Match Thread: Scarlets vs Leinster Rugby, Friday 06th Sept 19:05, BBC Wales/RTE.ie

.ak

Scrum looked fine in the 2nd half. Bad day for Marty, but he's got plenty of potential.

Have to say our support play was sensational. For all the bad aspects of our game, the support play was as good, if not better than last season. I think pace is going to be key for players coming into the season. Fast front rowers like McGrath and Cronin really helped our support play.

Morf

Very happy overall.

Gopperth looks the business and Fanning very solid on the wing.

I thought Murphy really continued his great form from last year too.

Macken looks to be beginning to live up to his promise too.

.ak

What did everyone make of McCarthy? Very happy with him I must say. Really helped in the tight.

Ugo Monye spacecraft experience

.ak wrote: »

What did everyone make of McCarthy? Very happy with him I must say. Really helped in the tight.

Gave away one very silly penalty but he was always looking for work and looks very mobile

Buer

.ak wrote: »

What did everyone make of McCarthy? Very happy with him I must say. Really helped in the tight.

Very industrious and physical. Even threw a nice pass from scrum half. I think it was half to do with his showing though and half to do with the ineffectual showing of Denton who must be nearing last chance saloon at this stage.

He's had 11 appearances in blue and been poor in pretty much all of them. That would possibly be more but for the fact that he managed to get himself suspended for about 6 weeks last season also.

Morf

Buer wrote: »

Very industrious and physical. Even threw a nice pass from scrum half. I think it was half to do with his showing though and half to do with the ineffectual showing of Denton who must be nearing last chance saloon at this stage.

He's had 11 appearances in blue and been poor in pretty much all of them. That would possibly be more but for the fact that he managed to get himself suspended for about 6 weeks last season also.

I think he just looked anonymous tonight rather than obviously poor. An improvement in anyone's book surely!

ConFurioso

Buer wrote: »

Very industrious and physical. Even threw a nice pass from scrum half. I think it was half to do with his showing though and half to do with the ineffectual showing of Denton who must be nearing last chance saloon at this stage.

That pass was a beauty! Also good to see him running on the shoulder of Gopperth for his try.

Highlight for me was McGrath legging it down the touchline on 68 mins, with a nice off load to Hudson.

Ugo Monye spacecraft experience

Ugo Monye spacecraft experience wrote: »

Gave away one very silly penalty but he was always looking for work and looks very mobile

EDIT: I misread that as McGrath so that is a summation of how I felt McGrath went

McCarthy offered a lot more bulk around the park. Has to be said that Toner was very good too, handled a lot of ball and is really coming into his own lately. He'll never be a top class lock but he's a decent player

Hagz

Watching it again on RTE, don't shoot the messenger, Ruddock's defence in the opening 15 mins was abysmal.

rockbeast

There are two myths that I am happy Michael Cheika attempted to dispel and, IMO, succeeded with the Leinster mindset:

1) "You have to lose one to win one"....Not true, as a few of you here will know from MC's 2009 HC final teamtalk...,excuses count for nothing in history.

2) "Transition is a painful time for a team." ??? What? Not necessarily. A myth perpetuated by teams without a clear and established succession policy

Well done tonight, lads. If MOC can bring in one ethic from the AP, for me, it is that you are fighting for survival from the start.

Bring on the season.

Grimebox

Any highlights or anything online?

molloyjh

Grimebox wrote: »

Any highlights or anything online?

There's a lot if I individual clips up on YouTube under the Pro12 channel. They should have a highlights clip up at some stage too. RTE should have it on player shortly as well given that they showed it last night.

Quint2010

Grimebox wrote: »

Any highlights or anything online?

http://www.leinsterrugby.ie/news/10308.php#.Uisr7D_pySo

durkadurka

tolosenc wrote: »

For the benefit of me and durkadurka, were we any use? And have we turned into Munster getting 3 yellow cards?

Just watched it now. What a performance from O Connell. Didn't do a thing wrong .

If we can sort out the scrum and our defence we might do ok this year.

The soccerball was gash though.
The highlight was the Swedish fans singing
" go home to your ginger wives"

thomond2006

Just watched most of it.

Gopperth looks like a pretty class signing!

danthefan

thomond2006 wrote: »

Just watched most of it.

Gopperth looks like a pretty class signing!

I'd add the caveat that it was only a league game against the Scarlets, but I'd tend to agree. All the basics are there, he can kick, pass, makes good decisions and that should all stick no matter who you're playing. Didn't see much of a running threat but that could have just been the game. Very happy with his first outing.

jamiedav2011

danthefan wrote: »

I'd add the caveat that it was only a league game against the Scarlets, but I'd tend to agree. All the basics are there, he can kick, pass, makes good decisions and that should all stick no matter who you're playing. Didn't see much of a running threat but that could have just been the game. Very happy with his first outing.

Doesn't have the running threat of a Madigan, but what he does have is a potentially better aptitude for getting the most from the runners around him I'd say. Madigan can sometimes try to do it all himself a bit much.

This is potentially a good thing though, as they're different players for different situations.

Also has Sexton's great skill of following the ball and influencing play twice in a move.

For eg:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXQeyugDTc4

& Sexton:

Also, interesting to see how many times we used the skip pass from 10 in an attacking sense. More than I've seen us use it in recent times anyway.

Teferi

That tackle attempt on Toner is gas.

The thought process must have been: "You're too big to tackle, I'll just run into you so, you big tree".