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

I can't understand this.

If they were doing big works on the grand stand the land around the church would be incredibly valuable for access.

With them working on the Anglesea mainly for the redevelopment I can't see the church adding huge value for the redevelopment.

Tadg captaining Ireland this week. It must mean that Ringrose, Ryan and POM are not playing. Good man Tadg.

Healy could start this one. If so, we will get a look at what he's got left in the tank.

Ngatai called up for the Barbarians. Hopefully he and Jenkins make it through the next few weeks unscathed. The latter played the 80 against Munster and seemed to make it through alright.

Also, I commented in the Munster thread that Jenkins made very little impact in tonight's game. South Africa's tactics were so basic across the test match and the 'A' game. They really inhibit what their forwards can do. We've seen Jenkins draw defenders in, before making nice tip on passes. He can offload in contact and is also intelligent and agile enough to be on the shoulder to receive an offload. He has a well rounded skill set. South Africa just used him as a battering ram to clean up slow ball from the phase before.

Leinsters ability to identify and develop scrumhalves is awful, Patterson would likely have not improved if he had stayed with Leinster.

I'm not sure about that - Osborne left Leinster for Munster before Patterson did.

I agree, track record is fairly shocking, pretty sure Leinster have had to buy in scrumhalves for the last decade bar Mcgrath. Whittaker, Reddan Boss even Simon Keogh who was let go then developed by Harlequinns and brought back

The scrum half development is weird. No 9's of quality. Nick Mc is really just a 3rd string. Foley has potential but, he was poor last time I saw him. There's Ben Murphy in the academy. I hope he develops into a good player.

Patterson looks good playing for Munster. You'd wonder what would have happened if Cooney had stayed? Can't blame him for leaving, he was down the pecking order. Blade may be available. Why not make him an offer?

Maybe! He's got pace and looks to have a decent pass. We've really struggled here! Hugh O' Sullivan was released, Patterson at Munster and we only have Murphy in the academy.

what does that have to do with leinsters inability to develop scrumhalves?

Lowe, Larmour and Kelleher were pictured taking part in Leinsters recent open training session in Tullow. Don't know if they were taking contact yet, but hopefully it's a sign that they aren't miles off returning either. Leinster have managed their injury issues in the back three quite well. But we've seen inaccuracies in our play when it comes to actually scoring trys after making the line break. Will.bw great to have that extra quality available.

Leinster play Ulster in just over three weeks time. You'd hope that at least a few of them will be available for that game. We have Racing away the week after that. They'll be needed.

I'd have to disagree. If there's plenty of talent, where are all those talented scrum halves? They're not showing up at any other province, unless you're saying Leinster are making those players worse? We have plenty of excellent athletes, but like out half, it's a hugely specialised position, and when you're pulling from such a limited pool of players broadly speaking, it's always going to be difficult to surface elite talent within a specific niche.

Forgetting Leinster, Ireland have produced very few great, or even good scrum halves. We've mainly used Reddan, Stringer and Murray over the past 15 years. We've tried other players such as Marmion (28 caps), Boss (22 caps), McGrath (19 caps) and Cooney (11 caps), but similar to out half, there has effectively been one incumbent who couldn't be shifted for an entire generation of players due to zero talent in the pool.

It's completely fair and valid to complain that Leinster have only really produced one good scrum half in the professional era (Luke McGrath, arguably Ciaran Scally who was capped 4 times by the age of 20 but had to retire due to injury), but I think it's pretty definitive that the talent is not there generally speaking. The question is how we widen the pool to find more elite talent.