Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

The team yesterday weren't strong enough to win.

How McGrath didn't get a yellow for the deliberate knock-on was beyond me. What if Munster actually converted those 22 visits into tries rather letting Leinster turn the ball over?

You can't wrap players up in cotton wool at the business end of a season. Sure VDF could've come on at 75mins yesterday and be carted off at 76. When you get to a quarter/semi final it's about winning the next match. Simple as that. If you field a strong team and end up losing 1 or 2 players but win, well then it's job done. You just plough on, deal with the outcome and do your best the next day. Who would've thought given the injuries Munster shipped last week that a win yesterday was on the cards.

Maybe "irrelevant" is OTT but I think it's fair to say that the absolute focus of the coaching staff is on Europe.

Two minor changes and Leinster score 2 tries. The team on the day underperformed, but it wasn't a a demolition job but any means.

That's harsh , imo. Who wmelse is close to his level, Leinster have 2 good 9's. After that there's Foley! He is not the player you want in the squad for a semi. Nick McCarthy wouldn't get into 'tarf's squad. It's clearly amazeaballs that he's had professional contracts.

There's a good chance that Ben Murphy could be an option. Time will tell.

Regarding Luke flapping his arms, every 9 does that. Conor M is a master. Luke is not a great 9. But he's solid and gives 100%.

You need to let it go. They were the better team and deserved the win.

Leinster's defence has been excellent for years, but yesterday was one of our weakest performances in that regard for a long time. Munster have improved their attack which we know, but it feels like we gave them too many easy entries into our 22 with bad reads and poor one up tackling.

We lost that game through a knock on in their 22 which they then counterattacked from. But that transition play could have and should have been slammed shut well before they exited their 22. Joe McCarthy rushed up after the knock on, but rather than hitting the carrier or blocking the passing lane, he stood off and let the man pass unopposed. The next phase we hit Hodnett who was carrying, but it was a soak tackle which allowed him to free his arms and offload. Better decisions in defence would have put that game up bed.

We might see that change in technique when Nienaber comes in.

Yesterday was a bit of a mess but the correct team was more or less picked on the day and just didn't get over the line. On another day, or with perhaps one or two personnel changes, or without one or two errors, it would have been different. As another poster said, if it was VDF, Ross Byrne, Ryan or Ringrose who went down after one minute and was ruled out next week, there'd be just as much anger.

Refereeing was utterly abysmal and genuinely one of the worst performances I've seen in all my years watching rugby. It affected both teams at times but Leinster definitely suffered the most with some blindingly obvious wrong calls by Frank Murphy who is beyond incompetent. I'm still at a loss from an optics perspective how a Munster referee is assigned this game (I don't think he was biased mind, just awful).

Munster were very very poor in attack but still got over the line in the day which is what matters at the end of the day to them and good luck to them in SA.

Leinsters lofty ambitions means that a successful/unsuccessful season will always be defined by whether they win the Heineken Cup. The URC should be the baseline but what could be a disaster will be merely an irritant if they can pull off the win next week.

The maul defense was particularly impressive, hoping that will bear fruit next weekend.

Who is likely to be the benching backrow? Deegan looked excellent, but has he done enough to displace Penny? Baird or Jenkins to partner Ryan?

I guess Jenkins is in the squad next week. Do we chance Baird at blindide?

Can't see how Lowe will be able to play.

For all the talk of Jenkins' size, I don't think he's that effective against big packs, I would expect Molony to start.