Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

Jack Aungier could really fill a hole in Leinster’s squad if he could be brought back.

Him and Salanoa leaving at the same time left a bit of a hole in the squad, still pissed off about Salonoa leaving as we put in all the work to get him pro ready and leaves for a rival.

Alalatoa was running the water today. You'd imagine he is not too far away from coming back in.

I wouldn't be suprised if Healy got more minutes at Tighthead this year especially with Boyle, Milne and mccarthy coming through at loosehead.

Massive disparity in experience. I was very surprised at the line up Glasgow were able to put out. Edinburgh only had 4 Scottish players back, none front liners. Glasgow had a lot more including 5 guys that were in the 23 that faced Ireland.

Even aside from that, they had a few guys who were very experienced operators throughout. Someone like Cancelliere has a handful of Argentina caps. Kebble has a number of Scotland caps in recent seasons and Venter is a really experienced back row player who has plenty of experience in SA.

The biggest difference was cohesion particularly on defence. We had a significantly reduced coaching team in recent months and it really showed. No head coach, no attack coach, no senior analyst and very few senior players around camp.

When you look at our front five containing Paddy McCarthy, Lee Barron (who was a real bright point), Rory Maguire and Brian Deeny for the final 30 minutes, it was always potentially going to be a tough afternoon. Three of our four props being academy players says a lot.

I think Cullen struck the right note in the after match interview noting how we lacked ruthlessness in the final third and will benefit from the experience overall. I thought McCarthy and Boyle both looked powerful around the park but will need more time scrummaging. Playing a B&I Lion will have been a real baptism of fire for them.

I wonder will they look to reintroduce a few seldom used Irish players next week now to give a little more experience and accuracy along with Ala'alatoa. Ross Byrne, JOB and Baird had a combined total of a little over 100 minutes at the tournament. Whilst Ala'alatoa had a good bit more game time (2 starts and 2 sub appearances), he was finished a week earlier and only features off the bench in their final warm up game due to suspension.

McGuires scrummaging performance alone should have him at 18 this weekend behind Alaalatoa.

I don't know what to do with Clarkson. He was a technically good scrummager at underage rarely getting bested by much bigger and more physical looseheads. But it has not translated to senior level.

He's in his 3rd real season getting senior minutes and he has 28 caps. I have never seen anything really that could suggest he can take things to the next level. 30 odd senior appearances is a very fair spread to show that.

It is no secret props bloom later. Clarkson will be 24 in Feb. But he was the most penalised prop in the league last season and has started this season the exact same way. It says a lot that while numerically he's the 3rd choice tighthead, there are still 2 looseheads who are considered above him in the pecking order too.

But I don't want to scapegoat him too much. I think McBryde should shoulder some of this responsibility too

In that scenario I wonder are they more likely to go with Stephen Smyth or someone like Dylan Donnelan from the AIL.

What disappointed me was the shape in attack. There wasn't much evidence of good attack coaching. They never really looked dangerous with the ball. Yes, it was a callow team in some areas, but this is the group the coaches have been working with. What have they been doing in training for the past few months? Cullen could do with a refresher course from Graham Henry by the looks of things.

The defence won't be an issue once Nienaber has had a bit of time with them.

The Sharks will be a big test with largely the same squad. Ruddock and Connors to start as flankers to bring extra experience and physicality? And is Foley a better option than McGrath at scrumhalf? Osborne being available would be a boost.

They had loads of coaches in helping out during pre-season by the sound of it. Goodman's been back for a bit too; Samoa's last game against England was on October 7.

What's stopping Cullen having input into the attack also? Just because he played lock he can't do it? He's a head coach now - a coach who has seen and experienced how coaches like Henry and Lancaster implement their ideas on how teams should go about attacking. Attacking is a fairly important part of the game. Cullen should be judged by high standards as a coach.

I know. A fair few people were saying back in around 2021 that Farrell should be replaced by him, which is pretty wild when you consider Lancaster did most of the coaching and they weren't able to get over the line in the European Cup anyway. Did people think the 6N was going to be easier to win than the European Cup?

Did O'Gara say that? I hadn't heard that. What I would say is that scrum and line-out are more niche areas of the game than attack, defence and the breakdown. Surely you'd want your head coach to have a pretty good feel for the last three?

I know this loss isn't a disaster. The way the game went they could even have won it. Glasgow are good, but I can see the really good teams shutting them down at the business end of the season.