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

joedamuss · 08-10-2022 7:06pm

As a Munster supporter this game was a joy to watch, full blooded commitment and great skills, especially after the rubbish served up by Munster last night.

mr. pleasant · 08-10-2022 7:07pm

sure Sharks didn't have their internationals but Leinster had Foley, Russell, Martin Moloney, McKee in the 2nd half and they won that half comfortably. Not too shabby and highly entertaining.

Ben Bailey · 08-10-2022 7:07pm

Ref's warning to McKee serves as motivation

Clegg · 08-10-2022 7:09pm

Lads, Sexton is just incredible. He shouldn't be this good at 37 years old. Pulled apart the Sharks defence with his excellent passing and kicking. He's the best Leinster and Ireland player I've ever watched.

Clegg · 08-10-2022 7:09pm

Glad to hear Ringrose praising Martin Moloney for his performance.

TRC10 · 08-10-2022 7:16pm

Good win. Very happy with the result.

But I'm sorry, I just can't forget the level of physical dominance they had over us in the first half. Good teams will watch that and see clear as day how to beat Leinster.

This won't go down well here with some posters, but if you put a gun to my head now and asked me which of those two sides are more likely to win the URC, I'd say the Sharks.

If you'd fancy us to go toe-toe-toe with today's Sharks pack but with Ox, Mbonambi, Etzebeth and Kolisi...well, you're a more optimistic man than me. People will call me negative but I don't really care.

Juventu4 · 08-10-2022 7:20pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119718522#Comment_119718522

Remember Leinster still have Furlong, Doris, Kelleher, Lowe, Keenan and JGP to come back.

TRC10 · 08-10-2022 7:24pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119718541#Comment_119718541

Kelleher isn't a starter anymore, and Lowe, Keenan and JGP aren't going to make any difference to the pack getting dominated.

Furlong and Doris weren't able to turn the tide against the Bulls and LAR last season. There's no reason to think they'll be able to do it against a Sharks pack that bullied us for 50 minutes today, that's further bolstered by a rake of Springboks.

jacothelad · 08-10-2022 7:24pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119718084#Comment_119718084

Nope.....☺️

Clegg · 08-10-2022 7:32pm

Leinster weren't playing with a full deck either. Of the pack which started tonight just Porter, Sheehan and Jenkins would be considered first choice selections.

There were a lot of disruptions to the side during play as well. We lost Ruddock after 5 minutes and Baird after 50. For the last half hour of the game our backrow contained an academy player and a heavyweight second row. They were excellent.

mr. pleasant · 08-10-2022 7:33pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119718522#Comment_119718522

quite possible, maybe a tad pessimistic. No one is saying that Leinster will win a trophy based on todays performance. I still like the URC better this way, having games like this will be good for Leinster too.

08-10-2022 7:35pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119718161#Comment_119718161

Maybe relax and let the second half kick off before jumping off the top rope like this again.

Clegg · 08-10-2022 7:38pm

Leinster were fairly dominant up front in that second half. We've wanted to see them fronting up when things weren't going their own way and that's exactly what they did. They turned things around after a fairly poor first half.

This is one of Leinsters better league wins in recent years. They were dogged up front and showed a lot of invention in attack. We learned so much more than we would have with the usual 40 point hammering of a Welsh side.

08-10-2022 7:38pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119718239#Comment_119718239

This was exactly the point that Sexton was trying to make to him as well, which he completely ignored.

Dubinusa · 08-10-2022 7:48pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119718262#Comment_119718262

Nonsense. Ringer has been fine in green

Dubinusa · 08-10-2022 7:53pm

The urc is in good shape with the South Africans. Seriously strong physical teans that will push the others to improve. It's not just the forwards either! Some of the backline players are sensational

Clegg · 08-10-2022 7:58pm

Looked at the aerial collision again. The Sharks player was tracking the ball and didn't see Baird so it probably isn't foul player. But he clashes with Baird while the Leinster man is mid air and then lands on his head..

We've heard consistently that players have a duty of care towards each other and collisions like the one we saw will be punished harshly. The referee ignored that.

Clegg · 08-10-2022 8:00pm

This sounds like good news. Hopefully subsequent medical scans give Baird a clean bill of health.

https://twitter.com/CiaranKennedy_/status/1578815186081021953?t=BLEOQgtQOXonkV2UuyPntQ&s=09

08-10-2022 8:04pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119718522#Comment_119718522

I was at the game, and read this comment thinking "jesus I really didn't see that", and I'm home now and just rewatched the first half on TV (wife is pregnant so not much else to do for fun on Saturday nights 😊), and I still absolutely don't see what the hell you're talking about here.

We lost one scrum penalty against the head (the first time we've lost one all season). They scored some nice tries, but more from breakdowns in our backs defending the wide channels than anything else. They absolutely did not have any conceivable physical dominance over us in that half of rugby. You're talking about a game here where I think we trailed them for maybe a minute or two max in the whole contest.

At least three penalties they got in that half there was no way the jackaling player was supporting his weight; most notably the one given to Werner Kok 5m out from their line on the stroke of half time.

It was a superb performance tonight from a really young Leinster side with multiple players playing significant minutes out of position, loads of young lads playing some of their first meaningful minutes in blue, and with some of our very best players still to come back into the side.

When the good teams are watching it and seeing "clear as day" how to beat Leinster, maybe they'll notice the 54 points Leinster racked up as well despite the disruption.

08-10-2022 8:06pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119718492#Comment_119718492

I thought Moloney had an excellent game. Playing out of position at 8 for a lot of it, he carried brilliantly, tackled hard, and I absolutely love the fact that he charged in when Sexton got in the scrap after van Rensburg had two high tackles in 15 seconds; that's exactly the sort of exuberance you want to see from young players.

clsmooth · 08-10-2022 8:12pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119718707#Comment_119718707

I think it was just a horrible and unfortunate collision. All three had their eyes on the ball and no one did anything particularly dangerous. On another day it could have been Baird making contact with a knee to the wingers head. Although I suspect that would have been a red as he would have jumped into the contact area. I think the ref should probably have had a look though. I don’t think Sharks would have argued with a yellow.

Just glad to hear he’s ok. It was a sickening fall and he didn’t move for a while after.

Clegg · 08-10-2022 8:21pm

I'm really encouraged by tonight's win. Leinster not only turned things around after being under a lot of pressure in the first half, but we also saw the continuing development in their attacking structure with their varied kicks.

Henshaw, Ngatai and Sexton all played cross field kicks to the wings when they didn't have penalty advantage. We also saw grubbers and chips over the defence. They caught the Sharks defence cold time after time with these kicks. You just don't expect teams to take risks like that. And by having multiple players making those kicks the defence can't just sit down on the 10 to stop them. It makes them second guess themselves and puts doubt in their mind.

A few weeks ago we saw JOB and Ringrose make similar kicks. Having a backline that can create through a varied kicking game adds a very exciting new dimension to the game plan.

aloooof · 08-10-2022 8:23pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119718178#Comment_119718178

And as recently as January, you were telling us the SA had added nothing to league, TRC.

Opposition teams are gonna have purple patches against even the best teams in the world.

Interested Observer · 08-10-2022 8:31pm

If that isn't the game of the weekend I'll eat my hat. Well done Sharks, couldn't complain if they'd gotten something from the game but missing some of their big players obviously didn't help them. Thought Leinster were second best for a lot of the first half but the second half was really good.

Injuries definitely a concern.

Ringrose, wow.

A-Train · 08-10-2022 8:34pm

What a great game of rugby. That match was worth so much more to Leinster than a normal run of the mill league match, they had had to dig deep.

On another note Leinster have really upped their game around the RDS and it was packed today. I brought 2 of mine today and they had a ball.

stephen_n · 08-10-2022 8:45pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119717205#Comment_119717205

Nope definitely too small a sample size to know what the current setup thinks.

08-10-2022 8:58pm

I know people made this same point last week, but I'd love to start a petition to get Hugh Cahill off these rugby commentaries.

He is infuriatingly annoying. Smug, condescending, overly opinionated about things he has very little clue about.

The criticism of Sexton tonight really annoyed me. This guy is stealing a living.

salmocab · 08-10-2022 9:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119718862#Comment_119718862

Yeah I brought mine as he got a ticket for doing the summer camp, so his mates from rugby were there too and we arranged to meet up, the family day seemed to land, weather definitely helped though. Was a good set up alright.

Interested Observer · 08-10-2022 9:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119718862#Comment_119718862

They said over the commentary the attendance was 16k or so, it did not look at all like there were 2k+ empty seats on the TV anyway.

A-Train · 08-10-2022 9:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119719004#Comment_119719004

Yeah I was in the south stand today due to one of the kids getting the free ticket from the summer camp and there were no free seats.

I moved over to my normal season ticket seats in the second half as there were a few free seats. Overall that was the busiest match I have seen in a long time in the RDS. Queues for everything from drinks, food and toilets.

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

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