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

Is that what happened? I didn't see the game.

If they got outmuscled I'm sure it was just an off day, and it won't be their achilles heel for the next 4 years.

I think Leinsters interest in Andrew Goodman replacing Contepomi was mentioned elsewhere in this thread. Here's a link to the article mooting it.

I've no idea if it's a good move or not as I haven't watched enough Super Rugby to say what the Crusaders attack is like. If he can help our backs with decision making under pressure I'm all for it.

I think the Leinster fans can take comfort in the fact that they would've lost to stormers in the final anyway......

Good to get their beating out of the way early....like ripping off a bandage.....

mod: carded.

Your a very naughty boy!!

I don't know boys! I think Doris is a weakness, too many errors! People bitchin about Conan and yet Doris has hands like cement. Leinster were poor, again! The coaches can't make the plays! It's on the lads to make them.

I wouldn't think that we are in a bad way. There's no sense in moaning about poor efforts. I expect that Leo will get it together and start again. In saying that, a lad like Doris who really bolloxed up the play needs to work on his skills. It won't be long until Soroka is breathing down his neck.

JOB was very poor! As was Gibson Park! Leinster were not with it and they looked like they just met up in the parking lot.

Very disappointing!

Feel gutted, but the best team won on the day. Far too many mistakes by Leinster but it was a weird season anyway and the back-to-back was fatiguing for the players and the fans. Next season will be better!

It really is strange! Physically he's great! But, his handling is dire!

The scrum is especially worrisome. We've spent so long blowing smoke up our front row's arses (Ireland and Leinster) that we've become very reluctant to criticise them. Don't get me wrong Leinster's front rows are very good players but they are not as dominant as has been made out. McBryde is responsible for some of those issues.

I think Molony has been the best player for Leinster. Doris is a good player! He's not as good as people think!

I think there is some justifiable criticism of the coaching re: Porter and the technical side of his scrummaging. Yes it's his first season, but the continued failure to improve his technique speaks to a breakdown at some level. With how hyper analysied everything is, I don't see how such a critical aspect can be allowed to continue to fail at that level.

The jury is still out on Porter and there's no other way but to think that the switch has not worked out, so far. In my opinion, he's been poor, to the point that he's a liability. I think he'll get there. His weight is an issue? I think he's too light. His technique is awful too. Porter needs a lot of work.

Whilst I don't think it's necessarily time to hit the red button or hysterically panic, it can't be ignored that we're now trophyless in Europe for four years. Four years where we've been in or around the favorites for the competition. And at the first sniff of the South African teams turning up in the URC, we collapse in the semi final.

It's all well and good identifying players coming through who have performed well and saying that there were fine margins here and there but being consistently "almost there" or "learning lessons" is not a good place to be.

I'm slightly worried that this is becoming the trend rather than the exception that we're not winning the biggest games where it really matters particularly where players are arguably already at their peak.

I'm still trying to decide myself it's mentality, ability or somewhere in the middle.

It's coaching, lad. It's always coaching. Rugby is a team sport, and the biggest influence on a team's playing philosophy and cohesiveness and effectiveness is coaching. Look at South Africa since Erasmus took over versus the state they were in before that.

We're seeing the same thing at Leinster under Lancaster that we saw with England under him - consistently just missing out on trophies if the competition is above league level.

They're consistently missing out when they're not a big fish in a small pond - like they were in the league up to this year. Who was going to beat them to the league title before this season? Glasgow? Edinburgh? Scarlets? Munster? Ulster? Edinburgh and Munster haven't had the attacking edge, and Leinster can just bully those other sides. The pick-and-go game the Bulls managed to repel early on worked in the final against Glasgow in 2019.

Sure there'll be great days in the Euro knockouts, like Toulouse this year or Exeter last year, but there's enough of a body of evidence now to know that they probably won't deliver enough across all the knock-out games to actually win the Heineken Cup. We probably shouldn't expect them to do it - even when they're big favourites, like they were against La Rochelle. Look at the pattern of Lancaster's teams coming up short. The exception is obviously Bilbao 2018 when they squeaked home. But that's one trophy in eleven major tournaments (6 HC, 4 6N, 1 RWC) he's coached. And it's not as if he was coaching Italy or, say, Connacht. His side were amongst the favourites for most of those competitions.

And, yes. Of course it's a difficult competition to win. Racing and previously Clermont being there or thereabouts consistently but failing to get over the line shows that. I'm not so sure Toulouse and Exeter are the same as Leinster. They were in the wilderness for a long time, not consistently coming up short despite being one of the best teams.