Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

Gus McCarthy scored

As far as first games of the season goes, that wasn't too bad.

I thought the set piece was very strong. Scrum, line out and maul were all quite good.

The scrum especially has been our achilles heel at times and our props scrummaging ability has been well documented and debated. The Bordeaux props we saw there were all seasoned and experienced players. All featured heavily in the Top14 and Champions cup last season. Jefferson Poirot in particular is a seasoned loosehead with 36 international caps. Clarkson did very well against him.

Boyle and Milne both held their own well on their sides. But it's clear that Slimani is a scrum doctor haha. He commanded the tighthead side and I thought it was a fantastic debut from him. I'm excited to see what he can bring.

None of the rest of the pack looked out of place or out of depth. Few of them I would wager comprehensively outplayed their opposite number but there were solid outings from Connors, Culhane, Deegan and Boyle.

I thought the ruck techniques of our pack was excellent for the most part as was the tackle technique and linespeed.

Foley I felt had a superb game. His pass was always quick off both hands and rarely inaccurate. Yes at times he made wrong decisions but overall his passing quality was helping us scrounge some front foot ball. Easily good enough to surpass McGrath.

Gunne when he came on had an equally nippy but more inaccurate pass. Plenty of receivers needing to check. But overall a decent performance.

The overall backline play I thought was disjointed and lacking shape. Bleyendaal has his work cut out.

I thought Turner was poor. Osborne took his tries well but I thought outside of that he was poor. I commented at Under20s how he had an aversion to tackling and that has persisted into senior thus far. Technically a very poor tackler.

TOB was the pick of the backs with some decent involvements. I particularly enjoyed his enormous hit in our 22. And putting his feet past the 10m mark before claiming the restart so it counted as 10. Very high rugby IQ (if intentional!)

Not a time to lose perspective. Lots of encouragement to take from it particularly the last 20-30 minutes when they seemed to be more settled, bearing in mind the youth on the field. On the lingering 9/10 debate, 10 is clear it’s Frawley & Prendergast for next cycle. 9 I thought Foley had a good game, as previous post stated, definitely enough to remove McGrath from contention. Gunne is a very well rounded player, lovely skills and pitch awareness , powerful all rounder. Osborne & McErlean, both very talented, will continue to do well. Unfair perhaps to compare to what is their first choice back line with international presence. Pack out in a strong shout, Culhane as captain 2nd year running clearly a prospect for next breakthrough and leaves every ounce on the pitch. Gus McCarthy a well earned try in a competitive position. I’m encouraged that we can take a squad ex our best players and compete

Surely a mistake? Bizarre to promote them after announcing the academy so recently.

Unless Ulster came sniffing to McGuire as they're in dire staits at TH.

They're both still listed on the academy page also. McGuires profile is the same on the academy page as well as the senior page.

Osborne however has different profiles and his senior profile states he's a senior player.

Extremely strange decision. While he might come good I haven't seen anything from him that suggests he should be a senior squad mainstay. Certainly not to the point where we promoted him early presumably to ward off other provinces…

They also haven't updated Jamies picture to denote his Ireland cap yet.

It's tough to keep on top all of the content needs. The Comms Team seem very good in Leinster generally.

The gold standard for YouTube highlights imo is SANZAR's output (both Rugby Championship and Super Rugby). Premiership highlights are really good too. I have always found the URC highlights to be absolutely dreadful, they come out quickly but tell very little about the game. Would prefer they spent a bit more time preparing a more comprehensive package.