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

I know they aren't going to do it. But I think it's what's needed.

Dont believe everything that is 'reported'

I don’t know where that was reported but it’s not credible

in fairness, Healy followed by McGrath followed by Porter is the greatest run of prop development that any province has ever had, there was always going to be a leaner spell.

Yep its ridiculous that Jackman keeps saying that leinster have failed to develop a replacement for Healy in 15 years.

More optimistic about Slimani after Mike Ross said this:

Saw a couple matches earlier in the year where it looked like he had lost none of his scrum effectiveness. Could work out quite nicely if he stays fit.

https://x.com/mikeross03/status/1805708584652882293?s=46&t=LZNAt8uQdNSsqynXTsT0dw

Someone also posted that he Played all Top14 games for Clermont. 32 Games overall, 25 starts.

I'm worried about the immediate future of both back up spots at prop, Long term I think there's a huge amount of talent coming through at both positions. Usanov, Boyle, McCarthy, Smyth, Sparrow, and Mullan. If we can't produce decent back ups with that group in the next 5 years something has gone wrong IMO.

I am pretty chuffed with this Slimani signing the more I think about it all.

When this was initially rumoured some people had pointed to his recent injury issues but I'm not really seeing where that's coming from.

All rugby has him down as playing 32 games this year including every single round (26 games) of the Top14. You simply don't play that much French Rugby as a prop unless you're hardy as fcuk.

He did miss a few months in 22/23 season by the looks of it but still had 17 appearances which is probably a reasonable barometer of how many he'll play here.

The reality of it is we need to replace a Tighthead who played 28/26/31 times respectively in the last 3 seasons.

Regardless of Clarksons status, that is way too much rugby for him to be playing. It's a huge ask for even both him and McGuire to be playing.

From our POV, we're getting a hugely experienced (250+ domestic, 57 international caps) tighthead whose clearly interested and has an aptitude for coaching. The young tightheads especially can learn a huge amount from a player of this calibre and the young looseheads can cut their cloth scrum training against him.

Leinster have never (?) had a French prop. This is the first time in years that young Irish props have an opportunity of this type to learn off a player with this much top14 experience.

From his POV, he gets to come to a top European club with a top development pathway and see how young players are brought through. He gets to brush up on his English (obviously a boost for a coach), he gets to scrum in a league with different countries, playing styles, refereeing styles and some hardy South African props.

Goes without saying I'd imagine he's on a pretty good chunk of change.

James French at Ulster.

Milne won't make it…

That's extremely harsh in my opinion. He struggled last season but missed most of the year through injury, so some drop in form is understandable. The previous year he played fifteen times and scored seven tries as third choice LH, where he was dynamic in the loose and solid enough in set plays. He can get back to those levels in the coming campaign with a good pre-season.

I won't discount Milne yet, but next season he needs to show some major improvements at the scrum. I thought he'd improved there in the 2022/2023 season, but he has regressed a lot.

He's a good carrier, but so are Boyle and McCarthy who are also younger with the scope to improve their games further. If Milne can't become a more solid player at set piece the coaches may see it more worth their time in choosing the younger options available

Boyle isn't 106kg.