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

Just finished rewatching the game. We were very good defensively in the first half. Northampton made a lot of handling errors, partly down to nerves, but also due to how fast Leinster were off the line. You could see that Northampton were trying to thread their way through the rush with offloading out of contact and with inside passes. But they couldn't handle the pressure Leinster's defence brought.

A negative though is how wasteful Leinster were in attack. I think we had seven entries into the 22 and scored two trys off our first two entries. After that though, we only got 3 points from our next 5 visits. Our ball carrying was generally pretty good. VDF, McCarthy and Doris consistently got over the gain line. Also saw a lot of offloading out of tackles to keep the attacks going.

So it wasn't physicality that let us down near the line. It looked like we weren't comfortable in our attacking patterns. When Leinster tried going further out than the first or second man, near or in the 22, Northampton were comfortable in dealing with it. Maybe that's a symptom of the game plan though. Northampton gave up a lot of metres close to the ruck and most of our attacks were centred there. When we moved the ball wide we didn't do so with enough effort to disguise it and kept failing to convert possession and territory into points.

Sounds like some new contracts will be announced throughout the day

Baird extends

Did you think so? I thought it was only ok - very loud at times but there were plenty of quiet periods. Like Leinster I suppose.

I actually enjoyed the lack of drinking in the seats though, it was good not having to get up and down constantly for people going to the bar or the jacks

ANy guesses on who else will be announced today

It's two years since connors and RByrne signed deals. Wonder if they might be next

TNT Sports showed an interesting stat yesterday on the total number of minutes played this season by each 23. Leinster had about 10.5k and Northampton had about 15.5k. That's club minutes so would be interesting to see it with international matches included. But nearly 50% more is still significant and highlights Leinster's depth.

Boyle signs a senior contract

Agreed. Harlequins have gifted at least two tries to Toulouse who's discipline is shocking.

The best way to defend a lead is to extend it. Leinster stopped trying to score after 50 minutes, kicked the ball to Northampton and invited them to attack. Why?

Toulouse were patchy today. Scored a few late trys in the first half when Harlequins were rattled and took the game away from them.

But they were poor in the second half. Couldn't keep any possession and when they did they couldn't break the line through phase play. If you limit their chances to attack off counters they aren't as threatening.

Harlequins also had great success at the breakdown and won a lot of penalties. We've seen Leinster counterruck and hunt for turnovers far more aggressively this season, so the ruck is an area we can definitely target.

We don't attack at the same pace as Quins though. The speed at which they play tired that big Toulouse pack and you could see them blowing hard at full time. But if we can keep errors in attack low and our breakdown work accurate we're definitely in with a shot of winning.

Will he learn to scrummage though? Leinster don't seem to be able to coach their props to do so.

Is Ross Byrne capable of kicking drop goals? A few of those in the second half would not have gone amiss.

I thought RB had a not great game, even putting aside his kicking. But then so much of what Leinster do in attack comes off JGP that the OH’s job is often just to be a linkman to get the ball wide, and then JGP’s passing is so good in the last ten metres that the ten often doesn’t get on the ball at all. It’s noticeable that RBs short passing to the likes of Osborne is telegraphed and is always shut down, so his role in that set up is very unproductive. Seems to me that one of the alternatives is better suited to that game than RB, any player who can bring unpredictability and superior judgement to late passes on the line. RB is a very solid steady player but he just never seems to make a difference when JGP is on the field.