[Match Thread]Exeter Chiefs V Leinster - Sat April 10th - K.O. 5.30pm - BT Sport 2

Buer

prawnsambo wrote: »

I always look at those stats as a bit misleading when a blitz defence is in operation. You get lots of missed tackles when shooting up out of the line, but they're not usually a problem. Also get them with kick chases. We definitely missed some vital ones for their two tries, but there were also a lot under the circumstances above.

Did we play a blitz? I'd have said our defence was too passive and uncertain if anything in the opening quarter. There was a lot of players sitting back on their heels, not sure what decision to make. We only really started coming up hard in final quarter when we smelled blood and Exeter were panicked.

I reckon we must have missed 15 tackles in those first 20 minutes. Any time Exeter had possession in our half, they looked like they'd break us open. I think communication and spacing was a far bigger problem. The opening try was horrendous from multiple players. The second was only marginally better with ROL being completely uncertain as to whether he steps in or not.

Buer

stephen_n wrote: »

When you look at the stats, it was such an evenly matched game. It goes to show the importance of taking your points when they’re on offer though.

What the stats aren't really calling out is the dominance Leinster had in key forward battles. The Chiefs conceded a couple of scrum penalties and lost 4 line outs. Those were huge moments in the game in terms of territory and the scoreboard. Leinster's opening try started off with a quick tap off a scrum penalty and the third came from a stolen line out on the 5m line.

No set piece, no win.

Clegg

Leinster have a very special player in Ryan Baird. Think he stole three Exeter lineouts in his 30 minutes off the bench. All three of them were in crucial areas as well.

Opening try was bizarre and several players got their hands on O'Flaherty but none sufficient to drag him down. Credit to the player there too, he kept working and took a great score but Sexton won't want to watch that one back.

Second try was more structural but still could have been snuffed out bar individual errors, Larmour, O'Loughlin and to a degree Furlong being guilty this time around. Exeter took their line out and went the full width of the pitch (with Ruddock winning a clear turnover), they then move the ball the entire way back, creating a gap for Slade and his offload to O'Flarherty was class.

The second try was well worked, they stretched Leinster and got away with a hail Mary pass from Hogg and a missed turnover - but they moved us the full width of the pitch twice, that will create gaps.

From there we tightened up and turned the screw. It was a real vintage Leinster performance and a very typical Leinster victory in how we've edged out teams before.

Exeter for ten minutes at the start of each half showed their quality, but we kicked better and our lineout and defensive lineout were the winning of the game. Set piece in general was excellent against top opposition and the territory it gave us was key when you look at the gains Exeter made ball in hand at times.

The stats are interesting, Exeter with more turnovers and half the number of missed tackles. More or less same number of clean breaks and carries but we made nearly 100m more ball in hand. I'd like to see the individual stats for the forwards because I feel a lot of the damage we did was those tight carries which gave us gainline and quick ball. On the turnside we slowed down Exeter ball ALL match. Commentary pointed to one patch where three attempted choke tackles basically had Exeter at a standstill despite keeping the ball alive TM and they went backwards in possession as a result.

VDF was terrific but overall and once again the better drilled pack won it for us. Set piece, breakdown, line defence all suffocating for Exeter and a template for us to go on and have a good championship run with.

Backs went well in attack, patchy in defence. Larmour with two classy finishes, Lowe popped up a lot outside of his try, filled in at 9 a few times, linked up well and carried a few times inside the Exeter 22 when no forwards were available. Henshaw had another top quality game but defensively didn't quite reach the heights of his Munster performance, his tackling as ever was ferocious but was out of position a couple of times and is partially responsible for the first Exeter try. Keenan similarly had an early wobble but excellent otherwise and O'Loughlin improved from his Munster performance.

Luke McGrath a bit more of a mixed bag with some passages where his passing was really inaccurate and we were lucky not to turnover but given the pace we were playing at I'm willing to give him a pass. Really excellent display from Ross Byrne, heard someone suggest earlier he had an armchair ride but that's as close to the line as I've seen him play and he had two high tackles to show for it. He was physical in defence and made great decisions - his best game in blue I'd say.

Buer

[Deleted User] wrote: »

The stats are interesting, Exeter with more turnovers and half the number of missed tackles. More or less same number of clean breaks and carries but we made nearly 100m more ball in hand.

I can only assume they kept the ROL intercept stats in there as the play was live. That was about 60m with ball in hand. I don't think ROL would be down for almost 100m individually otherwise.

Buer

Buer wrote: »

I can only assume they kept the ROL intercept stats in there as the play was live. That was about 60m with ball in hand. I don't think ROL would be down for almost 100m individually otherwise.

Ah yeah possibly. As has been said - stats don't paint the full picture but we were more dominant than they suggest too.

As I said in my post I think the missing stat which would account for Leinsters dominance at times is ruck speed.

errlloyd

It was Ross Byrnes Sexton replacing Contepomi moment for me.

prawnsambo

errlloyd wrote: »

It was Ross Byrnes Sexton replacing Contepomi moment for me.

As Murray Kinsella has just tweeted.

Buer

errlloyd wrote: »

It was Ross Byrnes Sexton replacing Contepomi moment for me.

It was a superb showing. People have commented on his pass for Larmour's second try but I was happy with his role in the first.

It's a relatively basic pass but it was off the left, flat and with zip. Most importantly, it was inch perfect for Keenan to run onto. We've had a real issue in Ireland with passing in front of people and losing momentum because of passes that are a fraction off. With Larmour having about an inch to spare on the grounding, any inaccuracy in his pass would have led to the chance being lost. Guys like Carty and Burns execute that pass without issue and it's where they're better than Byrne historically.

Great to see areas where Byrne hasn't been brilliant at times are improving whilst his traditional strengths remain solid.

Bridge93

The O Flaherty breaks were bizarre. Good play from him but I don’t think he did anything particularly unusual. He appeared to just run fast and on 4 separate occasions people just fell off him. Suppose he targeted forwards well a few times but seemed odd

AbusesToilets

Does Bryne defend at 10? Such an underrated aspect of Sextons game imo

UAEguy2020

Made me question why people slam Byrne so much but hype of Simmonds, Byrne totally schooled Simmonds from start to finish despite being virtually the same age. But just because Simmonds looks amazing against Worcester and Newcastle Falcons he’s a star.

arsebiscuits1

AbusesToilets wrote: »

Does Bryne defend at 10? Such an underrated aspect of Sextons game imo

Yes Byrne defends the 10 channel.

9 tackles yesterday including an excellent old school dump tackle to allow Josh get a poach.

I'd have Ross as the second best defensive 10 in Ireland behind Johnny. Well capable of a big hit and has stopped a few big men short of the line when they target him

cantwbr1

Larmours finish for his second try was excellent. Managing to twist and touch down showed great strength agility and touch line awareness. Very similar to Keith Earls disallowed try against England for agility and awareness

sebdavis

UAEguy2020 wrote: »

Made me question why people slam Byrne so much but hype of Simmonds, Byrne totally schooled Simmonds from start to finish despite being virtually the same age. But just because Simmonds looks amazing against Worcester and Newcastle Falcons he’s a star.

You will find a lot of players in the Premiership are over hyped, once they come up against decent competition they are ordinary

sebdavis

sebdavis wrote: »

You will find a lot of players in the Premiership are over hyped, once they come up against decent competition they are ordinary

We should settle down a bit with this talk, Exeter won the competition last season with largely the same group of players.

Sabre0001

sebdavis wrote: »

You will find a lot of players in the Premiership are over hyped, once they come up against decent competition they are ordinary

Never happens in Ireland of course that people are in a Harry - err, sorry, hurry - to get a player into the starting Irish side vs France after playing well in league

Squidgy Black

Wrong thread Venjur

Squidgy Black

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Wrong thread Venjur

I just copped that...!

UAEguy2020

sebdavis wrote: »

You will find a lot of players in the Premiership are over hyped, once they come up against decent competition they are ordinary

When the media need to continue to hype something that usually means they are full of ****.

UAEguy2020

Sabre0001 wrote: »

Never happens in Ireland of course that people are in a Harry - err, sorry, hurry - to get a player into the starting Irish side vs France after playing well in league

Not as bad as hype if Simmonds as a Lions candidate despite not being picked for England just because he looks good against the likes of Worcester and Newcastle...we saw yesterday why he doesn’t get picked for England and why we won’t come close to a Lions selection.

Dubinusa

I think Sexton should consider his options after this season. I would assume the medical team are in his ear and advising him as to the extent of his head knocks?
It's got to be on his mind. I know he just re signed and wants to continue, but at what cost to his health?

FrannoFan

UAEguy2020 wrote: »

Not as bad as hype if Simmonds as a Lions candidate despite not being picked for England just because he looks good against the likes of Worcester and Newcastle...we saw yesterday why he doesn’t get picked for England and why we won’t come close to a Lions selection.

All countries guilty of that around lions time "my player *** who plays for my club *** but can't make the national side should travel because I think he's great"

UAEguy2020

FrannoFan wrote: »

All countries guilty of that around lions time "my player *** who plays for my club *** but can't make the national side should travel because I think he's great"

No one goes as far as hyping players for the Lions despite the player not being good enough for their country. Up there with Solomon on the last tour.

FrannoFan

UAEguy2020 wrote: »

No one goes as far as hyping players for the Lions despite the player not being good enough for their country. Up there with Solomon on the last tour.

I remember a madigan for lions process at one point in Joe's last year with Leinster.

Fans will hype their own naturally enough.

Larmour follows his two tries with a few more in a semi and a final people will be doing it here even though he wasn't starting for ireland through the 6 nations

Podge_irl

FrannoFan wrote: »

I remember a madigan for lions process at one point in Joe's last year with Leinster.

Fans will hype their own naturally enough.

Larmour follows his two tries with a few more in a semi and a final people will be doing it here even though he wasn't starting for ireland through the 6 nations

Ah, sure in Joe's last year for Leinster there were people suggesting Madigan had overtaken Sexton and if Sexton wasn't leaving for Racing he would lose his spot anyway.

There are always people with insane views.

UAEguy2020

FrannoFan wrote: »

I remember a madigan for lions process at one point in Joe's last year with Leinster.

Fans will hype their own naturally enough.

Larmour follows his two tries with a few more in a semi and a final people will be doing it here even though he wasn't starting for ireland through the 6 nations

Are you sure the person who suggested it was completely sober?

Maybe but only if it’s within reason.

There’s a difference though when you are Larmour who’s got 30 caps or so for Ireland and someone like Simmonds who’s not been capped for years.

theVersatile

UAEguy2020 wrote: »

Made me question why people slam Byrne so much but hype of Simmonds, Byrne totally schooled Simmonds from start to finish despite being virtually the same age. But just because Simmonds looks amazing against Worcester and Newcastle Falcons he’s a star.

You mean the same Simmonds who *checks notes* won the competition last year beating the likes of Finn Russell's Racing in the progress?

Making these comparisons based off singular games is silly.

aloooof

theVersatile wrote: »

You mean the same Simmonds who *checks notes* won the competition last year beating the likes of Finn Russell's Racing in the progress?

Making these comparisons based off singular games is silly.

He won European player of the year last year, as far as I remember.

Dubinusa

After watching the match back I am still amazed at the performance the back row. All 3 lads were outstanding.
Equally impressive was RB. He was the business. I also thought that Sexton was going quite well.

Former Former Former

aloooof wrote: »

He won European player of the year last year, as far as I remember.

That was his brother.

I don't see any prospect of Joe being a Lion. He has a loooong way to go to be in the conversation of best out-halves in Europe IMO.

aloooof

Former Former Former wrote: »

That was his brother.

I don't see any prospect of Joe being a Lion. He has a loooong way to go to be in the conversation of best out-halves in Europe IMO.

My bad!

UAEguy2020

theVersatile wrote: »

You mean the same Simmonds who *checks notes* won the competition last year beating the likes of Finn Russell's Racing in the progress?

Making these comparisons based off singular games is silly.

You mean Exeter won it with Simmonds being one of the 23 players on the day to win a medal?

What was his best moment from that run can you tell me?

Full match available anywhere?

Garda Kenny

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Full match available anywhere?

Rugbylist

.ak

I’m still grinning.

degsie

Looked at it again, JDF was MASSIVE!