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

I remember seeing an article where Niall Scannell said that RG Snyman was a mentor for the likes of Tom Ahern, Edwin Edogbo and Evan O'Connell while recovering from injury.

Surely that's part of being a high profile squad member regardless of injury, as in goes without saying

Page fillers for journalists imo

First off I would hope he is not injured anymore

I am not sure about the mentor business anymore than an Irish international would offer

I do think international players from overseas can provide all of the squad a different perspective on the position, so he would offer that to Ryan and Big Joe, as well as the young plpayers

Like any of the senior squad I would think it is normal for them to work with the youth members of the team

I have yet to hear the press report any player as not been a great mentor :-)

Given Toulouse have won the Top14 at a canter should we reassess the CC final, one in which Leinster kept them tryless for 80 mins and 1 try in 100 mins and were a yard away from an 18-15 last minute win?

42-3

70'

I said before the final and said after it that Toulouse had an incredible squad and team. When you see the quality of players sitting in the crowd, they are an incredible team. It will be hard for any team to stop them next season

Toulouse winning the Top 14 means Leinster are a top seed for next season's Champions Cup. It's small comfort after the disappointment of losing another final, but it gives us a good launching pad for next season's campaign.

Losing to the Bulls seemed to be down in part to a lack of available energy. Leinster just looked 10% off in everything they did. Ruck protection was glacial and under manned and how many little passes were a fraction too soon, too late, too low, too high or simply fumbled. One or two were snatched at in uncharacteristic clumsiness. It's been a long, long season for those guys. That CC final was epic….and Leinster could….and maybe should …..have won it.

I thought they took a risk there flying in.. should have done what munster did. Mistake in retrospect.

Leinster rarely get decisions on academy places wrong. You have to trust that the coaches know what they're doing here.

The fact that Berman was then picked up by Ulster is a sign of the Irish system working.

Makes no sense.

The 1968 Mexico Olympics brought altitude effects on performance and training to public consciousness. It began a trend for athletes to spend weeks at altitude to boost red blood cell production etc. It seems that exposure to higher altitudes brings an almost instant negative affect on oxygen utility….low oxygen tension at high altitudes……literally within hours. It does seem better to get in and out as fast as possible. It may have been a significant cause of Leinster's 'lethargy.' I did a bit of research on polycythemia as a student in the early 70s as altitude training was 'in vogue' at the time. I can't remember much about it. I seem to recall that altitude increases iron absorption in the gut….about 3 x faster than native inhabitants. I have no idea how it is viewed today. I do know that many athletes hoped weeks at significant altitude would improve O2 availability. It does but it is very short lived once back at sea level.

Let's use Tadgh Beirne as the starting point of Leinsters major "miss"

List of Leinster players capped by Ireland since Tadgh Beirne made his international debut (bolded players are ones on the current tour to SA - and Hugo Keenan):

• Ross Byrne
• Caelan Doris
• Ronan Kelleher
• Max Deegan
• Hugo Keenan
• Will Connors
• Ed Byrne
• Ryan Baird
• Harry Byrne
• Dan Sheehan
• Jimmy O'Brien
• Joe McCarthy
• Ciaran Frawley

List of players released by Leinster capped for Ireland since Beirne:

• Eric O'Sullivan
• Nick Timoney
• Paul Boyle
• Jeremy Loughman
• Cian Prendergast
• Oli Jager

So shockingly - you're wrong. Leinster as the biggest producers of rugby players in the country will have to let players go. That's an inescapable fact.

If you want to be pedantic (which to be fair to you TRC - you VERY much are….) you could consider Izzy a miss by Leinster. But that was a miss by the entire IRFU.

There are a limited amount of players in each province now who were released from Leinster who could be considered for our strongest 23 currently.

I would consider these players to be:

• Loughman
• Jager
• Beirne
• Patterson

Those lists don't include the Leinster produced players through the academy in recent years who aren't internationally capped but have developed excellently and are capable of high European standard (Prendergast, TOB, Osborne, Penny)

So good for some of the players released by Leinster for making a good career for themselves. And congrats to those who have gotten internationally capped.

But let's be real here. Leinster choose the right player the vast majority of the time. Which is an extremely difficult thing to do given the huge number of variables a lot of which are intangible.

…. Unless of course you are referring to Leinster doing the right thing by releasing Berman because you don't think he will make it at the highest level.

But that requires you being positive about the teams you acknowledge. And as well all know - you are incapable of letting positive thoughts of that nature enter your psyche.

Loughman can probably feel aggrieved to some extent. I don't know what the succession plan at Loosehead is but I hope it shows it's head soon. But Loughman appears to not be that player.

And I think it's very fair to put a lot of Izzys form on Murphy. He's a skills coach by trade, he won back to back U20 6 nations and narrowly missed 3 in a row (with a JWC final in there) playing a fast paced game depending on skills and speed. Izzy is the perfect player for this. McFarland hoped for a pen to touch and a 5m line out

Izzy was a centre in schools rugby i think. That was one of those where absolutely everyone missed on him. He was discovered in scotland i think. He did really put himself out there to be discovered though.