Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

pickarooney · 30-01-2025 11:02am

We should take a punt on a lesser light from the NFL such as Louis Rees-Zammit.

niallm77 · 30-01-2025 6:28pm

WElcome to Leinster Beauden....

.

Serbian · 30-01-2025 11:56pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123115430#Comment_123115430

I disagree on the depth. We have to play two of those players you've listed and apart from Lowe, we really don't have an international quality player for the other side of the pitch. Everyone in Leinster's strongest team should be around test quality imo and neither Larmour nor Jimmy O'Brien are that.

Aitzol King and Russell have been cut from the squad, Turner is a terrible winger and Tommy O'Brien is almost never fit. I remain unconvinced by A. Osborne, but he is a first year academy player so we'll have to wait and see where he goes over the next couple of years. Needless to say, you wouldn't be super keen to see him start a Champions Cup game against Toulouse for example.

I think it's almost guaranteed we sign someone to fit into that 14 shirt for next season.

RichieRich_89 · 31-01-2025 1:55am

If Jamie Osborne doesn't feature much or at all in the 6N he might go on that mini tour to SA for Leinster. The team could potentially be pretty strong for that, at least relative to the last two times they were down in SA.

Jack Boyle
Gus McCarthy
Rabah Slimani
R.G. Snyman
Brian Deeny
Alex
Will Connors
James Culhane
Luke McGrath
Ross Byrne
Jimmy O'Brien
Jordie Barrett
Hugh Cooney
Andrew Osborne
Jamie Osborne
John McKee
Paddy McCarthy
Rory McGuire
Diarmuid Mangan
Max Deegan
Fintan Gunne
Charlie Tector
Ciarán Frawley

Others travelling: Alex Usanov, Stephen Smyth, Andrew Sparrow, Conor O'Tighearnaigh, Scott Penny, Cormac Foley, Liam Turner, Henry McErlean

Jordan Larmour might be back by then too.

It looks as if they could select a side that's competitive this time. I'm interested to see Tector at outhalf. I wonder if he's got more upside than Byrne and Frawley.

MangleBadger · 31-01-2025 9:24am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123118965#Comment_123118965

I wonder if Jordie/RG/Rabah are too important to send down with Quins the following. Although you would hope we wouldn't be enough to get past Quins without them.

Podge_irl · 31-01-2025 9:30am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123119354#Comment_123119354

The management have absolutely cocked up the URC the last two years, so I'll be fairly annoyed if they don't take the SA tour seriously.

crisco10 · 31-01-2025 9:35am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123119354#Comment_123119354

Maybe go down for Week 1? if they fly home the day after the first game or given the 1st match is an afternoon game in Pretoria, they might be able to fly home that night. That would still give them 12 or 13 days back in Dublin to prepare.

Serbian · 31-01-2025 10:01am

Yeah, we've sent some slightly closer to first team players over for the first week before which we may do again, although it's unfortunate that we have the Bulls in that first fixture as I feel like we'd have a better chance of getting something out of the Sharks game. Honestly, even coming home with a single losing bonus point would be a decent result — we got 0 points last season.

Former Former Former · 31-01-2025 10:35am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123119378#Comment_123119378

In fairness, two years ago they got the SA tour exactly right. Coming home with 5 points was a great outcome and we still topped the table by a huge margin.

Now, things went slightly sideways after that but hey, nobody's perfect.

jonok28 · 31-01-2025 2:37pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123118848#Comment_123118848

I was looking to see if there is any Irish qualified wingers who fit the bill and nobody really comes to mind. There is a winger in Australia called Corey Toole who plays for the Brumbies who could possibly be Irish qualified and he is lightning quick and according to https://all.rugby/club/brumbies/squad is in the last year of his contract. From the clips I've seen if him he looks a player. Even if he isn't IQ, he could be worth a punt.

arsebiscuits1 · 31-01-2025 2:58pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123120546#Comment_123120546

He's only 2 years younger than Hansen and has only played 30 professional games of Rugby.

Nothing wrong with thinking outside the box - indeed it worked out pretty well with Mack. But I don't think this guy would be the answer.

Especially not as a NIQ player. Humphries has stated in his most recent media interview that the 3 NIQ spot is not the rule anymore but even still I don't think it would be worth it to Leinster to sign a low profile NIQ

jonok28 · 31-01-2025 3:20pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123120620#Comment_123120620

Your probably right but I am convinced we need someone one the right wing with serious pace, feels like Leinster aren't fully realising the potential they have with out some game breaking speed.

Exclamation Marc · 31-01-2025 4:25pm

I see that Stuart Lancaster has left Racing with immediate effect. Shame it didn't work out for him over there.

CMOTDibbler · 31-01-2025 8:54pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123120890#Comment_123120890

Sorry to hear that. It was a tough gig, the T14 is an unforgiving place.

johnh6767 · 31-01-2025 8:57pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123118965#Comment_123118965

I like that

Clegg · 31-01-2025 9:08pm

Edit

scott1974 · 01-02-2025 9:02pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123120890#Comment_123120890

I think Irish Rugby would be mad not to get him back I'm some capacity.

niallm77 · 01-02-2025 9:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123125282#Comment_123125282

Lancaster has been out of England since 2016. He may just fancy a job close to home next. He is linked to Tigers already.

Serbian · 01-02-2025 9:56pm

He’ll probably go back to England. Even when he was with us, I don’t believe he ever fully committed to living in Ireland for example. Nothing wrong with that, but I think he’s a homebird and there’s a good opportunity available close to home.

niallm77 · 01-02-2025 10:00pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123125477#Comment_123125477

He was living in dublin and commuted home to see family. He could bring laptop with him and do stuff there. He spoke about this with Joe Molloy.

He would fly over Monday morning and be in UCD for training.

He went home Tuesday evening and came back Thursday morning as Wednesday is traditionally a players day off.

CMOTDibbler · 01-02-2025 11:05pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123125488#Comment_123125488

That amount and level of commuting would get old very fast. He did well to keep it up for so many years.

Clegg · 02-02-2025 1:41pm

There's zero point in trying to discuss Prendergast's performance in the match thread. It has been taken over by posters frothing at any chance to drop him. It's a point scoring exercise over what Prendergast and Crowley did well or poorly.

He was ok yesterday. Made some mistakes and in the opening quarter he was definitely struggling to impose himself. But he improved pretty quickly after that. Made some nice passes to put runners through gaps and was actually a threat running to the line. There were times he got the ball, running at a slight angle, straightened, then popped the ball to a runner. It's very encouraging he's doing that despite the initial England defensive pressure.

He's still a rookie flyhalf with fewer than 20 professional starts across test and provincial rugby. With more experience he'll start taking the correct decisions more often. The games against La Rochelle and England were the biggest of his career to date. They were less about excelling and more about managing to cope with the setbacks he experienced. In that regard he adapted well.

It bodes well for Leinster this season and in seasons to come that a very young, inexperienced 10 can be rattled yet regain his composure mid game.

El_Duderino 09 · 02-02-2025 1:50pm

I'm amused by the discussion of Prendergast and Crowley. They're both good players already even though they're both quite young. Both are improving over time. Neither is top tier and I don't think anyone is suggesting either should be Lions first choice 10.

I don't really mind which one starts and which one comes off the bench. The impact from the bench yesterday was huge. I don't mind if they don't just ask who is the better player and start them. I'm fine if they decide which one is better to bring on in the last 20 or 25 mins. They're both good and there's not much between them in either direction.

If you're enjoying the provincial bickering, then go ahead. But ultimately they're both good options so I don't mind which one starts.

darkened_scrum · 02-02-2025 2:13pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123127095#Comment_123127095

No different to how it was in the Autumn. There are a cohort of people waiting in the long grass for every mistake, not that it particularly matters what they think.

AbusesToilets · 02-02-2025 2:23pm

I do think he could do with a preseason worth of sprint training, try to improve his burst of speed. I don't doubt that there's some truth to the idea defenses aren't worried about him as a running threat.

He has a good instinct for keeping the tempo up in a game. We've seen him go for quick taps repeatedly, and erroneously, multiple times. I like that trait about him

Serbian · 02-02-2025 3:05pm

I was impressed with Prendergast yesterday. He didn’t start all that well, but Ireland didn’t start well so he had no platform. Once we got into the swing of things, I thought he started running the line very well.

The only real blot on his performance was the first conversion attempt, he really should have been slotting that and at this level, those fine margins can really matter.

Generally speaking, I think Prendergast has two major selling points over Crowley which I think has seen him take the jersey for now.

His passing is the first thing and it’s really exceptional. He’s one of the best passers of the ball I’ve ever seen. Those raking wide passes seem to be key to how we play with Ireland now, and he executed a good number of them yesterday with incredible accuracy and pace. Crowley has been trying similar passes for Munster but has more often than not thrown them forward. It was interesting to see other players such as Sheehan take on the role when Crowley came on.

The other big thing for Prendergast is his kicking from hand, both line kicking and kicking in play. I think this area of his game didn’t function well yesterday and he seemed to be unable to find his usual connection to the ball. It resulted in some of his spirals ending up aimlessly in the middle of the pitch. He got away with a few of them, but the first one lead to the first English try. Crowley wasn’t much better on this front, he had one superb kick from hand immediately after he came on, but apart from that I’d say he was no improvement on Prendergast. His line kicking in particular is extremely short.

Crowley obviously has other areas of his game that are a lot better than Prendergast, but I think we’re valuing the things he does better higher than the things he does worse right now.

From a Leinster perspective, I’m very excited to see how he gets on in the knockout stages of Europe. I think we’ll see him improve dramatically in front of our very eyes over the next few months.

Exclamation Marc · 02-02-2025 3:26pm

Andy Dunne was on OTB the other day and lamented the obsession in Ireland to "annoint" a number 10 and discard all others. I find the Crowley vs Prendergast exhausting as that's ultimately what led us down the road of only having a single suitable 10 for years and doesn't really help either player.

Both players can make each other better and should be alternated and rotated as they bring different skills to the table. As a Leinster fan, I want to see both of them get their chances and meaningful starts as well as impactful appearances of the bench. SA have shown just how successful they can be with multiple 10s in their squad, any of whom can start and not look out of place. Sam will benefit from starting big games and he'll benefit from closing out big games so let's have it.

Bringing it back to this thread, the great thing for Leinster is that Prendergast is still so young and has broken into the team years before Sexton did. I'm really excited to see where Sam can and will go and whether he has great games, average games or crap games, ultimately it will all stand to him in the long run.

hold my beer · 02-02-2025 7:17pm

The shout for a Sam - Crowley seperate thread is a great one, it's mind numbing reading the crap that gets posted in multiple threads at this stage.

jonok28 · 02-02-2025 8:04pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123128268#Comment_123128268

I look at Sam and Jack and I keep thinking about Libbok and Pollard. Its not a like for like obviously but I like they idea of that quality back up who comes in takes over games would be really interesting.

Serbian · 02-02-2025 9:10pm

100% agree with the weird obsession about having an incumbent. If we’re ever going to win a World Cup (or even get past a quarter final 😅) we’re going to need both Sam and Jack. I’d love to see them both hit unprecedented heights for Ireland (but I hope Sam does better with Leinster 😂)

johnh6767 · 02-02-2025 11:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123128641#Comment_123128641

My point exactly, every specialist position needs 2 or 3 to test level

Sangre · 03-02-2025 8:35pm

There will be plenty that Sam can work on from the 6N game. He did a lot of good things but mixed in some poor things which is to be expected. However, what impressed me most is that he never dropped his head. England came racing out of the blocks with a gameplan to play a rush defence with 3 opensides to disrupt Irelands flow. Basically, a nightmare for any outhalf. It worked for a decent chunk of the game but Sam didn't seem particularly phased (other than his kicking perhaps) and just kept at it.

England were always going to tire after that first half effort in Dublin having not built a decent lead, and given that Ireland kept themselves in the game were bound to half a purple patch in second half.

Podge_irl · 03-02-2025 9:15pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123131626#Comment_123131626

His kicking was mixed rather than bad as well. The first missed conversion was a horror show obviously but it happens. His kicking from hand was some good some bad. As you said I'm happy enough with it all things considered.

I was hoping but not sure he'd get ahead of Ross Byrne for the year so he's already well ahead of where I thought he might be.

conquestscarer · 04-02-2025 7:42am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123131744#Comment_123131744

Selecting Ross Byrne over him and not winning a trophy is the kind of decision that would get you sacked.

CMOTDibbler · 04-02-2025 7:57am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123131744#Comment_123131744

I was happy enough about how he played, taking into account that it was a big match for him. Impressed at how he put the errors behind him and took that penalty. That first conversion attempt was likely rushed as the shot clock was running down, had 4 second left when he kicked it. Not sure how that came about, but he'll learn from it.

He got a lot of attention from the England forwards with some lateish hits after the ball was passed or kicked. Didn't seem to faze him, just got up and carried on. I'd be very surprised if he doesn't start against Scotland. Dropping him now would send the wrong message, especially after the depressing furore on social media. No coach wants to be seen to be bowing to pressure from that quarter. Never mind that It's the wrong thing to do with a developing out half.

johnh6767 · 04-02-2025 9:00am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123132393#Comment_123132393

I think we need to drop the word drop. They can alternate between 2 great 10’a

CMOTDibbler · 04-02-2025 9:15am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123132504#Comment_123132504

True. The reason I used that word though is that it would feel like that to Prendergast, regardless of the intention.

Podge_irl · 04-02-2025 9:31am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123132504#Comment_123132504

They can, and that is a discussion moreso for the Ireland thread, but "alternating" 10s didn't work very well for Leinster last season. I'm not a huge fan of it.

AbusesToilets · 04-02-2025 12:51pm

He does have an odd looking shuffle to him when moving around the pitch. It looks like what you do when you don't want to walk quickly but don't want to get somewhere too soon. An airborne shuffle to use a term

leakyboots · 04-02-2025 1:43pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123133243#Comment_123133243

Like a fella crossing the road ahead of incoming traffic who "runs" but doesn't actually go any faster than if he just kept walking 😅

AbusesToilets · 04-02-2025 1:47pm

Yes, exactly lol

CMOTDibbler · 04-02-2025 2:12pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123133417#Comment_123133417

Douglas Adams in 'The meaning of Liff' (If you don't know this book, get it) called that manoeuvre a 'Sturry'. A cross between a stroll and a hurry. Also the name of a town in England which is what the book is all about. 😂