EPCR - Round 1 Leinster v Wasps (Friday, 12 Oct @7:45pm)

Leinster: Rob Kearney; Jordan Larmour, Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw, James Lowe; Johnny Sexton (C), Luke McGrath; Cian Healy, Seán Cronin, Tadhg Furlong; Devin Toner, James Ryan; Dan Leavy, Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan.

Subs: James Tracy, Jack McGrath, Andrew Porter, Scott Fardy, Seán O’Brien, Nick McCarthy, Ross Byrne, Joe Tomane.


Wasps: Willie Le Roux; Josh Bassett, Juan de Jongh, Michael Le Bourgeois, Elliot Daly (C); Lima Sopoaga, Joe Simpson; Zurabi Zhvania, Tommy Taylor, Kieran Brookes; Will Rowlands, James Gaskell; Brad Shields, Thomas Young, Nizaam Carr.

Subs: Tom Cruse, Ben Harris, Will Stuart, Kearnan Myall, Ashley Johnson, Craig Hampson, Billy Searle, Rob Miller


Wasps thumped Leinster the last time they played each other at the RDS. Will this be a repeat.
Nervous anticipation for the game, hoping for some high quality rugby.

Looking forward to Sexton vs Sopoaga. Not sure about that Wasps pack, the Leinster pack could do a job at international level. They are all Irish internationals.

Massacre

There is no pressure on this Wasps side. I think most are expecting a bit of a pasting.
Having said that it will give them the freedom to properly have a go.
I can only see one result though.

From today's Times, where their rugby journalist feels this Leinster lineup could win teh 6 Nations:

At midday yesterday when the first-team line-up was announced, you would have been forgiven for thinking that we had time-warped forward three weeks to the start of the international season. The Irish team was incredible: 493 caps worth of talent, all but one of the starting XV had international experience, and there were another 171 caps on the bench. And no, it was not the Ireland team; it is the start of the Heineken Champions Cup and this was Leinster.

Dear me, Wasps. Godspeed and all that.

Further to that, eight of the Leinster XV to start the defence of their title in the tournament opener against Wasps in Dublin tonight were rested or benched last weekend. They have an entirely fresh front row. Seán O’Brien, the British & Irish Lions’ best forward against the All Blacks 15 months ago, only makes the bench.


Compare that to Wasps where they are playing a totally different game. Nine of the front line played last week and it would have been 12 but for Dan Robson (ankle injury), Nathan Hughes (Twitter injury — suspended after tweet regarding disciplinary hearing) and Christian Wade (sick). Willie le Roux played only six days ago, in another continent against the All Blacks and came off with a failed HIA, but he is back and fit and straight in.

“Can we rotate the squad as much as them?” asked Dai Young, the Wasps director of rugby. “No we can’t — it’s a simple fact. We haven’t got the numbers they’ve got. The salary cap doesn’t allow us to have massive squads.”

PS, ignore Dai Young's whining - he bangs on about that whenever Wasps have a few injuries. He chose to shatter the wage structure at Waps by paying way over the odds for "luxury" players like Beale and Le Roux thus causing a general increase in salaries and reduction in squad size.

Nathan Hughes definitely is not the sharpest knife in the box!

It seems the reason his disciplinary was put on hold was that during it he tweeted 'what a joke', subsequently deleted, but not before it had been seen and screen shot!

So clearly he is not likely to get anything off his time for remorse or good conduct at the hearing now and will likely get another ban for bringing the process into disrepute. That will likely rule him out of the AIs as well!

They really aught to take phones away from some rugby players

Meh. Really dislike it when players ask the ref to card someone.

Wasps are plucky. Given the wind they will be lucky to get out of their 22 in the second half

Sopoaga unlucky as that pass was forward. That said great to see Leinster go for the jugular in extra time with a man up. Crowd doing their bit to keep the ref onside and the Wasps line off

Wasps kiwi 10 is taking time to bed in. Maybe a number of changes in the Wasps side but even so his execution is still offbeat and so hes over compensating, trying too hard. Big bucks.....big decision to come north verses a AB WC shirt....big NH spot light....pressure, pressure, pressure.
If Wasps hang in there it will be a minor victory, but equally it could get ugly in a big defeat.

Yeah touch unlucky given th offside try and forward pass yellow but wasps have been directionless with the ball. Sopuanga poor with ball in hand and really missing wade on the right.

All came from a penalty for lazy running with Leinster going nowhere in their own 22. Now Wasps down to 14 men and a 7 pointer for Leinster.

Really poor penalty to give away, it's the little soft ones like that which really hurt you against top sides. Sopoaga has had the wind behind him and has looked poor. Sexton kicked once in the first half such was the wind he was playing into. Leinster with a man advantage and the wind for the second half kick off.

No 7&1/2 wrote:Yeah touch unlucky given th offside try and forward pass yellow but wasps have been directionless with the ball. Sopuanga poor with ball in hand and really missing wade on the right.

Nah mate just being hammered. But whatever excuses make you think their is more than one team in this game then knock yourself out

Oh wasps are definitely 2nd best geen. Doesn't make any of what I said incorrect though.

Margins. (Very small) not even clear if what you say is correct. Despite what the whinging BOD says

I have a feeling this is going to be a proper Leinstering now.

If you feel wade doesn't improve a team over Bassett or sopuanga has been decisive enough fair enough I disagree.

Ferlong isn't a bad prop is he

Ugly it is.
Don't think you can simply blame the Cipriani out Sopa etc in.....but its all part of the mix.

Launchbury Robson wade. The fact that leinster have arguably the best pack in Europe.

Ryan keeping his hands free to offload was nice

Try of the competition in the bag early this year!

The bench Leinster can bring on is just frightening.

Who are Leinster going to bring off the bench next? Brian O'Driscoll? Mohamed Ali? Zeus?

Would be good if they brought on BOD cos then we wouldn’t have to listen to his whining.

See this is what annoys me about rugby and it’s laws. If a high tackle is dangerous and worthy of a yellow then surely it is no less dangerous even if the tackled player knocked on before the tackle.

Do we just ignore foul play now if there was another foul or knock on just before it?

Even the Italians wouldn’t lose by that much

Wasps getting a bit of a spanking here. They won't be the only side to lose badly against Leinster this season if they keep on playing like this.

Called his own hia!

Poite off for a HIA, never seen that now

Frightening display from Leinster.

Leinster were excellent but nothing went for Wasps tonight. None of the play with the wind in the first half. Unlucky booking. 1 visit to the 22. 0 linebreaks. Lost the scrums with and without the ball. Missed touch with penalties and even got caught offside at a restart after conceding a try.

Engine#4 wrote:Leinster were excellent but nothing went for Wasps tonight. None of the play with the wind in the first half. Unlucky booking. 1 visit to the 22. 0 linebreaks. Lost the scrums with and without the ball. Missed touch with penalties and even got caught offside at a restart after conceding a try.

When you say nothing went for Wasps, you mean they played terribly!

Wasps played as well as they were capable of. They just got hammered by a team light years better than them

Geen sport voor watjes wrote:Wasps played as well as they were capable of. They just got hammered by a team light years better than them

That may be true, but you've been making crass comments all night. Have a bit of grace and stop rubbing things in peoples face.

Blimey I knew we would lose but wow. Things haven't been right at wasps for some time. Looking at the squads it hardly a surprise. Well done leinster not sure you learnt much from that training ground match but always good to get a good run out for harder tests. Wasps well suck it up lads and get better quickly!

Is James Lowe Irish qualified?

RDW_Scotland wrote:Is James Lowe Irish qualified?

End of the 2019-2020 season I think. The guy is outstanding, best winger in Ireland at the minute. Would probably take him ahead of Stockdale despite Stockdale's form over the last couple of seasons.

Oh dear artful.

Artful_Dodger wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Is James Lowe Irish qualified?

End of the 2019-2020 season I think.  The guy is outstanding, best winger in Ireland at the minute.  Would probably take him ahead of Stockdale despite Stockdale's form over the last couple of seasons.

He could be a superstar when he qualifies.

Artful_Dodger wrote:

Geen sport voor watjes wrote:Wasps played as well as they were capable of. They just got hammered by a team light years better than them

That may be true, but you've been making crass comments all night.  Have a bit of grace and stop rubbing things in peoples face.

You are completely correct artful. I have been making crass comments all night. I should be thoroughly ashamed of myself. How dare I point out that Leinster are playing rugby at a level only the rest of us can dream of. I doff my cap.

Hmmm.... Friday night.  People do drink more of course.  But I think I'm imagining posts here where there are none.    Like having a deja vu up a cul de sac.  Weird

It’s the twilight zone

Artful_Dodger wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Is James Lowe Irish qualified?

End of the 2019-2020 season I think.  The guy is outstanding, best winger in Ireland at the minute.  Would probably take him ahead of Stockdale despite Stockdale's form over the last couple of seasons.

Age and health are the only two things against him. He’s had rheumatoid arthritis since a kid and it’s debilitated him at various points but he keeps coming back for more. It was part of his decision to move to Leinster rather than hope for NZ tests.

Don’t think he was man of the match - McGrath and Cronin were pretty good - but that’s minor cavilling.

I think Wasps knew they had lost a while ago. Not easy going to the champions. Weather not great either so probably the big score.

Daaaamn fair play Leinster.

Sometimes one team is just far better then the other on the day.

Pot Hale wrote:

Artful_Dodger wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Is James Lowe Irish qualified?

End of the 2019-2020 season I think.  The guy is outstanding, best winger in Ireland at the minute.  Would probably take him ahead of Stockdale despite Stockdale's form over the last couple of seasons.

Age and health are the only two things against him.  He’s had rheumatoid arthritis since a kid and it’s debilitated him at various points but he keeps coming back for more.   It was part of his decision to move to Leinster rather than hope for NZ tests.

Don’t think he was man of the match - McGrath and Cronin were pretty good - but that’s minor cavilling.

McGrath took his trys well, but I thought Gibson-Park was missed. McGrath' service at the base of the ruck was pretty cumbersome in the first half. He definitely has his strong points but on a couple of occasions I just felt he was lacking a bit of control, which something you always get from Gibson-Park. My man of the match probably would have been James Ryan.

Awesome from Leinster tonight. They're going to take some stopping this year.

Even at 7-3, with the first half clock in the red, I wasn't optimistic about Wasps' chances. Leinster looked like scoring every time they got in the red zone, and it was a minor miracle they hadn't, helped by handling errors, and a pesky Thomas Young. Then Sopaoga got his yellow card...

True, Wasps can feel hard done by the calls on Cronin's try, and also that card. There's always a chance that Leinster would have started getting nervous if they hadn't managed to get more points on the board as the second half went on. It didn't feel that way, though. There always seemed to be a much higher chance of all the pieces falling in place for Leinster, than Wasps managing to turn their rare possession into anything. Which is what happened.

Actually until the YC wasps were still in the game and that has to be the positive.
The negative is the bigger picture around the squad; the departures....Cipriani, Haskell, Eastmond and others, versus recruitment....the Hurricanes captain has suffered with injuries and Sopa is a massive worry. The jury is very much out as far as I can see and it's obvious to all that he is struggling with confidence. The international break will hopefully give him the time to take stock and recharge.
The INJURIES and Hughes's suspension are the biggest worry; Goppath, Robson, (Wade's illness and form) Willis, Launchbury, Cooper-Woolley, Mcintyre.
And to finish on a positive....Brookes put in a solid shift