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

troyzer

sydthebeat wrote: »

salmocab wrote: »

I’ve a feeling JGP will be held back, he’s currently possibly the most important player we need to not get injured.

we're hardly going to go away to italy with 2 academy scrum halves.....

we have JPG for precisely these situations... LMG could be back in 3 weeks

How is McCarthy not back yet?

sydthebeat

troyzer wrote: »

How is McCarthy not back yet?

his injury was suugested to take 12 weeks to recover... from a match on the 23rd nov.

therefore hes due back sometime soon.....

Rigor Mortis

troyzer wrote: »

How is McCarthy not back yet?

Given our position in the league and the fact that McCarthy hasnt been that amazing, i would really limit his minutes when he gets back. We have a series of games to get the two new guys up to speed for next year. There is zero value in wasting game time on McCarthy. Not malicious, just no point in wasting the experience on him.

Heymans

Rigor Mortis wrote: »

Given our position in the league and the fact that McCarthy hasnt been that amazing, i would really limit his minutes when he gets back. We have a series of games to get the two new guys up to speed for next year. There is zero value in wasting game time on McCarthy. Not malicious, just no point in wasting the experience on him.

That said from what I've seen of HOS he seems to be cumbersome and slow. JGP came on and immediately speeded up proceedings in recent Pro14 game when he came on for O Sullivan. I wonder if he's not playing out of position and whether he might not be better at full back but given his size and pace it seems to be a no-goer. Certainly he played well there for his school but I'm wondering whether he can make the step up to scrum half

durkadurka

We might see Porter and McFadden

Rigor Mortis

Heymans wrote: »

That said from what I've seen of HOS he seems to be cumbersome and slow. JGP came on and immediately speeded up proceedings in recent Pro14 game when he came on for O Sullivan. I wonder if he's not playing out of position and whether he might not be better at full back but given his size and pace it seems to be a no-goer. Certainly he played well there for his school but I'm wondering whether he can make the step up to scrum half

Yeah, but McCarthy has 32 appearances and O'Sullivan has 8 appearances. Patterson has one. We know Nick has no future here and to be frank he hasnt set the world alight. The other two guys, we dont know about and they are here next season, when we may be without Luke for 3 months.

For me, between now and Ulster in the Heineken is about giving our young guys, the guys who need to ensure we dont have a repeat of 2015, the chance to get the experience they need for next season.

troyzer

Rigor Mortis wrote: »

Heymans wrote: »

That said from what I've seen of HOS he seems to be cumbersome and slow. JGP came on and immediately speeded up proceedings in recent Pro14 game when he came on for O Sullivan. I wonder if he's not playing out of position and whether he might not be better at full back but given his size and pace it seems to be a no-goer. Certainly he played well there for his school but I'm wondering whether he can make the step up to scrum half

Yeah, but McCarthy has 32 appearances and O'Sullivan has 8 appearances. Patterson has one. We know Nick has no future here and to be frank he hasnt set the world alight. The other two guys, we dont know about and they are here next season, when we may be without Luke for 3 months.

For me, between now and Ulster in the Heineken is about giving our young guys, the guys who need to ensure we dont have a repeat of 2015, the chance to get the experience they need for next season.

McGrath is only 2-3 weeks away.

arsebiscuits1

Rigor Mortis wrote: »

Yeah, but McCarthy has 32 appearances and O'Sullivan has 8 appearances. Patterson has one. We know Nick has no future here and to be frank he hasnt set the world alight. The other two guys, we dont know about and they are here next season, when we may be without Luke for 3 months.

For me, between now and Ulster in the Heineken is about giving our young guys, the guys who need to ensure we dont have a repeat of 2015, the chance to get the experience they need for next season.

McGrath did a player diary in the Indo today. He's not far off.

I have heard that McCarthys ankle issue is taking a while to heal and he is still a ways off being fully fit.

Even if he wasn't though... he is a developing player. Any minutes he gets are "developmental" minutes.

Why give those minutes to developing a player whose leaving when you could use them to give another player a huge leg up for next season.

Once McGrath is back fit, the only game time I can see McCarthy getting is with UCD.

No disrespect to the fella, but it's pro sports and these are the decisions that need to be made sometimes

DGRulz

salmocab wrote: »

Jesus lads ye are talking half the squad out the door.

I hear some of Clontarf's under-12s are off for a few seasons in the south of France on a nice pay bump too.

I'm beginning to wonder if certain posters are secretly player's agents or getting a slice of the pie to drum up talk. :pac:

Buer

I don't see much reason for minutes to be invested in Nick McCarthy at this point, to be honest. He never really impressed too much and, with him being away at the end of the season along with faith being placed in HOS, I think we'd be better placed to put the minutes into others.

Whilst HOS certainly was disappointing against the Scarlets, he's 20 years old and in his second year of the academy. Combined with the fact that he didn't play scrum half constantly through school, I'd be hopeful that he can develop over the next 2 years to be a solid option for us in the Pro14. There is no urgent issue for us at scrum half so he should be able to develop comfortably in the background.

arsebiscuits1

Poite reffing the Quarter Final vs Ulster.

While he didn't go fantastically well against Scotland. If we can bit a bit cute in the breakdown (looking at you Fardy, SOB, Leavy and Ruddock) he is extremely unlikely to penalise us. He let both teams away with murder last weekend.

I would say we have the smarter "cheaters" in this area which may benefit us

Buer

Couple of decent interviews with Molony and DK in the press today. Molony extolling the influence of Fardy on the camp and how much he has learned from him. He mentions that he put in a lot of work in the off season on his work in contact as well as his conditioning. I think we've been seeing the benefit of that in recent months where he has stood out repeatedly as one of our best performers in his showings.

DK is still harbouring ambitions of being involved with Ireland this year. To be honest, if he keeps up his form and stays high up the pecking order in Leinster, I could see him getting called into the wider squad ahead of the RWC but I think an appearance in the warm ups would be the very best he could hope for in 2019 at this point given the other options available.

Clegg

15. Dave Kearney (130)
14. Adam Byrne (48)
13. Rory O’Loughlin (55)
12. Conor O’Brien (12)
11. Barry Daly (30)
10. Ross Byrne (62)
9. Jamison Gibson-Park (66)
1. Jack McGrath (140)
2. James Tracy (84)
3. Andrew Porter (45)
4. Ross Molony (78)
5. Scott Fardy (35) CAPTAIN
6. Josh Murphy (15)
7. Max Deegan (35)
8. Caelan Doris (9)

16. Bryan Byrne (35)
17. Peter Dooley (56)
18. Michael Bent (116)
19. Mick Kearney (45)
20. Jack Dunne (0)
21. Hugh O’Sullivan (8)
22. Noel Reid (114)
23. Jimmy O’Brien (3)

Buer

Very strong team. Would have liked to see a little more rotation in some areas such as front row. Not sure there's much reason in Bent being involved in this one and I'd have preferred to see Frawley on the bench than Reid.

Interesting to see who isn't involved with Ruddock not included at all. A very strange looking back row with Deegan at openside.

arsebiscuits1

Bizarrely, this is Porters 20th game of the season but only his 3rd start

troyzer

Deegan at openside stands out.

Hopefully Jack Dunne gets a cap.

durkadurka

Was hoping to see Ferg back and I would have thought joe would want ruddock getting a game.

Anyway every point we can muster counts in our battle for a play off slot.

Clegg

I was hoping we'd see Ruddock get a game. He's not in the Ireland squad training with the u20's afaik.

I guess we'll be lucky to see Leavy play at all during the 6 Nations window. Would like to have him for and firing for the QF.

jonok28

Buer wrote: »

Couple of decent interviews with Molony and DK in the press today. Molony extolling the influence of Fardy on the camp and how much he has learned from him. He mentions that he put in a lot of work in the off season on his work in contact as well as his conditioning. I think we've been seeing the benefit of that in recent months where he has stood out repeatedly as one of our best performers in his showings.

DK is still harbouring ambitions of being involved with Ireland this year. To be honest, if he keeps up his form and stays high up the pecking order in Leinster, I could see him getting called into the wider squad ahead of the RWC but I think an appearance in the warm ups would be the very best he could hope for in 2019 at this point given the other options available.

I think there are far too many people ahead of DK for him to get a look in. Joe seems to prefer Stockdale, Earls, Conway, Larmour, Sweetnam, A. Byrne and Addison ahead of him.

Squidgy Black

Two second rows on the bench, and Deegan at openside. Wow.

troyzer

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Two second rows on the bench, and Deegan at openside. Wow.

Every single Leinster backrow is either with Ireland (VdF, Conan, Ruddock, SOB, Penny), injured (Leavy) or in this 23. We have completely exhausted our depth.

I imagine the plan is to shift Fardy to the backrow in the event on an injury, hence the two locks.

arsebiscuits1

troyzer wrote: »

Every single Leinster backrow is either with Ireland (VdF, Conan, Ruddock, SOB, Penny), injured (Leavy) or in this 23. We have completely exhausted our depth.

I imagine the plan is to shift Fardy to the backrow in the event on an injury, hence the two locks.

Poor old Porridge.

troyzer

arsebiscuits1 wrote: »

Poor old Porridge.

Oh yeah, I forgot about porridge.

Is he not still injured?

arsebiscuits1

troyzer wrote: »

Oh yeah, I forgot about porridge.

Is he not still injured?

He is yeah. The poor fella didn't even make your injured list :pac:

troyzer

arsebiscuits1 wrote: »

He is yeah. The poor fella didn't even make your injured list :pac:

To be fair, we haven't heard a peep since September was it?

I just assumed he fell down a well or something.

On a side note I hear Conor O'Brien is going very well in training and is impressing pretty much everyone around him.

D14Rugby

troyzer wrote: »

To be fair, we haven't heard a peep since September was it?

I just assumed he fell down a well or something.

He did his ACL. Hardly something that needs weekly updates

troyzer

D14Rugby wrote: »

He did his ACL. Hardly something that needs weekly updates

I know but has there been any update at all? Will be back at any point this season?

molloyjh

Buer wrote: »

Very strong team. Would have liked to see a little more rotation in some areas such as front row. Not sure there's much reason in Bent being involved in this one and I'd have preferred to see Frawley on the bench than Reid.

Interesting to see who isn't involved with Ruddock not included at all. A very strange looking back row with Deegan at openside.

We’ve Kings at home next up. Perfect for a bit of rotation. Especially as it’s the Friday so it’s a shorter turnaround. Get this block of games off to a good start and go from there.

Former Former

Ruddock is a weird one, can only assume he's injured (again)

Jack McGrath needs a big game, needs to show he's back to fitness, otherwise Kilcoyne will probably see out the rest of the 6N.