Leinster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread XII (The Byrne Supremacy)

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118285303#Comment_118285303

Just want to echo this. The food in the Aviva is appalling and way overpriced. Maybe it'll be different at the weekend but for the Ireland games they didn't have burgers any more. They have these pies instead that taste decent but are really awkward to eat, especially for a child.

I had a hotdog but could have used the bun as a weapon it was so hard.

Lsdrugbyfan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118289787#Comment_118289787

Yeah he looks to have it all, even if he is a bit smaller than ideal.. still taller than Casey.

Lost Ormond

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118290131#Comment_118290131

They dont have burgers as management wanted change in menu and burgers werent selling as well as other items on the menu.

Wont be burgers this weekend im fairly certain its still going to be just the pies and hotdogs

Exclamation Marc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118290131#Comment_118290131

It's turgid stuff. I remember getting a 'chicken burger' in the Aviva in the last couple of years and sweet jesus, it was the most pathetic thing I'd ever seen. A miserable chicken fillet that looked tiny, wet lettuce, a dollop of mayo and a bun that looked like it was a few days away from expiry. All for around ~€8. You'd be better going to the Spar on Shelbourne Road.

I remember being in the Principality Stadium a few years ago and the food was worlds better.

Must love hardship

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118289768#Comment_118289768

Yeah that was the one.. I think dev Toner had a no look behind the back pass..

salmocab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118290263#Comment_118290263

They are just relying on a captive audience to just pay whatever and shut up.

Blue4u

You go to the Aviva for the rugby, if you want good grub head up to Guilbaud's. 😂

I do recommend doing a game in the RDS if you are bringing the kids, you get up so close to the players the kids love it.

Luckycharm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118289787#Comment_118289787

Great had seen his snipping ability was 100% sure about his passing,we never seem to produce scrumhalfs with bullet passes.

molloyjh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118289768#Comment_118289768

Argentina was worse a few weeks previous. That winter was a bad one.

pickarooney

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118291033#Comment_118291033

I've never seen the chap, I was just making a stupid pun.

Still, should be a step up from Blade.

Lsdrugbyfan

Possible Leinster side:

1. Porter
2. Kelleher
3. Furlong
4. Molony
5. Baird
6. Ruddock
7. JVDF
8. Doris
9. JGP
10. HB
11. Lowe
12. Frawley
13. Ringrose
14. Byrne
15. Keenan

Blue4u

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118295002#Comment_118295002

Toner in second row for me

Is JGP fit?

Henshaw & Ringrose I can see in centre and Larmour on wing

arsebiscuits1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118295045#Comment_118295045

Henshaw is off this week apparently. Wont be involved.

Byrne has started the season much stronger than Larmour for me and deserves his place here for me.

Former Former Former

Larmour is playing very well, would be surprised to see him dropped for Byrne.

Where was it said that Henshaw has the week off?

Blue4u

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118295128#Comment_118295128

Personal choice I would like to see Larmour play, he is a fantastic player and can really add something to the Leinster attack and his defense is better. I like Byrne as well but for me I would always go with Larmour

TRC10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118295392#Comment_118295392

Yeah I don't really understand the criticism Larmour has been getting of late. There seems to be this narrative that he's off form but I'm not seeing that. I heard yer man on OTB say it this morning.

I think he's actually been really good since he settled on the wing last season and actually matured a lot as a player in the last year.

He's scored 8 tries in his last 16 games which is a very healthy strike rate, and some of those were bloody important tries like Exeter x2 and the winner v Munster away.

People will talk about his aerial ability but there are trade offs with every player.

We saw in November that people are willing to forgive James Lowe's defensive weaknesses as long as he's scoring tries, same with Stockdale in 2018, so I don't understand why Larmour occasionally getting beaten in the air by taller wingers in such a huge issue for some. He has electric pace and footwork and he's a quality finisher.

RichieRich_89

Tommy O'Brien is better than both Byrne and Larmour.

Blue4u

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118295561#Comment_118295561

I honestly think Irish fans seem to have an issue with been positive about a player. If we look at a long line of Irish player you say XYZ and then but......

Stockdale, Larmour, Lowe are all wingers in the firing line because they don't meet the defensive standard been set by I don't know who. When D Kearney was playing for Ireland and was excellent defensively but didn't score many tries everyone hammered him for been no good going forward.

If you look at Larmour, he broke on the scene and admitted himself he was only planning on playing a few Pro14 games and ended up in Twickers winning a Grand Slam. Since then people have chipped away at him. He took on the 15 jersey for Ireland and played great rugby before the lockdown, remember the Wales game in Aviva. Anyway he has a few injury problem but seems to be back up and running now

He is one of the few players in Ireland who when he has the ball bring real excitement to the attack, he has incredible feet and showed it again at the weekend. Yet we will have comments about his height. Just look at Kolbe and what he has done, he is 4 years older than Larmour(I think) but he had his bad days as well but SA kept playing him.

Even the try at the weekend, the Connacht player was coming from a distance back and running onto the ball, Larmour was coming across and backward so he could never get the jump and yet we seen comments here about how poor Larmour was, I would say great play from Connacht

Larmour has the ability to be one of the best in the World, Leinster and Ireland should be investing serious time into him.

RichieRich_89

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118295652#Comment_118295652

I can't help wondering if a stint playing 7s would help round out his game. His acceleration is magnificent, but his top end speed and speed endurance could be improved. For me he tries to turn his legs over too quickly rather than making use of a full stride.

He's also inclined to get a bit narrow when defending on the right edge.

And the other thing is he doesn't have a whole lot of appreciation for using the pass to free someone in space, which is why picking Keenan ahead of him at 15 is a no-brainer. Could 7s help Larmour is this regard?

Good player capable of outstanding moments at provincial level. But not without his flaws. Can he kick on and become a real force at international level? That's the question.

Blue4u

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118295781#Comment_118295781

Keenan is solid. Another Rob Kearney. I will give it 12-18months and people will start complaining about Keenan like they did about Rob for all those years. It was interesting to see the NZ review of the Ireland game and they all picked out Keenan because when the ball was kicked to him he just ran it back, straight into contact. Now wait a minute until I remember the last player who used to do exactly that :-)

Larmour is a different type of player. No idea why you think 7s will help him, on the other thread you are accusing Ringrose of the exact same thing. If you think Larmour is only capable of producing at provincial level then you haven't watched him at international level. As pointed out above the game v Wales for one example

Lsdrugbyfan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118295652#Comment_118295652

He doesn't have the physical ability to be one of the best in the world. His size wouldn't be issue if he was fast enough but while he has acceleration of 10m he doesn't have the electric speed over long distances when compared to someone like Kolbe. Nor is his decision making very good or his overall skill level with ball in hand.

TRC10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118295850#Comment_118295850

Ah Keenan is a far more natural footballer than Kearney. Better eye for space, better passer, better footwork, capable of playing 1st receiver.

When Keenan runs the ball back, the difference is he's looking for space and carries the ball in two hands, but the reality is there isn't always space and sometimes you have to take contact. However Keenan is way better at taking contact than Kearney, who frequently would to tuck the ball in one arm and run sideways away from support and concede a penalty.

arsebiscuits1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118295850#Comment_118295850

I think you're massively underselling Keenan there even with the praise.

Keenans penchant for rarely making mistakes is something that draws comparisons to Kearney but he has a far superior ball handing/ passing/ offloading game.

Kearney even mentions it in his book how Lancasters view of a playmaking 15 was the beginning of the end for Rob and how guys like Keenan have thrived

PMC83

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118295850#Comment_118295850

No ones gong to be complaining about Kennan any time soon. Yes he ran into contact against Nz but he also beat a few and got the ball away before getting hit on a number of occasions. He's done this a lot for club and country over the last year which has resulted in tries and chances.

Rob was rock solid but in the back end of his career he wasnt beating anyone or getting the pass away. That was the issue. It was catch, into contact and recycle. Thats not what Kennan is doing.

Must love hardship

Id agree. Wouldnt class him as worldclass. That's no slight on him, I Wouldnt exactly say any of irelands back 3 players would make a top 10 back 3 players in the world right now..

None made the lions last summer and France NZ and SA and maybe even Oz have better individual players in those positions.

arsebiscuits1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118295973#Comment_118295973

I'd say you're underselling Keenan there.

He was an outside bet for the Lions and couldn't have been too far from the conversation.

The notoriously one eyed Kiwi media have been full of praise for him and rightly so.

Last season he showed himself to be a top class fullback and the Autumn series cemented himself as a potentially world class player.

I don't think you'd find 10 other 15s who are a head and shoulders ahead of him.

The Barretts, Hogg, possibly a french option.

I'd have him over Williams and Le Roux for example

Blue4u

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118295951#Comment_118295951

Rob started off the same, plus he did beat people just not enough for people in the end. People forget about Rob in the 2011-12 season when he won European player of the year. He was incredible.

I am not putting down Keenan just pointing out the similarities to Rob, which is a huge compliment by the way because I loved Rob kearney

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118295561#Comment_118295561

"We saw in November that people are willing to forgive James Lowe's defensive weaknesses as long as he's scoring tries"

I just don't think this is indicative of what actually happened, TRC. People were able to forgive James Lowe's defensive weaknesses because there weren't nearly as many of them.

TRC10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118296106#Comment_118296106

Because he wasn't exposed. Ireland dominated NZ and had 60% possession. And when NZ had the ball they were getting knocked back in the carry so naturally weren't getting the ball wide as much.

Even with just 40% of the ball NZ still managed to expose him once and score a try from it.

Same thing happened with Stockdale in 2019. It's no coincidence that as soon as Ireland stopped dominating teams, people started noticing Stockdale's defensive shortcomings because he was exposed a whole lot more as Ireland were no longer the ones applying the pressure. He got caught out once by Wales in 2018 but nobody really cared because he scored a million tries. In 2019 he was brutally exposed by England and New Zealand.

James Lowe is 29, he hasn't suddenly just become a good defender. When the going gets tough against England and France in the Spring, the knives will be out once more.

Blue4u

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118296175#Comment_118296175

I agree. Lowe has always had issues with defence but Leinster for one figured out how to cover up for that and get the benefit of his attacking game. Ireland during the 6 nations had bigger issues but Lowe was the easy person to blame for a lot of people, especially the fans of other provinces which he had pi**ed off for years :-)