Leinster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread.

johnbhere

Hype710 wrote: »

With Maguire leaving and Moore showing excellent scrummaging in the u20 six nations, i'm positive he'll get the nod.

Moore was moved to academy last october after 6 nations

pajunior

Does the ERC player of the year take in the AIs and the 6 nations?

thomond2006

pajunior wrote: »

Does the ERC player of the year take in the AIs and the 6 nations?

No. ERC are the administrators of the Heineken Cup and Amlin Cup so it's only those competitions that are taken into account.

pajunior

thomond2006 wrote: »

No. ERC are the administrators of the Heineken Cup and Amlin Cup so it's only those competitions that are taken into account.

Sexton is very unlucky not to get nominated for this. He won us the game against Sarries, scored two tries against Racing, was perfect against Tolouse and Leicester and was rock solid in the other games.

Perfect HC for a fly half. (As long as the final goes our way that is).

wonton

pajunior wrote: »

Sexton is very unlucky not to get nominated for this. He won us the game against Sarries, scored two tries against Racing, was perfect against Tolouse and Leicester and was rock solid in the other games.

Perfect HC for a fly half. (As long as the final goes our way that is).

True that, he really has had been solid.

but it's extremely hard to not include the 3 above.

on saying that, if there is one player that has made the biggest difference this year it might have been ross, although thats more of a comparison to last years leinster standards than to european standard.


Really cant choose from them 3 though, I suppose we still have one game left anyway!

irishbucsfan

Anyone else surprised that Heaslip was nominated? TBH I think his reputation nudged him over the line.

WeeBushy

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Anyone else surprised that Heaslip was nominated? TBH I think his reputation nudged him over the line.

I agree. He hasn't been bad by any stretch of the imagination but compared to his usual very high standards I think he's been slightly off his best. When I saw the headline that 3 Leinstermen had been nominated I immediately thought it was Nacewa, O'Brien and Strauss.

pajunior

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Anyone else surprised that Heaslip was nominated? TBH I think his reputation nudged him over the line.

Can't agree there, hasn't done as much as usual in the Magners but that isn't counted here. In the HC he has been superb, O'Brien might be stealing some of the headlines with his big runs but Heaslip has ripped so many balls from the ruck it's amazing. I remember at the Tolouse game I was shocked that Isa didn't get MoM but when i watched the game on TV later I could see why.

Isa, Sexton and Heaslip are my players of the tournamet, would not be able to make the decision either way but as a post above says, we have one match to go.

Cpt_Blackbeard

I was equally surprised that he was in the Magners team of the season too. He has had an average season and seems to be getting the benefit of the doubt due to his reputation.

GerM

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Anyone else surprised that Heaslip was nominated? TBH I think his reputation nudged him over the line.

Possibly but I think in the highest profile games, the quarter and semi, he has arguably been our best player. He was immense against Toulouse and his performance against Leicester wasn't far behind. The high profile games not only carry more weight in the minds of many but they're also more recent and are fresh in the judge's memories.

totallegend

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Anyone else surprised that Heaslip was nominated? TBH I think his reputation nudged him over the line.

He's been massive in the last two games but SOB put him in the shade in the pool matches. Probably more timing than anything else; the commentators were creaming themselves over his turnover in the last few minutes against Toulouse, that was probably a big help to him.

anonymous_joe

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Anyone else surprised that Heaslip was nominated? TBH I think his reputation nudged him over the line.

Not really. He's been very good lately. And not played badly at all.

irishbucsfan

Yeah fair enough he's been good in the past two games but he was nowhere at times in the first 6.

I wouldn't put him among the top 5 players in the competition this season, for sure.

Personally would put SOB #1 and Isa #2. SOB for being unreal at everything and Isa for his magic performances against Racing and Leicester.

anonymous_joe

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Yeah fair enough he's been good in the past two games but he was nowhere at times in the first 6.

I wouldn't put him among the top 5 players in the competition this season, for sure.

Personally would put SOB #1 and Isa #2. SOB for being unreal at everything and Isa for his magic performances against Racing and Leicester.

Nowhere's a very big claim.

I'd argue if anything he's been underrated this season, because we're all too busy waxing lyrical about SOB. He's the best 8 in the competition bar none.

jolley123

I think it's just a case of SOB and Isa claiming the spot-light(justifiably), but Heaslip probably deserves to be there. He had a stronger season last year but he's still been great this year. By far the best no.8 in the tournament.

Cpt_Blackbeard

anonymous_joe wrote: »

Nowhere's a very big claim.

I'd argue if anything he's been underrated this season, because we're all too busy waxing lyrical about SOB. He's the best 8 in the competition bar none.

Better than Harinordoquy or Parisse? :eek:

durkadurka

I think he missed 2 games and came off at half time in another.

jolley123

Cpt_Blackbeard wrote: »

Better than Harinordoquy or Parisse? :eek:

....Parisee wasn't in the Heineken, and he was definitely better than Imanol this year.

danthefan

durkadurka wrote: »

I think he missed 2 games and came off at half time in another.

Yeah, he missed both HEC games in January and came off at HT away to Clermont. He was ridiculously good in the QF and SF so I suppose that's why he's been nominated. It's a bit of a strange one imo.

CatFromHue

is anyone else having problems buying tickets for the magners league final in thomond?

i tried to buy a ticket this morning but none are available!

justsomebloke

CatFromHue wrote: »

is anyone else having problems buying tickets for the magners league final in thomond?

i tried to buy a ticket this morning but none are available!

Ye Leinster branch only took a proportion of the tickets offered to them however it now seems like a lot more people are interested in going then they had planned and now don't have enough tickets

uRbaN

Joe the Santa wrote: »

Ye Leinster branch only took a proportion of the tickets offered to them however it now seems like a lot more people are interested in going then they had planned and now don't have enough tickets

Sigh thats what I get for waiting for people to get back to me on whether they can go or not...

I hope they release a few more

totallegend

Hugh Farrelly picks his best Leinster XV of the Heineken Cup era:
http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/heineken-cup/best-of-the-blues-2651478.html

Agreeing with Farrelly is a new experience for me but I think he has it spot on, with the exception of out-half and centre; I would still pick Felipe at 10 and D'Arcy at 12.

irishbucsfan

totallegend wrote: »

Hugh Farrelly picks his best Leinster XV of the Heineken Cup era:
http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/heineken-cup/best-of-the-blues-2651478.html

Agreeing with Farrelly is a new experience for me but I think he has it spot on, with the exception of out-half and centre; I would still pick Felipe at 10 and D'Arcy at 12.

No way imo. Contepomi's poor performances in 2008/2009 strangled our backline for most of the season. He was great at times in the seasons before but that bad year kills it for me. He was too formy Sexton is a better player.

I'd agree with D'Arcy at 12.

I'd also disagree with Whitaker at 9, Reddan is bad at times, but Whitaker was constantly criticised by fans when playing at Leinster and only really was excellent in the semi-final and final in 09. Reddan has been better imo.

I'd agree completely with the pack. I think one more top class season after this from Strauss and O'Brien could push them into the team though.

CatFromHue

I'd have Dempsey at full back ahead of Nacewa. Nacewa has been great in the last season or two but Dempsey was a class act.
The only other talking points are 9, 10, and depending on your 10 12 as well.

Leinster have chopped and changed alot with Reddan, Whitaker, Easterby, O Riordan and O Meara etc at 9 and Sexton, Contepomi, Warner, Holwell, Spooner and Heikenui at 10.

I think I'd go with Whitaker at 9 as he won it, I liked O Meara though.

I'd also go with Contepomi at 10 as Sexton has only played 16 games. When you think of the big games Contepomi played in (Bath away, Toulouse away, Leicester at home, Wasps at home, Harlequins away) they compare favourably with Sextons.

That would have D'arcy at 12 for me then.

Bring back Holwell imo

rockman15

see the line that journo had in there about the 13 jersey. Would they retire it?

The italian side i played with retired the 12 jersey for the 1stXV. I only found out about a weeke that it was due to a legend of the club going on to play for italy back in the day.

CIARAN_BOYLE

I think most professional competitions require teams to play with number 1-15

Thats why the english team that used to use roman numerals stopped when the Premiership was formed as a professional league, I'm pretty sure the HEC has that rule too

CatFromHue

screw that, as irish people we should be allowed use ogham

Ciaran-Irl

rockman15 wrote: »

see the line that journo had in there about the 13 jersey. Would they retire it?

The italian side i played with retired the 12 jersey for the 1stXV. I only found out about a weeke that it was due to a legend of the club going on to play for italy back in the day.

Even if they wanted to, which they wouldn't, O'Driscoll would never agree to it. He isn't egotistical.