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

TheGoldenAges

BOD or Hickey say anything of note of OTB tonight?

molloyjh

Greyian wrote: »

I believe Thomond is actually a spy.

He starts attending Leinster matches, then suddenly Munster beat Leinster home and away...very suspicious.

Don't remind him. He enjoys that fact enough as it is.....

CatFromHue

TheGoldenAges wrote: »

BOD or Hickey say anything of note of OTB tonight?

BOD was wondering why D'arcy was only on the bench, he still thinks Madigan is more of a 12 than 10, and that Gopperth is the best 10 in the squad.

Greyian

molloyjh wrote: »

Don't remind him. He enjoys that fact enough as it is.....

I guess it was time Munster had some small successes, we've been very selfish hogging basically all the silverware over the last 5-6 years :pac:

Buer

CatFromHue wrote: »

BOD was wondering why D'arcy was only on the bench, he still thinks Madigan is more of a 12 than 10, and that Gopperth is the best 10 in the squad.

So is that BOD implying Madigan should be benched?

CatFromHue

He didn't come out and say that exactly, I think, he did also say that the coaches see these guys everyday so are far better to pick the team

Those points are just my memories of the whole show.

He has mentioned a few times in the past though that he views Madigan as more of a 12 than 10 and Gopperth is the best 10 in the squad.

sydthebeat

Interestingly moc referred to madigan as a specialist 10 playing at 12.

Also, this will be the third time in 3 years moc team would have played Toulon away

stephen_n

awec wrote: »

Leinster have no need for Stringer. You need someone better than Reddan and Boss.

He was certainly better than Reddan last week

thomond2006

molloyjh wrote: »

Don't remind him. He enjoys that fact enough as it is.....

I believe I said the win at the Aviva was great but not so great in that Leinster were terrible.

Interested Observer

I can't understand why Leinster aren't playing a full strength side this weekend. They need time together and Leinster need league points.

CatFromHue

Interested Observer wrote: »

I can't understand why Leinster aren't playing a full strength side this weekend. They need time together and Leinster need league points.

It's a bit of a gamble but it makes sense.

Tomorrow Dragons,
Next Sunday Toulon
The Friday after Ulster

The Toulon and Ulster games are quite close together and are must win ones. The team for tomorrow's game is weaker than full strength but should be enough to do a job over there.

padser

CatFromHue wrote: »

The team for tomorrow's game is weaker than full strength but should be enough to do a job over there.

Really?

You've been watching Leinster play over the last few months right?

padser

total former wrote: »

Surely no one would actually be in favour of signing Stringer?

Not really,

Unless I'm being offered him as an alternative to the option of Nacewa on a one or two year contract (in either a playing or coaching capacity).....then I'm I'm in favour of Stringer :-)

total former

padser wrote: »

Really?

You've been watching Leinster play over the last few months right?

So what do you suggest? Sending the weak team to Ravenhill??

molloyjh

total former wrote: »

So what do you suggest? Sending the weak team to Ravenhill??

To think that some would have us play our first string team 3 times in 13 days, all of which are away from home and 2 of which against serious opposition, is crazy. I'm not backwards about coming forwards when criticising MOC but this is just ridiculous. Some perspective would be nice here....

CatFromHue

padser wrote: »

Really?

You've been watching Leinster play over the last few months right?

I have and the team being sent to Newport is stronger than the teams we put out in the draw at home to Glasgow and away to Ospreys.

armchaircoach

molloyjh wrote: »

To think that some would have us play our first string team 3 times in 13 days, all of which are away from home and 2 of which against serious opposition, is crazy. I'm not backwards about coming forwards when criticising MOC but this is just ridiculous. Some perspective would be nice here....

Can i ask why it is ok for some players (gopperth) to be expected to play huge numbers of games, possibly every game this season. Yet it's seen as ridiculous for others to manage 3 in a row.

Not to mention that Jimmy will probably be expected to play all 3. Does player welfare and misplaced concern for welfare only extend to those with a maroon passport?

awec

total former wrote: »

So what do you suggest? Sending the weak team to Ravenhill??

Yes, I would suggest that. Send the A team.

CatFromHue

Buer wrote: »

So is that BOD implying Madigan should be benched?

Just listened to it again and both BOD and Hickie really hummed and hawwed on the 3/4 line and you could say they implied D'arcy should be ahead of Madigan (BOD was saying he doesn't understand why Darce is only benching).

CatFromHue

armchaircoach wrote: »

Can i ask why it is ok for some players (gopperth) to be expected to play huge numbers of games, possibly every game this season. Yet it's seen as ridiculous for others to manage 3 in a row.

Not to mention that Jimmy will probably be expected to play all 3. Does player welfare and misplaced concern for welfare only extend to those with a maroon passport?

Gopperth would have had a good few weeks off during the 6N and November Internationals so it's not a similar case to an Irish squad player who would have been training/playing for Ireland then.

Gopps has played 22+3 for Leinster but say Toner has played 20+2 for Leinster and Ireland

armchaircoach

CatFromHue wrote: »

Gopperth would have had a good few weeks off during the 6N and November Internationals so it's not a similar case to an Irish squad player who would have been training/playing for Ireland then.

Gopps has played 22+3 for Leinster but say Toner has played 20+2 for Leinster and Ireland

There were 3 pro12 games during the 6 nations, so not much of a rest there. In fact apart from toner and kearney did any other leinster players play more than 3 games for Ireland?

Greyian

armchaircoach wrote: »

There were 3 pro12 games during the 6 nations, so not much of a rest there. In fact apart from toner and kearney did any other leinster players play more than 3 games for Ireland?

McGrath, Ross, Murphy had 2 starts + 3 sub appearances, Cronin came off the bench in all 5 games, Marty Moore benched all 5 games

Greyian

awec wrote: »

Yes, I would suggest that. Send the A team.

Probably more likely for our A team to win the way the 2 sides are playing.

See Munster vs Ulster May 2014 for previous example an A team going away and beating the 1st XV.

armchaircoach

Greyian wrote: »

McGrath, Ross, Murphy had 2 starts + 3 sub appearances, Cronin came off the bench in all 5 games, Marty Moore benched all 5 games

So exactly, the idea that Gopperth got a longer break than the irish guys during the 6 nations is nonsense.

Greyian

armchaircoach wrote: »

So exactly, the idea that Gopperth got a longer break than the irish guys during the 6 nations is nonsense.

Test matches are much more intense, and in the case of McGrath and Ross, they started 4 and 5 games respectively.

The last Leinster match before the 6 Nations was the weekend of the 2rd to 25th of January (the Wasps match). Since then, Gopperth's playing schedule has looked like this:
30th Jan -> 1st Feb: No match
6th Feb -> 8th Feb: No match
13th Feb -> 15th Feb: Dragons (A) - Pro 12
20th Feb -> 22nd Feb: Zebre (H) - Pro 12
27th Feb -> 1st March: Ospreys (A) - Pro 12
6th March -> 9th March: Scarlets (A) - Pro 12
13th March -> 15th March: No match
20th March -> 22nd March: No match
27th March -> 29th March: Glasgow (H) - Pro 12
3rd April -> 5th April: Bath (H) - Champions Cup

So this weekend is Gopperth's 7 match since the weekend of the 23rd to 25th January. In terms of intensity, those matches don't compare to the level of play in the 6 Nations.

Also, Luke Fitzgerald played most (all?) of Leinster's games during the 6 Nations, as well as playing in the final 6 Nations match vs Scotland.

Gopperth definitely got more of a rest than any of the players who played 4-5 matches for Ireland (and then we'd also need to factor in Heaslip's "rest" was injury related in both cases, which isn't quite the same), and having 3 weeks between Wasps and Dragons, and then 3 weeks again between Scarlets and Glasgow is pretty significant.

CatFromHue

armchaircoach wrote: »

There were 3 pro12 games during the 6 nations, so not much of a rest there. In fact apart from toner and kearney did any other leinster players play more than 3 games for Ireland?

Leinster had 5 games in the 10 weeks between the last pool game and QF in the HEC so there's a bit of timeoff there I'd imagine.

Interested Observer

total former wrote: »

So what do you suggest? Sending the weak team to Ravenhill??

If it meant getting a better performance out of the team for the Toulon game then yes, quite obviously I would rather a weak team went to Ulster.

molloyjh

Interested Observer wrote: »

If it meant getting a better performance out of the team for the Toulon game then yes, quite obviously I would rather a weak team went to Ulster.

That's really short sighted. Our seeding in Europe next year is dependent on our league position. We can still make the top 4 so that has simply got to be a priority for us. Also we still stand a better chance of winning the Pro12 than the Champions Cup as things stand....

Interested Observer

molloyjh wrote: »

That's really short sighted. Our seeding in Europe next year is dependent on our league position. We can still make the top 4 so that has simply got to be a priority for us. Also we still stand a better chance of winning the Pro12 than the Champions Cup as things stand....

There's a bit of a strange circular argument or something going on here. Put the league above Europe so we might get a nicer draw in Europe next season. Despite putting the league ahead of it now.

Leinster have little or no chance at the playoffs, and when you lose at home to the Dragons and draw with Treviso you don't really deserve it either.

CatFromHue

Leinster are still in with a good chance of a play off spot.

We're 6 points behind Ulster and play them the week after Toulon. Their last two games are Munster and Glasgow whereas ours are Edinburgh and Treviso.