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

Clegg

Leinster have been very poor this second half. There's no line speed and they're losing every collision.

Leinsters back three also looks quite ropey. Very little pace there and they don't look threatening in attack or solid in defence.

crisco10

I think Rob Russell is having a day to forget

Clegg

Some Leinster players are ensuring they don't get selected next week. Awful defensively.

Zebre will win this I think.

crisco10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119630720#Comment_119630720

All the momentum for sure

Lsdrugbyfan

so poor.

crisco10

I think Jenkins bulk has been missed since he went off.

stephen_n

Not sure we deserve to win this. Certainly not on the second half performance. Which is probably the worst 40 minutes by any Leinster team in years.

Shehal

Christ can Leinster do anything right today?

A-Train

Job done just about.

crisco10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119630754#Comment_119630754

Pick and drive in the 22.

Clegg

The handling and passing skills of some players being rusty is very understandable as it's the first game of the season.

What's much more worrying is the lack of discipline and intensity in defence. We conceded three first phase tries in the first half. The entire second half has been all about missed tackles and lost collisions. That can be explained away as it being the first game of the season I suppose. But it's concerning that we looked so poor.

Clegg

Our midfield was very poor defensively I think. Ngatai and Osborne looked a lot like the DDA/Farrell partnership for Munster last season. Making poor reads and allowing their direct opposites to easily run around them.

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119630801#Comment_119630801

When it comes to Munster's midfield last season, the defence was way down the list of issues. In general, Munster's defence was quite good imo; once or twice we were caught beyond the edge, but that was largely down to compression towards the 10 channel.

But Munster had the joint-2nd best defence in the league last season, conceding only 3 tries more than Leinster.

Larbre34

Wouldn't be too concerned given all factors, but a few players certainly doing their shout for selection no favours going forward.

However, we will be without Frawley and Deegan and Penny and McCarthy for a few weeks and those games coming up against Ulster and the Sharks are the very fixtures you'd need them in the 23.

Ross Byrne ought to feel a bit worried too, it was another game today with him at the helm with absolutely no punch from midfield or variance employed when Zebre began getting a good return from Route 1.

Clegg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119630841#Comment_119630841

I'm basing this off the games Leinster played against Munster. They consistently managed to draw both centres to the one carrier and then release it to a runner trailing behind. Made a lot of easy metres against Munster that way. That's what Leinsters centres looked like today. Both Ngatai and Osborne were sucked in by the one player.

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119630891#Comment_119630891

Leinster with trailing runners did that to a lot of teams last season; I don’t think Munster, midfield or otherwise, we’re singularly different in that regard.

Clegg

Leinster were poor overall but there were still some decent individual performances. Ed Byrne was solid as was Jason Jenkins. The latter showed some decent passing skills too. That could be a very useful asset for Leinster especially as he has the bulk which most of our second rows lack.

Kelleher looked good for his first match back after injury and Ruddock was the standout. He's been a great player for years and I hope that injury he suffered near the end of the game isn't serious.

Heaslip made a good point after the game that this was just Leinsters second game since the defeat to the Bulls back in June. They only had one pre-season fixture before this game. Hopefully what we saw today was simple ring rust and lack of match fitness showing.

TRC10

We're in big trouble if we're relying on McGrath and Ross Byrne come the business end of the season. McGrath can't pass and Byrne offers nothing in attack.

Jenkins played well, could be a very handy player for us. It would be great if we can get performances out of him that Munster couldn't. Scrum went well. Good to see Kelleher back, I thought he was decent.

Defence was atrocious. Osborne at fault for a couple of tries. Good learning experience for him. Max O'Reilly isn't at this level unfortunately.

Poor performance, but first game of the season against a plucky Italian team can always be tricky. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and put it down to rust and lack of fitness (only one pre-season friendly). But I expect a better performance next week.

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119631458#Comment_119631458

Jenkins played well, could be a very handy player for us. It would be great if we can get performances out of him that Munster couldn't.

To be fair, he was injured for the vast majority of his time at Munster. Due to that, he only started 2 games.

He could have that many starts by next weekend for Leinster.

typhoony

Leinster have such a large pool of unproven players on their books and it would appear some players are getting overlooked while others are given too many opportunities.

ersatz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119631458#Comment_119631458

Osbone particularly looked poor defensively, massive gap in the line between him and Kearney for the last try, he looked out of poison and then made a poor effort at a tackle. The earlier one where the 7 ran straight through him was terrible technique, he was lucky there not to hurt himself.

Dubinusa

Pitiful effort. Hopefully, just rust. Leinster looked very poor. This squad is probably not as good as previous squads in terms of depth.

Serbian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119632802#Comment_119632802

Osbourne was poor in this game, but I think he has credit in the bank. He has been excellent previously, he hasn't turned into a bad player in one game, we can assume he will get better as the season goes on.

I'd be more concerned with Russell and O'Reilly. I think back three is a position where we don't have the depth we used to. We have 5 senior back three players, so we'll be relying on the academy here more often than in other areas this season. Two injuries in the back three (e.g. Kearney and Larmour who were both injured at the same time last season) and we're probably starting with an academy winger in a big game.

Smith is off with the sevens program at the moment and Arenzana-King is brand new, so I assume we won't be seeing much of them. We need to be able to trust at least one of Cosgrave, Russell or O'Reilly to do a job against any possible opponent. I'd be pretty concerned with any of them starting at the moment.

crisco10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119634303#Comment_119634303

Agree with all of this. Osborne has been doing insanely well for someone not even 21 yet. To the extent when I saw he was off to SA I thought it a big loss.

We really need one of the young back 3s to bolt this season. Lowe, larmour and keenan are going to play very little in a world Cup season. Kearney and JOB will both do a job for sure but after that it's thin. And that's before injuries. It wouldn't be mad to see Ringrose or Osbourne playing wing in a big game if there were to be an injury to our senior back 3 players.

While I hope Adam Byrne thrives out west, I'd ve silently raging cos a fit Byrne would solve a lot of leinsters depth issues.

stephen_n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119634565#Comment_119634565

A fit Adam Byrne was an absolute rarity and will probably remain so.

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119634565#Comment_119634565

Lowe, larmour and keenan are going to play very little in a world Cup season.

Personally think Larmour still has a bit to do to be guaranteed a RWC spot, it’s a spot there’s a lot of competition in, and Farrell has preferred other options over him in the past, so he could see more game time than the others.

If he continues this season like he finished the last, he’ll give himself every chance tho.

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119634565#Comment_119634565

Adam Byrne, even when fit, was a long way down the depth chart

crisco10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119634663#Comment_119634663

He was. But he was ahead of Russell, Cosgrave and max oreilly.

CIARAN_BOYLE

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119634565#Comment_119634565

I wonder if Leinster made the decision to release Byrne and Rory O'Loughlin or if the players wanted to go. The two of them were incredible squad players but didn't seem likely to break through to the top 23.

Given potential financial pressures from Covid and the shorter season (less gate receipts) a slightly cheaper wage bill might have been forced on the province.

Dubinusa

I wouldn't put too much disappointment into Russell and MOR. They are academy lads who are still learning. They both could be good productive players. I doubt either will be capped internationally but, good solid pro's would be grand!

Kearney and Ngati looked pretty meh also! Ross Byrne was disappointing and Luke was all over the place! Having Foley available will be great as McCarthy is poor!