This week on Blues Talk TV we review Ireland’s great victory over South Africa and take a look at the rest of the weekend’s international action before previewing the next match in the Guinness Autumn Series against Georgia.
Blues Talk TV – Episode 160 Leave a comment
Leinster Contract Renewals 2 comments
When the great news broke today that Rob Kearney had signed a new contract, it seemed like as good a time as any to look at the Leinster squad for next season.
Quite a few players have contracts expiring this season. More than 2/3s of the squad
There are also 8 Academy players finishing.
So to break it down into categories…….
1/ The Aulfellahs
Ross
D’Arcy
Boss
The 3 oldest members of the squad. If all or any of them decided to call it a day after the WC they would owe Leinster and Irish Rugby nothing and we could pat them on the back for a job well done.
However. If any of them were up for another year they would be a great addition to the squad and 2 of them are starting Irish Internationals. Entirely up to the players themselves. I’d say they would all be given another year if they were up for it.
Also it feels good to call guys who were born when I was a teenager aulfellahs.
2/ Stand alone Eoin
Reddan is in great form and will turn 35 just after the world cup. Not that much younger than Boss but if we can only keep one……… He definitely has another year in him.
3/ The Prime beef
Strauss
Cronin
Moore
Fitzgerald
Toner
McFadden
All Irish Internationals in their prime. Sign them up now! All of these players are under 30 and have many years left in blue and green. Barring injury of course.
4/ The back row…… forwards.
Ryan
Murphy
Conan
McLaughlin
Jennings
With Heaslip, Ruddock and O’Brien signed up already; can we keep all of these guys? I am hoping the answer is yes. 3 of them are already Irish Internationals. Ryan must be not so much knocking on the door as kicking it off its hinges. Conan looks the real deal too any time he has played.
We also have Leavy and Van Der Flier coming out of the Academy who are very likely to get development contracts. Leavy in particular looks mature beyond his years and well able to step up.
5/ The second row…. backwards.
Marshall
Denton
Roux
With McCarthy and Douglas and hopefully Toner signed up, the race is on to see who will fill their size 15 boots when they are away or injured?
Beirne & Thornbury finishing the Academy too.
8 locks is probably a couple too many. For me Marshall is a good abrasive player and Denton is a reliable back up.
It remains to be seen if Roux can deliver on his early pre injury promise and the 2 academy lads have not had many opportunities to shine. They could be overtaken by their younger academy colleague Ross Moloney
6/ The Happy Hookers
Dundon
Tracy
Moran
The 2 starters (Cronin and Strauss) will hopefully be looked after, so we will not need all of these lads. Bryan Byrne looks to be ahead of them so I’d say perhaps only one of them will be still here next season. Dundon is excellent but ageing and we have not seen enough of the other 2 to judge.
7/ Back by Propular demand
Furlong
Bent
No brainer to sign these guys again with 4 props missing to Team Ireland for up to 15 games per season. Furlong has massive promise and Bent must be one of the best 3rd or 4th choice props in Europe.
8/ The Byrnes
4 of them in the Academy but it is the twin brothers we are concerned with here.
Loose head props and hookers work together as a team at scrum time. How much advantage can you get by having a team of guys who have been together since they emerged from the womb?
Add to that the fact that they both have looked the real deal individually any time they have played first team Rugby and you are looking at the words development and contract. We may well have to sweeten the deal as I can see other teams wanting to have a sniff round these lads.
9/ The Scrummies
Luke McGrath and John Cooney.
With ageing players ahead of them, will Leinster go to the market or back one or both of these guys? Perhaps they will go to the market AND develop one of them. McGrath looks like he has pole position.
10/ The NIQs
Gopperth
Kirchner
It looks like Jimmy will be away on his toes at the end of the year due to Jonny’s return. I would be happy to sign Zane again as he is a great pro. Will Leinster look to the post world cup exodus for new blood though? Or will the IRFU “guidelines” kick in as he is over 30?
If neither one is signed we have 3 full NIQ spots available as Te’o qualifies as a project and Quin Roux (should we re-sign him) would be Irish qualified next season.
11/ The squad men
Macken
Coghlan-Murray
M McGrath
O’Shea
Fanning
And the remaining academy graduates Marsh and Coughlan.
Not everyone can be a Sean O’Brien or a Rob Kearney. These guys get the job done when the chips are down, and our run of 10 top 3 finishes in the league is testament to the strength of guys like these.
Coughlan-Murray, and O’Shea do not seem to be getting a look in this season, Jordan Coughlan’s experimental journey to the backs seems to have been forsaken which leaves us wondering will they be here next year?
But Fanning (in particular) and Mick McGrath have performed well, and Marsh (with Gopperth leaving) should have plenty to do.
Brendan Macken, we always felt, had more to offer but time is ticking on him to kick up a level now and push for international honours. He has had a decent amount of game time this season and has not looked much more than solid. He certainly has the goods to go further. Perhaps a spell away from the province would help him ignite his career? Who knows?
What do you think?
Blues Talk TV – Episode 159 Leave a comment
This week on Blues Talk TV we take a look back at Leinster’s bonus point win over Edinburgh and discuss the state of Scottish Rugby, we review the weekend’s Pro12 action and discuss how the league is developing three tiers, and finally we preview Ireland’s match with the Springboks in the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
Blues Talk TV – Episode 158 Leave a comment
This week on Blues Talk we take a look back at Leinster’s win in France against Castres and review the rest of an exciting weekend’s Champions Cup action. Its back to the Guinness Pro12 then as we preview this weekend’s match against Edinburgh Rugby
Blues Talk TV – Episode 157 Leave a comment
This week we take a look back at Leinster’s victory over Wasps in the first round of the European Champions Cup at the RDS and look forward to the next match away to Castres. We take a look back at the rest of last weekend’s European rugby and preview the upcoming fixtures. Ireland’s Autumn International squad is discussed as is Michael Cheika’s elevation to the top job in Australian rugby.
Blues Talk TV – Episode 156 Leave a comment
This week on Blues Talk we take a look back at Leinster’s loss at home to Munster, the away win over Zebre and preview Sundays ERCC clash with Wasps. We also take a look at the rest of the European action.
Train Crash! Leinster’s season derailed by Munster loss. 1 comment
Due to a bereavement there will be no video episode this week. Blues Talk TV will return next week to discuss the Munster and Zebre games
Where to begin? Leinster’s proud home record?
Last loss to Munster in Dublin was October 2008. 18 0. From memory that was the only time Leinster have been nilled in the RDS.
In the intervening years home league losses have been fairly infrequent.
2009/10 Final
2010/11 None
2011/12 Glasgow, Ospreys and Final
2012/13 Ulster
2013/14 none
The season with the most home league losses (2011/12) was our best season ever. We only lost 4 games in all competitions. 3 of those were to the Ospreys. 2 of them were by a single point and only one was by more than 4 points.
Many would say Leinster have been living on their reputation since that season. That performances have been slipping and that the results would finally catch up with those performances.
One school of thought is that when a team can grind out wins while playing badly, that is the sign of a great team. In some ways the opposite is that if you look after the performance then the results will follow.
So. Have the chickens finally come home to roost for Leinster? Or will this loss make them stronger because of what they will learn about themselves from it?
The game itself has been written and spoken about ad nauseam since the weekend. Suffice to say that Leinster were bullied by a Munster team who perhaps “needed” the win even more than they did. Even when they shot themselves in the foot with 4 yellows and a penalty try we could not nail a losing bonus point.
Matt O’Connor certainly did not have his finest hour. The mindset of the team for a game is developed by the coaches and senior players in the week leading up to it. Of course individual players have to put in the work and develop their own motivations, but the basic “mood” is set by the coaching staff in their preparation and gameplan. If the players have confidence in this they will be more likely to deliver on the day.
The gameplan seemed to include under resourcing rucks, kicking the ball away when we had 1 and even 2 player advantages, and not kicking smartly enough in general.
Add in the bit of “sillybuggers” that he played with injuries and team selection, and the complaining about the ref on the radio the following day (whether he was right or wrong) and it all adds up to a very poor weekend for Mr O’Connor.
We missed Shane Jennings of course for this fixture as was widely predicted. Both for his deck work and even more importantly for his leadership. Dom Ryan started well and showed a good bit of aggression early on. Perhaps a little too eager in giving away the first penalty, but he just doesn’t have the smarts (or obviously the experience) of Jeno.
Fanning gave his increasingly solid performance, Cronin carried well, Madigan showed some spark, the Byrne twins did not look out of place in such a high profile fixture, but most of the rest were “meh” at best. Jimmy Gopperth having one of his worse displays in particular.
Hopefully this is the low point of the season and the lessons learned will fuel a “comeback” that puts our season back on track.
Looking at the fixtures between this game and our next game v Munster on Stephen’s day our target should be to go into that game on a streak of 9 wins in a row. 2 Italian away games. Home games v Edinburgh, Connacht and a meeting with the Ospreys in the RDS (while Wales play their 4th Autumn International) are the 5 very winnable Pro 12 games.
None of the teams in our European group are in great form either.
First up are Wasps who have been thrown into turmoil with their impending move to Coventry. That has got to be a distraction.
The away trip to Castres is possibly the hardest, but they have just come off the bottom of the league by putting 50 points on “Bernard Jackman’s Grenoble”. Finally there are the back to back games v “Conor O’Shea’s Harlequins” in December. Losing one of these OR the Castres game would be about the only acceptable loss in the 9 games.
In most other recent seasons you would put your wages on an accumulator for Leinster to successfully negotiate this sequence of fixtures. From where they are now though it is hard to be so confident.
We don’t seem to know our best 10 12 13 combo. We are not playing well, and we have some long term, high profile injuries to our 2 best ball carriers.
On the plus side…… Most of the other injured players will be returning in the very near future. Strauss, Kirchner, Jack McGrath and Moore as soon as this weekend, with Jennings and Kevin McLaughlin not far behind. Fitzgerald (Fingers crossed) Dave Kearney, McFadden and Jordi Murphy should be ready after the break for the November tests, (Some perhaps sooner) and hopefully we can sustain a minimum of new injuries to crucial players in the meantime.
So. Onwards and upwards with a half full glass. This is the time that the team needs our support the most!
John G
Blues Talk TV – Episode 155 Leave a comment
This weeks episode takes a look back at Leinster’s bonus point victory over the Cardiff Blues and previews the derby clash between Leinster and Munster in the Aviva Stadium. The team take a look at Leinster’s form under Coach Matt O’Connor and the rest of the weeks news and results.
Blues Talk TV – Episode 154 Leave a comment
This week on Blues Talk we take a look back at Leinster’s one point loss away to local rivals Connacht in the Sportsground and review the rest of the weeks action. We look forward to Cardiff’s visit to the RDS, preview the rest of the weekends action, and wonder about the Union’s attitude to female supporters
Blues Talk TV – Episode 153 Leave a comment
This week on Blues Talk we take a look back at Leinster’s bonus point win over Llanelli Scarlets and preview the always difficult trip to Galway to take on Connacht in interpro action. We also discusss the rest of the Guinness Pro12 action this weekend and last.
Blues Talk TV 