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

Clegg

That Russell try came directly from Ngatai cannoning the ball from Leinster's 22 into Glasgow's 22.

Turned a defensive situation into an attacking one. Huge boot.

Clegg

Schmidt, Reddan, BOD and Sexton sighting 🤩

Clegg

Leinster have been ok today. Defence is holding up well, but being put under a lot of pressure by a poorly performing set piece. Glasgow have blown a try or two as well.

Hey_Ho_Lets_Go_3

Clarkson having another tough one

Burkie1203

That's a harsh call, probably technically right but still ...

Clegg

I missed the start of the second half. Were the substitutions of Ngatai and McCarthy injury enforced?

Clegg

Not a great game, but Leinster never had to get out of second gear.

Thought Deegan and Osborne were standouts. The former carried exceptionally well and the latter looks very composed in his playmaking skills. Created two trys tonight through his passing and kicking.

Dubinusa

How did the sparkplug play?

AbusesToilets

Osbourne looks better everytime you see him play. Feel he'll be a player that you'd regret waiting to cap, oozes talent

Cormac Foley impresses every time he comes on for Leinster, classy player.

Glasgow back three and Horne were excellent, but overall Glasgow completely outmuscled by Leinster and were getting patched up every break in play.

Osbourne did very well defensively on a couple of occasions and our territorial kicking game made things really difficult for Glasgown. Ngati didn't come back out at half time so hopefully all ok.

Didn't see what Kelleher yellow was for, from where I was sitting looked like he got pulled into the ruck.

Joe McCarthy has some speed for a lad his size, line speed in particular was terrific the entire first half. He looked a bit gassed early in the second, fell off two tackles and got subbed. Jenkins made an immediate impact.

Sub par tackling on our part mixed with some lovely lines by the Glasgow backs gave them their chances, but they couldn't break us down at all and their pack couldn't live with ours whatsoever.

Good, second gear only win.

Bogwoppit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119925640#Comment_119925640

Agreed, to the manor born. He has 2 younger brothers on the same trajectory.

CORMACREYN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119925096#Comment_119925096

Ngatai got a knock towards the end of the first half. Played on until the end of the first 40 but didn’t reappear after half-time. McCarthy was just a tactical sub after 50 minutes from what I could see. Himself, Ed Byrne, Clarkson and Ruddock were all replaced at the same time.

stephen_n

Ngatai looked in trouble, shoulder was hurt when the Glasgow 8 torpedoed into him in a no arms hit. That penalty got reversed for afters but looked like it should have lead to a card. Was very visibly holding his shoulder when he came back out mid way through the second half.

James Lowe was involved in the warm up but has a noticeable limp after the game. Didn’t look promising.

pickarooney

McCarthy is a bit of a penalty machine. He needs to get that sorted.

Dubinusa

I just watched this match. Tough second half to watch. Job done though. Luke was great! Fantastic performance from him. I would have picked Penny for motm. His tackling was brilliant and he slowed down a lot of Glasgow ball.

Clarkson dis all right. He's a work in progress and he will get to a decent level, I think. The 1st scrum penalty was against Ed Byrne, the 2nd was for an early hil, on Kelleher? Clarkson is just 22! Plenty of time for him.

Molony was very good, McCarthy .... clumsy. He's a penalty magnet. He just needs some more time. Kelleher got through some good work, he looked powerful. He might get the start next week. Ngati was incredible. Unfortunate that he was injured.

We give up this many penalties next week, Ulster will beat us. Lot's of positives and negatives.

LRind2008

Joe Mccarthy has the makings of a great player, but his discipline is one of the worst ive ever seen and at some points just plain laziness. He came on for like 10 mintues against AUS and immediately put the team underpressure by giving away a pen, and last night gave away 3 or 4, its been an issue in his game for the last 2 seasons and he just isnt improving in that aspect.

I'd love to see his penalty conceded stats vs minutes palyed and the ratio of it with other players I'd say its off the charts

molloyjh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119927735#Comment_119927735

Last 2 seasons? The guy made his debut 10 months ago and has just 14 caps for Leinster. It’s an area he needs to address but let’s not turn it into something that it isn’t.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119925009#Comment_119925009

He's not good enough at this point, and I don't think he deserves the minutes he's getting. He's a liability in the scrum, and doesn't bring anything of note to the rest of the play. I know he's very young, but he looks like a guy that needs AIL-level gametime to improve his scrummaging fundamentals.

Clegg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119926328#Comment_119926328

Thanks. Hopefully Ngatai won't be out for too long. He has slotted in to Leinster's backline extremely well and plays like he's been a member of the squad for years. His skill set is exactly what Leinster needs. He's adept at those pull back passes Leinster love to use and his kicking is excellent.

Plus, we're just short on bodies at 12 right now. Frawley is a long term absence and Henshaw will be out for a while yet too.

Dubinusa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119928093#Comment_119928093

That's harsh! Right now he's struggling but he can turn it around. I just hope he can as we are not stacked at tight head. I think he can improve.

FrannoFan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119928093#Comment_119928093

Leo Cullen said it before "if you want a lad with 50 caps you need to be prepared to play him 50 times" Leo has a great ability to bring these lads through and before you know it you have a jimmy O'Brien who can play international level. Osbourne up to 22 appearances. Russell and Cosgrove who I didn't rate getting their games. I expect to be proved wrong on the later two.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119928694#Comment_119928694

Players have still got to earn their caps, and the bar is higher at Leinster.

Obviously I'm aware Leinster have a great track record of bringing through young players, but Clarkson is a guy who has gotten 20+ caps and for me I'm still not seeing the improvement. He doesn't look like a guy we can trust in European games to hold up a scrum.

I've no issues with backing young players, and obviously I know there will be teething problems, but to me he doesn't look ready for URC level rugby yet.

CIARAN_BOYLE

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119928093#Comment_119928093

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119928542#Comment_119928542

Its not really harsh. Clarkson looks like what he is. A 22 year old prop in need of gametime to develop.

Any 22 year old prop is going to struggle. We were spoilt with Healy, Moore, Porter and Furlong who came through incredibly young for a prop.

Look at Munster at the moment trying to force gametime down the throat of Knox and Salonoa in the hopes that they come good. Clarkson looks in the same boat. Too young for where they are on the depth chart but with definite signs of potential.

A prop needs gametime to develop. Ideally as much as possible of that would be in the AIL where their mistakes and learnings won't negatively effect Leinster. That said he will learn more playing for Leinster in the URC than for DUFC in the AIL.

I haven't been reviewing the AIL squads for the year so far. Has Clarkson been featuring in weeks where he hasn't played for Leinster. If not he needs to be told to and play AIL in his off weeks.

Vakh isn't really much better than him for all that he is a capped Georgian international now. He seems to be frozen out since he accepted a call up by Georgia anyway.

It does underline that Leinster need permission to resign Michael Ala'alatoa for next season or to sign a replacement NIE tighthead to be second choice (unless an Irish qualified tight head can be found).

Luminous Talent

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119925691#Comment_119925691

Have to agree. He looks like a 100 cap international potentially. Has all the qualities of Rob Kearney, strong defensively and a rocket boot on him and is good positionally. He also brings the strings to his bow of a good awareness of space in behind the defender and is able to expose this with a deft chipping game. He also brings a top class distribution game and is able to vary depending on 2 v 1 or 2 v 3 he invariably gets the decision right in drawing or skipping wide when it is on. My only question is whether he has the wheels for 15 but on this viewing he doesn’t need lightning gas as he reads the play so well he’s forced the attacker into a split second decision which he gets the better of more often than not defensively. Looking good for the young lad.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Another question of course is what position will Osbourne end up. I could see him as a center or a full back in the long run and there's international players ahead of him in both (all 3) positions in Leinster.

Clegg

Joe McCarthy has massive potential. He's a powerful carrier in congested areas and has good hands to link play when needed. I agree that he concedes some needless penalties, but he has such huge upside that he must be persisted with until he irons out those flaws. He's still only 21 and doesn't even have 20 professional appearances to his name yet.

He's also the only lock on Leinster's books that is effective at stealing ball at the breakdown. He has all the potential to become a 50 cap international at least.

Dubinusa

Clarkson was bumped up to a contract after 2 years in the academy, iirc? We had just lost Salanoa and Aungier. Both of these lads are older. But, really they're not too far ahead of Clarkson. Clarkson won't be an international player, based on what he's shown so far but, a decent squad player would be fine.

Exclamation Marc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119928872#Comment_119928872

Vahk hasn't been frozen out. He played thirty minutes yesterday which is more than he's gotten in any other appearance this year. He's made five appearances off the bench this year which is as many as he made last year. He's never started for Leinster, he's just not rated that highly by management.

LRind2008

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119927882#Comment_119927882

He has played this season and last season or was that too hard for you to decipher mate

Clegg

Ulster at the RDS is this weekend. It's a huge fixture in the context of the league season. Any sort of win puts Leinster at least 11 points ahead of them, albeit Ulster has a game in hand.

They did the double over Leinster last season, so being able to do the same to them would be pretty sweet. A lot of our test players are expected to return for this game, in preparation for Racing the week after. Should be a great game which we'll hopefully win. If like to see Deegan start again as he's in fine form and was one of our best players against Glasgow. Hopefully we'll see the return of Lowe as well.