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

I'll be keeping a close eye on Jack Dunne's progress at Exeter. I feel like Rob Baxter could make a real player out of him. They're losing Skinner and J.Hill so he should see plenty of game time. Hopefully he does a Tadhg Beirne.

He is signing with Connacht along with Josh murphy peter dooley hawkshaw and is Charlie Ryan going west too?

Yeah Charlie Ryan was linked to Exeter but thst link wasnt very strong. Never heard him linked to Connacht.

Do we knownof leinster are finished with him?

Charlie Ryan may get a 4th year? A lad that big could be a loss.

Connacht loading up on Leinster boys! Great to see! Adam Byrne could have a comeback!

It made no sense to me and many other people why Dunne was completely out in the wilderness this season. A lot of people showing obvious concern for depth with Toner retiring.

It's clear now that the coaching staff were making way for McCarthy. And rightly so. Been incredibly impressive so far this season. And being harsh, far surpassing anything we've seen of Dunne

I'm concerned about what'll happen at the ruck tomorrow. We know Leinster don't contest rucks as much as some other sides. It's because they'd rather have extra men in the defensive line. That's a perfectly valid strategy, but we've seen over this season and last that opposition sides are having a lot of success at turning us over and ruining some promising attacks.

Nick Timoney did a proper job on us the last time we played Ulster. Need to get our clearout correct for tomorrow otherwise he'll wreak havoc again. Vermuelen is very effective on the deck as well. News to be fully switched on.

Mad stat to see.

There's almost 400 Leinster caps (391 to be precise)

.... In the Ulster team ha.

That would be a much more interesting stat if Dev and Cronin weren't on the bench with their 477 caps between them haha. Because there are 333 Leinster caps on the Ulster bench which looks impressive if you discount those 2 boys hahaha.

Credit where it is due to McFarland. He's recruited incredibly smartly and backed youth also. There's a lot to like about that Ulster team

This was always going to be a tough one, in Belfast, missing our entire first XV and a chunk of our bench. Ulster are near full strength minus a few.

I'd take a LBP.

Yea! Byrne is not very good, my opinion and Toner offers nothing. I think the more exposure for Clarkson the better!

Will be interesting to see how leinster get on next year during the international windows and especially after the rugby World Cup. At least 6 out of that 23 could will be gone or could be retired.

Should be plenty of game time for young lads coming out of the academy.

This attitude that's often on show from a largish contingent of Irish fans about not being able to see a win or being happy with a bonus point baffles me a bit. If, as is probable if you ask me, this sort of foretelling of results is a mindset that's also present in Irish players then that's not a good thing. How can teams perform optimally if they're overconfident of success against lesser opposition, or happy to get within 7 against bigger teams? Anything can happen in a game of rugby, or sport in general. What position are you placing yourself in if the lesser team you're facing turns up big-time? Maybe this mindset has been part of the problem for Ireland at World Cups.

There's no reason Leinster can't win this match. Looking on oddschecker, the most common odds for a Leinster win seem to be 13/8.

The only time I'd be "happy with a bonus point" - outside of maybe a big away European game when it was all that was needed to secure qualification - would be after a match when Leinster or Ireland were 21 points down with 5 or 10 minutes to go.

Do your experienced players need to be NIQs? Jerkins might be the only NIQ, but off the top of my head Ruddock, Tracy, Molony, McGrath, Ross Byrne and David Kearney will be there as experienced players.

How many are missing? I count 21.

14 with Ireland, almost a full team, just missing a right wing, (Healy, Sheehan, Furlong, Baird, Ryan, Doris, Van der Flier, Conan, Gibson-Park, Sexton, Lowe, Henshaw, Ringrose, Keenan).

and 7 injured (Porter, Kelleher, Abdaladze, Connors, Frawley, Conor O’Brien, Larmour).

Are there more missing?

I count Ulster missing 9.

4 with Ireland (Herring, Henderson, Treadwell, Hume).

and 5 injured (O’Toole, Marshall, Stockdale, McIlroy, Addison).

Also missing Connors, Dave K and Frawley