Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

Reading between the lines on the comments coming from the coaches I would say nearly all frontline players will be rested against munster.

That quote was from that article. RTE journalists trying to get clicks. What the headline suggests and the actual comments don’t bare any relationship to each other.

You’d assume it wouldn’t be an Irish or SA ref, if Stormers get through. So Adamson or Evans, maybe Whitehouse.

Rewatching the Leinster La Rochelle game from last year there was only 3(!!!!!) Instances of our ball being slowed down by La Rochelle in rucks. We actually were very very effective at ruck time and slowed down their ball more effectively than they slowed ours down. Of the three times they slowed down our ball in their own 22, 2 led to penalties, which ended up as 6 points for us. Where they really got us was in defence where we didn't compete with their linespeed with smart pick and goes around the corner or the occasional one out pass to keep their defence honest. Think the whole offence has been designed to counteract the linespeed this year, we developed the 5m tap-and-go moves to assist ourselves on their line as well, I hope it works out.

Where they really won the game was in the kicking game and in the scrum. We really really struggled at scrum time last year, we were obliterated by Toulouse the round before but still managed the shocking scrum well against Toulouse. Against La Rochelle they attacked on every single attacking scrum and won penalties on most( Barnes should have given us a penalty on one of their advantages for Antonio collapsing). It seems our scrum has improved a lot this year compared to last year, but I hope Porter and Furlong are ready for a long 70-minute shift, because that is what we will need from them. We also had no answer at Maul time at it led to a way too easy finish from them 5 yards out.

Our kicking game was shocking that day as well, I'm not sure if it was the weather that fatigued us or the type of kicks we were doing but our kick chase was AIL level stuff at times. This was especially important to the game because La Rochelle's biggest weakness is attacking from their own half. They are a one out running team and just play territory. They'll take the 3 points against them all day because they're superb at getting territory back after a kick-off. Think this meant our game plan of going for 3 was horrific tactically as we found it impossible to regain territory.

Sexton was brilliant off the Tee but shocking with ball in hand. He continuously forced the game by not letting our moves flow and the second we got advantage he would chip a ball in behind the winger in an incredibly speculative kick. He also fucked around on our own line which cost us a crucial try when Keenan was turned over by a hospital pass.

From My recollection of the game I thought Keenan had a nightmare, he was actually alright in the game, Rhule's opener came from Kelleher playing while not being fit and he missed a difficult covering tackle. The back 3 as a unit didn't function and Jimmy O'Brien had a particularly poor game when comparing to his usual standards. Made little impact off the boot or with ball in hand. Think he has a real opportunity to make a few breaks in this fixture with the new loop plays that he is running, those will be particularly effective.

Our D was superb for most of the game. Their winning try was a Fluke if I'm being honest, the player slipped which caused Ringrose to miss a tackle which would have sent your man to A and E afterwards and then he managed to slip through. Before that we had kept them on our line for 10 minutes with very solid defence (Big Mike had a clear turnover that Barnes didn't give). We really slipped up when it came to scrum, it basically meant that La Rochelle had a free play after every scrum, which is what truly screwed us that game, we would have had 3 clear turnovers but we kept giving away silly penalties.

The biggest moment for me personally was in the 64th minute, we were 1 point ahead of them with a penalty in the 22. Ross Byrne decided to go for posts instead of booting it into the corner, this made the scoreboard 21-17. If we went for the kill here and booted it into the corner I have no doubts we win that game. The reasons is that La Rochelle find it very difficult to gain territory when in their own half, when they get territory they're very good, without it, they're meh. I hope thats the main message to the team before the final.