Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

I tend to agree with this. The coaches taking a hard look at the gameplan and the squad will inevitably reflect on their failure to get past the ABs when it mattered. We can beat them but on the biggest stage we failed. I don't imagine Farrell et al will console themselves with 'but for Barrett's milky white thigh or the ball bouncing over Sheehan's head'...they'll say what do we need to change to win the next time. That will start sooner rather than later. Does it mean a change in the game plan and tactics? if it does it may mean more new players involved.

The Leinster need to sign Eben Etzebeth to win in europe is utter bollix. The utter arrogance of playing the exact same tactics with no changes other than "being more Physical"(Not the reason we lost in 2022). Leo and Lancaster had the deepest set of talent in europe for 2 years in a row and didn't manage to get them over the line in either of the competitions last year. I hope Nienaber comes in and brings in a different attitude, for example the arrogance of pretending the scrum doesn't matter so you can have an extra player running lines out the back. I've seen some good tactical decisions this season to counteract line speed and that could be the difference, also McCarthy is a dog at the ruck which we didn't have last year.

It's funny that we've lost to LA Rochelle on the trot. Each time different aspects to the loss. But it still remains, that Leinster fall short and usually through their own fault. For me, Jenkins was very poor last year and didn't have any impact. Lowe was poor and Molony looked wrecked at about 60 mins.

Current NIQs:

Connacht: Shamus Hurley-Langton, Santiago Cordero

Leinster: Michael Ala'alatoa, Jason Jenkins, Charlie Ngatai

Munster: Jean Kleyn, R.G. Snyman, Alex Nankivell

Ulster: Steven Kitshoff, Dave Ewers

I believe Ewers and Hurley-Langton can qualify on residency, although the former would be 38 by then so the chances of him actually representing Ireland are virtually nil. The others appear to be tied to other countries.

If Leinster easily make playoffs and their NIQs don't make their strongest XXIII for games at the business end of the season I think there's a strong argument that it'd be better for Irish rugby if they didn't have any of their current three NIQs.

Yes they are in the conversation. But so are La Rochelle and Toulouse to name two, the French teams would claim the Top 14 means they have stronger squad to deal with the rigours of that league.

Based on last season alone La Rochelle have to win that honour, they won Europe and got to the Top 14 final losing in the last minute

John Porch for Connacht too for the sake of completeness.

No, a shadow 15 is when all 15 are not starters, at least that's how I would interpret the meaning.

4 starters and the entire bench is 12 of 23, while it is a weakened or rotated team, I wouldn't call it a shadow 15, to me that'd be the second choice in every position.

I think the poster was refering to the game v Munster in the semi final of the URC

Leinster team

1 International Starter 2 International Starter 3 International Starter

4 Club player 5 International starter

6 International Starter Nominated for 6 nations POT 8 International Bench 7 International Starter and reigning WPOTY/EPOTY

9 International Starter 10 International Bench (3rd choice)

12 International Starter 13 International starter

14 International Bench 15 International Starter Nominated 6 nations for POT 11 International Starter

La Rochelle Team

1 International Bench 2 International Bench(3rd choice) 3 International Starter

4 Glorified Journeyman 5 International Captain

7 International Player 8 International Player EPOTY 6 International Bench(3rd/4th choice)

9 Club Player 10 International Bench(3rd choice)

12 International Starter 13 International Starter

11 Club Player 15 Club Player 14 Club Player

I don't think its particularly arrogant to say Leinster's squad is deeper when it's broken down in this manner. The fact is a coaches should be able to get more than the sum of it's parts. If Saracens from a few years ago were still around I wouldn't argue this point but they're not so it must be said.

I'm referring to what they currently are. Nothing stopping Dulin, Rhule, or Leyds from playing internationally at the moment.

Cullen gets plenty of criticism, here of all places. And fairly so.

They aren't the same things. You can have the best 23 in Europe whilst not having the best squad in Europe. I would wager that La Rochelle would struggle with 4-5 key absences more than Toulouse or Leinster simply because there's more of a drop off for them to their back ups (and the knock on of potentially bringing a third choice player onto the bench). They've managed their squad quite well and have done well on the injury front. But we can see this season the drop off for them when the test players are absent.

With that said, it's pointless comparing teams through the "international starter" etc. criteria. There is far more competition and depth in France than here. If the La Rochelle team played in Ireland instead of a province, every one of them would be capped and a lot of them would have been in the RWC squad.

Not sure what media you are listening to but from the start of the season the media more or less tell us to ignore any good results for Leinster because unless they win both in Europe and the URC it is a disaster for Leinster

Once they lose they pull the entire club to pieces. At this stage I think leinster are just used to it. It was the same when winning the league(whichever named version it was at that stage) it was always a well done you won the league but you didn't win Europe so it was a bad season for Leinster

This seems highly exaggerated.