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

Usanov

Smith

Smith

Sparrow

Spicer

Coffey

McLaughlin

Casper Gabriel

There you all go 👍

Panic over

Thanks , is ther a reason why leinster are so secretive in comparison to the other provines, hardly anything on website about mens team, who I believe are already back pre season

Price it correctly & it could go 60k, otherwise 50k would be a super crowd imo

Welcome Rabah

Two things that will be needed to sell it out: it'll need to be priced favourably (especially family packs and kids tickets) and it'll need to be well marketed, specifically that they should be pushing it as a match that'll see the return of a significant number of international players.

Mid October is usually when we see them brought back into the fold so this is the game both sides should be earmarking as a return to close to full strength (SH internationals notwithstanding)

I have to admit, I'd completely forgotten about the EI tour!

The 10 jersey should be for whoever is performing the best. Competition lights a fire under people.

I absolutely agree Prendergast should be given every logical opportunity though because currently his floor is mid URC level and we have no idea where his ceiling is. But I can't wait to find out. Chuck him in the pool and see if he swims.

Frawley is a funnier case. His brilliant showings in the Champions Cup and against SA to me currently point to a player that is primed and perfect for an impact bench player position. His versatility is probably what has him above his peers.

He's clearly not the finished product at 10 and the only way he gets there is game time. Up to and including now in his career, I personally have never seen him as a pure 10. More of a really well rounded player who can play 10 to an excellent standard. As a result, I'm not really sure what you do with him.

I don't agree that Harry has had enough chances. He's a player whose had a problematic injury profile. This past season saw his most consistent run of fitness that we've seen in recent year and it unsurprisingly was his strongest season in Leinster culminating in deserved Ireland caps.

He then really seemed to blot his copy book with the coaches towards the end of the season particularly with the South Africa trip.

Harry is maddening because he's still prone to at least one high profile and basic error per game. But Harry performing to his potential is a bloody good player. So I hope to see that more.

That's how I saw it. Gunne was very young this time last year in fairness and was Foley injured or just not picked?

In any case, they ended up with Mcgrath as the only one with a decent body of work by the end of the season.

I would have supported the decision to back Foley over Mcgrath for the big games at the end, but leinster is pretty conservative in selection these days, so it wasn't likely. I thought Foley showed a good standard of play. Being less experienced he's more likely to make a poor decision, but his general standard of play was higher that mcgrath

Barring injury I can see JGP maintaining a very high standard of play well into his late 30s.

When was Frawley brillant showing in Europe? he started the Stade game and didn't have a great game. Predergast was better wen he came on IMO

I can remember a few games he was good but can't remember a brillant game from him. The first La Rochelle game both him and Harry had good games but not brillant. Maybve he did and I just cant remember

The best performance last year at 10 in Europe was Ross v La Rochelle, that was our biggest issue, our best performance wasn't in the final

Harry over the season was probably our most consistent and Predergast got more minutes than I expected and looked accomplished.

That's 4 players into 1 spot and with the 6-2 bench looking to continue I can only see Frawley been used more as the sub role because he can cover so many positions.

It's probably the last season for one of the Byrnes to be honest, if not one of them then Frawley will need to move on if he wants to continue at 10

Correct ye got the northampton pricing spot on, hopefully this will be the same

As alluded to in my post - Frawleys brilliant performances came off the bench in Europe… The point I'm making is I'm unsure of Frawleys status as a 10 or at least a starting 10.

La Rochelle away he came on in miserable conditions, steered the ship, played the game in good areas and impressively, hit a 60m kick to end the game.

Similarly, in the final he came on and instantly improved the pace and shape of the backline. He added a different aspect that Ross had failed to bring thus far. Hit a pressure kick to level the game at 78 minutes to put us into extra time. Sure he missed the dropper but he still went for it. Undoubtedly an improved showing than what Byrne had offered that day.

Really brillant? I would say good but wouldn't say brillant.

La Rochelle he played well, but was he better than Harry? don't think so. So both in the good to very good rating

In the final he came on, Leinster got battered when he was at 10 and lost the game. When he came on, he slotted over a kick to level the game. So Leinster lost when he was playing, Byrne if fit would have slotted that kick so left the pitch with the game level. I am not down marking him for the drop goal at all.

But people are blaming Ross for the final when he was off the pitch when the game was lost.
So again I wouldn't claim Frawley was brillant.

The big impact match fro Frawley came for Ireland in South Africa, now that was brillant display with the kicks etc.

yes that is an issue for Byrne, but plenty of other 10s in the World can't run with it.

Northampton for battered for the majority of that game only Leinster didn't put a big enough score on them. They had a come back and got close but really the game should have been over soon after half time. Byrne didn't have a good game but saying Northampton gave a blueprint?

Byrne had a poor day kicking, which to be fair I think someone on a podcast called that Croker can be a nightmare to kick in compared to Aviva/RDS, when he hasn't a good day off tee it magnifies the running issue he has