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

He has the worst timing with injury of any player I've seen. He made Fitz look like Brett Favre by comparison. Anytime he was in a great vein of form, to where he was in the conversation to compete with Stander or POM ( who he regularly played off the park head to head) he'd get a knock.

Again, I don't see how this is relevant to Leinster. Your issue seems to be more with Ireland, so maybe you'd be better off taking this up in the Ireland thread. If the Ireland coaches want to pick him for Irish squads, that's Ireland's problem and Leinster have no control over that.

Again, surely this is for the Ireland thread?

Jenkins arriving and Molony's form and the play of Joe McCarthy man's that Baird can be utilized in the back row. I think Baird could be a success in the back row! I can see him playing at 8! He is athletic and has pace and is very good in the line out.

In saying that, will he be competing with Deegan and Ruddock? Another angle is Doris. Could Baird shift him? Personally, I would say that Baird has better hands than Doris. This potential move to the back row really is intriguing. There's a lad (Soroka) coming along that I think will be superb. Ruddock is 32? His best years are probably behind him. Either way, Leinster do have a glut of talent available. I would not be surprised to see Deegan make a claim for the 8 shirt.

Fair play to McCarthy can't have been easy

https://twitter.com/ProperChurch/status/609936947516166144?t=yjAcg5TMHyAXUcevbQsXqg&s=19

Timoney did have a brilliant season. So did JOD, so did Ruddock. Small margins make the difference. Though VDF has been on an entirely different level this season to all other backrows. So Timoney or JOD wouldn’t be getting a sniff there. Neither would Connors I’d imagine if he was fit.

I wonder sometimes does familiarity factor into it. We see Ruddock and Munster fans see JOD a lot more. As they are not in camps.

Independent view of timoney. Reading this it's pretty clear why he's ahead of JOD

https://mobile.twitter.com/SamLStandsUp/status/1537767379110965249

Love to see it

This old chestnut revisionism about Stander being some sort of meathead who does nothing but run at opposition... this had been disproved time and time again - he regularly passed more than his fellow backrow members.

There was a good article about him by Murray Kinsella around when he retired that gave the fuller picture of the player - https://www.the42.ie/cj-stander-ireland-career-5386933-Mar2021/

Took lineout ball, especially later in his career. 16 carries per game average. Won 28 turnovers in 50 tests and very rarely got turned over himself. Tackle rate of 92% in his international career. Passed on average 4 times a game across his 50 tests.

Take a look at this from that article - most people think this is a typical CJ carry, hard yards. (I've no doubt he was asked to do those hard yards because was probably one of the only players on the pitch with the engine who could go the full 80 at that sort of stuff but still get involved elsewhere).

Two phases later he's in open play, drawing the tackler and helping Sexton with a clean break.

Off the top of my head I remember a try in his later years with us where he was used as a latch off in an attacking lineout to put someone in. But yeah, all in all, 'no nous' as a footballer.

Neither Conan nor Doris have hit his consistent heights since, which is telling. Doris might yet, he'd want to start by learning how to hold and catch a ball, he's doing a lot of other good things right.

Think that's an overly generous assessment of his play. Conan and Doris are much more fluent in attack. Their lines of running, passing ability and vision are superior to Standers. That's one of the biggest differences between the newer generation of backrow players and his era. Standers first instinct was to take contact.

I didn't say he hardly ever passed. I know his passing stats were actually quite high. The thing was everything he did was telegraphed.

The season only ended a couple of weeks ago and I'm losing my mind! I suppose baseball will hold me over until the new season.

Stander was of course a warrior. I think his ability to stay healthy and play weekly was his strength. He was a very good player and added a competitive strength to Munster and Ireland.

So..... counting the days until next season.

Ahead of who?

Would have been very interesting to see Stander play in this new system. From time to time he was used as I a link player. With good effect. Having additional options playing off him would be interesting. As it would be a difficult decision not to mark him. Towards the end, most teams just double teamed him. As they knew he was going to carry.