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

Why no Ringrose? It makes no sense not to get him up to speed!

Rumors on another thread that Pat McCarthy has signed a development contract!

Good for him! Didn't know Henshaw got married. Congrats to him and the missus.

So..... Archer it is....

Listening to the RTE Rugby podcast and they were talking about the Tupou situation. Jackman made a good point that in 2008, after years of knocking on the door in Europe, the Leinster board got sick of losing that in one off season they brought in CJ Van Der Linde, Rocky Elsom and Isa Nacewa. He mentioned that while Leinster are hardly underachievers, the signing of Snyman could be a sign that Leinster are going to go all out to get over the line again.

I wouldn't be shocked if Leinster got Tupou and I also wouldn't be shocked if they brought in a scrum half because there is rumors that McGraths contract might not get renewed.

Isn't McGrath on a 2 year deal that he signed last year?

thats not correct, he signed a contract last season.

JGP signed a contract on 2022 and is out this season.

What Scrum Half would we even sign? I doubt we promote Foley considering his injury record. Murphy has looked good but not sure he is ready for the next level next year. Gunne looks 2 years off and is only starting to see gametime.

Would love to see Arata signed, would probably tick all the boxes as a player who is an all rounder, not going to be away on international duty, and is utter class from what I've seen of him. That said moving from the south of France to Dublin might be a tough sell to an Uruguayan Spanish speaker(I Presume).

Looking at other 6 nations teams I don't think it's a particular position of strength for countries right now( bar us and France). Could be missing out on a few obvious names but seems a difficult position for us at the moment.

I've no idea honestly, scrum half is the only position outside of Tighthead where I have some concern. I think Leinster have sufficient depth at virtually every position where they wouldn't crumble if hit by injuries. I used to say that if JGP was injured, the gulf in talent wasn't so different between JGP and McGrath, but the gulf is widening and McGrath's injury history the last while concerns me. The first person that came to mind as a player to gulf between now and when Gunne takes over was Cobus Reinach but I didn't realise he was 34 and is under contract until 2025. Then my mind jumped to Kieran Marmion just for extra depth. Proper speedster and reliable but apart from his speed, he isn't that much different or better than McGrath so I have no idea.

Mentioned him before, but Raffi Quirke of Sale is Irish eligible through a grandparent and very young at 22.

He has close to 50 senior appearances at scrum half for them, as well as two England caps which he got as a teenager (the three year stand down period ends in November).

Haven’t seen loads of him, but has looked good when I have seen him play, and was obviously considered good enough for England at one point. We wouldn’t have first dibs on him if he was interested but doesn’t feel like Munster need him with Casey in situ, so we’d have a shot.

I was hoping Ben Murphy would kick on. I really don't think Foley is the answer. If Richie Murphy does get the full time position with the wildlings, both Murphy's could heading north.

porter(28), milne(25), boyle(22), mccarthy(21).

Oh baby

Gunne is on tonight, he’s already likely ahead of both, certainly on natural talent, well able for this level if given game time and assuming he has a high work ethic