Leinster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread VI: End of the MOC [Revenge of the STH]

errlloyd

Btw our ref this Sunday is a bit of an unknown, but is notable for returning to refereeing after an absolute horror injury kept him out of the game for over a year. It's Mathieu Raynal, anyone who saw the video will remember it as the one where a tackling player swings out of a running, and as he does he catches the referee who's legs are firmly planted, fracturing his Tibia and Fibula in both legs.

He's a highly rated reasonably young ref, I hope he has a good game.

molloyjh

errlloyd wrote: »

Btw our ref this Sunday is a bit of an unknown, but is notable for returning to refereeing after an absolute horror injury kept him out of the game for over a year. It's Mathieu Raynal, anyone who saw the video will remember it as the one where a tackling player swings out of a running, and as he does he catches the referee who's legs are firmly planted, fracturing his Tibia and Fibula in both legs.

He's a highly rated reasonably young ref, I hope he has a good game.

Oh I remember that. It was a horrible injury. Wasn't that the one where you could hear his shouts of pain in the to coverage?

molloyjh

Some interesting comments from Seanie that echo what Drico had said about training in his last season. He's obviously going to big up the set-up as it is now, but there's still some encouraging things in there too.

http://www.the42.ie/sean-obrien-leinster-champions-cup-2441384-Nov2015/

molloyjh

molloyjh wrote: »

Oh I remember that. It was a horrible injury. Wasn't that the one where you could hear his shouts of pain in the to coverage?

Yeah he was screaming. You could see in the replay's that his leg snapped, even the commentators were wincing, one of the worst I've seen.

errlloyd

He was speaking in his role as a thorough professional.

"Sean O’Brien, who is himself a beef farmer, was speaking at a press conference at the Barack Obama Plaza in Moneygall to mark Supermac’s commitment to Irish farmers to an excess of €20m, increased in part due to the fresh 5oz 100% Irish Beef Burger, the first fresh meat burger available in a quick service food chain in Ireland."

Lads it doesn't say much about MOC that players say things like this.

molloyjh

molloyjh wrote: »

Some interesting comments from Seanie that echo what Drico had said about training in his last season. He's obviously going to big up the set-up as it is now, but there's still some encouraging things in there too.

http://www.the42.ie/sean-obrien-leinster-champions-cup-2441384-Nov2015/

Well there is a good bit in that as opposed to the quote filler stuff in the Toner article.

It would seem that things were not right last year despite what some of the players were saying. Seanie can be positive about the current setup without passing comment about last year, but chose to stick the boot in a bit.

irishbucsfan

Lads, Devin and SOB both have the exact same coach they had last year. He had only just started the role so I don't think it's massively surprising he was imperfect in his first attempt, it's pretty much exactly what had been expected by fans before he was ever appointed. I'm delighted to hear that he's adapting so quickly though, especially with all the other responsibilities he's had added to his role.

former total

Those comments from O'Brien don't surprise me at all. It was obvious from his demeanour in the closing stages of last season that he was deeply unhappy with something in the Leinster set-up. He didn't cover himself in glory either, his attitude was poor and he was a disgrace in the match at Ravenhill.

O'Brien might be better reflecting on his own position as one of the senior players in the camp while things slipped so badly.

And as IBF points out, last season's forwards coach is this season's head coach, so SOB is indirectly (and presumably unintentionally) criticising his current boss. Now, if Cullen has learned from last season and improved on things, then that's great, it was always going to be a learning curve for him, but you'd wonder what use it is for O'Brien to be dropping comments like this.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Team for Wasps



Nacewa and Heaslip both starting. Nacewa is captain.

molloyjh

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Team for Wasps



Nacewa and Heaslip both starting. Nacewa is captain.

So it looks like Moore, Ruddock, Luke, Te'o and Rob are all injured. Balls anyway.

Strong from 1-10 though so that's where we need to be looking to win it. In fairness when you factor in the injuries it's a good bench as well.

irishbucsfan

A shame to miss so many and I have my issues with certain things but still very excited.

crisco10

molloyjh wrote: »

So it looks like Moore, Ruddock, Luke, Te'o and Rob are all injured. Balls anyway.

Strong from 1-10 though so that's where we need to be looking to win it. In fairness when you factor in the injuries it's a good bench as well.

Just the 4 world cup players on the bench. not bad alright. ;-)

Kearney's defence will need to be sharper than it was in the World Cup QF defending against Wade and Co. McFadden will have a serious job directing traffic in defence too. This could also be one of the first times ever you see a 10 helping out the 12 in terms of tackling.

Like the middle five though.

thomond2006

15. Charles Piutau; 14. Christian Wade, 13. Elliot Daly, 12. Ben Jacobs, 11. Frank Halai; 10. Ruaridh Jackson, 9. Joe Simpson;
1. Matt Mullan (c), 2. Carlo Festuccia, 3. Jake Cooper-Woolley, 4. Joe Launchbury, 5. Bradley Davies, 6. Sam Jones, 7. George Smith, 8. Nathan Hughes

16. Ashley Johnson, 17. Simon McIntyre, 18. Phil Swainston, 19. James Gaskell, 20. Guy Thompson, 21. Dan Robson, 22. Alex Lozowski, 23. Sailosi Tagicakibau

Two All Blacks and Christian Wade = mighty back three in attack!

I look forward to seeing a legendary veteran like George Smith.

Journeyman_1

Potentially a big opportunity for ringrose of the bench. A good 10-15 minutes could force him to get more pro12 gametime.

ArmchairQB

worried about midfield Reid defensively not good and Ferg will give his all but Wasps I am sure will target that area

tbm

Yeah, I'll be honest I'm a bit worries about this now. It was never going to be easy, but I think there's a real lack of penetration in our midfield. Their pack are no lightweights either.

Jaysus, this game would have been seen as our best chance for a BP too. eeeek!!!

molloyjh

ArmchairQB wrote: »

worried about midfield Reid defensively not good and Ferg will give his all but Wasps I am sure will target that area

Ferg will be an issue going forward, but I'm not too worried about him defensively tbh. And I think that's exactly why he's there.

CMOTDibbler

former total wrote: »

Those comments from O'Brien don't surprise me at all. It was obvious from his demeanour in the closing stages of last season that he was deeply unhappy with something in the Leinster set-up. He didn't cover himself in glory either, his attitude was poor and he was a disgrace in the match at Ravenhill.

O'Brien might be better reflecting on his own position as one of the senior players in the camp while things slipped so badly.

And as IBF points out, last season's forwards coach is this season's head coach, so SOB is indirectly (and presumably unintentionally) criticising his current boss. Now, if Cullen has learned from last season and improved on things, then that's great, it was always going to be a learning curve for him, but you'd wonder what use it is for O'Brien to be dropping comments like this.

It's quite possible that Cullen was equally as frustrated by things as SOB. Regardless of the fact that he was on the coaching team, it's a different matter when you're a subordinate and your boss has a more relaxed approach than you would like. Most of what Leinster suffered from last year was inaccuracy and lack of cohesion or game plan. The forwards coach can't influence those kinds of things on his own.

errlloyd

This should be our easiest game of this pool and I am ****ting brix looking at it.

dub_skav

Wonder how much chopping and changing McFadden, Kirchner and Nacewa will do during the game.
The guys usual shuffle about a bit in the back 3, but with Kirchner and Nacewa both having centre experience and McFadden being more of a winger these days we might see a lot of movement. Plus, of course Dave being comfortable at 15 too.
Then Ringrose and Madigan being the subs we can really mix things up a lot.

former total

Each player in that backline is very good, but it's just a bit of a patchwork job, I'd be worried about cohesion. Te'o is a massive loss.

Good to see Jack McGrath getting the nod ahead of Healy, he's earned it.

.ak

Christ that Wasps backline!

If we give them space we're goosed.

molloyjh

errlloyd wrote: »

This should be our easiest game of this pool and I am ****ting brix looking at it.

I don't know that this should be our easiest game. It was always going to be one where we had to manage it with guys coming back from RWC duty and not being as familiar with the plays and the patterns. Under Joe it took a good 5-6 weeks to get the whole thing bedded down so we could never really have expected us to be at our best this week. So while in theory this is the easiest fixture when all else is equal, the fact is that we're in a different place to where we'll be later in the season. It's possible the Bath game could be our "easiest" one given the potential improvements we make between now and then.

molloyjh

.ak wrote: »

Christ that Wasps backline!

If we give them space we're goosed.

Wade vs Kirchner.....



EDIT: Just realised Wade is on Daves wing....

tbm

.ak wrote: »

Christ that Wasps backline!

If we give them space we're goosed.

Yes. We need the pack to front up and the backs to take every chance or we'll be out of the tournament before we face the galacticos.

scott1974

Haskell out for them and Mullan is back...was hoping we'd have a bit of forward dominance. Not so sure now. We need bif games from our senior players, O'Brien needs to have a blinder against Smith.

molloyjh

Interesting to see Bent on the bench for the As this week too....

15. Billy Dardis
14. Darragh Fanning
13. Tom Farrell
12. Steve Crosbie
11. Mick McGrath
10. Ross Byrne
09. Charlie Rock

01. Peter Dooley
02. Bryan Byrne
03. Royce Burke-Flynn
04. Tadhg Beirne
05. Gavin Thornbury
06. Peadar Timmins CAPTAIN
07. Dan Leavy
08. Tony Ryan

16. Sean McNulty
17. Michael Bent
18. Ross Molony
19. Josh Murphy
20. Joey Carbery
21. Harrison Brewer
22. Rory O'Loughlin

Clegg

Haskell really shouldn't be much of a worry for Leinster. We have a quality backrow who function well together. He was quiet in the Ireland/England game last 6N and the home tie when Leinster played Wasps last year.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Clegg wrote: »

Haskell really shouldn't be much of a worry for Leinster. We have a quality backrow who function well together. He was quiet in the Ireland/England game last 6N and the home tie when Leinster played Wasps last year.

Haskell's not playing, is he?

stephen_n

Looking at the backlines, I'm hoping this won't be an open game, Sexton is going to really need to boss the territory game and hope our pack gets dominance in the set pieces.