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

Toulouse are a brilliant side who play the best transition/heads on rugby in Europe. But I'm certain that the handling ability of Leinster's 1-15 is the best around. Every player knows their role and how and when to make that linking pass.

I would expect Toulouse to give us a bigger challenge than last year. However we cause them as much problems as La Rochelle cause us. They have failed to perform in Dublin the last 3 times they have been here. They play a pressure game with a counter. However like France they tend to take penalties when on offer. Which doesn’t work against us. Their defence is nowhere near as good as Frances though. Leinster being 10 point favorites would be about right for me.

It's very formidable, isn't it? Toulouse are fantastic. We are down some lads and no Johnny. It's going to be a spectacle.

Win this and it's La Rochelle, imo. Another fantastic team. I reckon the 3 best teams in Europe are in the semis. No disrespect to Exeter, they are a good side. La Rochelle will be a bit too much for them.

Interestingly, there's a young Leinster lad at Toulouse, Joshua Brennan. Exeter have a gaggle of Irish in the squad and La Rochelle have Ultan. Lot's of Irish interest.

Well, he was born in Leinster and is the son of a former Leinster player even if he himself was never part of the academy. I think that is the point that the poster was making.

Leinster have released their latest injury update. Baird should be available in a few weeks and Lowe will be further assessed later this week. Hopefully both will be available for the Toulouse game.

What's more concerning though is the lack of update on VDF.

https://www.leinsterrugby.ie/leo-cullen-issues-injury-update-ahead-of-trip-to-south-africa/

Good news on Baird, even if he misses the SF.

Never good to see a player going into the "no further update" list, VDF might be done for the season.

Lowe needing further assessment isn't good either.

I'm still confident we can win the European Cup but we're reaching the point where we can't absorb too many more injuries.

And if we get past Toulouse, we should send the second string out for the URC knockouts.

Looks like SF tickets are on sale tomorrow.

Saw that but bit confused as TM says presale are from 2pm tomorrow to Thursday but general sale also from 2pm. Reckon general sale will actually be on sale tomorrow or more likely sometime after Thursday so?

Has an email gone out to season ticket holders? I haven't received one.

Will log on tomorrow anyway. They won't sell out immediately.

TM seems to say that sale from 2 p.m. tomorrow is for IRFU.....??????

I would guess the Euro is the priority. The URC would be nice but, I can't see Leinster winning both. The injuries are stacking up and there's the Sexton factor. Either one would be great.

We could see a South African team win the league again. Stormers won't go strong this week. They will save the 1st team lads for the play offs. Munster should go full pop this week to capitalize.

The Irish Times saying Baird is out for Toulouse game, not too positive about Lowe.. reading between the lines.

It would absolutely be possible for other provinces if they could develop as many international quality players.

This isn't even hypothetical, it already happened during the professional era when another province supplied the majority of the Irish team and the IRFU made it work so the team was kept together and as a bonus they supported them with marquee international signings far beyond what Leinster are getting these days and also financed a new stadium for them to help them with their revenue.

Cullen is right, people do have funny memories.

Re reg. 2 posts. Same moans. How awfully sad. Really really sad.