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

arsebiscuits1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119666553#Comment_119666553

Not sure Ngatai will be looked at at 15 at all (although curiously he is listed as centre/ fullback on the Leinster site)

Did he come on at 15 on Friday? He just doesn't play how any fullback in the Lancaster era has played.

The old adage of Larmour and high balls is quite overstated in some quarters and is bordering on lazy conjecture at this stage by some.... having said that he was actively targeted by Benetton on Friday with a good degree of success. I don't see how that improves moving him to 15.

I would like to see Smith more this season. Curiously while away with the sevens he appear to bulk up as opposed to trim down and he looks like he could be a successful strike runner for us.

Lsdrugbyfan

Leo Cullen has issued an injury update ahead of Friday’s BKT United Rugby Championship game in the Kingspan Stadium against Ulster Rugby (KO: 7.35pm – live on BBC NI, RTÉ, Premier Sports and URC TV).

There was positive news for Joe McCarthy (ankle) and Jordan Larmour (knee) who both came through the game against Benneton Rugby with no issues after their return from injury.

McCarthy will however be unavailable for the game on Friday as he has joined up with the rest of the Emerging Ireland squad that departed yesterday for Bloemfontein ahead of their participation in the Toyota Challenge.

Jamison Gibson-Park missed the game on Friday in the RDS Arena through illness but is expected to train as normal this week.

Cullen also gave an update on Ciarán Frawley who was withdrawn from the game against Benetton Rugby early in the second half with a shoulder injury. As a result he will now miss the Emerging Ireland tour and will instead be assessed by the Leinster Rugby medical team.

Will Connors will also be further assessed this week for a back injury as he was withdrawn in the second half as a precaution.

Another player to be further assessed this week is James Ryan who was a late withdrawal from the match day squad on Friday with a minor hamstring injury sustained in the captain’s run on Thursday.

There was some positive news for Liam Turner who is nearing the completion of his rehabilitation for a toe injury and hopes to start integrating back into team training this week.

Finally, Cullen confirmed that Caelan Doris will miss the game against Ulster Rugby at the weekend. Doris was withdrawn for a Head Injury Assessment in the first half against Benetton Rugby and will now enter the Graduated Return to Play Protocols.

Cullen had no update on Hugo Keenan (abdominal & knee injury), James Lowe (calf), James Tracy (neck), Charlie Ryan (knee) and Tommy O’Brien (knee).

arsebiscuits1

The lack of news on JOB is great news and one can assume all going well he is at 15 this weekend.

Less good news for Doris. Definitely a concern.

I assume Connors wont be fit reading between the lines of the Leinster injury update speak.

Clegg

Frawley has no luck whatsoever. Hope he and Connors make swift returns.

Have to be very cautious with Doris now. He has received far too many blows to the head.

Dubinusa

The next match is a biggie. Ulster away will be tough. I worry about the top lads getting injured with more urc exposure.

I'd hope that the international lads are manages a bit. MaybPorter and VDF to come off the bench? Rest Ryan until there's a complete injury free bill of health?

Losing key lads will feck the Nov international series.

I'd go with:

Byrne, Kelleher, Ala'Alatoa

Molony Ryan, if fit

Ruddock, Conan- if fit, Connors- if fit

JGP, Sexton

DK Ngatii Ringer, Russell

Larmour

Subs. Porter, Sheehan, Furlong, if healthy

Baird, VDf, Foley, HB, IF Healthy and MOR.

Great chance to see Ngati with Ringer! Opportunity for Russell and MOR in a derby! I wouldn't write these lads off! I reckon they're both going to be on pro contracts next season.

We really could do with Tommy O'Brien's return as I think he'll play a lot of games this season.

It's too early to be overly critical of any of our Academy back three options, but I haven't seen anything from Rob Russell, Max O'Reilly or Chris Cosgrave to suggest they are international quality players in future. Andrew Smith hasn't been around the squad of late, and Aitzol Arenzana-King is a pretty raw Year 1 player.

Ciaran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119666589#Comment_119666589

I think Ngatai came on at wing for Kearney and moved to full back when O'Brien went off. It was a very makeshift backline by then though (Foley on the wing!) so it might be an emergencies only possibility.

arsebiscuits1

There's a light hearted conversation on going on LF forum regarding the new song they run on to and how it might be appealing to youth.

It got me thinking about the overall strategy of Leinster. I know they said recently how they're committing to not be so reliant on ticket sales and explore other ways to get money into the coffers.

But certainly they're actively revamping the fan engagement and match day experience which is badly needed IMO.

I would love to get a good insight into the demographics of Leinster Rugby fans.

In recent years I think they've had a serious miss in terms of online engagement. It's long been a bugbear of mine that Leinsters online presence has been sorely lacking in so many departments. It's probably about 5-6 years down the line and the landscape has changed immeasurably and Leinster still are missing that important beat. They hired a video editor I know who does the match day highlight vids (or at least he did - I haven't seen the videos this season)

F1 should be the template for any digital marketing strategist in the sporting world now. Bernie Eccelstone was the head honcho of F1 and leading it headfirst into a steep decline partly due to a total lack of understanding of younger demographics and the importance of that market. Liberty Media came in and took over. Fan engagement came in, a significant shift in tactics and content (you should look at the F1 YT channel pre 2016/17) and of course Drive to Survive. The shift in focus to appeal to a younger demographic has led to a borderline unrecognisable transformation in the F1 world.

Leinster of course are a much smaller fish. But why aren't they doing the same? The 15 year old who engages might well be the same person buying a box for their clients in 10-15 years time in our mythical revamped stadium.

Our Youtube channel is dire. Who wants to watch a 10 minute press conference? Our Instagram lacks any character or personality. Our Twitter feed is just a glorified link sharer to our website which again is very light on meaningful content.

And therein lies the key word... "content" Every youtuber and wannabe influencer pedals that word to no end. What is our content? How can we get better outreach? What do we want our online identity to be?

Even my total lack of understanding of this space I can see we need to be branding our players better. They need to be the brand. Let's get some behind the scenes and meaningful insights into the players as a start.

Increase the quality of the content, increase the follower count, increase the brand. Simple.

Leinster currently has 177k Instagram followers, 280k Twitter, 17k TikTok. Modest numbers but a solid base.

Johnny Sexton is casually active in Instagram at best. He has 220k followers on that platform

Zebo has 77k TikTok followers

The followers are there. We need to reach them.

Damn this turned into a long rant lol. Quiet Monday...

Dubinusa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119666811#Comment_119666811

Me either. I'd be happy with good solid options and squad players.

Yeah_Right

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119666583#Comment_119666583

Parisse has played over 500 professional matches!! Holy ****! That's impressive.

sydthebeat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119667925#Comment_119667925

its completely crazy that hes still putting in 80 min performances for toulon at 8.

8 from 15 starts last year were full games, at 38 years of age !!!

Dubinusa

Martin Johnson must be up there too. Sexton has got north of 300 appearances also. Some lads are just freaks.

Former Former Former

Jimmy Gopperth played 80 minutes for Leicester at the weekend, aged 39 and 450 professional appearances behind him. Impressive.

stephen_n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119669958#Comment_119669958

There is hope for Sexton still.

CORMACREYN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119667259#Comment_119667259

Ngatai played full-back after coming on to replace Dave Kearney. Jimmy O'Brien moved to the wing until he was replaced by Cormac Foley. Foley played on the wing until Luke McGrath's try after which those two swapped positions.

Also noticed that Tommy O'Brien still had a bit of a limp at the game on Friday. Doubt we'll see him until the New Year.

Jack Conan was involved in the pre-match warm-up so no doubts about his fitness.

Podge_irl

There's a light hearted conversation on going on LF forum regarding the new song they run on to and how it might be appealing to youth.

I believe the players choose the song. The utterly appalling reality is that while we are getting older the stupid players are staying the same age and leaving us behind. The pricks.

arsebiscuits1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119671571#Comment_119671571

But the music never dies!!

It was heartening to see how much traction and new admiration Master of Puppets got among the younger generation after Stranger Things.

But yeah I've been out of touch for a long time and have given up. Genuinely don't think there's a song newer than 7 years old on any of my playlists lol

arsebiscuits1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119671526#Comment_119671526

Not a chance we will be seeing Tommy until the new year as you said yeah.

Blew the ACL in early May which would put him in the frame again come January.

I can't think of any rugby player in recent years whose come back from an ACL tear in less than 9 months

salmocab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119671571#Comment_119671571

I like welcome to the jungle, good upbeat bit of rock. Kids are stupid

Exclamation Marc

I don't mind the entrance music being old or new once its rousing. Whatever the hell they came out to on Friday was just soulless, uninteresting and relatively static. Also, both teams came out to the song which I found strange whereas in years gone by, it was just for Leinster.

Lsdrugbyfan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB5mXWBq1Ys&ab_channel=LeinsterRugbyTV

tries from Leinster A vs Munster A

Henry McErlean(15), Lee Barron(2), Hugh Cooney(13), Sean O'Brien(8), Ben Murphy(21) & Martin Molony(6)

stephen_n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119672213#Comment_119672213

Was hard to tell from this snipetts but there seemed to be some very suspect defense involved in some of those tries.

Lsdrugbyfan

Leinster Rugby (caps in brackets):

15. Jimmy O’Brien (54)

14. Jordan Larmour (75)

13. Garry Ringrose (103) CAPTAIN

12. Robbie Henshaw (69)

11. Dave Kearney (175)

10. Ross Byrne (130)

9. Luke McGrath (177)

1. Andrew Porter (92)

2. Dan Sheehan (30)

3. Michael Ala’alatoa (27)

4. Ross Molony (141)

5. Jason Jenkins (2)

6. Ryan Baird (39)

7. Josh van der Flier (115)

8. Jack Conan (117)

16. Rónan Kelleher (38)

17. Ed Byrne (87)

18. Vakhtang Abdaladze (18)

19. James Ryan (58)

20. Will Connors (27)

21. Nick McCarthy (47)

22. Johnny Sexton (184)

23. Charlie Ngatai (2)

Interested Observer

That is a pretty damn decent side. Looking forward to this.

Clegg

That's a strong side to sent oop Norf. Ulster have a similarly good starting 15, but Leinsters bench is definitely stronger.

Dubinusa

Good to see Ryan back. Glad he's benching and being slowly worked into the side.. Baird at blindside! Not sure if its the best call, I thought Rhys would have gotten the call

Must love hardship

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119680414#Comment_119680414

I think its worth experimenting with Baird at 6. Its an option that is worth a look for this block of games at least.

He is an explosive athlete and offers a live lineout threat from the back row offensively and defensively.

Its never a negative having a player who can fill in at 4 or 6 in your 23.

Leinster have lost 2 players over the last 2 years who filled this role in Fardy and Murphy and this could be an ideal role for Baird or even Jenkins.

Clegg

Leinster are offering season ticket holders a 50% discount on URC TV.

You can watch every live game this season for €30 on your mobile, laptop, desktop. Pretty good deal I think.

Dave_The_Sheep

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119680953#Comment_119680953

Aye. It's decent.

Except it's coming two rounds into the bloody tournament when many - like myself - would have already bought at full price.

Bit bloody late lads.

Serbian

Is there a TV app for URC TV or do you have to visit the site in the TV web browser to watch on the big screen? It's looking like any of the apps that are out there for Android are dog ****, which is not surprising if you've used the RTE player app.