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

Bubblegummers

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Did we get through a double header against Bath without this being posted?

I was at the 23 27 in the 04/05 season. Brilliant game Leinster wore a disgusting yellow jersey.

swiwi_

If I might say so Sopoaga has been pretty rubbish for a couple of years. He was great when he lead the highlanders to super rugby glory and got himself into the nz team.

But I’d honestly be tempted to pick Byrne ahead of him. Byrne is a pretty reliable Fly half even if he lacks X factor which is why I dont think he’ll ever be an established starting international 10.

Interested Observer

Deleted User wrote: »

Did we get through a double header against Bath without this being posted?

Will Green with the greatest support line in Irish rugby history.

Former Former

Former Former wrote: »

Does it matter?

There isn't a club in the world who'd sign Byrne over Sopoaga. Nothing that's happened this season changes that. He's just not as good as him.

Lads claiming he's better than players with 50 or 60 caps for England and Wales too. Wtf like?

All perspective has been lost. If he was even half as good as he's made out to be here, he wouldn't be behind an uncapped and very average Jack Carty.

Yeeesh

If you care to re read my posts I never once suggested that Byrne was better than Sopoaga. Show me if you think otherwise.

I just asked who was better this season and you refuse to answer, and are now getting annoyed about it.

Former Former

Deleted User wrote: »

If you care to re read my posts I never once suggested that Byrne was better than Sopoaga. Show me if you think otherwise.

I just asked who was better this season and you refuse to answer, and are now getting angry about it.

I didn't suggest you think he's better, at least, I didn't mean to, so apologies there.

I don't watch the Premiership so I have absolutely no idea how Sopoaga is playing, he was muck in Dublin though. But form is yadda yadda, class is etc etc, ya know?

I'm not angry. Bemused is how I'd describe myself.

awec

If Ross Byrne was as good as made out on here he wouldn’t be Leinsters backup 10.

AdamD

awec wrote: »

If Ross Byrne was as good as made out on here he wouldn’t be Leinsters backup 10.

What would he be so? Hes behind the world player of the year.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

Did we get through a double header against Bath without this being posted?

Mad seeing that being played in Donnybrook. The game has come a long way.

Hang on don't recognise that stand at all ...

Faugheen

awec wrote: »

If Ross Byrne was as good as made out on here he wouldn’t be Leinsters backup 10.

By that logic, if Carbery was as good as made out on here he wouldn’t have been Leinster’s 3rd choice 10.

awec

Faugheen wrote: »

By that logic, if Carbery was as good as made out on here he wouldn’t have been Leinster’s 3rd choice 10.

You will note that Carbery is in fact no longer Leinsters third choice 10.

troyzer

awec wrote: »

You will note that Carbery is in fact no longer Leinsters third choice 10.

Yeah, Frawley would be ahead of him.

Buer

swiwi_ wrote: »

I’m halfway thru mike ross’s book, which I can recommend, but man Cheika really does sound like the kind of coach I couldn’t stand. A child in a mans body.

Anyway the book is good, it’s honest, and not full of lame rugby cliches.

As a pro rugby player you get 10 to 15 years...then it’s the rest of your life. Must be quite hard for a fair few players I imagine.

Really flown under the radar as a rugby book. Very honest and raw. Good insight into front row play too and how it is perceived within the game particularly by officials i.e. they do not have a notion of what is happening in the scrum.

Bubblegummers

Bubblegummers wrote: »

The cymru forum is saying it’s a done thing. Hopefully not.

I dunno. The Lions is popcorn. It's drama. Gatland is a good divisive figure and only Eddie Jones could top him for narky top spot.

I feel like bringing in someone like Schmidt would be taking it too seriously.

I could well imagine we'll see Gatlandesque coaches moving forward.

Can you imagine a Lions tour headed by Cheika

swiwi_

Buer wrote: »

Really flown under the radar as a rugby book. Very honest and raw. Good insight into front row play too and how it is perceived within the game particularly by officials i.e. they do not have a notion of what is happening in the scrum.

Ross is not a fan of poite...

Buer

awec wrote: »

If Ross Byrne was as good as made out on here he wouldn’t be Leinsters backup 10.

Ross Byrne, best player in the world.

Buer

swiwi_ wrote: »

Ross is not a fan of poite...

I'm not sure he is a fan of any of them, frankly. Has a lot of comment on Barnes too who at least will listen and try to take on board what you tell him.

His opinion on Poite sort of confirms what many suspect. It doesn't matter what you do in the scrum and how you do it. If you get forward momentum, you are in the right.

Confirms another thing many suspect too when he highlights Joe Marler is a bit of a knob.

Buer

swiwi_ wrote: »

I’m halfway thru mike ross’s book, which I can recommend, but man Cheika really does sound like the kind of coach I couldn’t stand. A child in a mans body.

On the coaches thing, it's really interesting to see how blunt he is about some of his coaches i.e. Cheika and MOC on one hand whilst being big fans of Ricahrds and Schmidt and I genuinely got the impression he's more of a fan of Richards than Schmidt given he gave him his start in the game.

Cheika doesn't come off well. I got the impression that he wasn't even bothered getting angry with Ross, he wouldn't even entertain him. Just blanked him entirely after the LI game (which was a shocking mistake by Ross, for those who remember).

It's mad to think that Ross was such a fixture in the Irish team winning 60 odd caps in 5 years which coincided with some of Ireland's greatest moments yet he never won a Grand Slam nor was he involved in beating NZ.

aloooof

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Bristol are 10th, a good few points off the bottom spot which is held by Newcastle and they look to be gone already

The few times I have seen Madigan he has played well, Bristol are a very new team with a huge influx of players.

The plan for this season would be to stay in league and then move upwards next year, by all accounts they are doing exactly that. They are on 24 points and 5th on 29 points, one win and they are in 5th

Not too shabby at all, do you disagree?

Some serious cognitive dissonance going on when, not last week, you posted this:

Shefwedfan wrote: »

A team in AIL would have put up a better fight than Glou did, it was awful stuff, amateur, it must be hard for BT to try and big up that muck the English teams are playing.

The Munster group is awful, they should be coming out to qtr as number 1 team or close to It.

That's the Munster group with the 1st and 4th teams form the Prem. But the team in 10th are not too shabby?

Bubblegummers

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I dunno. The Lions is popcorn. It's drama. Gatland is a good divisive figure and only Eddie Jones could top him for narky top spot.

I feel like bringing in someone like Schmidt would be taking it too seriously.

I could well imagine we'll see Gatlandesque coaches moving forward.

Can you imagine a Lions tour headed by Cheika

I think he just revels in contraversy and this takes away from the tour as someone who always goes on tourr

Bazzo

Dubinusa wrote: »

I can't believe Ed Byrne was name checked by J.S I think he's a good player but, an international?

I thought my old coach who's now nearly 60 and 25 odd stone was about to get a name check reading through it.... I wouldn't read too much into it

swiwi_

Buer wrote: »

On the coaches thing, it's really interesting to see how blunt he is about some of his coaches i.e. Cheika and MOC on one hand whilst being big fans of Ricahrds and Schmidt and I genuinely got the impression he's more of a fan of Richards than Schmidt given he gave him his start in the game.

Cheika doesn't come off well. I got the impression that he wasn't even bothered getting angry with Ross, he wouldn't even entertain him. Just blanked him entirely after the LI game (which was a shocking mistake by Ross, for those who remember).

It's mad to think that Ross was such a fixture in the Irish team winning 60 odd caps in 5 years which coincided with some of Ireland's greatest moments yet he never won a Grand Slam nor was he involved in beating NZ.

tldr: Cheika and MOC are of Australian persuasion *shudders*

stephen_n

Bazzo wrote: »

I thought my old coach who's now nearly 60 and 25 odd stone was about to get a name check reading through it.... I wouldn't read too much into it

Yep sure he name checked Buckley.

troyzer

Just on this whole Byrne argument going on, what are the chances that Frawley over takes him?

He's already stronger, faster and generally more athletic. His place kicking is better already as well.

He has nowhere near as much experience which is needed to be a good decision maker but that'll come in time.

Ciarán Frawley: Leinster's starting 10 in the 2020-2021 season.

You heard it here first.

jonok28

Bazzo wrote: »

I thought my old coach who's now nearly 60 and 25 odd stone was about to get a name check reading through it.... I wouldn't read too much into it

More so than anything I think Joe name checked loads of players to see if it lights a fire underneath them and pushes them to the next level.

thecomedian

troyzer wrote: »

Just on this whole Byrne argument going on, what are the chances that Frawley over takes him?

He's already stronger, faster and generally more athletic. His place kicking is better already as well.

He has nowhere near as much experience which is needed to be a good decision maker but that'll come in time.

Ciarán Frawley: Leinster's starting 10 in the 2020-2021 season.

You heard it here first.

Yea I’m thinking the same. There’s seems to be more potential with Frawley and I think he brings a better running game with him.

On this site Ross Byrne is becoming the Andy Reid of Rugby.

Buer

Ed Byrne will end up picking up a solid handful of Irish caps, I believe. He's 25 and had one of the worst injury runs in Irish rugby in recent times which essentially cost him 2 years of his career. He didn't play for Leinster from October 2014 until 2017. He also has had Healy, McGrath, Bent and Dooley to contend with yet was in the 23 last weekend against Toulouse.

His scrummaging is solid already and you rarely see him getting pushed around and his work rate and fitness is excellent around the park. I think he's going to become a fairly important player for Leinster over the next 2-3 years. Dooley was fairly well rated by many people but Byrne has comfortably put daylight between them and, if last week's selection is to be believed, he's not that far off the first 23.

Bazzo

stephen_n wrote: »

Yep sure he name checked Buckley.

The annual name check for Bucks. Sure he's probably withdrawn himself from national selection cuz he makes more money at Connacht or something

Shefwedfan

aloooof wrote: »

Some serious cognitive dissonance going on when, not last week, you posted this:



That's the Munster group with the 1st and 4th teams form the Prem. But the team in 10th are not too shabby?

Well quoted.....

Except as I mentioned the English and French teams have little or no interest in Europe apart from Saracens, Toulouse and Racing.

You forgot to quote that part?

The majority of the English and French team rank winning the Premiership/Top14 over Europe. The teams listed above don't. This is nothing new, hence why when Ireland teams get french teams like Castres etc they hope to get the away tie towards the end of the pool so they will have lost interest and they can get an away win

Also while your misquoting, the discussion was about Bristol who are new to the Premiership, the main focus this year is to stay in the Premiership and consolidate. So yes, not too shabby at all.....

Buer

swiwi_ wrote: »

tldr: Cheika and MOC are of Australian persuasion *shudders*

Yeah right.

antietam1

awec wrote: »

You will note that Carbery is in fact no longer Leinsters third choice 10.

His only competition is a failed outhalf in JJ and a kid(Bill Johnson?) also Tileher Bleedinhall who is a permacrock.