Babbling 'brook

How about inserting Thornbury quite high up the depth chart ? Super player up to the moment he gets injured again.

We should sign John Ryan for 2 years when hes finished in NZ in June. Good for us as he fixes a short term hole we have in the squad and good for him as Munster have shafted him twice so no point looking to them for the future. by all accounts he is returning to Munster after his NZ experience. Yes...

11 minutes about Leinster on the BBC Rugby podcast if you can access it:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0c76pzk
from 11:45 mm:ss to 23:00 mm:ss

Yes, Jack Kelly seems to have really grown into his role and looks very self-confident now. He is seriously physical at rucks, tackles aggressively and has scored some fine tries in the #13 channel (as it were). I believe he really wants to succeed at 15s too. McNulty seems a seriously impressive ma...

None of tomorrow's Ospreys' starters and only 2 of their bench were involved in the Celtic Cup match vs Leinster 2 months ago (score 53-7). By contrast, 5 Leinster starters and 5 on the Leinster bench played in that match. That maybe reflects the fact that the Os are missing fewer players to the nat...

All other things being equal, I imagine they would leave full-time students like Jack Kelly at home to study if possible ?

Enjoyable to see Henshaw playing at #15; like watching a pit pony on its annual holiday in the fields - not that I'm calling him a pit pony or saying he should play there normally.

JGP looking full of running in attack and defence - a benefit of having 3 antipods. Rob has gone off injured but did show some footwork in traffic a few times. COB is a big man - which helped him get a try soon after arrival.

Popular on Bath forum, not surprisingly:

http://www.rugbynetwork.net/boards/read ... 9,16333515

Not a rumour; Bristol have announced that Jack O’Connell is joining Ealing Trailfinders next season.

Paul Asquith is an Australian Sevens international (so can never play for Wales) but plays in the EU as a UK national (mother).

Thanks DC. That would explain it.

Quite, DC. No it doesn't but those Wiki pages for the players are usually very quick to point out who is Welsh etc qualified. For example, that Scarlets Wiki page has an asterisk against an English player and a note saying "* Denotes a player who is Welsh qualified.". No mention of that fo...

Can anyone explain why Leinster has to leave out one of the 3 NIQs for Pro14 as well as for Europe, whereas Scarlets started McNicholl, Asquith and Cummins who are all from Oz or NZ and don't appear to have any European connections if you believe the squad details on Wikipedia here: https://en.wikip...

jimbobjoe wrote:It's matchday squad only that applies to the 2 non-kolpak maximum rule.
http://epcrugby.com/europeanrugbychampionscup/rules.php

Interesting that Scarlets have 3 players in today's squad against Treviso who are listed on their Wiki page as Australian (Asquith and Cummins) or NZish (McNicholl).

Article on the Scarlets' defensive improvements here:
http://www.planetrugby.com/news/analysi ... g-defence/

The choice of starting LHP will obviously take into account that Kieran Brookes will presumably be back for them (at THP, I think).

Always interesting to see what the opposing fans say - if anything, of course - about Leinster players. Several people were impressed by Adam Byrne, one mentioned Isa ("class but plays on the edge") and one approved of Leavy. The only player's name they knew was Nacewa. A lot were impresse...

It was an enjoyable match in good conditions at a fine traditional club. I can't give you any professional analysis but: - everyone seemed very comfortable and professional (even the nippers) - the backs seemed to play for each other as a unit (ie no glory seekers) - Brian Byrne was very noticable i...

No thread for the Leinster match on the Wasps forum but in the thread for their Gloucester match someone says: "Onwards to Leinster and Toulon - ( as ever) I'm not too pessimistic tbh - if george [smith] has another game like yesterday which was world class for me, I can see a shock coming, he ...

BBCWales 2 were indeed one-eyed but even they kept repeating how they were very impressed by Marsh.