixfjord

Posted by simplythebest on LF (here)

PLAYED ATTENDANCES
TEAM H A TOT TOTAL AVE. RANK
Leinster 6 7 13 125723 20954 1
Munster 7 6 13 97754 13965 2
Blues 8 4 12 * 10706 3
Ulster 6 6 12 51710 8618 4
Ospreys 6 7 13 50767 8461 5
Scarlets 6 7 13 48228 8038 6
Dragons 5 6 11 26375 5275 7
Treviso 7 5 12 31300 4471 8
Glasgow 6 6 12 21054 3509 9
Aironi 5 7 12 17533 3507 10
Edinburgh 7 6 13 23631 3376 11
Connacht 5 7 12 16544 3309 12

Counted home games only.

Interesting, obviously the Feva in the Aviva distorts things, but as the same poster says "I don't accept that the game in Lansdowne is a "Distortion". It's completely valid, otherwise the Munster figures are also a distortion because Thomond has a bigger capacity than the RDS.."
Same could be said for Cardiff, Ospreys or Edinburgh.

Good to see more good news for the province though. The Aviva and good attendances can only aid success on the pitch, and vice versa.

Edit: Sorry formatting doesnt correspond, but you get the pic!

CIARAN_BOYLE

One thing to note is that the matches with Clermont and Munster in the Aviva sucked out all the casual fans who show up at the RDS a couple of times a season, (if we are going to go once then lets go to the big one).

If you remove the game in Aviva you will probably notice Leinsters average attendance going down.

durkadurka

You need To factor in the fact that Leinster have a few low attendance games coming up, hosting the Italian teams during the 6n, and munster have yet to host Leinster.


Also Munster hold a few games in musgrave too which dampens the average.

Still the numbers are great, when you add in the possibility of home qf in lansdowne, and possible home magners semi, it could be another bumper year for attendances.

Also, even if the munster game was held in rds, the average would still be the highest.

funky penguin

Only 6 home games to munster's 7 and cardiff's 8 as well. Good stuff, hope it continues.

Attendance on Friday was ~14k wasn't it? I was drenched, as were the rest of us, but still a huge turnout! Very impressive I would've thought considering the weather.

Gracelessly Tom

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

One thing to note is that the matches with Clermont and Munster in the Aviva sucked out all the casual fans who show up at the RDS a couple of times a season, (if we are going to go once then lets go to the big one).

If you remove the game in Aviva you will probably notice Leinsters average attendance going down.

I think these figures only refer to the Magners so the Clermont game doesn't figure (stand to be corrected mind you).

But the extra figures for the Munster game do distort it as you said. Still, good to see the attendances up so high.

phog

wixfjord wrote: »

Posted by simplythebest on LF (here)

Interesting, obviously the Feva in the Aviva distorts things, but as the same poster says "I don't accept that the game in Lansdowne is a "Distortion". It's completely valid, otherwise the Munster figures are also a distortion because Thomond has a bigger capacity than the RDS.."
Same could be said for Cardiff, Ospreys or Edinburgh.

Good to see more good news for the province though. The Aviva and good attendances can only aid success on the pitch, and vice versa.

Edit: Sorry formatting doesnt correspond, but you get the pic!

Aviva distorts the figures because it was a spanking new stadium so that in itself attracted supporters that may not usually bother getting off their arm chair to support a team. It's like saying the "Last Stand" didnt have a certain attraction aside from the game itself. When leaving the Aviva that night I couldnt understand how so many supporters had come out to support Leinster in the Aviva but still the H/C game the following week in the RDS wasn't sold out.

I'm not knocking the support because I always feel new supporter should be welcomed with open arms, it can only be good for the game. That's why I hate the term jumping on the bandwagon.

durkadurka

Leinster munster will always outsell a HEC group game in my experience.

But I reckon a decent chunk of the fans were there to see the stadium for a big game relatively cheaply.

Still leinster's base is around 15k, the amount they will draw for a half decent game. There will be smaller crowds for games during international periods.

And their ability to draw a crowd when they want to is impressive.

God knows who will turn up for the aironi game... I'll be there but there won't be big queues for the jax at half time.

Gracelessly Tom

durkadurka wrote: »

... I'll be there but there won't be big queues for the jax at half time.

Never a bad thing!!:D

irishbucsfan

phog wrote: »

Aviva distorts the figures because it was a spanking new stadium so that in itself attracted supporters that may not usually bother getting off their arm chair to support a team. It's like saying the "Last Stand" didnt have a certain attraction aside from the game itself. When leaving the Aviva that night I couldnt understand how so many supporters had come out to support Leinster in the Aviva but still the H/C game the following week in the RDS wasn't sold out.

I'm not knocking the support because I always feel new supporter should be welcomed with open arms, it can only be good for the game. That's why I hate the term jumping on the bandwagon.

The game against Racing the next week was basically sold out. I don't know about the attendance figures, but having been there it was practically full, if not totally.

Maybe my memory is fooling me

phog

irishbucsfan wrote: »

The game against Racing the next week was basically sold out. I don't know about the attendance figures, but having been there it was practically full, if not totally.

Maybe my memory is fooling me

Sorry, I probably shouldn't have included that piece but for clarification, I was making the point that Aviva was full for a M/L game yet the stadium announcer was advertsing tickets for the RDS the following week. I was trying to draw a comparison between core support and supporters that are there for the "novelty" occasion.

molloyjh

durkadurka wrote: »

Leinster munster will always outsell a HEC group game in my experience.

But I reckon a decent chunk of the fans were there to see the stadium for a big game relatively cheaply.

Still leinster's base is around 15k, the amount they will draw for a half decent game. There will be smaller crowds for games during international periods.

And their ability to draw a crowd when they want to is impressive.

God knows who will turn up for the aironi game... I'll be there but there won't be big queues for the jax at half time.

To be fair the turnout for the Connacht game was great, and the Ospreys match considering the weather. It will be interesting to see how many we can get for the Aironi game alright though.

durkadurka

I would say 8k but the official attendance will be 11k or something

WeeBushy

O'Brien on the verge of signing a new contract. Sexton and Heaslip's future apparently still unsure but closer to signing contracts according Thornley in the Irish Times today:


http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2011/0112/1224287329556.html

We would be doing well to keep all of our players whose contracts are running out, especially with the WC in September and players possibly looking at new challenges etc. Looks like we've got a good chance to hang on to them all though which is cool. Says a lot about the Irish and Leinster set-ups, they must be very happy here.

TheHighRoad

You're missing one very important part.

O'Brien has been offered a central contract. Same article says Sexton was offered one months ago and still has to decide.
gl

TheHighRoad

TheHighRoad wrote: »

You're missing one very important part.

O'Brien has been offered a central contract. Same article says Sexton was offered one months ago and still has to decide.
gl

The lads all have the same agent. Definitely some gamesmanship going on.

jolley123

Tipperary native Hogan, 31, attended CBS Nenagh and was capped four times by Ireland over a professional career spanning seven years.
He represented Munster on 57 occasions (scoring one try) before moving to Leinster in the summer of 2006 and was an influential performer in the province’s Magners League (2007/08) and Heineken Cup (2008/09) successes.

In all he made 59 Leinster appearances (scoring three tries), though injury curtailed his involvement this season to one game against the Dragons in November, which proved to be his final professional outing.

Trevor Hogan said: "It's been a tough battle over the last couple of seasons with my injury but after my last game (against the Dragons in November) the problem worsened to the point where I couldn't continue.

“It is never an easy thing to accept but I'm thankful for all the support from my teammates and the medical, management and coaching staff at Leinster, as well as Dr. Ray Moran who has helped me greatly over the past few years.

“It was an honour to play for Leinster over the last number of years and I would like to thank all the supporters for their backing over my career.”

Leinster Chief Executive Mick Dawson added: “It is always a sad day when professional players call a premature end to their careers, but Trevor can reflect on a successful career in the blue of Leinster, red of Munster and green of Ireland with real pride.

“Trevor was a mainstay of the Leinster pack but his recent involvement was curtailed due to injury. Even in adversity he displayed great courage and mental strength to recover from several setbacks to force his way back into the team.

“A committed, intelligent performer, Trevor played an important role in the province’s recent success and he has made a telling contribution to the game of rugby in Ireland. We wish him and his family well as he begins a new chapter in his life and would like to thank him for all his efforts over the last few years.”

CouchSmart

Leinster team to face Worcester Warriors (Sunday 1pm):

15: Niall Morris
14: Andrew Conway
13: Eoin O’Malley
12: Shaun Berne
11: David Kearney
10: Ian McKinley
9: John Cooney

1: Jack McGrath
2: Tom Sexton
3: Simon Shawe
4: Ciaran Ruddock
5: Mariano Galarza
6: Rhys Ruddock
7: Jordi Murphy
8: Stephen Keogh CAPTAIN

REPLACEMENTS:

16: Aaron Dundon
17: Jack O’Connell
18: Mark Flanagan
19: Eoin Sheriff
20: Mark Mahony
21: Ian Madigan
22: Brendan Macken