Leinster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread.

bamboozle

former Rock and leinster academy winger Vasili Artemiev has signed for northampton from some club in russia

jolley123

bamboozle wrote: »

former Rock and leinster academy winger Vasili Artemiev has signed for northampton from some club in russia

Delighted, really want to see him play on a regular basis. Sure he'll be behind the likes of Foden/Ashton/Ansbro and Diggin. But with the world cup, he should play quite frequently.

KevinK

jolley123 wrote: »

Delighted, really want to see him play on a regular basis. Sure he'll be behind the likes of Foden/Ashton/Ansbro and Diggin. But with the world cup, he should play quite frequently.

will he not be playing in the world cup?

roycon

hes only joining after the world cup which he'll be playing in - for the group stages at least

PhatPiggins

jolley123 wrote: »

Delighted, really want to see him play on a regular basis. Sure he'll be behind the likes of Foden/Ashton/Ansbro and Diggin. But with the world cup, he should play quite frequently.

Ansbro is leaving for LI and Diggin/Ashton/Foden have only started 10 games together this season for one reason or another. He'll get plenty of game time if he's any good at the XV man code

jolley123

KevinK wrote: »

will he not be playing in the world cup?

:oWoops

GerM

Dropped down to the RDS at lunch to have a gander at the Irish forwards running through their set piece. One thing struck us whilst watching and it was Cronin's throwing I'm afraid to say. It was a blustery old day but even with that he was overthrowing badly to the back. Kev Mc was jumping there (not a small jumper at 6) a couple of times and didn't come within an asses roar of the ball. Best on the other hand threw a few crooked ones which is understandable given the conditions but had no issue on distance. Hope he's working hard on his throwing for next season because it really does need some focus considering this was in training with approximately 4 people watching.

Also, Rhys Ruddock is simply a monster. Upper body, he appears to be bigger than anyone in the entire Irish squad already.

ambid

KevinK wrote: »

will he not be playing in the world cup?

No offence to Russia but he probably won't be playing for very long at the world cup and should still have quite a few games while the others are away to make a name for himself. Good luck to him.

Isa Nacewa
Shane Horgan
Brian O'Driscoll
Gordon D'Arcy
Luke Fitzgerald
Jonathan Sexton
Iasaac Boss
Cian Healy
Richardt Strauss
Mike Ross
Leo Cullen
Nathan Hines
Rhys Ruddock
Shane Jennings
Sean O'Brien

Replacements

Jason Harris-Wright
Van de Merwe
Clint Newland
Devon Toner
Dominic Ryan
Eoin Reddan
Ian Madigan
Fergus McFadden

Leinster team that beat Racing Metro 5 weeks ago in France.

The team that day would've absolutely murdered Wales today in my opinion. Easily ran 3/4 tries in against them.

What damage is this current Irish training camp/ rut / gameplan errors / increased rustiness :eek: / disaster going to have on our players?

Schmidt must be absolutely livid, players released for international duty coming back as shadows of who they left as.

I'm worried tbh.

Also, shows the gulf in class between Schmidt and Kidney in my mind.

tolosenc

Here here.

CouchSmart

It's fairly hard to compare HEC to International level. Can't wait to get back to watching Leinster after the crap Ireland have displayed lately. 4 weeks until the Tigers game!

thomond2006

You are so lucky to have Sean O'Brien.

Peace dudes.

danthefan

The Scotland team we played in the 6N this year had 12 player starting who played for Glasgow and Embra. These teams are 10th and 11th in the ML I think. Do people really think a composite of two of the worst teams in the ML is better than the likes of Leicester, Clermont or Toulouse?

When you play a top class international side like the SH teams, France in form, England on their day, etc, then international rugby certainly is a much higher standard than anything but I would fancy Leinster to beat an Embra/Glasgow XV pretty handily.

Stev_o

danthefan wrote: »

The Scotland team we played in the 6N this year had 12 player starting who played for Glasgow and Embra. These teams are 10th and 11th in the ML I think. Do people really think a composite of two of the worst teams in the ML is better than the likes of Leicester, Clermont or Toulouse?

When you play a top class international side like the SH teams, France in form, England on their day, etc, then international rugby certainly is a much higher standard than anything but I would fancy Leinster to beat an Embra/Glasgow XV pretty handily.

Explain the Ireland A loss to Scotland A then.

danthefan

Stev_o wrote: »

Explain the Ireland A loss to Scotland A then.

I have no idea what that would achieve or what your point is.

Stev_o

danthefan wrote: »

I have no idea what that would achieve or what your point is.

From what i gather your stating that their should be no "step up" for teams such as Leinster Munter and Ulster going from HC rugby to playing the likes of Scotland who's have a majority of their team made from teams that are kicked out of the HC and are nowhere in the Magners League.

I disagree and say some players will inevitably play better on the international stage playing for their country compared to playing for their club.

In said example a Ireland A side which included the best young talent that was currently playing in most cases weekly and had played in the HC lost horribly to a team a bunch of nobodies from Scotland A.

Obviously their was some sort of "step up" here because they were playing against journeymen and average players from Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Its a patchy comparison at best, Leinster use the youth as part of an experienced side, rarely fielding a team with less than 65% experienced players. When they have, for example against Dragons, the difference has been obvious.

A group of players is not a team. A team is a lot more than a group of players.

danthefan

The Ireland 'A' team was a scratch side full of young players. Hardly surprising they didn't play especially well. Really proves nothing.

CouchSmart

CouchSmart wrote: »

It's fairly hard to compare HEC to International level.

I'm really really not sure anymore.

Standard of the 6N so far has been 10 levels below a lot of HEC games.

CatFromHue

danthefan wrote: »

I would fancy Leinster to beat an Embra/Glasgow XV pretty handily.

our results in scotland the last few years havnt been great

10/11
warriors 22 19 leinster
edinburgh 32 24 leinster

09/10
last season
edin 19 21 lein
warriors 30 6 lein

08/09
season before
warriors 15 lein 12
edin 27 lein 16

07/08
warriors 21 lein 17
edin 15 lein 13

this season we didnt have all out internationals but you can see a trend from the above results.

also againsts the scots we had a handsome lead at one stage and then through our indiscipline we let them back into the game

davidpfitz

So, Hines is off to Clermont.

I guess it given Devin Toner a good opportunity, but I was a great fan of Hines - he brought bulk and power to the pack.

thomond2006

davidpfitz wrote: »

So, Hines is off to Clermont.

I guess it given Devin Toner a good opportunity, but I was a great fan of Hines - he brought bulk and power to the pack.

Huge loss for Leinster IMO. From an Irish perspective it will give Toner a chance (assuming Leinster don't sign a replacement).

CouchSmart

We'll definitely be signing someone else, as it is we're short on locks. It's been rumoured for a long time that he's leaving so I'm sure there's discussions with various potential replacements.

thomond2006

Has McLaughlin been playing second row regularly? Could he be seen as an option?

CouchSmart

thomond2006 wrote: »

Has McLaughlin been playing second row regularly? Could he be seen as an option?

Not regularly. He was tried out once and it went well enough. He might be a bit small in height and weight for the second row but it could be a real option though it'd be risky to rely on it next season. He's going to struggle get games in our backrow so it might be his best chance.

WeeBushy

He's played there once or twice. I definitely think its an option and where an international future could lie. Hope Schmidt plays him there a few times this season in a strong team.

CIARAN_BOYLE

thomond2006 wrote: »

Has McLaughlin been playing second row regularly? Could he be seen as an option?

I think he has played there twice recently and he also played there a few times for the As this season.

He has done a couple of interviews about how much he is working on the lineout recently

LeeroyJones

Big loss losing Hines.
Personally I'd love to see Bob Casey come back, at the age of 32, himself and Cullen, 33, would be a strong lock pairing for at least 2 seasons.
I'm not 100% convinced with Toner or McLaughlin but those 2 seasons would be well spent letting Toner and McLaughlin prove themselves as HCup standard locks as Schmidt rotates the squad.

tolosenc

I'd like to see us sign another Scottish lock. Maybe a young one. With blond hair...

PhatPiggins

What happened to that lad who came from Ulster with Boss?