Leinster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread.

The Stand at €20 is pure BS. Just make it €10 and let everyone in. So ridiculous, same last year.

Turned up with a season ticket, and a student card, to be told that neither were any use to me, and I'd have to pay full price.

Then Joe Simpson came on with 25 minutes left and absolutely tore us apart. Wasps were pretty excellent that day actually.

WeeBushy

Making it €20 is nuts. A Magners league game last season was €30, so only a tenner less for what is ostensibly a meaningless pre-season game is crazy. No way am I paying that to go to the Northampton match, especially considering I want to go the the Ireland game the next day. Might go to the Rebels purely because its a team I'll otherwise never see in the flesh. Emmet's right, it should be €10 max - get as many people in there, have a bit of atmosphere and see if they can get a few more people hooked to Leinster.

GerM

They'll get big crowds even with those prices. The pre season friendlies have been priced similarly for several years now. The stand has a capacity of 2,500. The rest will be the €10 tickets or €5 for kids. Both matches are the nights before internationals against France and England respectively. There will be a lot of rugby supporters staying in and around D4 that weekend. There'll be plenty of people wanting to see the Rebels. The likes of Mortlock, Cordingly, Cipriani and Somerville are big names. The Northampton game will market itself after the final and there will be a glut of English fans in town.

profitius

Please beat the Rebels for the sake of northern hemisphere rugby!

PhatPiggins

GerM wrote: »

They'll get big crowds even with those prices. The pre season friendlies have been priced similarly for several years now. The stand has a capacity of 2,500. The rest will be the €10 tickets or €5 for kids. Both matches are the nights before internationals against France and England respectively. There will be a lot of rugby supporters staying in and around D4 that weekend. There'll be plenty of people wanting to see the Rebels. The likes of Mortlock, Cordingly, Cipriani and Somerville are big names. The Northampton game will market itself after the final and there will be a glut of English fans in town.

Leinster will have a second/third team out and the Rebels are muck at the best of times. Mortlock will be with Australia and Cipriani won't be at the club at that stage. Cordingly wasn't a big name when he was half decent and that was 10 years ago. Clever marketing from from Leinster but its going to be their B&I Cup team against the dregs of Super 15.

For 20 quid you can get the 2011 HC DVD and 4 cans of Karpackie. I know which one I'd find better value.

thomond2006

Cordingley is retiring at the end of the season, commentators said it during one of the Rebels' games.

Fairly sure the prices are the same for the Munster preseason fixtures. I paid €20 (seated on the touchline on halfway) to go see London Irish at Musgrave Park a few seasons ago.

danny29

Is terrace a Standing area??

danny29

Is terrace section an all standing area?

durkadurka

It's anywhere in the ground other than the stand . The terrace on the other side is about 5 rows high. But it's grand for half the price.

I remember paying £1 to watch schools matches in the 80s there.

tolosenc

errlloyd wrote: »

Will the Rebels not be a steaming pile of Manure without their internationals?

Well, they're a steaming pile of manure with their internationals, so who knows...

GerM

Yup, Thomond. Tickets for Munster's pre-season games go up to €25. It's not cheap but the people will go, certainly for Leinster's games anyway. 13k season tickets sold. Donnybrook only holds 7k and there will be a lot of kids brought along for cheap too. I would be very surprised if there wasn't in excess of 5k at least there. I'm sure Munster will get a fair few in also.

I reckon there's a good chance Mortlock will be passed over by Australia for their squad, PP. He's 34 and struggled heavily with injury in recent times. Regardless, it's a S15 side and will be sold as such. I fully expect both sides to be generally mixed sides for the most part but I don't think people will be hugely put off. In last season's friendlies, Leinster played their new signings like VDM along with the likes of Wright, Nacewa, Ross, SOB, McFadden and Strauss. It will be like a depleted ML side more than a B&I team I reckon.

I'll be going simply because these are great opportunities to see some of the new players or the younger lads. It will hopefully be a first opportunity to have a look at Berquist, Sykes, Browne, Carr and Hagan playing under Schmidt.

durkadurka

I wonder will some of the Irish squad, who are not in the Irish 22 that week be played?

In thinking Jennings McFadden fitz maybe. hard to tell at this stage obviously

GerM

durkadurka wrote: »

I wonder will some of the Irish squad, who are not in the Irish 22 that week be played?

In thinking Jennings McFadden fitz maybe. hard to tell at this stage obviously

Nah, anyone in the 30 won't be anywhere near it. Anyone in the WC squad will be training under their WC preparation program at that stage and I don't think they'll have any involvement with their provinces. Closest they'll get will be sitting in the stand.

durkadurka

But they'll all need games to be match fit surely?

irishbucsfan

durkadurka wrote: »

But they'll all need games to be match fit surely?

Don't think they'll be playing apart from the 4 warm-ups. Need to be kept safe.

durkadurka

Keeping them safe Is madness. Play them and be damned.

You're better with match fit players than fresh players who are not battle hardened. Ref 2007.

jolley123

Can someone help me with the contract of these players, in terms of their length.

Luke Fitzgerald
Jason Harris-Wright
Kevin McLaughlin
John Cooney
Shane Horgan
Isa Nacewa
Dave Kearney
Andrew Conway

Gracias

PhatPiggins

PhatPiggins wrote: »

Leinster will have a second/third team out and the Rebels are muck at the best of times. Mortlock will be with Australia and Cipriani won't be at the club at that stage. Cordingly wasn't a big name when he was half decent and that was 10 years ago. Clever marketing from from Leinster but its going to be their B&I Cup team against the dregs of Super 15.

For 20 quid you can get the 2011 HC DVD and 4 cans of Karpackie. I know which one I'd find better value.

16 cans of Karpackie and youtube are your friend!

JustinDee

durkadurka wrote: »

Keeping them safe Is madness. Play them and be damned.

You're better with match fit players than fresh players who are not battle hardened. Ref 2007.

Only players you will find near a pre-season warm-up game for a province are any national squad select just back from an injury. Hopefully there'll be none.

GerM

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Don't think they'll be playing apart from the 4 warm-ups. Need to be kept safe.

Absolutely. Giving them an opportunity to pick up an injury in a relatively meaningless game would be playing with fire. Perhaps overly cynical, but the fact that we would be playing an Australian team would make it all the more risky. I'm sure we all recall the folly of playing a French team in a warm up game ahead of the RWC in 2007 and BOD was clocked resulting in a fractured sinus. Get some patriotic headcase on the pitch for the Rebels wanting to make a name for himself and we could have a member of our WC squad with a heavy knock.

totallegend

GerM wrote: »

Absolutely. Giving them an opportunity to pick up an injury in a relatively meaningless game would be playing with fire. Perhaps overly cynical, but the fact that we would be playing an Australian team would make it all the more risky. I'm sure we all recall the folly of playing a French team in a warm up game ahead of the RWC in 2007 and BOD was clocked resulting in a fractured sinus. Get some patriotic headcase on the pitch for the Rebels wanting to make a name for himself and we could have a member of our WC squad with a heavy knock.

Correct; not sure the Rebels would be quite as brutal as Bayonne in 2007 but still, anyone who is in the 50-man extended RWC squad won't be let next nor near these games.

Even so, you could still put out a semi-decent Leinster team:

Nacewa
D Kearney
O'Malley
Berquist
Carr
Madigan
Cooney
VDM
Strauss
McGrath
Browne
Sykes
D Ryan
AN Other (J Murphy maybe?)
Ruddock

That is a good team considering it omits Kearney, Fitz, Horgan, BOD, D'Arcy, McFadden, Sexton, Reddan, Boss, Healy, Ross, Hagan, Cronin, Cullen, Toner, Heaslip, SOB, Jennings and McLaughlin.

I'm still not paying to go though...

Tomtom364

Another thing is that the Pre-Season friendlies are about getting your team together to get back used to playing with each other, to try out the new combinations, that kinda thing.

Wouldnt be doing the young fellas any favours if you took those games off them and then they had to play together for the first time in the magners when all the internationals are gone again.

justsomebloke

PhatPiggins wrote: »

For 20 quid you can get the 2011 HC DVD and 4 cans of Karpackie. I know which one I'd find better value.

Deleted User wrote: »

16 cans of Karpackie and youtube are your friend!

Or you could get a terrace ticket and 10 cans of Heino? Seriously tearrace tickets are €10 I don't see why people are bitching about the price when the vast majority of donnybrook is Terrace anyway

GerM

Joe the Santa wrote: »

Or you could get a terrace ticket and 10 cans of Heino? Seriously tearrace tickets are €10 I don't see why people are bitching about the price when the vast majority of donnybrook is Terrace anyway

Agreed. €50 can get entry for a couple with 2 kids, a couple of pints and bit of grub for the kids. I think the pricing is fine. It's not going to be the Leinster academy on the pitch. Schmidt has already announced he'll be playing his new signings and I'm sure the likes of Strauss, Conway, O'Malley etc will be involved also at different stages.

justsomebloke

actually season ticket holders can get 4 tickets for the price of 3 so works out as €7.50 a ticket!!!!!! so I just upgraded my knacker drinking from Heineken cans to Whiskey for the game


actually if this is like the last couple of years they will have some pretty good food stalls around the grounds. Got myself some spit roast pig last year!

Joe the Santa

Joe the Santa wrote: »

Or you could get a terrace ticket and 10 cans of Heino? Seriously tearrace tickets are €10 I don't see why people are bitching about the price when the vast majority of donnybrook is Terrace anyway

I was in the Terrace last year, fairly full, with an empty stand across the way. It just made absolutely zero sense to me for them to charge €20, disperse the crowd amongst the terrace, and leave a sour feeling in the casual fan's mouth at even the thought that they'd have to pay €20 to sit to watch Leinster's A + some 1st teamers vs Wasps.

If I was home, I'd pay the tenner, and stand in the terrace, no doubt about that.

But I'd still think it ridiculous to charge €20 for the stand!

roycon

very low on scrum halfs. id say cillian willis will be a reserve if he's around. we also have chris keane and simon keogh playing ail though i suppose

irishbucsfan

roycon wrote: »

very low on scrum halfs. id say cillian willis will be a reserve if he's around. we also have chris keane and simon keogh playing ail though i suppose

Chris Keane isn't even playing in what was the AIL!

Can't be expecting him to go from junior rugby to Pro12!

Much prefer to see Cooney/Willis tbh

roycon

no he played in the final for old belvo- just an option though because i noticed we were very low

irishbucsfan

roycon wrote: »

no he played in the final for old belvo- just an option though because i noticed we were very low

Oh really?

I thought he was playing for Skerries!