Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

Clegg

BP win against an Edinburgh side with their returning test players. Can't fault that at all.

TOB, Culhane and Ngatai were my standouts.

RichieRich_89

McGuire reminds me a bit of Tony Buckley in terms of his body shape and the way he sets up in the scrum. Similar effectiveness as a scrummager by the looks of today too! A learning experience for him. Was he a good scrummager for Ireland U20s? I don't think I caught his games at that level.

Larmour looks low on confidence. And it seems he's bulked up and lost a bit of zip too. Tough period for him.

Hard to see Leinster ever developing a top homegrown 12 if they have a player as good as Osborne but aren't playing him there - in probably his best position. What sort of future does a Ben Brownlee have at Leinster. They will probably extend Ngatai's deal beyond this season and any aspiring Leinster 12s will be left disillusioned.

Pretty depressing overall.

RichieRich_89

Does Tommy O'Brien need to improve his catching a bit? My impression is he fumbles passes or kicks coming his way just a bit too often.

pickarooney

Osborne and he just need to get their timing right. Several times TOB was on his shoulder just a fraction too early to catch and shoot through the gap.

Just seeing Marcus Smith already back playing for Harlequins. Makes a bit of a mockery of Ireland coddling their international players for weeks after they've finished the world cup.

Dubinusa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121325028#Comment_121325028

I doubt Ngati will be extended. He's old! There's Frawley and Brownlee behind him. I think Brownlee will be a very good player.

Dubinusa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121325241#Comment_121325241

Itoje and Farrell back as well.

Dubinusa

Now I've got to find the match!!

Exclamation Marc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121325281#Comment_121325281

Isa was going til he was 36. If Charlie is doing the business, no reason not to extend his stay.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121325241#Comment_121325241

Makes a bit of a mockery of Ireland coddling their international players for weeks after they've finished the world cup.

Why?

AdamD

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121325050#Comment_121325050

You mixing him up with larmour who dropped a few today ?

ersatz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121325450#Comment_121325450

It was obvious at the WC that the benefit from a team perspective of managing minutes is dubious. Maybe extending some players careers but even there, beyond sexton there are quite a few geriatrics whose minutes aren’t managed. Nice to have for players but from a team pov there seems to be no upside.

pickarooney

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121325450#Comment_121325450

England played a bronze final last week and their players who were heavily involved in the world cup throughout are back in club action. What's the reasoning behind Ireland giving squad members a month off after playing thirty minutes a month ago?

RichieRich_89

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121325914#Comment_121325914

Nah. I wasn't talking just about today. I was thinking back to that kick-chase against Munster where he dived headlong and it was almost a try. I think it was possible to do better there. It's in my head he's dropped a pass or two in other games over the last few seasons also. But maybe that's not really representative of him on the whole. He's certainly showing up well, challenging for a first XXIII place and putting himself in the conversation for a call up to the Ireland squad.

RichieRich_89

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121325281#Comment_121325281

Well, if he isn't they'll probably look to bring in someone else.

Leinster don't have the know-how and/or motivation to develop homegrown inside centres into international standard options. The most likely scenario is we'll be back here again this time next season with Osborne playing somewhere other than 12, Ngatai or some other NIQ signing starting League games Henshaw is unavailable for, and Brownlee kicking his heels in the stands. He'd probably be better off looking for an exit or switching to another position.

pickarooney

They could just do a Jordie Barrett and push Frawley into 12 when he's up to URC speed. Or Osborne could play more at 12 when Ringrose is back.

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121325241#Comment_121325241

I wouldn't be looking at the English for idea's on player management. The owners will push players back earlier so they can make sure tickets are getting sold etc. As far as I know a lot of the French players are not back in yet either.

One of the fallouts from the WC is we need to increase squad's and more options, so giving the younger players these games can only help.

The question of resting players would be more important come end of season, do they really need a rest if we have a URC semi like last year? or should they play week in week out while Leinster try to win trophies. They have proved in World Cup they can do it so why not. Leinster need to win a trophy this year, I would say going all out to win the URC is a must so resting players in May should not happen

Clegg

From the stadium view my standouts were Osborne, TOB, Barron and Culhane.

But having watched the replay on TV I got to see how influential Ngatai and Penny were. Both were excellent. Ngatai doesn't look it, but he's incredibly physical and was making a lot of metres in heavily populated areas of the pitch.

Penny just didn't stop working all game. I'm hopeful that this will be the season he starts to make inroads to Leinster's strongest 23. We've flogged VDF in recent years. The retirement of Leavy and frequent injuries to Connors didn't give us much choice in the matter. If Penny continues this upward development he could and should start a few of the European pool games.

Clegg

Edinburgh were so disappointing. They had their returning Scottish internationals, but that didn't seem to give them any uplift in performance.

Kinghorn and Van Der Merwe especially played poorly. The latter barely got a touch of the ball and knocked on when he did get it. I also think someone of his experience and carrying power should really be looking to get involved more in open play. Seemed like he only touched the ball on preplanned set moves. Also looked pretty lazy in defence. TOB streaked past him on a few occasions.

conquestscarer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121327188#Comment_121327188

Disagree about Kinghorn, he might not have cleaned up everything at the back but he was a huge counterattacking threat in the second half. Edinburgh always looks like a team that operates below the sum of its parts, Glasgow is the polar opposite in that regard. Why I thought that people saying the game was lost before it had even started were wrong.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121326253#Comment_121326253

So? I fail to see how this makes a mockery of anything. I think it's a bit mad the English players are going straight back in but clubs rule the roost there.

I think some of the irish players could have been eased back in this weekend so I don't think the system is perfect or anything. I have no idea why English players going straight back somehow invalidates the irish approach though. It's not like they're doing it cause they thought the players were physically incapable.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121326063#Comment_121326063

It's one of those things that's quite difficult to prove but this is going to be a very long season for the players. I suspect also we'll take a strong squad on the end of season tour than other teams.

I see no issue at all with a 3 week break in what is essentially going to be close to a full year long season.

Clegg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121327266#Comment_121327266

That's the second half though. He was very poor in the first and only came to life when Edinburgh were far enough behind that they weren't going to win. He's 26 years old with 50 Scotland caps. I don't think he's playing at the level get should be for someone with that amount of talent.

AdamD

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121327266#Comment_121327266

Kinghorn was borderline disgraceful, other than one good counter attack he was possibly the worst player on the pitch. A close battle between him and Duhan

pickarooney

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121327409#Comment_121327409

If it's not because they're physically incapable, what's the reasoning? I get that it's a great opportunity for squad-building but at the same time it shows Irish clubs sill don't treat the URC completely seriously.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121327485#Comment_121327485

Because the rest could be important down the line. As I've said it's a very long season ahead for all of them. The club sides do not care about that.

If it wasn't perceived as a benefit why are they French and English unions continually trying to negotiate to get similar arrangements?

pickarooney

How can you have a rest before the season has even started? I get that the lads who played against NZ need a few weeks off but I don't understand how Byrne, Baird, McCloskey need a rest now when they've played about an hour of rugby each since the summer. Casey and Crowley were back at least this weekend so it doesn't seem to be a blanket rule.

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121327485#Comment_121327485

Are you saying the French clubs are not taking the Top 14 seriously as well because they still have a lot of players who are not playing

Player welfare is part and parcel of a well respected club. Something which over the years the English clubs have clearly failed to provide, I remember Donncha o'Callaghan went to England and said their training was about 10 years behind the Irish clubs. Hardly a ringing endorsement for the competition

conquestscarer

Tbh if we played the next 2 games with a similar team to this week I'm not sure anyone would complain. We came out of the 3 games with 10 points out of a possible 15 and in 6/7th place. Players like Boyle and Culhane also seem to be properly blooded in now, In Boyles case he scrummaged against 2 international props and will have learnt a ton about the scrum which hopefully will lead to him kicking on.

I understand moaning about internationals not getting selected pregame, but after winning the game with a bonus point I'm not sure theres any complaints, the lads did their jobs and our internationals got an extra week off, win win.

Dave_The_Sheep

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121327482#Comment_121327482

And he went in with a high shoulder on Russell lateish on and was lucky it wasn't a few inches higher.

sydthebeat

I wonder what the difference is between English players, paid by their club, and Irish players, paid by their union, is when it comes to playing time management???

And when I ponder on that question, I wonder which system is best for the player???