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

any Leinster loss is the same, most people are too interested in gloating more than anything else

Online you have a mix of Boks, lots of them floating, but then Welsh, English and Irish fans

Leinster have managers to unite all fans from all countries in their hatred of a provinces which is built on a tradition of getting young players, training and promoting them to play rugby, who would know that would get such hatred while at the same time the same “fans” love French teams who just buy in squads

Few positives from the season. One would be Clarkson coming along and another would be Sam P getting appearances. All in all, a poor season. Looking forward to the opener v Embra.

I would add Henshaws return to form & Osbournes performances to that

Indeed.

Has Sean O Brien added anything to the coaching team since he got a job .We shouldn't be giving former players jobs unless they have proved good enough somewhere else first

I wonder if we're playing to the strengths of our squad? We've an outrageously good pack that has a mixture of athleticism, ball handling and footwork. I think we're now using them in a way that blunts their effectiveness.

Our best rugby is played when they hit the line at speed, make a subtle change in direction and power through a half gap to make an extra metre. The next group of forwards sweep into the breakdown to generate quick ball for the backs to use. They would make some extra metres or even a line break then we'd go again. That was the blueprint for a long time. It's what Ireland's game plan is based off as well.

The work of the forwards also needs good coordination in the backs. The attacking platform generated up front used to go to a well drilled pod system that had a mix of forwards and backs. There was usually at least three in the pod. One for a direct carry; another further out to take a miss pass; and the player lurking behind the back of them. We've moved away from that a bit and I think we're now just too easy to defend against. We kick more to regather possession. If we don't, we reset in defence and go again.

If we're too easy to read in attack, we then have to rely on our forwards to do an even more disproportionate amount of the heavy lifting. The 20 phases against Bulls at the 70 odd minute mark was a great example of this. We made good initial gains and after 6 or 7 phases we were in the 22. But we never looked particularly organised in attack. We had backs launching into rucks to secure the ball and forwards always ready to make a direct carry, but that was easy for Bulls to defend. It ended up with Doris receiving a longer pass with no support around him and being double tackled, dispossessed and Leinster losing 80 metres of territory.

Poor old DOC was never renowned for being the sharpest tool but a regular TV pundit who has his own daily show on a national radio station giving out about the meeeja is just plain stupid.

I don't think that's harsh. I have been a big fan of Ross Byrne but there is no doubt this has been a mediocre season for him. I think his kicking game has generally been okay though and his contestable kicks have usually been pretty good, but the passing attack has lost some fluency. Perhaps some of that is due to the change in coach and adaptions to the attacking system, but he has struggled a bit this season.

It's a big problem with NH rugby, and why I still struggle to get into it - at least during a lot of the regular season. You have players often playing less minutes in a season that their SH counterparts, but spread over a much longer time.

Because of this, you have league games essentially thrown as you rest players, and the top players have to come in and perform in crunch games without any kind of momentum through playing week in, week out with each other.

Keenan decided to go play 7's, he wasn't made do it all.

This is nonsense. Leinster have been in the top 2 or 3 teams in Europe for years now. Byrne didn't get them to any finals. They generally got there in spite of him or from the forwards giving him an armchair ride. A semi final is a bare minimum for that team.

How anyone can't see that he's way way out if his depth is beyond me.

Leinster are far and away the best, most resourced team in the league. 90% of their games shouldn't count when forming an opinion - they win nearly all of them by default. Leinster's season win/loss ratio should come down to a handful of games at the end of the season. And this record has been shockingly bad.

Football? Really? Football is an awful comparison point. A sport that routinely has a new manager every season is not something rugby should aspire to be.

And how exactly has he been given an incredible soft ride? He was picked apart for the selection against Munster last year. He's been picked apart for poor tactics and choking in finals and being the bridesmaids of Europe the last three years. He's constantly getting it from all angles that Leinster have the biggest budget and resources in Europe. The media being good or bad to him makes his job no easier or difficult. But to claim that he's gotten an easy ride is absolute bollocks.