Leinster V Ospreys

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Fitness report from Leinster Rugby

Leinster Website wrote:
The Leinster squad trained in UCD on Monday afternoon ahead of Saturday's opening home game of the RaboDirect PRO12 campaign against the Ospreys in the RDS (KO: 6.15pm) as the province look to build on Friday's bonus point win in Wales...Aside from the usual bumps and bruises there are no major concerns from the medical team arising from Friday's game.

Luke Fitzgerald felt tightness in his groin during the second half of the win over the Scarlets and was withdrawn as a precaution. Tight-head prop Martin Moore, the opening try scorer in the win, received treatment for a cut on his nose which required stitches. It is hoped that both players will be available ahead of Friday's midday team announcement. :happy clapper:

Fergus McFadden was a late withdrawal at the weekend with a tight hamstring, but it is expected that the Ireland back will be in the frame this week and he could be joined by Ian Madigan. Sean O'Brien continues to make positive strides on his arm injury and is expected to return over the coming weeks.

Michael Bent (neck), however, is still unavailable while Quinn Roux rolled his ankle in training and is a doubt for Saturday's game.

There were debuts for three players in Wales; St. Mary's College winger Darragh Fanning, out-half Jimmy Gopperth who scored 22 points and Ireland second row Mike McCarthy.

Leinster
15: Dave Kearney
14: Darragh Fanning
13: Brendan Macken
12: Gordon D'Arcy
11: Luke Fitzgerald
10: Jimmy Gopperth
9: Eoin Reddan

1: Jack McGrath
2: Richardt Strauss
3: Mike Ross
4: Devin Toner
5: Mike McCarthy
6: Kevin McLaughlin
7: Shane Jennings CAPTAIN
8: Jordi Murphy

REPLACEMENTS:

16: Sean Cronin
17: Jack O'Connell
18: Martin Moore
19: Tom Denton
20: Rhys Ruddock
21: Isaac Boss
22: Ian Madigan
23: Darren Hudson

Ospreys
15 Richard Fussell
14 Ben John
13 Andrew Bishop
12 Ashley Beck
11 Eli Walker
10 Dan Biggar
9 Tito Tebaldi

1 Ryan Bevington
2 Scott Baldwin
3 Joe Rees
4 Ian Evans
5 James King
6 Tom Smith (Capt)
7 Sam Lewis
8 Joe Bearman

REPLACEMENTS

16 Richard Hibbard
17 Duncan Jones
18 Adam Jones
19 Tyler Ardron
20 Morgan Allen
21 Tom Grabham
22 Matthew Morgan
23 Jeff Hassler

Casartelli wrote:

Cari wrote:

Feckless Rogue wrote:Great match. Why doesn't Gatland like Biggar? I don't understand it.

What makes you think he doesn't like him?

Big gulf between this stuff and internationals.  No reason to think Gatland doesn't like him - just that being decent for the Ospreys has no relevance to test rugby nowadays.

There could still be a thought that Biggar ain't a Gats player. Didn't pick him whilst Priestland had his troubles. Didn't take him to Aus with the Lions. I wouldn't be too surprised to see RP back in the ten shirt come the AI's.

Risca Rev wrote:

Casartelli wrote:

Cari wrote:

Feckless Rogue wrote:Great match. Why doesn't Gatland like Biggar? I don't understand it.

What makes you think he doesn't like him?

Big gulf between this stuff and internationals.  No reason to think Gatland doesn't like him - just that being decent for the Ospreys has no relevance to test rugby nowadays.

There could still be a thought that Biggar ain't a Gats player. Didn't pick him whilst Priestland had his troubles. Didn't take him to Aus with the Lions. I wouldn't be too surprised to see RP back in the ten shirt come the AI's.

Won't make much difference. One of the benefits(?) of Gameplan Gatland is that 10 is the least crucial position on the pitch. Option 1 - hoof it, Option 2 - pop pass to Jamie.

Risca Rev wrote:

Casartelli wrote:

Cari wrote:

Feckless Rogue wrote:Great match. Why doesn't Gatland like Biggar? I don't understand it.

What makes you think he doesn't like him?

Big gulf between this stuff and internationals.  No reason to think Gatland doesn't like him - just that being decent for the Ospreys has no relevance to test rugby nowadays.

There could still be a thought that Biggar ain't a Gats player. Didn't pick him whilst Priestland had his troubles. Didn't take him to Aus with the Lions. I wouldn't be too surprised to see RP back in the ten shirt come the AI's.

Priestland is flakey Rev. But still a very good young player. The Welsh word on the straat is that Bigger is flakey too. Point is, from a Welsh point of view for sure, ye have to back one man now. And stand by him. Let the other cash in, if and when he falters and let the gig grow from there. It worked with ROG and Sexton in the end. The cream always rises to the top and more cream tends to come in behind them (ooh-er missus) . As in Madigan has for us. And watch out for J.J. Hanrahan uit Munster btw. Its like ROG, only a more complete rugby player. One who does not suck his thumb and overplay with his rattle.

They are both still young and have been around for yonks seemingly. Pit them against each other. Use their combined desire to find the answer and make the key difference  for Wales. It is all ye are missing to breaking the top-3. As I see it now, Gats and the Regions (he needs to have the same influence as an Irish coach does on the provinces), are doing nowt about it.

Instigate it.  Otherwise, ye will never beat those Aussies without a Paddy standoff.

Love you.

And Owen Williams, Rhys Patchell and Jason Tovey all looking very useful at the moment.

And few to none of those options are as late in their career as ROG was when Sexton first entered the scene for Ireland.

10 must be one of the positions in Wales that is least well managed these days considering the options, many of which are promising but none of which have exactly gripped the starting berth with both hands. With the right management we could be in a good place with a good starting 10 and capable options chomping at the bit behind him.

Knowsit17 wrote:And few to none of those options are as late in their career as ROG was when Sexton first entered the scene for Ireland.

10 must be one of the positions in Wales that is least well managed these days considering the options, many of which are promising but none of which have exactly gripped the starting berth with both hands. With the right management we could be in a good place with a good starting 10 and capable options chomping at the bit behind him.

He Knowsit. Tank feic for the rest of us Gats hasnae worked it out yet.  Ye guys... so close. Get it right by 2015 and I may even put a few bob on ye.  

LeinsterFan4life wrote:The English are right the rabo is a crap low intensity league.

Yeah I could see the players were not bothered... I was wearing English tinted glasses though..

Don't worry Gibbo, I'm sure our master plan wouldn't have reached fruition quite by then. Soon but not that soon. Give it five to ten years and Welsh Rugby will be out of sight, never again to be surpassed by any of yous limited pretenders  

One thing Gats hasn't managed to do throughout his time in Wales is find the next 10 post-Stephen Jones. Hook, Priestland and Biggar have all had a shot but none have, as of yet, claimed it as their own. It's a shame because last time we had a 10 who looked above average (an in-form Priestland back in NZ 2011) we played some of the best rugby I've ever seen us play. It seems to me that Gatlandball is best complemented with the right 10 as the likes of Roberts, Davies, North et al looked near-unstoppable back then and haven't been quite the same since.

Knowsit17 wrote:Don't worry Gibbo, I'm sure our master plan wouldn't have reached fruition quite by then. Soon but not that soon. Give it five to ten years and Welsh Rugby will be out of sight, never again to be surpassed by any of yous limited pretenders  

One thing Gats hasn't managed to do throughout his time in Wales is find the next 10 post-Stephen Jones. Hook, Priestland and Biggar have all had a shot but none have, as of yet, claimed it as their own. It's a shame because last time we had a 10 who looked above average (an in-form Priestland back in NZ 2011) we played some of the best rugby I've ever seen us play. It seems to me that Gatlandball is best complemented with the right 10 as the likes of Roberts, Davies, North et al looked near-unstoppable back then and haven't been quite the same since.

Aye.

We saw how well they played inAustralia with a smart ten like sexton on the pitch.

There are a bunch of options for Wales. I think the selection for this years ten is wide open.

I think Priestland (pre injury and Howleys insistence on picking him out of form) was starting to make the shirt his own and if he can regain his 2011 form then I think he will be hard to shift.

bedfordwelsh wrote:I think Priestland (pre injury and Howleys insistence on picking him out of form) was starting to make the shirt his own and if he can regain his 2011 form then I think he will be hard to shift.

Patchell, Tovey and Biggar are all pretty hard to ignore on current form though. I think Priestland lack of 2012 form was massively over stipulated by posters on here. He wasn't that bad. We had other bigger issues in the front five.

Priestland acknowledged he was playing badly - in his own words;

'The poor performances were a lot to do with me because I have been playing with blinkers on.
'I buried my head in the sand, cutting myself away and that has been the problem. One of the issues I have is I have not been asking for help.
'I have started to see the sports psychiatrist...'

The selection strategy at the time was bizarre. Hopefully hasn't damaged him permanently.

maestegmafia wrote:

bedfordwelsh wrote:I think Priestland (pre injury and Howleys insistence on picking him out of form) was starting to make the shirt his own and if he can regain his 2011 form then I think he will be hard to shift.

Patchell, Tovey and Biggar are all pretty hard to ignore on current form though. I think Priestland lack of 2012 form was massively over stipulated by posters on here. He wasn't that bad. We had other bigger issues in the front five.

He did make some crucial errors in some of the Australia games though, games which we could have won without some late aimless kicking.

Anybody know where I can get highlights of this match?

Watching the trys on youtube - Dave Kearney looks to have had a great game.

Artful_Dodger wrote:Anybody know where I can get highlights of this match?

Scrum v on BBC 2 Wales and the website later

Was at the game, great atmosphere, btw Gibbo yer bro has a new scarf an ting for ya


Fair play to the O's, never gave up, annoying pests that they are! McGrath was superb, as was J Murphy, with Healy and Heaslip incbent in the Ireland setup they're going to get plenty of game time this year, no Johnny Q. foerigner in the queue ahead of them either.

Can someone tell me what Cronin was carded for?

Cronin was carded for......

Wearing a loud shirt in a built up area......

No.... being in possesion of an offensive..... wife.

No.... it must be not being a lion, and playing in a front row with 2 young props.

Not being smart enough to get around the "tactics" of the more experienced front row.

Hardly blaming that on our lack of a win. we did score 10 to nil while he was in thebin.

Not going in more than 7 ahead after the first half we had was what did the damage imho.

Trying to figure out what the ref could have penalised a hooker for when he's in the attacking scrum 5m out, and it's doing well. Was he sticking his leg out to hook the ball back? Is that even illegal? I came to rugby late in life so i don't remember the minutiae of the old school scrum laws.

Was called "foot up" and yes it is illegal. or was anyway.

Don' think that's what he was done for though. It wasn't even our put in.

Dan Biggar is some player. Really should be handed the Wales 10 shirt full time at this stage.

Another really good Leinster v Ospreys match.

GunsGerms wrote:Dan Biggar is some player. Really should be handed the Wales 10 shirt full time at this stage.

Another really good Leinster v Ospreys match.

Biggar is probably in the front position at the moment.

They will be keeping eyes on Priestland for his previous good form, he's not back there yet, but he is doing ok at Scarlets. Owen Williams has looked good at Tigers this season so could well enter the running along with Patchell who has also looked impressive. Tovey has had some good games for Dragons so far this season and could also be a candidate. But at the moment Biggar is the option playing with his head a little above the others.

Mickado wrote:Trying to figure out what the ref could have penalised a hooker for when he's in the attacking scrum 5m out, and it's doing well. Was he sticking his leg out to hook the ball back? Is that even illegal? I came to rugby late in life so i don't remember the minutiae of the old school scrum laws.

The ref was annoyed that he had spent so much time trying to get a scrum set.  He decided that Leinster were the culprits and the hooker gets the yellow card as they are meant to be the person responsible for organising their side at the scrum.

The ref was poor at a couple of stages.  He sent two tries up to TMO when he was in a better position to call it than a camera half the width of a pitch away.  Both were tries, and he was within 3 foot of each grounding with what appear to be a completely clear view of both groundings but still whistles TMO.  Shows a lack of confidence in his own ability to correctly call a game.  That kind of insecurity can manifest itself in then assuming that the likes of A Jones has the upper hand on an unknown in McGrath.  For that penalty where cronin was binned, jones stepped back on the hit and almost pulled the jersey entirely off McGrath as he was spinning around but the ref's mind was made before that scrum even happened on what he was going to do.

Macken has stepped up another level since last year in the centres.
Fanning is very solid under the high ball and might be a decent pro12 operator.
Hudson looked like he blew he hamstring at a restart during the first half, puts more focus on the need to have Lote in to cover injuries.
McGrath had a great display.  Schooled a bit by Jones (but that should be great learning for him).  Biggest compliment would be that you don't automatically realise that your missing Healy out on the field (which is the highest praise I can give).
Jordi should start putting pressure on Heaslip so long as injuries don't factor in.
Gopperth had a solid outing. Madigan seemed to cover fullback in his stride and D Kearney put in a very strong wing performance after the switch.

Plenty of positives.


Oh, and I was almost directly behind the final kick of the game and would swear it was a foot wide of the right hand post.  Linesmen were at 6s and 7s and the referee was looking for them to make the decision (not he would have made a call) so them the rubs.

A draw on reflection was definitely a fair result for both sides.

GunsGerms wrote:Dan Biggar is some player. Really should be handed the Wales 10 shirt full time at this stage.

Another really good Leinster v Ospreys match.

GG, a good friend of mine who travels everywhere in support of the Os said he was a country mile ahead of any other player on the field on Saturday.
Maes, the players you mention, Tovey has had 2 reasonable games since coming back after a dreadful season at the Blues, Patchell will be ready for Wales after the next WC and the others are not worth commenting on apart from Priestland who I hope finds his form of 2 years ago and has a good battle with Dan for the next few years. I agree with Jiffy who says Dan is in pole position ATM. If Dan carries on playing as he is ATM and does not get picked for the AI there is obviously a grudge being held by Gatland.

wayne wrote:

GunsGerms wrote:Dan Biggar is some player. Really should be handed the Wales 10 shirt full time at this stage.

Another really good Leinster v Ospreys match.

GG, a good friend of mine who travels everywhere in support of the Os said he was a country mile ahead of any other player on the field on Saturday.
Maes, the players you mention, Tovey has had 2 reasonable  games since coming back after a dreadful season at the Blues, Patchell will be ready for Wales after the next WC and the others are not worth commenting on apart from Priestland who I hope finds his form of 2 years ago and has a good battle with Dan for the next few years. I agree with Jiffy who says Dan is in pole position ATM. If Dan carries on playing as he is ATM and does not get picked for the AI there is obviously a grudge being held by Gatland.

Surely not! He doesn't do grudges.  

Jenifer McLadyboy wrote:

wayne wrote:

GunsGerms wrote:Dan Biggar is some player. Really should be handed the Wales 10 shirt full time at this stage.

Another really good Leinster v Ospreys match.

GG, a good friend of mine who travels everywhere in support of the Os said he was a country mile ahead of any other player on the field on Saturday.
Maes, the players you mention, Tovey has had 2 reasonable  games since coming back after a dreadful season at the Blues, Patchell will be ready for Wales after the next WC and the others are not worth commenting on apart from Priestland who I hope finds his form of 2 years ago and has a good battle with Dan for the next few years. I agree with Jiffy who says Dan is in pole position ATM. If Dan carries on playing as he is ATM and does not get picked for the AI there is obviously a grudge being held by Gatland.

Surely not! He doesn't do grudges.  

Jen I bet you've been waiting weeks for somebody to mention Gatland and grudges in the same sentence

Never got into the whole gatland thing tbh. Just jumped out at me. Hopefully we can all laugh at this stage

Jenifer McLadyboy wrote:Never got into the whole gatland thing tbh. Just jumped out at me. Hopefully we can all laugh at this stage

Jen, in most of these cross border disputes, I would be possibly the best arbitrator on these boards, especially Welsh, Irish and English.
My maternal grandfather is from a little village just outside of Wexford named Crossabeg and my paternal grandfather is Cornish in another small village near St. Ives and I bet you can guess who I support when my 2 grandfathers countries play each other.

IronMike wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:

bedfordwelsh wrote:I think Priestland (pre injury and Howleys insistence on picking him out of form) was starting to make the shirt his own and if he can regain his 2011 form then I think he will be hard to shift.

Patchell, Tovey and Biggar are all pretty hard to ignore on current form though. I think Priestland lack of 2012 form was massively over stipulated by posters on here. He wasn't that bad. We had other bigger issues in the front five.

He did make some crucial errors in some of the Australia games though, games which we could have won without some late aimless kicking.

Not errors if he was playing under orders from the coach, and the forwards had been turned over a fair few times at that point. I think the follow up from the players were poor and let Australia come running back from what wasn't a bad territorial placement kick.

maestegmafia wrote:

bedfordwelsh wrote:I think Priestland (pre injury and Howleys insistence on picking him out of form) was starting to make the shirt his own and if he can regain his 2011 form then I think he will be hard to shift.

Patchell, Tovey and Biggar are all pretty hard to ignore on current form though. I think Priestland lack of 2012 form was massively over stipulated by posters on here. He wasn't that bad. We had other bigger issues in the front five.

I agree he didn't play that poorly, the blame and witch-hunt as a result of that long kick (and the non existent follow up by the Welsh team to close down the Aussies) was ridiculous, a player with such great potential was suddenly public enemy No:1.

I think Biggar certainly isn't flakey, in fact his confidence and ability to remain level headed is clearly a strength of his and he has matured immeasurably. The way he took the non selection on the Lions tour (when he was one of the best Welsh players in the 2013 6Ns) on the chin, put his head down and has started the Rabo with a bang is testament to how much he has grown up.

Deffo the man in the 10 shirt at the moment

wayne wrote:

GunsGerms wrote:Dan Biggar is some player. Really should be handed the Wales 10 shirt full time at this stage.

Another really good Leinster v Ospreys match.

GG, a good friend of mine who travels everywhere in support of the Os said he was a country mile ahead of any other player on the field on Saturday.
Maes, the players you mention, Tovey has had 2 reasonable  games since coming back after a dreadful season at the Blues, Patchell will be ready for Wales after the next WC and the others are not worth commenting on apart from Priestland who I hope finds his form of 2 years ago and has a good battle with Dan for the next few years. I agree with Jiffy who says Dan is in pole position ATM. If Dan carries on playing as he is ATM and does not get picked for the AI there is obviously a grudge being held by Gatland.

Everytime I have watched him play he has really impressed me. I used to play OH and what I like about him the most is his composure and confidence. He also obviously has a good all round game.

You are right.

Biggar was a petulant stroppy little bugger two seasons ago. His attitude changed once Holley left and Tandy and Gruff took over. He has been a really good player since.

GunsGerms wrote:

wayne wrote:

GunsGerms wrote:Dan Biggar is some player. Really should be handed the Wales 10 shirt full time at this stage.

Another really good Leinster v Ospreys match.

GG, a good friend of mine who travels everywhere in support of the Os said he was a country mile ahead of any other player on the field on Saturday.
Maes, the players you mention, Tovey has had 2 reasonable  games since coming back after a dreadful season at the Blues, Patchell will be ready for Wales after the next WC and the others are not worth commenting on apart from Priestland who I hope finds his form of 2 years ago and has a good battle with Dan for the next few years. I agree with Jiffy who says Dan is in pole position ATM. If Dan carries on playing as he is ATM and does not get picked for the AI there is obviously a grudge being held by Gatland.

Everytime I have watched him play he has really impressed me. I used to play OH and what I like about him the most is his composure and confidence. He also obviously has a good all round game.

He does lack the cutting edge of someone like Sexton in attack, and probably isn't as good a defender either. Also, he's prone to taking a lot of aimless drop-goals. There was a point where the home fans would boo him because he was doing this too often and it really was painful to watch.

GunsGerms wrote:

wayne wrote:

GunsGerms wrote:Dan Biggar is some player. Really should be handed the Wales 10 shirt full time at this stage.

Another really good Leinster v Ospreys match.

GG, a good friend of mine who travels everywhere in support of the Os said he was a country mile ahead of any other player on the field on Saturday.
Maes, the players you mention, Tovey has had 2 reasonable  games since coming back after a dreadful season at the Blues, Patchell will be ready for Wales after the next WC and the others are not worth commenting on apart from Priestland who I hope finds his form of 2 years ago and has a good battle with Dan for the next few years. I agree with Jiffy who says Dan is in pole position ATM. If Dan carries on playing as he is ATM and does not get picked for the AI there is obviously a grudge being held by Gatland.

Everytime I have watched him play he has really impressed me. I used to play OH and what I like about him the most is his composure and confidence. He also obviously has a good all round game.

Agree with you sir, he has always impressed when he has played against us or when we have watched him playing us in the Liberty. His past perceived petulance was over-played I can recall only a few instances when he did a few immature things and in the heat of the battle we all can do or say things we later in years cringe at. He reminds me a bit of Sexton... a player who is not afraid to bark orders at the younger and also the more experienced, and nothing wrong with that. I mean that's part of what a good FH should do, organising, cajoling, encouraging, and bawling when thing are not going well.

Wales are really lucky to have about 5 or 6 potentially good 10s coming up for competition

The Saint wrote:

GunsGerms wrote:

wayne wrote:

GunsGerms wrote:Dan Biggar is some player. Really should be handed the Wales 10 shirt full time at this stage.

Another really good Leinster v Ospreys match.

GG, a good friend of mine who travels everywhere in support of the Os said he was a country mile ahead of any other player on the field on Saturday.
Maes, the players you mention, Tovey has had 2 reasonable  games since coming back after a dreadful season at the Blues, Patchell will be ready for Wales after the next WC and the others are not worth commenting on apart from Priestland who I hope finds his form of 2 years ago and has a good battle with Dan for the next few years. I agree with Jiffy who says Dan is in pole position ATM. If Dan carries on playing as he is ATM and does not get picked for the AI there is obviously a grudge being held by Gatland.

Everytime I have watched him play he has really impressed me. I used to play OH and what I like about him the most is his composure and confidence. He also obviously has a good all round game.

He does lack the cutting edge of someone like Sexton in attack, and probably isn't as good a defender either. Also, he's prone to taking a lot of aimless drop-goals. There was a point where the home fans would boo him because he was doing this too often and it really was painful to watch.

He can't read a defence as well as others like Priestland, but other than that his all round game is becoming quite impressive.