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

Some aspects of the game do make me think that it'll be the same old story again this year with Leinster coming undone in the semi or final when they come up against a side with serious power up front in scrum, maul and carry. It's probably fair to say that Leinster - and Irish sides in general - struggle more against the French combination of power and unpredictability you get from the the likes of Racing, La Rochelle and Toulouse as opposed to the more predictable English style.

How strong is Joe McCarthy's scrummaging and mauling? Leinster need as much power and dynamism up front as possible. Maybe it's not good enough yet. The Leinster scrum was under a lot of pressure in a match against Cardiff (?) earlier in the season when McCarthy played really well around the park.

Some lads thought the frontrow is world class. There's obviously issues to be worked on. It's frustrating as ****! I didn't and Don't think or expect Leinster to win the European cup. There's shortcomings that in my opinion, have been evident in years past. Moving Porter over is the right thing. Only he's struggling at the basis of scrummaging. Doris plays like he's an amputee at times. It's almost automatic that he'll knock the ball at some point.

We big up our players to the point that when they are mangled, we're shocked. Last season it was LaRochelle. Sarries the prior season. It's the same scenario again. Big pack coming in that will probably boss the scrum. If we lose there's going to be the usual opinions etc. Win and I'll be delighted. I think we can win with all ares of our set piece functioning. Toulouse out weigh us by a large margin. I don't think the scrum coach is doing a good job?

I'd bring in Rhys for Doris. Ed Byrne for Healy. Otherwise, it's as you were.

Are we all talking about the same Toulouse side that took extra time and penalties to get past Munster?

Munster…

C’mon, those lads this have some concrete in their legs still come the weekend.

Anyone able to get Premium level tickets. Ticketmaster such a pox of a site

Yep, just two in 326. Make sure you have the €10 unselected as they automatically selected for me. I selected West Stand Premium and East Stand Premium rather than just Best Available.

Yeah that's what it was. It kept selecting the 10quid seats

I was offered East stand six times, even though I checked boxes for West Upper and West Premium and unchecked everything else. Then I was offered West Lower three times. Eventually on the tenth try I got three tickets in the West Premium. It's a disgraceful way for Ticketmaster to carry on.

Yeah they try get rid of the East and South first for sure. Gits. The East would be fine if they didn't make you go the long way round down Bath Ave

.....and the sun in your eyes on East stand more often than not.

Farrells break for the try was a product of keeping them moving. They couldn't fill the line and their 13 was put in an untenable position for it.

The off the ball penalty was hilarious tbh. It was a totally botched move by Munster where DDA held it for too long and Farrell totally overran his line. He was just lucky that he ran into the player!

The stats from the Leicester game are rather interesting. Looking at them you'd think both sides were fairly evenly matched. But the dominant collision figure is wildly in Leinsters favour. When they carried they simply couldn't be stopped. The red zone efficient also shows that Leinster were far more clinical.

One thing that worries me is how quick Toulouse's average ruck speed was against Munster. They were turned over frequently, but when they weren't they generated very quick ball. That's something Leinster must be very wary of as we don't generally tend to hunt for ruck turnovers. Committing too many men to the ruck and failing slow the ball could hurt us.