Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

Probably too late by now, but did you see this?

https://twitter.com/leinsterrugby/status/1743240832390504640

I find it hard to believe he’d make a wales squad but he is a good player.

Cheers. Very strange outburst from Podge_irl. I just go with whatever the players are known as when I first become familiar with them.

I think the problem, Richie (or Richard, should I say :P), is that you only do this for foreign-born players.

It's always Christiaan Johan Stander, Alexeis Soroka, Vakhtang Abdaladze, and Fua Leiofi Bundellu Aki. I sincerely doubt you first knew about all of these players by these names.

It's never Jonathan Jeremiah Sexton (yes, that is his middle name), Gerald Conor Murray, or William Iain Henderson.

thanks for clarifying that it's your anti racism that moves you to use those names.

On Ruddock, to me it seemed for many years that his role as captain and mentor played a very significant role for much of the league season. A great soldier for Leinster.

On the topic of Rhystopher Ruddock, I would imagine Leinster have little use for him now. He has approximately 100 minutes of game time and that's not going to change in the next couple of weeks. His only purpose for the remainder of the season is potentially being a senior figure on a trip to SA.

He has been mooted for a move into coaching and I noted he was running the water of late, bringing messages onto the field. He might be looking at that move with a Welsh side if there isn't anything immediately on the table in Leinster.

I wouldn't begrudge him any move. Genuinely one of the most reliable and hardworking players of his generation.

I agree with you. The IRFU won't sanction a loosehead with a lot of young depth in the pipeline. I can also see Healy holding on for another year to help out the transition.

At scrum half, do I think they address the position? No I don't. I think they are perfectly happy with their pecking order and happy with the young lads coming through. They will address the position in the next few years if they aren't happy with the development of the young players.

I've seen very little of Coffey but I do like that he is a multi functional scrum half capable of kicking. I really want Gunne and Coffey to push for the 9 jersey before the next world cup. It would really give Leinster a massive boost not having to worry about the 9 and 10 jersey for a decade.

Tighthead is almost a certainty. I didn't see the Koch rumours ( I hope they are true) but I kept seeing news around Leinster being interested in Trevor Nyakane. His contract ended after the World cup and he is now a free agent. I half expect Nyakane to go Japan for a short term deal and then come to Leinster next season but I also wouldn't be half surprised if Leinster picked him up now with Furlong not being around the squad at the moment. He is definitely on the older side but I think Leinster will actually prefer his age profile being a bit older so he isn't impeding the long term development of Tom Clarkson and Rory McGuire.

A bench front row trio of Cian Healy, Ronan Kelleher and Trevor Nyakane would be amazing.