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

McKee was everywhere last night. He made a good few mistakes along the way but I always think its better to have the instinct to be involved in everything and work on whatever skills were lacking.

What's the craic with Alex Soroka? He was playing AIL this weekend. I'd have thought this is exactly the tike when he'd be getting decent gametime with the internationals away. Is he coming back from injury and needed the AIL gametime or is he out of favour?

I am totally open to him going absolutely nuts and (not that he has to) proving me wrong. Hopefully!

I thought Ala'Alatoa had a poor game. Is his scrummaging weak lately? Overall, he's been a good signing and has 40 appearances already. He didn't have much of an impact.

We were not good on 2nd viewing. A lot of errors and to Dragons credit, they had good linespeed and reads. We still won though. Some read by Luke to swipe that try!

Agreed about lads moving for match time. According to some rumors, Sean O'Brien is off to Leinster West next year. Connacht will be getting a decent player if it happens.

I was disappointed to see Dunne and ROL leave but, that's life. They are doing fairly well at Exeter and fair play to them.

Moloney had a poor game by his usual standards. I Thought Deeney went well enough. Deegan was fairly quiet too.

Scrums were at lottery as they always are with Adamson. Both teams taking the piss to see how far they could push him. Dragons had great line speed aided by the fact they were never close to being inside all night. Don’t know what the AR was looking at but they were generally lined up in line with the ball at every ruck.

Leinster were sloppy and lacked direction at times. Kept trying to force things when they didn’t need to. Just a lot of inaccuracy and I’m sure that’s what Leo was referring to. When you can some away from a 43-14 win and feel the performance was poor. It shows where the standards are set.

With the Welsh regions in a mess with players contracts ending at the end of the season, wondering is there any gem of a player Leinster could sign given that's its a world cup year. Looking at players like Vaea Fifita, Sam Lousi and Lopeti Timani who could give us power and dynamism in the row and might not be too expensive to sign.

It is good thinking, but I too prefer this promote from within for squad places approach. For better or worse, buying in squad players makes me think of MOC!

Thought he bought in reasonably good players, no? Te'o, Triggs? Tuqiri was a disaster but that was injury related rather than quality, likewise Kane Douglas should have been a great signing.

Leinster have an identity and a pathway that is the envy of others. Why change it. Bringing in players from abroad is costly and would hamper development of not just Leinster, but Ireland. I don't mind the odd signing and agree we do need some signings but, we've excelled at development of home grown players and the contributions to the international side and other provinces prove this.

Because you always need outside voices. people who come from beyond the pathways you have. Its not changing anything as Leinster like all provinces have always needed outside voices to reach the top.

The scheduling next year from a Leinster pov, is difficult. Certainly, squad depth will be crucial. But as always, the young lads will be counted on to hold the fort.

It’s possible that this is Adidas last year. So maybe they don’t want to over produce. Though having said that, there were stock issues last year too. So it might not be that.

We brought 4 second rows to RWC19 and I don't see why we would change that unless Andy sees Baird as covering both backrow and second row (which recent evidence does point to)

Back row is a more attritional position statistically so he might reason that we take an extra back row with Baird covering which means Joe Mc gets left at home. Logistically this isn't an issue as he can link up with the squad in 5 hours.

It would be nice from a Leinster POV to have big Joe for the early part of the season.

Because I have a nagging suspicion that Jenkins will be a great chance for the South African squad for the RWC. Especially if Leinster get a good cup run this year

That's interesting. I never knew that.

The point still stands though. I think the travel schedule had an impact (however minor) on selection in 2019 and given the whole Ed Byrne getting to NZ fiasco over the summer I think it will weigh on Farrells mind too.

An 1-2 hour flight to France with no material time difference is a notable benefit to us and could afford us some luxury to our selections.

Having said all that, at this point in time I think picking 4 locks is still a sensible call for the RWC and Joe Mc is one of those 4. But a lot could change in that time.

I'd be delighted if he made the RWC squad. But with my Leinster scarf on, it would be great to have him for that window too