Leinster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread XI (The Finals Countdown)

Clegg

Strange game. Leinster played well, but at times it was like an unopposed training run. Ospreys didn't look like they were physically ready to play rugby. They were blowing hard from early on and so many players went down injured.

Everyone played well, but Fardy, Kelleher and Doris were especially good. Deegan had a big impact when coming on too.

Rockbeast2

^ Yeah, Ospreys in a bad place at moment. Riddled with injuries.

You could tell by their basic offensive patterns on first phase ball that they are still trying to gel as a team. They look about a month behind.

Steve

Super atmosphere in the RDS, really enjoyed that game..

And yeah, the ST pack sucks, not that I need more coasters, playing cards, tin boxes or mugs with Leinster on them but it was nice to get them. Even a beanie would have made it ok.

salmocab

Steve wrote: »

Super atmosphere in the RDS, really enjoyed that game..

And yeah, the ST pack sucks, not that I need more coasters, playing cards, tin boxes or mugs with Leinster on them but it was nice to get them. Even a beanie would have made it ok.

I’m happy out with it, maybe a key ring or sticker for full tat value would have been nice.

Exclamation Marc

You'd wonder where James Tracy sits in the pecking order at Leinster in the long term. Seàn Cronin is clearly first choice and will be for a couple of years more. With Kelleher developing very well and Tracy 28 years old, by the time Kelleher peaks, he could overtake Tracy as number two.

troyzer wrote: »

I can't imagine this entire kit cost more than €3 to Leinster.

On the other hand, the OLSC stein will be mine.

€20 though.

Hope you picked it up. They're heavyweight and big, well worth the money.

Squidgy Black

Exclamation Marc wrote: »

You'd wonder where James Tracy sits in the pecking order at Leinster in the long term. Seàn Cronin is clearly first choice and will be for a couple of years more. With Kelleher developing very well and Tracy 28 years old, by the time Kelleher peaks, he could overtake Tracy as number two.

With Dan Sheehan in the academy and John McKee in the sub academy as well, it looks like Tracy is starting to fall behind.

It's mad that it was only two years ago Tracy was fighting for the starting spot and had champions cup starts as well as 6 caps for Ireland.

kenmc

thomond2006 wrote: »

I hope Lloyd Ashley is ok. He looked in a very bad way coming off and the docs were running around concerned.

The ospreys #5? Watched him all the way from when he went down at the maul on their line, all the way to him exiting the playing area. Never been as concerned for a players welfare as I was for him. Something very not right with him. Hope he's ok.

molloyjh

Yeah he was in an incredibly bad way coming off. Hope he recovers okay.

Special mention for Keenan who I thought was really excellent today but hasn't been named here yet. Doris was the other big stand out for me too. Seems to be a more rounded player than last season already.

I was really happy with our centres overall too. Tomane is coming along nicely and varied things well.

Ospreys were rubbish so theres a clear health warning on the result, but it's something to build on and if they can keep going in that direction I'll be a very happy man.

dregin

Podge_irl wrote: »

do STH not massively outnumber "normal" ticket holders?

The priority queue was significantly bigger than the normal one.

salmocab

dregin wrote: »

The priority queue was significantly bigger than the normal one.

The gate we went through had 3 or 4 people in each of the 3 priority queues and no one on the normal queue and they were still telling STH to use the priority. We just strolled up the nonpriority queue.
It seems like an odd thing to have bothered with at all and I don’t see any benefits to anyone.

RugbyLover123

molloyjh wrote: »

Yeah he was in an incredibly bad way coming off. Hope he recovers okay.

Special mention for Keenan who I thought was really excellent today but hasn't been named here yet. Doris was the other big stand out for me too. Seems to be a more rounded player than last season already.

I was really happy with our centres overall too. Tomane is coming along nicely and varied things well.

Ospreys were rubbish so theres a clear health warning on the result, but it's something to build on and if they can keep going in that direction I'll be a very happy man.

Keenan was someone I was very impressed with. Looks to have genuine raw pace, which is something we desperately lack in Irish rugby. Looked very good in D too.

Something that is very noticeable every time I watch these types of games where there is a number of younger players, is their appetite for defence. Always back on their feet quickly, either looking for another tackle or re-aligning quickly. Great to see.

Their basics are very good too. Simple things like fighting for good ball placement on the ground. It’s something i noticed in Ringrose early on. Must be drilled into them in the academy.

RobbieRuns

RugbyLover123 wrote: »

Keenan was someone I was very impressed with. Looks to have genuine raw pace, which is something we desperately lack in Irish rugby. Looked very good in D too.

Something that is very noticeable every time I watch these types of games where there is a number of younger players, is their appetite for defence. Always back on their feet quickly, either looking for another tackle or re-aligning quickly. Great to see.

Their basics are very good too. Simple things like fighting for good ball placement on the ground. It’s something i noticed in Ringrose early on. Must be drilled into them in the academy.

I have always thought that about the basics of “back on the feet quickly” as a specialist trait, and I believe that is drilled into them at schools and club level.

Burkie1203

Brilliant Itv feature on scott Fardy and the Fiju Uruguay game and the 2011 Tsunami just now.

guapos

Squidgy Black wrote: »

With Dan Sheehan in the academy and John McKee in the sub academy as well, it looks like Tracy is starting to fall behind.

It's mad that it was only two years ago Tracy was fighting for the starting spot and had champions cup starts as well as 6 caps for Ireland.

Reckon tadgh McElroy will push for a provincial contract now thats he with clontarf.

durthacht

guapos wrote: »

Reckon tadgh McElroy will push for a provincial contract now thats he with clontarf.

Is that the fella who went to Saraceens? He was highly rated at one time but if I remember correctly didn't he fall out with the IRFU?

salmocab

durthacht wrote: »

Is that the fella who went to Saraceens? He was highly rated at one time but if I remember correctly didn't he fall out with the IRFU?

Was it he was signing for sarries and they pulled him from a 20s trip? Something along those lines.

guapos

Yeah that's him, went to Saracens over a place in Connacht academy. Was on loan to Bedford last season.

Squidgy Black

salmocab wrote: »

Was it he was signing for sarries and they pulled him from a 20s trip? Something along those lines.

Was offered an academy place with Connacht or else sub-academy with Leinster, but not a full place. His agent had told him to hold out and keep his options open, so was talking to Saracens and a few other places as well. IRFU gave him an ultimatum and pulled him from the JWC squad, and then a week later he signed with Sarries.

salmocab

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Was offered an academy place with Connacht or else sub-academy with Leinster, but not a full place. His agent had told him to hold out and keep his options open, so was talking to Saracens and a few other places as well. IRFU gave him an ultimatum and pulled him from the JWC squad, and then a week later he signed with Sarries.

Cheers, hindsight would suggest his agent didn’t do a great job.

Clegg

I've been very impressed with Doris's start to the season. He's carried so well and offloaded effectively too. Last season was his first as a pro and I think he struggled a bit. The defences he was up against were tighter and he wasn't making as many metres with his carrying as he did in underage rugby. But he seems to have solved that issue. He's been excellent so far.

It'll be interesting to see what happens this year with himself and Deegan. Doris is the stronger carrier, but Deegan has a brilliant all round game. Which is why he's played at blindside flanker to accommodate Doris at 8. Both have started the season well. I hope that both will stay at Leinster for the entirely of their careers. But they're such huge talents that I worry we'll lose one, if not both.

RugbyLover123

Clegg wrote: »

I've been very impressed with Doris's start to the season. He's carried so well and offloaded effectively too. Last season was his first as a pro and I think he struggled a bit. The defences he was up against were tighter and he wasn't making as many metres with his carrying as he did in underage rugby. But he seems to have solved that issue. He's been excellent so far.

It'll be interesting to see what happens this year with himself and Deegan. Doris is the stronger carrier, but Deegan has a brilliant all round game. Which is why he's played at blindside flanker to accommodate Doris at 8. Both have started the season well. I hope that both will stay at Leinster for the entirely of their careers. But they're such huge talents that I worry we'll lose one, if not both.

I think the IRFU down the line will definitely be looking at moving one if both have break out years this year or next. But as we’ve seen in the last year back row is as an attritional position as any and the likelihood of both of them staying injury free for a significant period of time is very unlikely.

I can’t see either being too keen to though as I reckon both have sights on starting the big Heineken Cup games in the next 2/3 years. I would say both would rate their chances of taking over from Conan and Ruddock.

arsebiscuits1

guapos wrote: »

Reckon tadgh McElroy will push for a provincial contract now thats he with clontarf.

If McElroy couldn't make it work at Bedford Blues I'm not so sure he's up to it at the highest level.

Unless he deliberately moved back home to try get a reckoning at one of the provinces.

Despite all the uproar when he left I think Kelleher has shown in his 3 senior appearances so far that Leinster did indeed back the right horse

arsebiscuits1

Very impressive performance but Ospreys were on the backfoot all evening and I suspect our A team would have put a similar score on them.

Osborne and Harry look like they could be forming a very impressive partnership. Both like to play at a lot of pace and seem to have a good inkling of where the other is.

Again, they came on against a very beaten side but still very impressive for home debuts.

Osborne seems to have an extremely quick and accurate pass. Almost effortless technique. Lovely to see a 9 pass off the base of the ruck too. Could see Osborne surpassing Patterson and put real pressure on HOS this season if he keeps going

mogwai81

arsebiscuits1 wrote: »

Very impressive performance but Ospreys were on the backfoot all evening and I suspect our A team would have put a similar score on them.

Osborne and Harry look like they could be forming a very impressive partnership. Both like to play at a lot of pace and seem to have a good inkling of where the other is.

Again, they came on against a very beaten side but still very impressive for home debuts.

Osborne seems to have an extremely quick and accurate pass. Almost effortless technique. Lovely to see a 9 pass off the base of the ruck too. Could see Osborne surpassing Patterson and put real pressure on HOS this season if he keeps going

Maybe we’ve found are own Craig Casey!

Stainalert

salmocab wrote: »

Cheers, hindsight would suggest his agent didn’t do a great job.

His agent got him an academy place in one of the top clubs in Europe. After that the player himself has to do the business.

Clegg

Conan will miss an 'extended spell' due to his foot injury. The 42 say he'll miss the opening rounds of the Champions Cup and potentially even the opening rounds of next years Six Nations. He's due to have surgery this week. It's an awful shame for Conan. He was breathing down the necks of PoM and Stander for an Ireland jersey. But this is also now a huge opportunity for Doris and Deegan.

https://www.the42.ie/leinster-injury-update-7-4840345-Oct2019/

Exclamation Marc

Clegg wrote: »

Conan will miss an 'extended spell' due to his foot injury. The 42 say he'll miss the opening rounds of the Champions Cup and potentially even the opening rounds of next years Six Nations. He's due to have surgery this week. It's an awful shame for Conan. He was breathing down the necks of PoM and Stander for an Ireland jersey. But this is also now a huge opportunity for Doris and Deegan.

https://www.the42.ie/leinster-injury-update-7-4840345-Oct2019/

Devastating injury for him. He deserved to show more and get more time at the World Cup.

It's just a blessing that we have such depth and talented young players from the academy to cover such losses that would eviscerate other teams. At one stage we had Jordi, Leavy, Conan, VDF and to a lesser extent Deegan all fighting over three spots and now we're down to just VDF and Deegan with some of the younger lads coming through like Doris, Connors and Murphy. Invaluable game time for them all.

Shefwedfan

Exclamation Marc wrote: »

Devastating injury for him. He deserved to show more and get more time at the World Cup.

It's just a blessing that we have such depth and talented young players from the academy to cover such losses that would eviscerate other teams. At one stage we had Jordi, Leavy, Conan, VDF and to a lesser extent Deegan all fighting over three spots and now we're down to just VDF and Deegan with some of the younger lads coming through like Doris, Connors and Murphy. Invaluable game time for them all.

Poor old Ruddock....always the forgotten man:P:P:P


This should be a chance for Ruddock to stand up and nail his starting role down in the team.....he has been an incredible servant to Leinster and just some bad luck with injuries I think he would be the starting 6.....he showed against Russia his quality

You are right thou and the younger players need to step up. I doubt Leavy will be playing this season

Exclamation Marc

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Poor old Ruddock....always the forgotten man:P:P:P

Jesus. I knew I forgot someone.

salmocab

Stainalert wrote: »

His agent got him an academy place in one of the top clubs in Europe. After that the player himself has to do the business.

Maybe but it was at the expense of an academy spot in Connacht or possibly at probably the best academy in the northern hemisphere. Like I say it’s hindsight and I’m sure at the time it was the right move for him as far as he was concerned but I’d say if he could do it again he wouldn’t.