Leinster 2014-15

First topic message reminder :

Haven't seen a 14-15 thread for Leinster so thought I'd set one up.  What are peoples predictions for the current year?

Preseason Games wrote:
23/08  14:30  Northampton Saints (33) v (21) Leinster Rugby  Franklin's Gardens
30/08  16:00  Leinster Rugby         v  Ulster Rugby     Tallaght Stadium

Pro12 Games (September) wrote:
05/09  PRO12  Glasgow Warriors  v  Leinster Rugby  Scotstoun Stadium
12/09  PRO12  Leinster Rugby     v  Scarlets            RDS Arena
19/09  PRO12  Connacht Rugby   v  Leinster Rugby   Sportsground
26/09  PRO12  Leinster Rugby    v  Cardiff Blues      RDS Arena

European Pool 2 wrote:
Leinster
Castres
Harlequins
Wasps

The Squad wrote:
The Squad
Loosehead
Michael Bent[28][2016]
Cian Healy[26][2016] Central Contract
Jack McGrath[24][2016]
Sean McCarthy[23][2015]

Ed Byrne[20][Year 3]
Peter Dooley[20][Year 2]

Hooker
Aaron Dundon[32][2015]
Richardt Strauss[28][2015]
Sean Cronin[28][2015]
James Tracy[23][2015]

Bryan Byrne[20][Year 3]

Tighthead
Mike Ross[34][2015] Central Contract
Martin Moore[23][2015]
Tadhg Furlong[21][2016]

Second Row
Mike McCarthy[32][2016]
Devin Toner[28][2015]
Tom Denton[26][2015]
Kane Douglas[25][2017]
Ben Marshall[24][2015]

Tadhg Beirne[22][Year 3]
Gavin Thornbury[20][Year 3]
Ross Molony[20][Year 2]

Backrow
Shane Jennings[33][2015]
Jamie Heaslip[30][2017] Central Contract
Kevin McLaughlin[29][2015]
Sean O'Brien[27][2016] Central Contract
Dominic Ryan[24][2015]
Rhys Ruddock[23][2016]
Jordi Murphy[23][2015]
Jack Conan[22][2016]

Josh Van Der Flier[21][Year 3]
Dan Leavy[20][Year 3]
Peadar Timmins[20][Year 1]

Scrumhalf
Isaac Boss[34][2015]
Eoin Reddan[33][2015]
Luke McGrath[21][2016]

Nick McCarthy[19][Year 1]

Outhalf
Jimmy Gopperth[31][2015]
Ian Madigan[25][2016]

Cathal Marsh[21][Year 3]
Steve Crosbie[21][Year 2]
Ross Byrne[19][Year 1]

Centre
Gordon Darcy[34][2015]
Noel Reid[24][2016]
Colm O'Shea[23][2015]
Brendan Macken[23][2015]

Jordan Coghlan[21][Year 3]
Tom Daly[21][Year 2]
Tom Farrell[20][Year 2]
Rory O'Loughlin[20][Year 1]
Harrison Brewer[19][Year 1]
Gary Ringrose[19][Year 1]

Back Three
Zane Kirchner[30][2015]
Rob Kearney[28][2015] Central Contract
Fergus McFadden[28][2015]
Darragh Fanning[28][2015]
Luke Fitzgerald[26][2015]
Dave Kearney[25][2016]
Sam Coghlan Murray[22][2015]

Adam Byrne[20][Year 2]
Billy Dardis[19][Year 2]
Cian Kelleher[20][Year 1]
Ian Fitzpatrick[20][Year 1]

Elsewhere
John Cooney[24][2015] - Loaned to Connacht
Quinn Roux[23][2015] - Loaned to Connacht

What are your thoughts?

[P.S. all the leagues are entertaining and have their positive and negative aspects.  Of course money is an issue but it is an issue for discussion on other threads.]

Am i correct in saying that the tickets for Leinster-Quins in Leinster aren't on sale yet?

Yes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB5XmeGHGDg#t=140

"Slick" new Leinster Video show. Once a month. Looks decent.

Story lads....does everyone love MOC now. Is Jimmy Gupper the best new thing since the sliced pan. Does Jamie still carry a pocket mirror around with himself......is SOB a culchie or not a culchie. questions, questions....

SOB is a reformed culchie. We've always been very understanding of and kind to culchie's who accept our superior way of life, sexier rugby and upturned collars. Hopefully you'll come around too someday ME.

You're right FR I could tell how SOB has accepted this and dropped his culchieness by err...continuing to speak in a broad Carlow accent and also by the speed with which he returned down to Carlow to work with the GAA team when he got injured. At least he isnt like Jamie a wannabe from the culchie heartland of Kildare..."nare a bother boss". I wonder how many elocution lessons he had to take to sound like a D4 head

Dubs have long embraced the GAA. Sure didn't we win the premier league last season.

Dunno why SoB being a culchie matters,Leinster is full of culchies. Sure that's why Meath have gone useless at football,we're starting to concentrate on getting our big men playing rugby.Shaggy and Toner are just the start of big feckers from Meath making the grade.

Ah if only rugby had been the sport of choice for men like Mick Lyons,Darren Fay,Graham Geraghty and Liam Harnan.

asoreleftshoulder wrote:Dunno why SoB being a culchie matters,Leinster is full of culchies. Sure that's why Meath have gone useless at football,we're starting to concentrate on getting our big men playing rugby.Shaggy and Toner are just the start of big feckers from Meath making the grade.

Ah if only rugby had been the sport of choice for men like Mick Lyons,Darren Fay,Graham Geraghty and Liam Harnan.

You would probably have seen a significant increase in Red Cards in the game and countless bans from the game...

ME-109 wrote:

asoreleftshoulder wrote:Dunno why SoB being a culchie matters,Leinster is full of culchies. Sure that's why Meath have gone useless at football,we're starting to concentrate on getting our big men playing rugby.Shaggy and Toner are just the start of big feckers from Meath making the grade.

Ah if only rugby had been the sport of choice for men like Mick Lyons,Darren Fay,Graham Geraghty and Liam Harnan.

You would probably have seen a significant increase in Red Cards in the game and countless bans from the game...

Ah these were men who knew how to pull a dirty stroke and get away with it,they'd have fit right in with rugby in the late 80's/early 90's.Fay would have been the best of the lot,there was a footballer who had it all.

I would have put Mick Lyons as being the consummate person of violence with a distinct lack of empathy (i.e a psycho)

Yep he'd have been right at home on a rugby pitch in the late 80's,there were very few television cameras around to catch players out back then.

The Leinster team to face Connacht in tomorrow's Guinness PRO12 derby match has been announced, with Fergus McFadden coming in to replace the injured Zane Kirchner and Rhys Ruddock starting his first game of the season.

Ruddock is set to start wearing the number six jersey, with Dominic Ryan making a positional switch to number seven. Shane Jennings will start among the replacements and is just two games away from his 200th Leinster appearance. Last Saturday's man of the match, Jamie Heaslip, completes the back row and will captain Leinster.

The rest of the front eight are as you were from last weekend. Devin Toner and Mike McCarthy start in the second row, with a front three of Jack McGrath, Sean Cronin and Mike Ross.

Rob Kearney and Darragh Fanning start in the back three for the second match in a row, with Fergus McFadden coming in to replace Zane Kirchner who will be out for two to three weeks, as confirmed by Matt O'Connor in this week's injury update.

There are no changes in midfield or in the half-backs. Ian Madigan starts at inside centre, Brendan Macken at outside centre, Jimmy Gopperth at out-half and Isaac Boss at scrum-half.

Gordon D'Arcy is named in a Leinster squad for the first time this season, starting from the bench.

Leinster v Munster

LEINSTER

15. Rob Kearney
14. Fergus McFadden
13. Brendan Macken
12. Ian Madigan
11. Darragh Fanning
10. Jimmy Gopperth
9. Isaac Boss
1. Jack McGrath
2. Sean Cronin
3. Mike Ross
4. Devin Toner
5. Mike McCarthy
6. Rhys Ruddock
7. Dominic Ryan
8. Jamie Heaslip CAPTAIN

Replacements

16. Bryan Byrne
17. Cian Healy
18. Tadhg Furlong
19. Tom Denton
20. Shane Jennings
21. Eoin Reddan
22. Gordon D'Arcy
23. Mick McGrath


Connacht: D Leader, N Adeolokun, R Henshaw, D McSharry, D Poolman, J Carty, K Marmion; D Buckley, D Heffernan, N White, A Muldowney, Q Roux, J Muldoon (cpt), W Faloon, E McKeon.
Replacements: S Delahunt, R Loughney, R Ah You, M Kearney, G Naoupu, I Porter, C Ronaldson, M Healy.

Very strong Leinster pack,if they can put the squeeze on then hopefully the backs can continue to show some more of the good work they put in last week.

Cooney is not allowed play for Connacht tonight because of the terms of the loan deal which I don't really get because we surely sent him away to get gametime...

Was Mick Mcgrath signed up from the AIL?  Havent heard of him before this season. He any good?

Top try scorer in the league for the last 2 years playing for Clontarf (I think).Haven't seen much of him bar highlights but he looked decent when he came on against the Scarlets.He's quick and is a finisher,whether the rest of his game is as polished we'll have t wait and see.

Ah right, good to see that the players in the AIL are still been given a chance by the provinces.

Err Golden..the game is on tonight just in case you miss it

lads, any dodgy links worth a PM, so I can watch the lads (hopefully) smash Leinster?

Well that was truly sh1te tonight and we're back to square one. Hard to know where to begin but let's start at no 9 where once again Reddan showed that he is sooooo slow that it hards to believe. Does any team have two slower SH's than Boss and Reddan - Marmion made a few mistakes tonight but he was light years ahead of Reddan in distribution and speed.

Thought the first half v Edinburgh was as bad as it could get, but that second half tonight was even worse. And as for Jamie the Brand Heaslip didn't see much sign of leadership when Lacey was giving away peno after peno against us - wtf was he saying to his team - nothing.

So after 3 games, Leinster are bottom of the Irish teams and deservedly so, all credit to Connacht with their 100% record. Can't wait to hear the latest batch of excuses from O'Connor for a truly dismal and depressing display

Oh no moc is rubbish. Anyone notice Rob Kearnage doing his usual tackle attempt..oh dear

Was a class step in fairness to Mr Marmion, you can live with those sort of tries being scored against you. MOC blatantly is rubbish though. He's got us playing like a sunday league team. Any pressure and we lose all shape, and its just a hospital pass bonanza.

To cap it all off, he's gone and pulled his childhood mate from running a coffee shop to take over as scrum coach, and it looks like he's already having an influence.

... and the moral of the story is: don't employ an AP coach who is dyed in the wool forward dominance when a fifteen-man game is what's needed for the P12 League

O'Connor just isn't X factor unfortunately.  Good enough to plod through a Pro12 and keep Leinster towards the top of the League (I mean top fiveish, not necessarily top two)..........  but none of the rage, passion and nervous energy that Leinster needs to push them to the higher levels.  He also seems to maintain a certain lethargic contempt for Pro12 - possibly an AP lack of respect for it.

The guys probably think about Schmidt's famous attention to detail every day in training.  Cheika too - mad bastareaud but with the intensity and 'f**k you!' drive to get these players up for combat.

O'Connor strolls around in his little long shorts - he seems far too laid back and relaxed for the role.  "Fair dinkum, we're getting there but let's not get fussy.  Time for a kitkat, mate - chill - it'll happen."

He doesn't suit the furniture at Ballsbridge.... and you can extract the bit I mean from the name

Then again - it could all be a sly rest, rest, rest philosophy and pseudo-dictat-command from on High (Schmidt/Nucifora).................. busy year.

Crikey SF you would think you would give him more time given he is from the southern hemisphere...we all know you think they are soooo much better than the indigenous population..

He obviously has some Irish blood with a name like O'Connor ... definately not exotic enough for Leinster.

Players like Healip, Kearney, O'Brien etc. should not need a coach to hold their hand for them.

Sin é wrote:He obviously has some Irish blood with a name like O'Connor ... definately not exotic enough for Leinster.

Players like Healip, Kearney, O'Brien etc. should not need a coach to hold their hand for them.

Speaking of SOB, where is he? Is he injured?

ME-109 wrote:Crikey SF you would think you would give him more time given he is from the southern hemisphere...we all know you think they are soooo much better than the indigenous population..

They are.  O'Connor is absolutely useless but with an Irish coach we'd be bottom of the whole pile of 12....and that would be with a pretty good Irish one, mind you

SH guys are just indigenously, genetically purer in rugby capacity tendon-reflex-neural-twitch muscle responses to an oval ball .  It's proven in Science Magazine - 1998 Vol 4.

Sin é wrote:He obviously has some Irish blood with a name like O'Connor ... definately not exotic enough for Leinster.

Players like Healip, Kearney, O'Brien etc. should not need a coach to hold their hand for them.

The Munster boys certainly don't.  Destroying Zebre all on their own. Impresseef!

God, it's refreshing getting back to rugby insults instead of the very mannerly and polite Referendum nonsense.

The smell of Napalm in the Night!

SecretFly wrote:God, it's refreshing getting back to rugby insults instead of the very mannerly and polite Referendum nonsense.

The smell of Napalm in the Night!

Harhar..see my last comment re referendum thread..time to take the gloves off

The Great Aukster wrote:... and the moral of the story is: don't employ an AP coach who is dyed in the wool forward dominance when a fifteen-man game is what's needed for the P12 League

Indeed. Well it makes for an exciting league this year ( this result)

Yes, hiring an Aviva Premiership coach seemed to go against everything Leinster stood for up to that point. i.e. positive attacking 15 man rugby. The fact that he was from Tigers made me even more worried. And finally the fact that Tigers fans were happy to see him go since their attack hadn't been firing really set alarm bells off in my head.

If Leicester Tigers weren't happy with his attacking flair what the hell were Leinster thinking hiring him? To be fair to Leinster they didn't have any time to find a replacement for Schmidt. I think MOC will see out his contract and be on his way and quickly forgotten about. Hopefully we're already looking for a coach who believes in 15 man total rugby, whatever nationality he is.

Sin e has a point though, that multiple European Cup, PRO12 league and 6 Nations winners like Heaslip and Kearney should be capable of better no matter who the coach is. And I've said it before and I'll say it again, Heaslip is not a good captain.

I'm not as pessimistic as most,I think we looked pretty good for 50 minutes and a little nit of bad luck/poor execution meant we didn't put the points away that would have seen the match won.Our scrum and maul let us down but I can't see them staying poor all season while I think our passing looks to be much better than it was last year,players are running on to the ball at pace and the passes aren't making them check their run.This gives me hope for both Leinster and Ireland.

To me the problem seems to be our attacking shape,we have few decoy runners and don't seem able to create gaps in the opposition defense,we seem to be trying to just suck defenders in to create overlaps but defenses are so organised enough these days that it just doesn't happen often enough.

I will give MoC till Christmas to show that he has enough to take the team forward before I call for his head,we need to be peaking for Europe and then chugging along consistently after that.

Why can't Connacht play like this whenever they play against the other provinces... Munster and Ulster always throw out a second string team and hammer them.

Its time they start playing like this consistently and not let this just be another false dawn in Connacht rugby.

LeinsterFan4life wrote:Why can't Connacht play like this whenever they play against the other provinces... Munster and Ulster always throw out a second string team and hammer them.

Its time they start playing like this consistently and not let this just be another false dawn in Connacht rugby.

In fairness that's their 3rd win on the trot and they haven't got any of their big summer signings on the team yet.They look like a much tougher proposition this year,they still need to get lucky with injuries as the squad is paper thin at 2 and 7.Faloon is their only fit 7 and until McCartney lands they are very short at hooker too.Any more injuries in these positions and they could struggle.

They were dire against Embra though and could have easily lost them opening two games. Although at least they are winning them close scrappy games as they used to lose a lot of them.

I just want to see them kick on now and start to perform like they do against Leinster consistently. Flyhalf is still a major issue though unless Carty can come good.

Yeah you're right they do need to show that kind of form more but at least they are getting close wins now instead of close defeats.Forgot to mention 10 as a weak position,although they have plenty of injury cover there it's just that none of the options stand out as being really top class in such an important position.

Cathal Marsh could be a good signing for them. He has two B&I cup medals and from reports he is playing very well for the A team and is a real steady player who kicks his goals etc.

With Sexton returning and Crosbie playing well against the Scarlets along with Byrne in the academy, he should be thinking about moving.

Yeah he had a great game in the B&I cup final last year,looks to have bulked up a lot and from the little I've seen of him he seems to know how to manage a game.He could be backup to Sexton next year if Madigan makes a permanent move to 12,I can't see Gopperth staying on and I'd say D'Arcy will hang up the boots after Ireland win the World Cup.

Is Crosbie a 10?

Crosbie played 10 in the JWC but he could also be seen as a 12. Not sure if he is concentrating on playing in one position yet.

Bit of Leinster news. Ed Byrne is having surgery and will be out for a couple of weeks. Due to the level of injuries at Prop, Leinster have brought in Jamie Hagan on a 3 month loan deal.

thebandwagonsociety wrote:Bit of Leinster news. Ed Byrne is having surgery and will be out for a couple of weeks.  Due to the level of injuries at Prop, Leinster have brought in Jamie Hagan on a 3 month loan deal.

Try 6 Months

Okay there are a good few couple of weeks in 6 months.

That was a pretty entertaining game in Treviso if not of the highest quality.

I for one wasn't surprised to see Treviso playing at this level, they have been steadily improving in the last couple of games and doesn't lose as many player to Italy anymore.

That said Leinster weren't great at all and aren't the Leinster we all know under O'Connor.

OMG, after the delights of Saturday evening in the Aviva, we plumbed the depths at Treviso on Sunday. Against a team with zero wins out of seven, we struggled mightily and against a team which has scored less than a try a game we leaked four tries. Lucky doesn't even describe the outcome of the game for us and it would have been no travesty if Italians had won it at the end.

Needless to say MOC said how "disappointed" he was - jeez it's like a broken record now. Of course in previous seasons it didn't matter where we finished in the Pro12 - as long as we finished ahead of Connacht we were sure of getting into the Heino. Now with only guaranteed from each country and only 6/7 qualifying things aren't so simple and as things stand if you were ranking the Irish teams 1 to 4, Leinster would probably down at 4. Of course, our internationals were away and of course there are the injuries to Healy, SOB etc but last Sunday showed that Leinster have a seriously alarming lack of depth in the squad once the front-liners are away.

If they don't put the hairsprays away next Saturday then we are in trouble and the gap against Ospreys, Glasgow, Munster and Ulster will grow with Leinster scrapping with the Scarlets and Connacht for the remaining ERCC places. Seems MOC is on the Against the Head tonight - well I hope he gets some serious questions about Leinster's abject season so far and isn't just brought on to blather about the Irl-Aus game.

brennomac wrote:OMG, after the delights of Saturday evening in the Aviva, we plumbed the depths at Treviso on Sunday.  Against a team with zero wins out of seven, we struggled mightily and against a team which has scored less than a try a game we leaked four tries.  Lucky doesn't even describe the outcome of the game for us and it would have been no travesty if Italians had won it at the end.

Needless to say MOC said how "disappointed" he was - jeez it's like a broken record now.  Of course in previous seasons it didn't matter where we finished in the Pro12 - as long as we finished ahead of Connacht we were sure of getting into the Heino.  Now with only guaranteed from each country and only 6/7 qualifying things aren't so simple and as things stand if you were ranking the Irish teams 1 to 4, Leinster would probably down at 4.  Of course, our internationals were away and of course there are the injuries to Healy, SOB etc but last Sunday showed that Leinster have a seriously alarming lack of depth in the squad once the front-liners are away.

If they don't put the hairsprays away next Saturday then we are in trouble and the gap against Ospreys, Glasgow, Munster and Ulster will grow with Leinster scrapping with the Scarlets and Connacht for the remaining ERCC places. Seems MOC is on the Against the Head tonight - well I hope he gets some serious questions about Leinster's abject season so far and isn't just brought on to blather about the Irl-Aus game.

Ah, don't worry Bren, the Irish orientated Pro12, with it's myriad of biased Irish refs, will never let Leinster finish outside the top 6, even more so, Connacht are being primed by the leagues organisers to take the no. 6 spot, Leinster will be just fine.

Not a lack of depth ...a lack of the coaching intensity that would have the second string guys pushing harder still when the big boys are away.

I think at this point I'd be more disappointed in Cullen than O'Connor.  

O'Connor doesn't really know what the ethos is in Leinster.  He has an air of calmness that just isn't the right ingredient for an ambitous side like Leinster.  And I still feel he has a mild indifference to the Pro12 part of his brief and pefers to think of ERCC and his first stringers.
He doesn't seem to be the guy to teach or to enjoy the idea of making fringe players play above themselves.  So it's more............ 'yeah, we don't have our main guys.  They're away with Ireland.  So understand my limitations with the injuries and all too' - This seems to be the attitude; that a club side is the main players or waiting for them. A stubborn AP habit perhaps.

This is ideally the periods when Leinster actually getthings cooking on the future ERCCers.  It's not a time to wait and moan about the conditions attached that forces you to wait.  It's a time to coach and teach the next guys up - and drive them

So Cullen should know all this and yet, it seems to be a yawn year of 'it'll do for now - we got injuries and things. We'll get there'.

We might get there - but heads out of asses might help the process look convincing.