Leinster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread X: [****]

Burkie1203

elliot_st wrote: »

Johnny Sexton and Devin Toner injury concerns for Leinster v Toulouse. Sexton didn’t train last week and won’t train today. - Sinead Kissane.

When was Toner last mentioned in an injury update ?

arsebiscuits1

troyzer wrote: »

Maybe off the bench but you can't chuck him straight into a start in Europe.

The Tweet said he was training under medical supervision. Sounds like next week at the earliest.

Henshaw started against Scarlets in the European semi final and played the full 80 having not played in over 2 months

antietam1

Heymans wrote: »

I'd say we'll be better than them in the front row.


But I'm not sure the second row pairing will be physically able to dominate Toulouse. Technically and athletically they are superior to their opposition but I always wonder how we'll front up physically with that pairing. They proved me wrong against the All Blacks but I'm waiting and think I'll be proved right at some point.


Back row if Leavy plays we are better but smaller.

Didn't Toulouse have a very young front row out last time, surely the other guys are back?

troyzer

arsebiscuits1 wrote: »

Henshaw started against Scarlets in the European semi final and played the full 80 having not played in over 2 months

Hmm,

Fair point. But had he only returned to training that week?

arsebiscuits1

troyzer wrote: »

Hmm,

Fair point. But had he only returned to training that week?

The scenarios are quite different. I assume he would have been doing more running and conditioning with an upper limb injury than with a hammer so probably would have been more game ready after the shoulder injury.

Having said all that. Robbie isn't necessarily an injury prone player. But he has come back from a lot of injuries in his career thus far and has never looked off the pace when he returns.

Since Robbie has been at Leinster I've never looked at him and thought it was that "week too soon"

If Leinster say he is fit, I think he starts

Buer

I'd still be surprised if Henshaw is involved this weekend. Not the sort of injury you bring someone back in for unless you know they're fine especially with the 6N around the corner.

Toner is a bit of a surprise and a blow. Our line out has been very patchy and he's really needed to bolster that area. Fardy is a brilliant replacement to have but I'd be much more comfortable with Toner in place.

stephen_n

If Toner is out then will Ryan be calling the lineout again? He did ok against Munster but we really need a functioning lineout this week.

Buer

Paul O'Flynn from RTE Tweeting that Sexton is considered 50/50 for the game. As with Henshaw, if there are real concerns around him this close to the 6N, I don't see him playing.

thomond2006

Less chance of a yellow card at least.

Shefwedfan

thomond2006 wrote: »

Less chance of a yellow card at least.

Banned from the RDS

Former Former

Buer wrote: »

Paul O'Flynn from RTE Tweeting that Sexton is considered 50/50 for the game.

Felipe Contempomi quoted as saying the bruising to his ego hasn't cleared up as quickly as they'd hoped. Always a tricky one.

elliot_st

elliot_st wrote: »

Johnny Sexton and Devin Toner injury concerns for Leinster v Toulouse. Sexton didn’t train last week and won’t train today. - Sinead Kissane.

Ah that's just bullsh*t Kissane is reading on social media :pac:

Shefwedfan

elliot_st wrote: »

Johnny Sexton and Devin Toner injury concerns for Leinster v Toulouse. Sexton didn’t train last week and won’t train today. - Sinead Kissane.

Kissane is the Queen of copy & paste.

Buer

And to complete the Twitter merry-go-round, David Kelly has Tweeted that both Sexton and Toner are hoping to return to training tomorrow.

Buer

Buer wrote: »

And to complete the Twitter merry-go-round, David Kelly has Tweeted that both Sexton and Toner are hoping to return to training tomorrow.

Neither are playing this weekend.

Buer

Deleted User wrote: »

Neither are playing this weekend.

Please. Just let us be happy. Just for a bit. Come on.

Anyway, the real news is that Dave Kearney is back in training.

Richie_Rich89

I don't think Henshaw potentially being back would be much of a boost. I felt he was shown up a little bit away to Toulouse. He's a bit one-dimensional. I don't think he would have scored that try O'Brien scored at the weekend. He doesn't really have the instincts to keep defenders guessing. He's just straight up and down, not really a cerebral player - which gets highlighted against the artistry of Sonnes' Toulouse team

baas baa

elliot_st wrote: »

id say ROL more at risk than Ringrose.

No Sexton, no win for me. Bar some sort of herculean performance from the pack.

This time last year Leinster won away, in France, against Montpellier, and Ross Byrne started at 10.

But yeah we still might be screwed because Lowe was the difference that day.

Reps4jesus

Richie_Rich89 wrote: »

I don't think Henshaw potentially being back would be much of a boost. I felt he was shown up a little bit away to Toulouse. He's a bit one-dimensional. I don't think he would have scored that try O'Brien scored at the weekend. He doesn't really have the instincts to keep defenders guessing. He's just straight up and down, not really a cerebral player - which gets highlighted against the artistry of Sonnes' Toulouse team

wow.....just....wow

errlloyd

baas baa wrote: »

This time last year Leinster won away, in France, against Montpellier, and Ross Byrne started at 10.

But yeah we still might be screwed because Lowe was the difference that day.

Ross Byrne started both games against Montpellier last year right?

elliot_st

baas baa wrote: »

This time last year Leinster won away, in France, against Montpellier, and Ross Byrne started at 10.

But yeah we still might be screwed because Lowe was the difference that day.

this Toulouse side is better than that Montpellier

and dare I say Leinster aren't as good as last season and certainly aren't playing aswell.

errlloyd

elliot_st wrote: »

this Toulouse side is better than that Montpellier

and dare I say Leinster aren't as good as last season and certainly aren't playing aswell.

I just glanced at the top14 table, and it's amazing to think Clermont have only lost 2 games, and got an LBP in both of them. The Top14 this year is possibly less competitive than previous years, but Clermont and Toulouse are dominating it nonetheless.

Sad Clermont aren't in the CC.

Serbian

errlloyd wrote: »

Ross Byrne started both games against Montpellier last year right?

Yeah, I think people tend to forget that Ross Byrne actually has quite a lot of top level rugby under belt already.

He started Montpellier home and away, also featured for the vast majority of the Exeter game at home after Sexton went off injured in the 5th minute. He's started away against Munster in December '17 and home against them this season in the Aviva. He started against Scarlets at home back when they were good.

He's probably started or featured heavily in a bunch of other pretty big games I can't think of right now. To top it off, we won every single one of those games.

If Sexton really is injured, it's a huge blow for sure based on his form and ability, but we have a more than able replacement in Ross Byrne. The biggest question mark for Ross is still his place kicking. His success is trending in the right direction as his more recent outings have been decent (e.g. 5/5 vs Munster at home), but his percentage for the season is well below what we need (currently 71% success).

arsebiscuits1

Serbian wrote: »

Yeah, I think people tend to forget that Ross Byrne actually has quite a lot of top level rugby under belt already.

He started Montpellier home and away, also featured for the vast majority of the Exeter game at home after Sexton went off injured in the 5th minute. He's started away against Munster in December '17 and home against them this season in the Aviva. He started against Scarlets at home back when they were good.

He's probably started or featured heavily in a bunch of other pretty big games I can't think of right now. To top it off, we won every single one of those games.

If Sexton really is injured, it's a huge blow for sure based on his form and ability, but we have a more than able replacement in Ross Byrne. The biggest question mark for Ross is still his place kicking. His success is trending in the right direction as his more recent outings have been decent (e.g. 5/5 vs Munster at home), but his percentage for the season is well below what we need (currently 71% success).

I always find kicking stats to be pretty misleading unless they're over a career.

Ross this season has missed 11 kicks from 38 attempts. Given he's played in 11 games so it's a probable that some of those kicks from out wide or into the wind.

Different day, different position he'd nail some of these 11 missed kicks. Suppose his strike rake is 8 missed from 38 attempts and all of a sudden he has an 80% success rate and we're all saying how good he is. Despite it actually being 3 kicks the difference.

I know we're into make believe land and I do think he misses the odd kick he should really be making. I just don't like relying on percentages for it.

Pedantic rant over

Rigor Mortis

Richie_Rich89 wrote: »

I don't think Henshaw potentially being back would be much of a boost. I felt he was shown up a little bit away to Toulouse. He's a bit one-dimensional. I don't think he would have scored that try O'Brien scored at the weekend. He doesn't really have the instincts to keep defenders guessing. He's just straight up and down, not really a cerebral player - which gets highlighted against the artistry of Sonnes' Toulouse team

This may be your best ever.

Burkie1203

Richie_Rich89 wrote: »

I don't think Henshaw potentially being back would be much of a boost. I felt he was shown up a little bit away to Toulouse. He's a bit one-dimensional. I don't think he would have scored that try O'Brien scored at the weekend. He doesn't really have the instincts to keep defenders guessing. He's just straight up and down, not really a cerebral player - which gets highlighted against the artistry of Sonnes' Toulouse team

WTaF

arsebiscuits1

Jaysus Rich I didn't realise being from Athlone qualified a player for your strange anti foreigner bias :pac:

thomond2006

You know why I'm here.

Buer

Byrne had a poor opening couple of games to the season where he missed 4 or 5 kicks. Since then, he has been very good. He has missed a few sideline conversions which is fair enough but I'm very happy with where his kicking has been since October. He was excellent against Munster, nailed a big pressure kick against Bath (the type he was missing at the start of the season) and then slotted a couple of sideline conversions against Connacht which proved crucial.

Examples of his missed kicks since October were the conversion of Mick Kearney's try against Connacht (from the 5m line) or Fardy's try in the corner away to the Dragons. And then there was the monsoon in Treviso where he missed two conversions from five (both of them were sideline conversions).

So, all in all, his place kicking has been very good since the opening two matches where he was looking very wobbly.

DGRulz

arsebiscuits1 wrote: »

Jaysus Rich I didn't realise being from Athlone qualified a player for your strange anti foreigner bias :pac:

I assumed it to be more of a pro any Leinster center named O'Brian bias.