Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

Maybe its the fact Leinster are missing 3 guaranteed starters. In Lowe, Sexton and Henshaw.

Toulouse have a massive pack which has been Leinster achilles heal the last few years and Toulouse have a significantly better starting 9 and 10 than Leinster do.

Its a 50/50 game. I doubt there will be more than a score in it either way.

In my humble opinion, I would definitely have had Doris at 8 to be honest ,his ability is negated at 6

I mean yes that's all true but the main issue is they dont have naturals in these areas, I think they are going down the England 2016/2017 route where they dont have many specialist's but they have a pack where the majority of players are at least decent in this area that they'll do well enough at the breakdown to manage.

Yeah when they went down the route of playing Flament at 7 I was convinced it was being Marchand was as 2 as it pretty much negates the downside of not having a natural 7 (I know France play their 6 at 7 and vice versa but Willis isnt really a natural 7 either, more of a 6.5). The way the Toulouse pack has been named it seems to be an all or nothing selection, either it will work and they will overpower Leinster or it wont and they will get exposed badly.

Last season that pack played (in consecutive weekends): Ulster at home, Ulster away, Toulon away, La Rochelle at home, Munster in Dublin and Leinster in Dublin.

This year, they were all rested last weekend and only five of the starting team started the previous week. They're completely concentrating on this fixture. They have their T14 spot sewn up at this point so can just focus on Europe for the coming weeks. You cannot underestimate the impact of losing Sexton, Henshaw and Lowe either. They were all key players in last year's game. The backs cannot gel magically to the same level on either side of the ball.

Leinster are favourites deservedly but this is probably a one score game either way. The weather forecast isn't going to help Leinster either with rain forecast across the afternoon.

La Rochelle are just a much better pack than Toulouse, yes Toulouse have a monster pack but that La Rochelle pack is imo the most complete pack in European rugby. You've got power with the likes of Skelton but you also got quality ball players in Alderitt and Botia who are both excellent on the deck aswell. I question anyone that think's Toulouse will do what La Rochelle if they have ever actually watched Toulouse's pack play?

Yup, and that was a big issue for them last season. Their form earlier in the season last year was patchy so they found themselves struggling post-6N. Because of that, they were sending out front liners every week to face teams kicking lumps out of them. They didn't even have the luxury of putting out a weakened team away from home in the T14 as they needed every point at that stage.

Two weeks before Munster (and a week after Ulster), they travelled to Toulon.

Marchand, Aldegheri, Meafou, Arnold, Elstadt and Jelonch all started in their pack, again the following week against La Rochelle, again the following week against Munster (aside from Jelonch who was on the bench) and again the following week against Leinster (with Jelonch starting again).

They were exhausted and compounded it by playing stupid tactics against Leinster and actually trying to keep the ball on the field.

They've managed their squad far more sensibly this season and rotated more. They've brought in guys like Willis, Brennan, Roumat, Placines and Ntamack Jnr. to make sure their front liners are being used more sparingly.

If they use the same tactics as last season, I think they'll definitely come off second best again but that selection points to a very different approach. We can definitely get after them in the back line but that's why Lowe and Henshaw are going to be big losses. There's a lot riding on Ngatai.

Better? Yes

Much better? Ive yet to be convinced.