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

Dubinusa

Ala'alatoa hasn't been as effective as he was last year. I thought he was fairly poor yesterday. Also, v Dragons, I thought he was poor.

No matter who's in the front row our scrum looks stressed. The replacement lads yesterday were very poor, imo. No slight on Boyle who only has a half hour of rugby under his belt but, seriously, what's going on with Clarkson? No improvement whatsoever! Very disappointing imo. Should Leinster hire a scrum coach? As good a player as Porter is, he's not a good scrummager. He was solid on the tight head side.

The u20's looked fairly meh against Italy. It's becoming to look as if there's no decent scrum coach in Ireland.

I expect the Scots will better us at scrummaging next week. We've no class scrummaging props.

While Leinster had little experience available yesterday, it was kind of expected that our scrum would struggle. Even with Ala'alatoa it underpowered. I'm sure Milne will come on and certainly Barron will be afforded every chance. Boyle too, will learn and who knows how good he can be. I wonder if Ala'alatoa deserves another contract? Would another NIQ be worth a look?

Anyone think Lasisi can do the job? Was it wise to switch him to tight head?

Rigor Mortis

Id say SA will see yesterday's team less, Luke Moloney, Jenkins, Deegan, Penny, Osborne, Larmour, O'Brien.

No one with any chance of playing in a Euro XXIII is going to SA.

I'd still fancy our chances of taking at least 6 points

connachta

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120317085#Comment_120317085

You're kidding? we want not only to rest 20 (20!) as I proposed but ALL senior bar 2 or 3 back from injury? Play a full U23, basically.

That's awful, would really **** Connacht chances (and IRFU interest to have 4 in Champions Cup), hope Munster do otherwise vs Sharks

Rigor Mortis

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120317283#Comment_120317283

After those games we will potentially have 6 games left, every one a knockout. For those we need our best possible team injury free.

Also, very few of the guys going to SA will play again in the season, they need their opportunity too. Last years tour was incredibly useful in terms of player development.

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120316979#Comment_120316979

19 wins in a row. 15 try bonus points.

I honestly don't know how your posts can be so relelentlessly critical, every week.

connachta

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120317306#Comment_120317306

This is an official league game not a friendly.

Rotating is all-right. Rotating heavily as I picked (previous page) is understandable. But sending an U23, creating a biais against Connacht who are already disadvantaged would be a complete shame.

connachta

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120316049#Comment_120316049

This team would kept in Ireland :

Healy, Porter, Kelleher, A'la, Furlong, Baird, Ryan, Conan, VDF, Doris, R.Byrne, Sexton, JGP, Ringrose, Henshaw, Keenan, Lowe

FFS that's enough!! And with the remaining team I picked you do let yourself a little chance to win in S-Af...

Serbian

Look, we get that you want Leinster to win in SA to give Connacht a chance at Champions Cup rugby, but it’s pointless arguing about what squad Leinster are likely to pick for South Africa on here.

Leinster coaches don’t care about Connacht and they’re certainly not going to pick a squad and risk anybody who’s likely to feature at the business end of the season in two dead rubber games to try and save Connacht’s season

No amount of arguing about it here is going to change that.

connachta

IRFU should disband you if you don't play it seriously. :P

not smiling despite the joke though

salmocab

Leinster will do what’s right for Leinster as they should do not worry about anyone else. It’s professional sport!

Clegg

Leinster don't place much importance on the scrum. They're far more focussed on having the best athletes in the front row to carry, pass, ruck and tackle. Andy Farrell is also of the same mindset, I think.

Over the last few years we've seen the scrum becoming less of a factor in the world game anyway. Referees want to restart the game asap and will tell the 9 to play even when the scrum is probably deserving of a penalty. It's one of the areas where Ireland and Leinster has gotten the jump on many clubs and nations actually.

Neil3030

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120318168#Comment_120318168

Hmmm.... so in the era of Erasmus's meltdowns on Twitter, IRB refereeing policy has evolved to neutralize one of his team's core strengths?

(Yes I'm speculating wildly, but how apropos would that be...)

Ben Bailey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120318168#Comment_120318168

Scrums (with apologies to all members of the Front Row Union) were always a method of restarting play. Fewer tries are coming from scrums and fewer scrum penalties are being awarded, and high time too.

Dubinusa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120317391#Comment_120317391

They aren't critical. I being subjective! The scrum is a problem, Again.

You can't not think that the scrum is a strenght?

Dubinusa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120317410#Comment_120317410

Why don't Connacht qualify on merit? Expecting others to do the heavy lifting, is not the way to go.

Dubinusa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120318168#Comment_120318168

Didn't see it that way. Still think we need competent props.

CIARAN_BOYLE

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120318255#Comment_120318255

The scrum isn't a strength. Its an acceptable weakness.

We focus more on athletic props who are ballcarriers with decent hands and powerful tacklers and ruckers and ok but not great scrummagers.

Refereeing interpetations of scrum advantage and how the scrum itself is refereed has resulted in the scrum being much less of a weapon than it was 5-10 years ago.

Neil3030

Fewer resets also reduces the risk of neurological issues. I can't see the game ever regressing to an officiation policy that disproportionately benefits dominant scrums.

Interested Observer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120318168#Comment_120318168

I can't actually remember the year now because it happened a few times but Leinster lost one of the games against Saracens (2020 maybe?) I'd say 90% due to the scrum. Don't really know if the game is that different now.

Dave_The_Sheep

Aye. That was the "Covid" game. They shunted us around the pitch for most of the first half and opened up a lead due to scrum penalties that we couldn't haul back.

It's also not that different now, not to a substantial degree. Our scrum is a problem against sides that can really utilise it as a weapon - much like that Ireland - England game recently enough.

durthacht

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120316979#Comment_120316979

The scrum struggled after the substitutions, but I don't think that's all the fault of the props as Jenkins had been substituted, the game was over, and Leinster were a man down in the pack for the end of the game. The ref did seem to have a problem with Clarkson, and I don't know if that was fair, but even if it was, Clarkson has just turned 23 so he's still young enough for a prop and I'm sure he'll improve in the next year or so.

It'll be grand.

ersatz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120318252#Comment_120318252

And the number of scrums has more than halved on average in WC games since professionalism. So fewer penalties off scrums, quicker scrums with rule changes and fewer scrums overall has certainly diminished the benefit a scrum advantage delivers to any team, and the disadvantage to weaker srcrumaging teams.

AbusesToilets

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120318648#Comment_120318648

A lot of that is due to the refs letting the opposition get away with pretty blatant cheating. Genge was allowed bore in with impunity in the English game. The few times he had to drive straight, the Irish scrum was rock solid. I recognize that dealing with that is part of being a prop, but I don't have a worry about our starting front row at all

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120319918#Comment_120319918

And it is notable that the English scrum is no longer any kind of weapon for them since Referees have started to penalise Genge for his scrummaging style.

Or perhaps should I say since Genge adjusted his scrummaging to avoid being penalised .

Rigor Mortis

Its a league. We have gone hard in the first 15 games to ensure that we are in a position to rotate players if required in the last two.

That was the strategy last year and it worked well in terms of results and player development.

What would be appalling from a league perspective would be for Irish provinces to co-operate in the level of tea selection to ensure that all four qualify for the CC or the playoffs. Its questionable enough, for a league integrity perspective, that IRFU restrictions on player appearances are enforced in key games over Christmas.

Tthis isnt bias against Connacht. The teams you are competing with are the SA teams. They face just as hard a schedule as the Irish teams do, possibly more so.

The only bias is in the requirement for a welsh team to get to the CC and that was probably necessary to get buy in for the start of the URC but will be gone from next year.

Dubinusa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120320381#Comment_120320381

Bearing in mind that the regions are awful. Absolute shitshow. They really are falling off the cliff.

Leo will select what's best for Leinster and what benifits the team moving on. The trip down to S.A is like last seasons, a chance to give young lads a proper go.

Connacht are responsible for themselves.

The only teams Leinster will be thinking about in the coming weeks are Stormers, Lions, Bulls and Ulster. I want to see Connacht do well but very obviously they won't come into the conversation whatsoever.

Alala'toa is not in the dip of form some here are suggesting. We're used to seeing him play with first teamers where our go forward and attacking shape are superior, at the moment he's doing a fine unglamorous job but I'm not concerned about his form.

The mid six nations fixtures followed by the South African tour is ideal for the squad, we'll be developing combinations and that all important cohesion through the next generation of players during this window and the medium term benefit of that is huge.

Watching Prendergast for the u20's and Osbourne in the URC I can't help but feel there is a potentially devastating 10 - 12 combination coming through for us.

pickarooney

What does the future hold for Tector and H Byrne? If Prendergast continues his form into the pro game, the post-Johnny 10 slots become very hard to predict.

Ciaran

We qualified Connacht for the Heineken Cup in 2011. And what thanks did we get? John Muldoon kicking a conversion seven years later. 😉

CIARAN_BOYLE

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120321309#Comment_120321309

I've a feeling that Frawley might be seen in Leinster as a utility back whose primary position is 12 but he can cover 10/15 to a decent level.

Irish coaches may see him as a 10 (I'm not sure) but Leinster may see him elsewhere.

In the post Sexton era we have Ross and Harry Byrne, Frawley and the two academy options Tector and Prendergast.

That's a lot of options but Leinster also need to be worried that Frawley and Harry Byrne have dodgy injury profiles.