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

When I've watched Munster over the last 5 years I've seen a team that's less than the sum of it's parts. They have one of the best squads in Europe, full of regular Irish internationals and test Lions, supplemented with quality overseas players like De Allende and previously Stander, Taute, Bleyendaal and Mathewson. A squad that 90% of clubs would kill for.

In 4 seasons they've made the semi finals of Europe twice (by beating Toulon and Edinburgh in the 1/4s) but been comprehensively beaten by Racing and Saracens respectively, didn't get out of the group in 2020 and beaten handily enough at home by Toulouse in the round of 16 this year. That's negative progress.

The only way they could have had a better chance at silverware last season is if the URC was handed to them on a plate. They were at full strength against a far from full strength Leinster (minus Ringrose, Ryan and Doris with Lowe, Sexton and Furlong on the bench) in an empty RDS a week after the 6N, yet they never so much as fired a shot and were comfortably beaten. In fact they were actually given another chance at silverware, but they were knocked out at home by Connacht.

They have consistently played pragmatic, boring and predictable rugby and shown very little evidence of evolution in 4 years. Not to mention the regular signing of average NIQ players like Moore and Jenkins rather than backing their own talent (which is 100% there as we've seen).

I want to see Munster be strong, like I do with all of the provinces. And I don't see why any Munster supporter would be disappointed about JVG leaving.

Murray kinsella tweeted "Sounds like Leinster back in training today, which is great news.

Hopefully Montpellier get all-clear in their testing tomorrow.

All set for a cracker on Friday night in France!"

I think this week is going to be a bizarre game of blink first between Leinster and Montpellier so they're not considered the ones forfeiting the fixture

Spot on with this. Leinster will be doing everything to show they're able to play.

Teams announced Thursday.

I dunno, the way things are going, I wouldn't be shocked if rounds 3 and 4 were cancelled again so two wins from two could be crucial.

Hard to know. It hasn't arisen yet. Munster has proven they can fulfil a fixture if you have enough players. I'd say it will come down to a matter of both teams going ahead unless both camps are riddled. The travelling team is probably at greater risk as they can't bring in players at the last minute.

Interesting to see how it goes. Hopefully they can isolate the people with covid before it spreads.

Well they were down to just travel for one game anyway, but with the travel restrictions now they would have to travel more than 10 days in advance, complete quarantine/isolation (would they be able to train??) before playing. I can't see it going ahead.

There might be a slight difference with the Munster issue in that the players in South Africa were effectively in a bubble together so players in Ireland weren’t affected whereas even though Leinster are nowhere near as badly hit, all the players are in the same bubble as the people who got covid so it may be a slow burner through the squad.

yeah, wouldnt be surprised to see Montpellier take the opportunity to have a weekend off without any judgement.

Not a lot of scrumhalves or international centres in the gallery