Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

Heinke VDM and Ollie Le Roux were both significant successes for different reasons.

VDM in particular on the field was excellent. He rotated in and out of the team with Healy who was at his absolute peak at the time. He was nearly always fit also which is half the battle. 80 appearances in 3 seasons.

I can't see the IRFU signing Lood either but it would be nice to have another lock of his stature and talent on the team. I think they do find a big body in South Africa to bring over and hope for the best in terms of that lock panning out. I just think they are playing with fire if they stand pat with James Ryan and Joe McCarthy. I never felt more comfortable as a Leinster fan when it was a young James Ryan, Scott Fardy and Devin Toner. We have the young talent in Joe McCarthy, we have James Ryan, we just need a international quality lock to add to the 23 and a minor upgrade over Michael Ala'alatoa and Leinster are in a really strong position moving forward in terms of depth across the team.

The only areas that slightly worry me as a Leinster fan is at times the lineout and at the scrum. You bring in a quality scrummager like Nyakane off the bench your scrum automatically gets stronger, also if you bring in a big bulky lock, you add a few more kg's to the scrum giving even more solidity. With that additional international quality lock, there is less of a drop off in terms of the quality off the bench.

Not forgetting Rob Herring who is Irish through his Granny but still came here as an adult

Ricardt Strauss another good example.

Robbie Diack was brilliant for Leinster at his peak, in fairness.

I'd be very wary of signing a current test Springbok. They have a fairly patchy record for their European teams. The summer tests run into the RC which almost runs into the November tests. They're largely gone until December. Take DDA, for example. A world class player. In his last season in Limerick, he made one sub appearance before December. But he started 11 games for SA from July - November, playing nearly every minute. That's an extreme case but it's an example of the risk that you take.

There's also a fairly solid pattern of SA players having mediocre injury records for their clubs and not being available a huge amount. Not all of them, but the majority do seem to have injury issues during their stay as well as a good few not looking like half the player they are in SA. Whether that's due to not settling/playing to the standard of their team or just minding themselves, I'm not sure.

But I do think a lot of big names that come north (including NZ players) simply don't buy into their teams the way they buy into their home nations which is natural to an extent.

Any players come to mind? definitely worth a shot.

You'd have to wonder about the judgement of whoever made the final decision to select him ahead of McCarthy.

Things are looking up anyway*. The locks for the last two European Finals were:

2023: 4. Ross Molony, 5. James Ryan; 19. Jason Jenkins (replaced Ryan on 29 minutes)

2022: 4. Ross Molony, 5. James Ryan; 19. Joe McCarthy (replaced Molony on 76 minutes)

My opinion, and probably the opinion of the overwhelming majority, is that Ryan and McCarthy starting and Molony/Baird/Jenkins benching is a big improvement.

*as long as they actually select McCarthy now

I'd be happier to stick with what we have that go after Dunne. He was here and, whilst I think he should have had more opportunities, he wasn't anything special in his few appearances. I'd rather see us concentrate on COT and Mangan into the future than bring Dunne back who will be 26 at the start of next season. Not sure he'd want to come back either. He hasn't set the world alight in Exeter but he has had game time which he didn't have here. 23 appearances last season which is more than he had in his entire Leinster career.

Yeah Dunne isn't an upgrade. I just realised that both RG Snyman and Jean Kleyn are both expiring at the years end. Interesting. With Thomas Ahearn, Tadhg Beirne, Edwin Edogbo, Evan O'Connell, Fineen Wycherley and Cian Hurley, I wonder is it a pressing need for Munster to re-sign one or both? They are fairly set at lock for the future. They could use a hooker and an additional winger to replace Keith Earls and Andrew Conway. I wonder would they use the NIQ designations to get stronger in them areas?

I could see them letting go of RG Snyman and holding onto Kleyn but I wonder could Leinster slide in and take Kleyn off their hands. He would be a definite upgrade over Jenkins.