Leinster v Connacht Match Thread

irishbucsfan

wixfjord wrote: »

Say it again lads, I really rate Dave Kearney!

I said it at the beginning of this season that he's stepped it up a gear. I expected him to make a bigger impact TBH.

And then when certain Leinster fans here wrote him off a couple of weeks ago I doubted myself!


Fionn Carr on to play against his future team mates!

David900

irishbucsfan wrote: »

I said it at the beginning of this season that he's stepped it up a gear. I expected him to make a bigger impact TBH.

And then when certain Leinster fans here wrote him off a couple of weeks ago I doubted myself!


Fionn Carr on to play against his future team mates!

Might be surplus to requirements by the looks of things

irishbucsfan

David900 wrote: »

Might be surplus to requirements by the looks of things

Well he won us an immediate penalty there. Great signing already. :cool:

wixfjord

Reddan has made an unreal difference.
****ing terrible from Berne tho.

irishbucsfan

Cracking tackle from Tauso there to wrap the ball and man when Berne broke. Would have been a try otherwise.

Dave Kearney a couple of inches away from his hat trick

irishbucsfan

This referee is some man for warning Connacht for infringements and then doing nothing when they disobey him.

Shouted back foot at Troy Nathan 3 times, then failed to give the penalty against him when he stood there and made a tackle. Infuriating.

Great defense from Connacht though, fair play to them

seanin4711

might as well wrap it up and go again for next season as this is worse than ever!!!
oh the pain of a connacht fan!

David900

Smart move from McFadden!

wixfjord

Irelands number 9 on that form.
Very intelligent from mcfadden.

seanin4711

David900 wrote: »

Ah sure they need all the help they can get

these sort of refs are like hens teeth and we still get hockied!!!!!

Teej

Connacht defense annoyingly impressive

Edit: breached at last:)

Hope that wasn't Strauss' hand that had him taken off - has he had that op yet?

irishbucsfan

Ian Keatley has been worse than terrible.

B0X

Come on the bonus point!

wixfjord

Cmon lads bonus is on.

Burgo

Lovely stuff.

irishbucsfan

McFadden > D'Arcy ?

wixfjord

Joe will give him some arse kickin for that celebration.
Heaslip must be rubbing off!!

seanin4711

Teej wrote: »

Connacht defense annoyingly impressive

Edit: breached at last:)

Hope that wasn't Strauss' hand that had him taken off - has he had that op yet?

cannot remember our last try in the magners league!
sad really!

seanin4711

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Ian Keatley has been worse than terrible.

I would have nikora any day!

ambid

irishbucsfan wrote: »

McFadden > D'Arcy ?

I'm wondering that myself. Brilliant display from McFadden.

wixfjord

Pure bollocks ref.

wixfjord

Not irelands number 9 on that form!

WallyGUFC

Disgraceful stuff from Connacht yet again. So many stupid stupid mistakes, nobody playing well, anytime they see the try line they poo themselves. Disgrace.

Risteard

Nice try.

Teej

irishbucsfan wrote: »

McFadden > D'Arcy ?

No - but he's damn good. Would love him to take the place kicks more often for Leinster as the better this aspect of his game is the better his chance of making Irish squads when it'll matter

seanin4711

put me out of my misery plz

Chardee MacDennis

What's the score?

CIARAN_BOYLE

BastardPrince wrote: »

What's the score?

Final scoe Leinster 30 Connacht 8

Teej

30-8 FT

thomond2006

Fair play Leinster.

wixfjord

Conway has done nothing in a Leinster jersey to say he's the new hickie yet. Hope it will come.

Delira with that, not a great performance but great result.
Thought locky Jennings and Ross were very good.

Hope SOB is ok. Anyone hear what the sceal was?

irishbucsfan

Jennings was outstanding. Best player on the pitch by a long way. McLaughlin as well, as if we has never gone. With SOB, Heaslip, Jennings and McLaughlin and then the youngsters behind them we must have the best back row depth in Europe right now.


Hopefully we'll see Jennings play like that against Sarries and Racing.

KenSwee

I was listening to the commentary on RTE1 while watching the game on TG4.
Awful rubbish: they missed the second half kick off and the last try because they deem it more important to listening to the pundits discuss the match. It's like being in a pub and somebody changes the channel.
I'm sick of listening to Glennon on the radio: he's got a finger in every station.
I wish they would just decide to cover the game and stop the breaks for Mingingham-Arsenil and the bloody news!
I can't listen to those sports programs on RTE because they are constantly going from one sport to another.

Turning off now.

Risteard

wixfjord wrote: »

Conway has done nothing in a Leinster jersey to say he's the new hickie yet. Hope it will come.

Delira with that, not a great performance but great result.
Thought locky Jennings and Ross were very good.

Hope SOB is ok. Anyone hear what the sceal was?

All I know is that it was originally a blood injury and then the change was permanent.

thebaz

another good performance from Leinster - we really are spoilt for choice in back row- mclaughlin had a great game for his comeback - how will we fit them all in for the HC ?

funky penguin

B0X wrote: »

Are TG4 using the Batman soundtrack as their backing music? Gotta love their match coverage!

It's Hans Zimmer's Inception Score. Excellent music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imamcajBEJs

I was convinced it was going to be close, never expected a bonus point. We seemed to step up a gear when Reddan, Ross and the young guns were on.

Kearney played very well, took is two tries brilliantly.

Conway.....hmmm.......chalk it down to a bad game? Never really seemed threatening.

Good return for Kevin, Jennings was excellent. I also love Nathan Hines more and more with every match he plays, such a great addition to the team. The HANDS for the first try....from a second row!

Teej

Poster on LF saying SOB had cut above eye & its nothing to worry about...

durkadurka

Just back from game, by Jaysus we were rubbish for about twenty minutes, and Berne's kicking was just atrocious throughout. Great stuff from the young backs today including Niall Morris who I'm sure will get a bollocking for that pre try celebration. Have to say Connacht were terrible, I wonder will they ever score a try again. They just kept kicking it to nacewa all game, which was ok in the first half but nacewa had no problems in the second half. Then Leinster brought Morris on and conn didn't kick to him.

We seemed to score every time we had the ball and Berne didn't kick it arseways.

And don't get me started on newland, biggest waste of twenty stone I've ever seen. The guy just couldnt be arsed.

Hope sob is ok, I thought McFadden was very good today

porterbelly

WallyGUFC wrote: »

Disgraceful stuff from Connacht yet again. So many stupid stupid mistakes, nobody playing well, anytime they see the try line they poo themselves. Disgrace.

Overworked aquad, lots of injuries, it's tough to keep going week to week. We gave it socks against Munster 5 days ago, it's a tough turnaround trying to get something in the RDS. It just aint easy with a tiny squad and lots of injuries, and little reward for effort put in. Leinster and Munster are able to rotate to their hearts content, and Ulster to a certain degree, and still have excellent teams on the pitch, in Connacht we can' do that. Look at Michael Swift, he's played every minute for us this season bar one half against Harlequins in the Challege Cup. He's 33 years of age. Nowhere else would that happen.

Ok so we don't help ourselves by not being able to score tries at crucial times and not being able to put away teams. But I'd cut Connacht a bit of slack, we had 3 19 year old out there today, and had alot of lads who've played every game this season, who put their bodies on the line every week for the cause. Some of the lads must be well knackered bu they soldier on and give it their all. This kind of result was coming. Physically and mentally it's not possible to be competitive every week playing with the same team and getting injuries to key players (Ofisa, Muldoon, Duffy etc). So I'd be cutting Connacht a bit of slack, we don't play under the same rules as the other provinces. Roll on the Dragons Thursday night, hopefully we'll get Duffy and McComish back, and maybe there'll be a change in fortunes.

irishbucsfan

On a bright note for Connacht, I thought Griffin was good when he got the ball. Definitely looks ready to play at ML level.

Ciaran-Irl

porterbelly wrote: »

Overworked aquad, lots of injuries, it's tough to keep going week to week. We gave it socks against Munster 5 days ago, it's a tough turnaround trying to get something in the RDS. It just aint easy with a tiny squad and lots of injuries, and little reward for effort put in. Leinster and Munster are able to rotate to their hearts content, and Ulster to a certain degree, and still have excellent teams on the pitch, in Connacht we can' do that. Look at Michael Swift, he's played every minute for us this season bar one half against Harlequins in the Challege Cup. He's 33 years of age. Nowhere else would that happen.

Ok so we don't help ourselves by not being able to score tries at crucial times and not being able to put away teams. But I'd cut Connacht a bit of slack, we had 3 19 year old out there today, and had alot of lads who've played every game this season, who put their bodies on the line every week for the cause. Some of the lads must be well knackered bu they soldier on and give it their all. This kind of result was coming. Physically and mentally it's not possible to be competitive every week playing with the same team and getting injuries to key players (Ofisa, Muldoon, Duffy etc). So I'd be cutting Connacht a bit of slack, we don't play under the same rules as the other provinces. Roll on the Dragons Thursday night, hopefully we'll get Duffy and McComish back, and maybe there'll be a change in fortunes.

I agree with ya, so I just don't get why Connacht freak out when people suggest the likes of Keogh & Hogan as signings. You need a squad, so it doesn't matter if they wouldn't make the first 15.

smog

durkadurka wrote: »

Just back from game, by Jaysus we were rubbish for about twenty minutes, and Berne's kicking was just atrocious throughout. Great stuff from the young backs today including Niall Morris who I'm sure will get a bollocking for that pre try celebration. Have to say Connacht were terrible, I wonder will they ever score a try again. They just kept kicking it to nacewa all game, which was ok in the first half but nacewa had no problems in the second half. Then Leinster brought Morris on and conn didn't kick to him.

We seemed to score every time we had the ball and Berne didn't kick it arseways.

And don't get me started on newland, biggest waste of twenty stone I've ever seen. The guy just couldnt be arsed.

Hope sob is ok, I thought McFadden was very good today

What a cold miserable game. Totally agree .. Berne was just shocking (kicking and passing) and Newland has yet to put in any sort of performance in blue.
Apart from that happy to see a bonus point out of this and some game time for the younger lads. Lots of positives to take other then the two wasters above.

porterbelly

Ciaran-Irl wrote: »

I agree with ya, so I just don't get why Connacht freak out when people suggest the likes of Keogh & Hogan as signings. You need a squad, so it doesn't matter if they wouldn't make the first 15.

Hogan no, I'd take Keogh at the minute with our injury crisis in the back row. Hogan has hardly played a minute for Leinster in the last 2 years, it would take him too long to get up to Magners League standard and he's no spring chicken. We should be looking at trying to lure back Galway native Damien Browne from Brive, and Dave McGowan, Sligo native from La Rochelle. Browne has a wealth of experience from his time in the Guinnness Prem and Top 14, and McGowan is a good player. These would be much better options than Hogan, and have the experience that would help our young squad, something that Hogan can't really offer.

I'd prefer to see us bring back George Naoupu first and foremost, rather than get Keogh. Ezra Taylor will be leaving, I'll drive him back to New Zealand myself. We've had an unprecedented injury crisis in the back row with Taylor, Muldoon, Ofisa and McComish all out, it's not often that kind of bad luck strikes in one position but we do need to beef up our options so it doesn't happen again.

CouchSmart

Great result, especially considering it was basically a second string Leinster team with some firsts in the mix. Being honest though we didn't play that well, there was lots of simple mistakes and we never managed to get any sort of structure or patterns - probably down to Connacht's defence, though they seemed offside quite a bit.

Why is Conway on a full contract, he's yet to seriously impress, another year or two in the academy would have been better surely?

Hopefully nothing too serious with SOB, strange that he never managed to get back on from what was only a blood sub.

sock puppet

porterbelly wrote: »

Hogan no, I'd take Keogh at the minute with our injury crisis in the back row. Hogan has hardly played a minute for Leinster in the last 2 years, it would take him too long to get up to Magners League standard and he's no spring chicken. We should be looking at trying to lure back Galway native Damien Browne from Brive, and Dave McGowan, Sligo native from La Rochelle. Browne has a wealth of experience from his time in the Guinnness Prem and Top 14, and McGowan is a good player. These would be much better options than Hogan, and have the experience that would help our young squad, something that Hogan can't really offer.

I'd prefer to see us bring back George Naoupu first and foremost, rather than get Keogh. Ezra Taylor will be leaving, I'll drive him back to New Zealand myself. We've had an unprecedented injury crisis in the back row with Taylor, Muldoon, Ofisa and McComish all out, it's not often that kind of bad luck strikes in one position but we do need to beef up our options so it doesn't happen again.

Naoupu's a little unrealistic though, as I'd say he's on good bit more than what Connacht can offer him in Japan. And Browne would surely be taking a big paycut if he were to return home too?

thomond2006

sock puppet wrote: »

Naoupu's a little unrealistic though, as I'd say he's on good bit more than what Connacht can offer him in Japan. And Browne would surely be taking a big paycut if he were to return home too?

I doubt Nauopu will come back. Some of the wages bandied around Japan are ridiculous. George Smith is moving to Japan at the end of the season on a €800,000+ a year deal. :eek:

porterbelly

sock puppet wrote: »

Naoupu's a little unrealistic though, as I'd say he's on good bit more than what Connacht can offer him in Japan. And Browne would surely be taking a big paycut if he were to return home too?

Brive are broke though and a bit of a shambles, and Browne has said he'd like to return home. His brother Andrew is at Connacht as well.

I could see us trying to move mountains to get Naoupu back. He's on big money in Japan, around 250,000 a year I'm led to believe, but I'd say we'll do everything in our power to get him back, or else make a move for a seasoned, proven NIQ 8. I things for sure, Ezra Taylor aint the answer, and Stephen Keogh isn't long term either.

sock puppet

porterbelly wrote: »

Brive are broke though and a bit of a shambles, and Browne has said he'd like to return home. His brother Andrew is at Connacht as well.

I could see us trying to move mountains to get Naoupu back. He's on big money in Japan, around 250,000 a year I'm led to believe, but I'd say we'll do everything in our power to get him back, or else make a move for a seasoned, proven NIQ 8. I things for sure, Ezra Taylor aint the answer, and Stephen Keogh isn't long term either.

I see. Well I hope Browne does return. Can't see Naoupu going back if he's on that kind of money.

Hippo

smog wrote: »

What a cold miserable game. Totally agree .. Berne was just shocking (kicking and passing) and Newland has yet to put in any sort of performance in blue.
Apart from that happy to see a bonus point out of this and some game time for the younger lads. Lots of positives to take other then the two wasters above.

That's a very harsh judgement on Berne. He didn't play well yesterday, but he's had hardly any gametime this season and overall he's done well as a back-up option.

profitius

porterbelly wrote: »

Overworked aquad, lots of injuries, it's tough to keep going week to week. We gave it socks against Munster 5 days ago, it's a tough turnaround trying to get something in the RDS. It just aint easy with a tiny squad and lots of injuries, and little reward for effort put in. Leinster and Munster are able to rotate to their hearts content, and Ulster to a certain degree, and still have excellent teams on the pitch, in Connacht we can' do that. Look at Michael Swift, he's played every minute for us this season bar one half against Harlequins in the Challege Cup. He's 33 years of age. Nowhere else would that happen.

Ok so we don't help ourselves by not being able to score tries at crucial times and not being able to put away teams. But I'd cut Connacht a bit of slack, we had 3 19 year old out there today, and had alot of lads who've played every game this season, who put their bodies on the line every week for the cause. Some of the lads must be well knackered bu they soldier on and give it their all. This kind of result was coming. Physically and mentally it's not possible to be competitive every week playing with the same team and getting injuries to key players (Ofisa, Muldoon, Duffy etc). So I'd be cutting Connacht a bit of slack, we don't play under the same rules as the other provinces. Roll on the Dragons Thursday night, hopefully we'll get Duffy and McComish back, and maybe there'll be a change in fortunes.

Thats why I believe Connacht will be stronger next season even losing Cronin, Carr and Keatley. They'll sign enough to give the squad greater dept which means more rotation which means the players will be able to perform better when they do play and there'll be less injuries.