Leinster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread.

jolley123

I'd say Mark Flanagan will get a bit of game-time next season.

profitius

I see that Leicester Tigers made €500,000 (35% of the tickets) from the Aviva clash at the weekend. Wouldn't the IRFU be better off demanding higher rent and pay Leinster back in other ways?

milosh

By all accounts Jason Harris-Wright's contract is not being renewed next year so we must be promoting someone else from the academy or are in the market for a third hooker. Its not a huge shock as he got next to no game time this season for either the senior team or the a team. I would say he has spent more time on the bench his year than anyone else.

CIARAN_BOYLE

profitius wrote: »

I see that Leicester Tigers made €500,000 (35% of the tickets) from the Aviva clash at the weekend. Wouldn't the IRFU be better off demanding higher rent and pay Leinster back in other ways?

I think the IRFU had to charge the same amount that they did in previous matches. There wasn't a choice if I understand things right.

milosh wrote: »

By all accounts Jason Harris-Wright's contract is not being renewed next year so we must be promoting someone else from the academy or are in the market for a third hooker. Its not a huge shock as he got next to no game time this season for either the senior team or the a team. I would say he has spent more time on the bench his year than anyone else.

Too much time on the bench for the senior team meant he wasn't available for the As or for his club so he got next to zero rugby this season which has to be /bad for his development. That said he showed some real potential when he appeared from the bench, does he have a contract lined up elsewhere

WeeBushy

milosh wrote: »

By all accounts Jason Harris-Wright's contract is not being renewed next year so we must be promoting someone else from the academy or are in the market for a third hooker. Its not a huge shock as he got next to no game time this season for either the senior team or the a team. I would say he has spent more time on the bench his year than anyone else.

Where did you hear this? I'd be disappointed if that's true, I think he's looked good in the very brief appearances he's had. Maybe Schmidt just doesn't rate him if he wont give him any game time, and only has him on the bench because there's no one else.

TheRevolution

milosh wrote: »

By all accounts Jason Harris-Wright's contract is not being renewed next year so we must be promoting someone else from the academy or are in the market for a third hooker. Its not a huge shock as he got next to no game time this season for either the senior team or the a team. I would say he has spent more time on the bench his year than anyone else.

I'm pretty sure thats not true, he only got a full contract recently and has come off the bench plenty of times for a front row and not only that he has also done very well. Jack McGrath has had less game time and just signed a 2 year deal.

I assume your just speculating?

Jemo

I'd be shocked if its true. His options have been limited this season for two reasons really
a) He is behind the indestructable non-international Strauss who is a vital cog in our team and gameplan
b) He has struggled with injury and concussion for lots of the season.

I think he looks like a great prospect, he's just been very unfortunate. If he's leaving to get more gametime then fair enough, or if he has to take a step back due to injury but at his age it would seem odd to let him go. Jackman rated him very highly.

bamboozle

if anything i'd guess JHW might want to move on to get some game time, i cant see him being too happy now behind Strauss and Cronin especially after having had some decent game time this season, he's probably seen the case of O'Donoghue who has stagnated this season.

maybe Elwood will bring another two of his U20 Grand Slam team out west?

WeeBushy

bamboozle wrote: »

if anything i'd guess JHW might want to move on to get some game time, i cant see him being too happy now behind Strauss and Cronin especially after having had some decent game time this season, he's probably seen the case of O'Donoghue who has stagnated this season.

maybe Elwood will bring another two of his U20 Grand Slam team out west?

Despite being second choice for the entire season he hasn't actually gotten good game time. He only started 1 game, and only had decent game time in 4 other matches, his 6 other cameos have been for about 5 minutes.

Not sure he will move west either. He would be behind Reynecke and probably Flavin as well were he to move. He's still very young for a prop, I reckon he'll hang around for at least next season, Cronin will be involved with Ireland a good bit so he will get chances, and see where he's at next summer.

ambid

Way off topic I'm afraid, but is anybody else watching The Breakdown on Setanta? Absolutely fascinating. Emmet Byrne explaining scrummaging. Fascinating.

jolley123

ambid wrote: »

Way off topic I'm afraid, but is anybody else watching The Breakdown on Setanta? Absolutely fascinating. Emmet Byrne explaining scrummaging. Fascinating.

Is anyone watching the Rugby Club on Sky. They're having quite a moan about the Leinster/Leicester match. Some of the clips they showed as evidence of poor refereeing are laughable. One clip where Strauss basically brushes the shoulder of a tackled player and they called it a tackle assist. Then there's one where Heaslip tackles the player, lets go then competes for the ball.

It's like they expect the tackler to take 3 steps backwards after a tackler before competing for the ball.

Jemo

In fairness, Owens' interpretation of the breakdown was a little outdated, but he was lenient towards both teams in that regard and sure Leicester probably prefer that style better. How often do we hear that the opposition played the ref better than us. It was nice to have played him exactly right for once and reap the benefits.

ALH-06

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

My rating of Leinster's lock choices for next season

Damien Browne - Big man, may be a bit heavy to succesfully lift at the lineout but I'm sure the lads will do their best

At 127kg, he's the same weight as John Hayes. You'd need a forklift.

GerM

Berquist with another mixed bag this morning according to reports. Nailed 6 kicks but missed some too. Made some errors but also some lovely stuff apparently. Definitely has the talent there. The scrum half inside him was fairly muck though according to reports until Ellis came on.

davidpfitz

ALH-06 wrote: »

At 127kg, he's the same weight as John Hayes. You'd need a forklift.

So, what you're saying is that you'd need John Hayes himself to lift him.

jacothelad

davidpfitz wrote: »

So, what you're saying is that you'd need John Hayes himself to lift him.

i think he's saying John Hayes needs to lift himself. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

ambid

So given the talk this week about team rotation, I had a look at the stats on the Leinster website to see what has been our typical Magners League side this year. Below are the players and number of appearances by position.

No surprises I guess as the internationals have less appearances, but it does show how well these young players have done to lead the charge to compete for the playoffs in a very competitive league.

I hadn't realised that of the 19 league matches Leinster have played so far, guys like O'Malley have played 15 matches (13 starts and 2 subs) and Dom Ryan has played 16 matches (13 starts and 3 subs). I thought it would be way less to be honest.

I wonder is there is an argument that they have earned the right to play in the remaining matches of the Magners campaign as they have put Leinster in this excellent position? Certainly I think most of these guys are more than just a "second string".

Nacewa 19
Horgan 13
O'Malley 15
McFadden 14
D Kearney 9
Madigan 12
Boss 17
Ruddock 14
Jennings 11
Ryan 16
Toner 12
Hines 13
Ross 13
Strauss 17
Van Der Merwe 18

tolosenc

ambid wrote: »

I hadn't realised that of the 19 league matches Leinster have played so far, guys like O'Malley have played 15 matches (13 starts and 2 subs) and Dom Ryan has played 16 matches (13 starts and 3 subs). I thought it would be way less to be honest.

Stats have got to be wrong. O'Malley has started nowhere near 13 games.

GerM

tolosenc wrote: »

Stats have got to be wrong. O'Malley has started nowhere near 13 games.

He started 7 or 8 between during the two international windows alone. Throw in the international player program at the start of the season and I would well believe it.

durkadurka

I make it 14 starts including HEC

ambid

tolosenc wrote: »

Stats have got to be wrong. O'Malley has started nowhere near 13 games.

Didn't believe it myself so I double checked it a couple of times. According to Leinster Rugby, O'Malley this season has started against Warriors, Treviso (twice), Connacht (twice), Edinburgh, Dragons (twice), Ospreys, Scarlets (twice), Aironi, Blues, and HEC against Clermont as durkadurka said.

http://www.leinsterrugby.ie/profiles/index.php?player=33311&includeref=dynamic

durkadurka

A lot more chances for second stringers these days.

CouchSmart

A fantastic win tonight. It's going to be interesting seeing what the team is for next week. Will Joe bring the big guns on a trip to Italy with a 7 day turn around to the Toulouse game, who knows!

Personally, I think Strauss, Sexton and Nacewa need to be wrapped up in as much cotton wool as we can afford. It's not perfect but I think we have enough strength through-out the team to beat Aironi without those 3.

jolley123

CouchSmart wrote: »

Personally, I think Strauss, Sexton and Nacewa need to be wrapped up in as much cotton wool as we can afford. It's not perfect but I think we have enough strength through-out the team to beat Aironi without those 3.

I agree, Strauss and Nacewa won't suffer from missing this match, and we can't be in the same situation we were last year where we had no Sexton.

On another note. I don't quite understand why Schmidt rates Madigan higher than McKinley. When McKinley played this season he blew me away.

ambid

CouchSmart wrote: »

A fantastic win tonight. It's going to be interesting seeing what the team is for next week. Will Joe bring the big guns on a trip to Italy with a 7 day turn around to the Toulouse game, who knows!

Personally, I think Strauss, Sexton and Nacewa need to be wrapped up in as much cotton wool as we can afford. It's not perfect but I think we have enough strength through-out the team to beat Aironi without those 3.

Fully agree with that. We really don't have strong enough back up for those guys.

I'd happily see O'Malley or Ruddock or Ryan or even Dave Kearney in a HEC semi. But We are short of Heineken standard back up for the three lads you mentioned, and I expect they'll be be rested next week. Nacewa has played every single competitive match for Leinster this season.

Does anybody know if the Aironi match will be on tv anywhere? Wasn't there something about a collapse of tv rights in Italy so no matches in Italy are on tv?

CouchSmart

Something like the following against Aironi should be strong enough:

15. Fitzgerald
14. Horgan
13. O'Malley
12. McFadden
11. Kearney
10. Sexton
9. Boss

1. Healy
2. JHW
3. Ross
4. Hines
5. Toner
6. Ruddock
7. Jennings
8. O'Brien

16. Dundon
17. Heinke
18. Wright
19. McLoughlin
20. Ryan
21. Reddan
22. Madigan
23. Nacewa

Blitz them in the first half and get the likes of Sexton and Ross etc off shortly after half time. I'm possibly picking too strong of a team but it is a must win game.

Any interest in swapping Kearney and Fitz?

Really feel like we need to keep Fitz at 11 to keep looking for his form, I think its a position he knows so well, and we need to make him as comfortable as possible to get back up to speed and quick!

McFadden and O'Malley were brilliant yesterday. O'Malley looks very slight still, and still manages to front up in defence, it's quite impressive.

McFadden is playing like a man possessed this season. Keeping the performances up could see him applying more than serious pressure on P.Wallace's #22 Jersey come RWC time.
(FWIW, I think it's time himself or Trimble were there regardless. Wallace can start or watch from the stands. He's not a bench option)

I'd be interested in playing
6 Ryan
7 Jennings
8 Ruddock

too

CouchSmart

Deleted User wrote: »

Any interest in swapping Kearney and Fitz?

Really feel like we need to keep Fitz at 11 to keep looking for his form, I think its a position he knows so well, and we need to make him as comfortable as possible to get back up to speed and quick!

I dunno if Kearney would be up to playing fullback yet. I think Fitz went there last night when Kearney came on so it's likely that he's seen as second choice 15 for the time being.

I agree with Kearney being up to it, but lets be realistic, it's Aironi...

Fitz will be playing 11 in the HEC, is still not back in form, but is getting there. I think that another 60/70 minutes there could be absolutely huge for him.

I'd rather leave him at 11, and play Morris at 15 instead of Kearney if we had to. I just think it's a situation similar to Earls' this season, too much moving around made it hard for him to find his feet fully. When they finally got him playing 11 for more than 2 games in a row he exploded!

copacetic

CouchSmart wrote: »

I dunno if Kearney would be up to playing fullback yet. I think Fitz went there last night when Kearney came on so it's likely that he's seen as second choice 15 for the time being.

Was a bit broken up last night at that stage to tell for sure but I thought Kearney had gone to full back when he came on? Definitely lined up there for part of the time anyway.