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

Burkie1203

Epic trolling from Toland of a poster on here with that MOTM award

mangobob

Crap end to a crap game.

degsie

Oh well, a win I guess

Clegg

That's the conference sorted.

It's fantastic to guarantee top spot with so many games left in the regular season. But at the same time tonight has showed that lack of continuity in squad selection can be a killer. Need to make sure that throughout the rest of the season we manage squad rotation properly, but also make sure combinations have sufficiently bedded in.

Squidgy Black

Disappointing not to get the bonus point, but that was an absolute slog of a match, and the conditions were brutal.

Cheetahs just didn't want the ball at all, I've never seen a team kick the ball away so aimlessly, directly to our back three almost every time.

Deegan had a great game, as did ROL. Was particularly impressed with Adam Byrne, not a standout performance but he took an awful lot of ball off the set piece as part of preplanned moves and showed a lot of great distribution as well as power in the carry.

munsterlegend

What an awful game. Every scrum and line out seemed to take about two minutes. The cheetahs just kicked all night and scored a freak breakaway try.

Eod100

Clegg wrote: »

That's the conference sorted.

It's fantastic to guarantee top spot with so many games left in the regular season. But at the same time tonight has showed that lack of continuity in squad selection can be a killer. Need to make sure that throughout the rest of the season we manage squad rotation properly, but also make sure combinations have sufficiently bedded in.

Great position to be in, in fairness. Guess there will be a relatively strong team away to Edinburgh ahead of CC qf.

salmocab

Excellent position to be in, now every selection can be made with Europe in mind, assuming we get past Ulster it’s a free run in with nothing on the line until the semi for both competitions. Plus the benefit of a free weekend before a possible euro final.

thomond2006

The conditions were terrible. That was a good result for Leinster considering.

swiwi_

I’m all for Leinster doing well but that points table makes embarrassing reading for the Pro 14. Leinster are so far ahead on points and points difference that we are now talking of using the Pro 14 for rest and rotation of key personnel. Pool A looks more competitive. Fair play to Leinster for an outstanding effort all the same.

Eod100

swiwi_ wrote: »

I’m all for Leinster doing well but that points table makes embarrassing reading for the Pro 14. Leinster are so far ahead on points and points difference that we are now talking of using the Pro 14 for rest and rotation of key personnel. Pool A looks more competitive. Fair play to Leinster for an outstanding effort all the same.

Guess having Kings and Dragons in the same pool made that more likely, no disrespect to either. Not sure many would have predicted Benntton being 2nd at this stage though. Dunno is there a different way to sort conference than current system of basing it on last season's rankings in conference.

molloyjh

swiwi_ wrote: »

I’m all for Leinster doing well but that points table makes embarrassing reading for the Pro 14. Leinster are so far ahead on points and points difference that we are now talking of using the Pro 14 for rest and rotation of key personnel. Pool A looks more competitive. Fair play to Leinster for an outstanding effort all the same.

The strange thing is that, Leinster aside, the league is incredibly competitive this season. There are still only 3 teams not in the running for a play off spot. I think we’ve been quite lucky with the way our fixtures have fallen. Kings (x2), Ospreys, Zebre, Dragons and Cheetahs are the sides we’ve faced in the international windows.

durkadurka

To be fair there are two other Heineken Cup quarter finalists in the pool.

I’d attribute it to the mysteriously strong teams we put out in the early season and the fact that our phoned in performances from our Bs are significantly better than the opposition’s in the league.

The league is a bit of a joke to be fair but it’s not our fault that it’s not competitive.

crisco10

The conference is actually really competitive with lots of teams beating each other and dragging each other down. Leinster have just managed to sail away from it.

In a way treviso having a good season has contribute to this.

jacothelad

baas baa wrote: »

Conor O'Brien could soon be forcing Cullen into an uncomfortable decision.

Ah, I'm sure Cullen is pretty secure in his sexuality.....:D

Jonny tight lips

The comms is dreadful on Eir sport this year, between not knowing a players name 2 weeks ago (I’ll admit it’s difficult to pronounce and he was a late call up) to this week clearly mixing up the two scrum halves who played last week. Oh and of course man of the match for the crowd, how was that interview gonna look.

KH25

Dreadful match and dreadful conditions but a win is a win. Nice to have the conference tied up.

Stonewall red card for that hit on Ferg. How Nigel didn’t give it baffles me.

Shefwedfan

KH25 wrote: »

Dreadful match and dreadful conditions but a win is a win. Nice to have the conference tied up.

Stonewall red card for that hit on Ferg. How Nigel didn’t give it baffles me.

Gave yellow too quick and then made up excuse about why he was right with first decision.....it was red all day long

Calling over both captains to discuss just made it worse.....

I called red without a replay.... you could see it a mile off

Buer

Poor game largely due to conditions but some very uninspiring performances from several players.

Some good showings from a few guys too though. Deegan and COB looked sharp and it was great to see Deegan absolutely empty someone in a tackle. He sometimes lacks that little bit of bite so great to see it.

Lastly, Nigel Owens should be embarrassed by the lack of a red card. The decision goes against everything we've seen this season. He has form in this regard. His previous attitude was to allow collisions in the air under the guise of it being a contest or only give a penalty for taking a man out. He seems determined to take the attitude that rugby will not see its physicality or hard play diminish on his watch. The problem is that rugby has moved on and a decision like last night actively harms the protection of players.

A late, high hit to the head which had a strong hint of being deliberate and is seen on replay....ridiculous decision.

Shefwedfan

Buer wrote: »

A late, high hit to the head which had a strong hint of being deliberate and is seen on replay....ridiculous decision.

He flashed the yellow and was heading off, I guess someone else said he needed to look at it

Then when he realized he made a mistake he kept watching the replay to find a way out, like why did he need to look again and ask about the shoulder?

It was an awful decision

KH25

Shefwedfan wrote: »

He flashed the yellow and was heading off, I guess someone else said he needed to look at it

Then when he realized he made a mistake he kept watching the replay to find a way out, like why did he need to look again and ask about the shoulder?

It was an awful decision

Only giving the yellow after seeing the replay makes a mockery of the high tackle laws. Hits to the head like that are the things that can cause serious damage to players. It just has to be a straight red.

vienne86

Dreadful rugby last night, but conditions were horrible. All the kicking reminded me of the Matt O'Connor days! I left after 70 minutes :eek:

Like everyone else here, I'm shocked the yellow wasn't a red. I couldn't hear the discussion that followed, but how Nigel justified the yellow is beyond me.

Good outing by Deegan, and Adam Byrne had a good night. Fardy excelled as usual - great to have him for another year.

wavehopper1

A question for those watching eir sport from home. I was watching in a pub - in the second half particularly the screen kept freezing, or would go black for up to a minute.
Is this a general problem for the network, or was it something wrong with the pub setup?

Synode

wavehopper1 wrote: »

A question for those watching eir sport from home. I was watching in a pub - in the second half particularly the screen kept freezing, or would go black for up to a minute.
Is this a general problem for the network, or was it something wrong with the pub setup?

Didn't happen for me at all watching at home

Shefwedfan

wavehopper1 wrote: »

A question for those watching eir sport from home. I was watching in a pub - in the second half particularly the screen kept freezing, or would go black for up to a minute.
Is this a general problem for the network, or was it something wrong with the pub setup?

Tell the pub to stop with dodgy stream

degsie

Any season ticket holders yet received their (purchased) Ulster Q final tickets? Ta.

Synode

degsie wrote: »

Any season ticket holders yet received their (purchased) Ulster Q final tickets? Ta.

Yep I got mine a few weeks ago

troyzer

Synode wrote: »

degsie wrote: »

Any season ticket holders yet received their (purchased) Ulster Q final tickets? Ta.

Yep I got mine a few weeks ago

Same. Probably got it a month ago now

troyzer

Synode wrote: »

degsie wrote: »

Any season ticket holders yet received their (purchased) Ulster Q final tickets? Ta.

Yep I got mine a few weeks ago

Same. Probably got it a month ago now

degsie

Synode wrote: »

Yep I got mine a few weeks ago

Hmmm...bought one on pre-sale (season holder deal) and another when generally issued. I have only received the second one so far