Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

Clegg

Looking at the match stats and La Rochelles dominance at Lineout and maul was a major factor in Leinster's loss. They were 12/12 from that and gained 58 metres through their catch and drive. Leinster couldn't lay a glove on them in the air and couldn't stop them once they'd set up their maul.

It might have been differ had Ryan stayed on the field. I've a distinct memory of us stalking a number of their drives after just a metre or two when he was there. But the fact we're so reliant on one player suggests a larger issue as well.

cuttingtimber22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120623707#Comment_120623707

John Ryan, Archer, Bealham and O’Toole have been better than Furlong this season. I don’t know if Ireland has the luxury in waiting for him to find his form.

MurDawg

Archers better than furlong

This is surely a joke? My god

cuttingtimber22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120623768#Comment_120623768

On current form yes.

AbusesToilets

Have to watch the match back, but I thought the defense was far too easily manipulated in the centers by La Rochelle in the lead up to their scores. They cut through us with ease.

ulsteru20s

I wouldn’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater in terms of leinster’s gameplan. You ran into the one team that has a gameplan seemingly designed to counter Leinster… and you still would have won with better execution.

AbusesToilets

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120624285#Comment_120624285

You say that, but they didn't play their normal gameplan at all. 2nd half was poor kick after poor kick, just inviting La Rochelle to batter them.

ulsteru20s

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120624320#Comment_120624320

I think they missed Sexton a lot. JGP can be aimless without Sexton.

The bad exits I did not see coming. They fell apart there and it was pretty out of character.

theVersatile

"Archer is playing better than Furlong this season" and "Archer is a better player than Furlong" are two different arguments.

The former has some merit, the latter less so. It's a fine distinction.

Dubinusa

Maybe starting Baird at 6 with Conan on the bench might have worked? Second guessing is fun and I'm just speculating but, Baird is a bigger lad than either Doris or Conan.

Sometimes having the better athletes isn't the answer. Skelton and Antonio wouldn't be what I'd call athletic specimens. They're just huge men that have improved fitness and are durable.

cuttingtimber22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120624503#Comment_120624503

Furlong is a great player. Best tight head we have, but his form is not good. Hopefully some rest and proper rehabilitation plus a good pre-season and he will be back to his best come the World Cup.

Dubinusa

Anyone think that having Milne in the squad would have helped?

FrannoFan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120624526#Comment_120624526

No. Been disappointed by him in his last couple of outings. He's a while away from being ready for big games yet

pickarooney

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120624353#Comment_120624353

Well, like it or not, Sexton is no longer a Leinster player and hasn't featured in Europe since last year's final (maybe 10 minutes against Gloucester notwithstanding).

AbusesToilets

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120624521#Comment_120624521

I think perhaps starting Baird at 4, with McCarthy and Deegan on the bench might have been a better call.

PMC83

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120624714#Comment_120624714

Your right there. We need to think about a team without him, because thats where we're at now! I wonder is Jimmy Goth still on on the go!?

TomsOnTheRoof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120624353#Comment_120624353

The halfbacks were poor for Leinster yesterday, particularly JGP. His kicking was awful and contributed in no small part to La Rochelle's continuous presence in Leinster's half.

durthacht

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120625228#Comment_120625228

All the game managers were poor yesterday, I thought - JGP, Byrne, Lowe. The forwards did good work to halt La Rochelle attacks, but were let down by bad exits.

I also thought the coaches could have made earlier substitutions in McGrath and Frawley as it was clear that exits were not working and either the game plan or the personnel had to change.

TomsOnTheRoof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120625271#Comment_120625271

Yeah, Leinster's forwards actually acquitted themselves quite well but were let down time and again by a poor kicking game.

The reluctance to use the substitute half backs was very strange. Whilst McGrath doesn't offer the same level of control as JGP he would have been an ideal replacement yesterday. Leinster needed to get their hands on the ball and retain possession. The opening twelve minutes illustrated exactly the kind of gameplan needed to trouble La Rochelle. Sitting on a lead and being content with defending it was never going to be feasible given the sheer size and power of that pack, especially when allied to an atrocious kicking display. As a neutral I was genuinely baffled that McGrath and Frawley weren't introduced with 20 to go.

BoardsMember

I wonder would we prefer to meet them next year before the final?

Dubinusa

I have no idea how Leinster beat them. The losses were narrow and last year we made errors. This time, we were 2nd best for most of the match. LaR are very very tough. I think we were lucky to keep the score down.

salmocab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120625812#Comment_120625812

Ah stop it was one point, it was a tight game and could have been a win if just one or two little things went different.

Buer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120624521#Comment_120624521

Baird got over 20 minutes on the field yesterday. He was brought in as he's the type of guy that can come up with big moments. Unfortunately, he was closer to 2021 Baird than 2023 Baird. I don't think there's a hope that the coaches would have him ahead of Conan now. I'm not sure if he was overwhelmed or things just didn't go his way but he failed to get involved much at all. 1 tackle whilst on the field with a large chunk of that time being us making non-stop tackles suggests it all passed him by a bit.

I was surprised that Conan was taken off, to be honest but I can understand the logic. He had emptied the tank for an hour and Baird is a guy who has the ability to deliver big moments but he really didn't provide that, unfortunately. Conan was carrying very well and getting us over the gain line when most others were really struggling to do so. When you need a bit moment with a carry or an offload, Conan was one of the most likely to deliver it. I'd have taken off Molony for Baird, personally.

Overall, our bench really lacked impact I thought. Although there was an obvious reluctance to use it which says something in itself. McGrath, Healy and Frawley had a combined 4 minutes of pitch time and Healy was probably only introduced as we needed another designated front rower on the field when they were expecting a scrum.

pickarooney

Feck all use having depth when you refuse to use it.

The coaching, gameplan and execution were pitiful in that second half.

Clegg

Thanks to Lancaster and everything he brought to Leinster. Four league titles and a European Cup is still wildly successful. The rugby played during that period is some of the best I've ever seen from a province. He brought through an helped develop the skills of so many academy players.

But it's an ugly reminder that even with all all that depth and great rugby played, we lost 3 of 4 Champions Cup Finals. It's my hope that this team hasn't missed it's cup winning 'window' and that the next few years won't be rebuilding ones. We made the Cup Final without Sexton however and we can do it again.

Buer

The bench was negated heavily by the fact that we had to use two subs relatively early. In those final 10 minutes, you want some lads to come in and bring blood and thunder to proceedings. Ala'alatoa and Jenkins were already almost as tired as many out there. Ngatai came in and did alright, one huge carry brought us up about 15m to their line. Baird was very quiet.

That was about it for our bench given Kelleher only had about 8 minutes on the field and never when we were in possession.

Where to from here? Hard to know really. We're not going to improve our playing personnel. In recent seasons, it was said that to beat Leinster, you went after their ruck ball. Slow it down, make a mess of it and they won't be able to hurt you. Well, they addressed that and became more accurate and aggressive there. They generated quick ball against every team and looked very dangerous. But now it's just about keeping the ball against them. I also think that their defence has potentially gone backwards and that was felt in the first half, I thought with the La Rochelle tries coming without them having to really fight too hard. Leinster conceded 31 tries in the URC last season....50 this season. Even allowing for the Bulls game, that's a solid jump.

I do think Leinster have already made a very important signing for next season in Nienaber who appears to be more of a direct coach with a black and white mindset for winning and a strong focus on defence.

But the biggest factor for Leinster is what's between their ears. James Lowe clears that ball 50m down the field 9/10 times instead of out on the full or sliced to touch.

salmocab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120625935#Comment_120625935

Have to quote the whole thing but on the last bit yes that’s it, it was small margins. A few bad exits, some penalties, a tiny bit of luck and it could have been a very different finish.

I said to my mate during the game that for their first two tries they had to work extremely hard for two easy tries.

errlloyd

There were 15 attempted kicks in the second half to relieve pressure / win territory from Leinster.

6 of them were fucked up.

JGP - out on the full from a Caterpillar Ruck, Lar win a penalty off the maul to get back within 6

Ross Byrne - charged down (Lar player heads, JOB pushed into touch).

Lowe - Out on the full from inside the 22

Lowe - Slice for a gain of 6 m, off a turnover, when 70m was on

JOB - Penalty for taking Rhule / Leyds in the air

JGP - Slice for a gain of 5m

They were the mistakes by the backs that stopped us gaining any foothold in the game in the second half. Our forwards fronted up brilliantly. Our other backs defended pretty well. Our breakdown work was really good. We got munched in the Mauls, but did manage to win turnovers from 2 (maybe 3) of them.

On the flip side Dulin did almost all of their kicking, and bar the one slice at the beginning of the game he just didn't make any mistakes. It was a Rob Kearney type game. He was excellent.

Sangre

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120625967#Comment_120625967

As mentioned elsewhere, I only saw this game yesterday having avoided all media. A lot of post-match talk of lacking the physical size and the umph needed to beat a team like LAR (notwithstanding we nearly did). I really don't think we lost that game due to personnel. Sure, some players didn't have a great game. However, as mentioned in comms, Leinster did smash LAR back a lot in the tackle. The mistakes you've highlighted above were - to me - the killer below in the match each and every time. Most of them were preceded by a big Leinster play - only for us to immediately hand back possession quite easily to LAR. In addition to the physical toll of defending, that has a huge mental blow to the team. I thought the forwards were generally immense yesterday. However, the exit by the backs let them down time and time again. Any time that Leinster got a few phases together they made inroads against LAR, however because they were consistently pinned back due to poor execution they had to keep exiting which had a compounding effect.

AbusesToilets

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120626072#Comment_120626072

The La Rochelle try in the first half that came right after a brilliant steal from the maul was killer. JGP throws a **** pass that Lowe fumbles off his shoelaces. That's criminal. Whole game in a microcosm.