Leinster Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread XII (The Byrne Supremacy)

Ok and you will hear far far worse at most rugby matches, particularly towards a referee. Families around or not.

Maybe they'll just switch Healy to tighthead next year the way things are going and have him and Clarkson make up for the loss of Ala'alatoa. Would Boyle be ready to be the main back up loosehead by then if Milne is gone?

A few weeks ago two boys ran onto the pitch briefly after the game. So Leinster, who for years in expectation of this event have lined the pitch with security staff, were clearly forced to upgrade the security even more. Who knows what untold damage their small feet could do to the playing surface. I for one am looking forward to the pitch being protected by ED209 police droids, so I can feel safe that nothing like this would ever be allowed happen again.

Was it me or was the pitch not in great condition? Visually it looked fine and obviously its been quite wet recently.

But there was a lot of players just slipping around the place.

There's been no rugby played on it for 6 weeks. Seemed strange

I thought the defensive patterns settled more as the game went on. They had a sustained period of possession around the 50th minute deep in our half with no reward as we shut them down consistently and effectively before turning them over. But it certainly isn't a forgiving system with errors punished to the extreme if the inside work rate and/or decisions are off.

I thought Turner was very good and, from the backs, was comfortably the pick of the bunch. His try was good but I really liked some of his long flat passing to the wing, inviting guys onto the ball. He's 24 now so is unlikely ever to become a first team player, I'd imagine but he could fill that Rory O'Loughlin role well for us particularly given that he covered wing later on too.

The pack was very solid. Nothing special but extremely effective and tidy. I don't think any of them had anything below a 6 or 7/10 type performance without any big stand outs. And the subs kept that ticking along nicely with Ed Byrne and McKee showing some lovely touches in the loose. Nice to see the set piece being fairly dominant too given that it was a significantly more experienced front row facing them. Gallo started throughout the RWC for Argentina and Pasquali has plenty of 6N experience with Italy. It was a good test for Boyle and Clarkson and, whilst I'm not sure the decisions were always what other officials would have given, it will do their confidence a world of good to better such a duo.

Not all perfect though. Luke McGrath's passing is regressing from a relatively low point already. It was a total lottery on Saturday with a huge number of passes being off target. If one of the younger options can round out their game a bit, I can see McGrath struggling for a spot in the 23 at some point next season. That level of passing simply cannot be accommodated.

I thought Ross Byrne looked rusty. His handling was less than fluid, not so much in terms of passing but he seemed to always adjust the ball slightly in his hands to make sure he had it positioned perfectly in his grasp before releasing. Previously, it would be a far more singular motion of catching and passing but it improved as the game went on.

I would hope that Harry Byrne is retained for the next couple of Irish games anyway. Ross will surely be back in for the summer tour (although nothing is certain given how he has been jettisoned previously) but I'd hope they back HB at this point.