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

And Stander was moved to 6 to accommodate Conan in his last season as well, which ultimately led to Conan becoming a test Lion.

Stander's ability to turnover ball in his final couple of years was exceptional, and he fitted in perfectly at 6. However, he didn't offer anywhere near the link threat that Conan did/does and teams were able to nullify him more often than not. I'm of the opinion that was a system failure rather than any knock against Stander. I said for years he needed to play 6 and Conan should play 8 because POM and VDF were not carrying threats.

In terms of skillsets, Conan offers more especially in attack. How anyone can deny that is beyond me but that's the nature of discussion forums. Conan regularly outclassed Stander when they came up against each other too.

Heaslip was on another level to both of them. Genuinely the most rounded and skilled Irish forward I've ever seen until his very last game when some of the unappreciative fools here were frothing at the mouth for him to be dropped.

So individual player performances don't matter now?

Conan started alongside VDF and Stander with POM on the bench in that game.

We had one significant injury in James Ryan. Will Connors too but there was only ever one replacement for him

Who's being inaccurate now?

You just going to ignore the fact that Conan was out injured for well over a year and was working his way back from injury when you make that assessment about 'the first two games'.

As I said, all three back-rowers who started the first game against Wales were available for the game against England, and Stander was moved to 6 to accommodate Conan, who went on to become a test Lion.

If the above isn't true, then why not start POM? That back-row had played together numerous times.

Some of the mental gymnastics at play here is genuinely very weird. I highlighted before that there's a weird thing here against Conan and there always has been. The facts are very simple, no matter what way you try to spin it.

EDIT: As for the quote, I would expect someone who is held in as high regard as Jack is to say something like that, but the facts are that POM was available and he was benched, and Stander was moved.

He didn't just start 'because of injuries'. They helped of course, like POM against England in 2017, but Conan, like POM earned his spot.

Already addressed that in my edit there.

I see you've run away from your stupid take on how players can't be compared when they're playing against each other.

That's the type of disingenuous bad faith sh*te I was talking about which led to you 'leaving' a few weeks ago.

Point out where I said 'for' his last season. I specifically said 'in' because that's a factually correct statement.

A back-row of POM, VDF and CJ was available against England. Farrell decided not to go with that, and moved Stander to accommodate Conan.

Those are the facts. Stander was moved to accommodate Conan despite POM being available. Why are you having such a difficult time acknowledging this?