Sexton injury

[Dave Cahill]

I heard that Gordan D'arcys career is over because of his arm injury.

[Proudleinsterman]

Calm down, calm down - the docs will decide wether he is fit to play or not. Only then will Sexton have his say.

Lukes injury is potentially career ending so they have no choice. Players are put back into service sooner than would be ideal all the time. How many times would players be given a pain killing injection patched up and told to get on with it. Or in BOD's case how many times has he insisted on playing and been allowed to when he should not. I am no doctor, but I would not say a fractured jaw is a career ending injury but if not fully healed the risk is that we lose him for the rest of the season. Take the Biarritz No.8, broken nose, operated on on Sat, down to play the following week?

Let's wait for the decision and know that the Leinster backroom staff will make the right call (when they pick him to play!)

[toffblue]

Lot of pre-match anxiety around here. What will be will be......

[fourthirtythree]

I'll take odds that he'll play...

If it's left up to him, obviously, he'll play.

[Cianostays]

I think he will play. Our season depends on this match against Toulouse, and you just know he'll want to play regardless of injury.
Lets be frank here, the Magners League is very much second fiddle to the H Cup (and rightly so). If we loose this Saturday the season will be a failure regardless of what we do in the Magners.

Think that's very harsh to be honest. There is a reason that retaining the Heineken Cup has be achieved only once before. I wouldn't describe the season as a failure if we won the Magners League and bowed out in the semi final or final. Will it be as memorable as last season? Of course not but it, in my eyes, doesn't make for a failure of a season.

I'd love to retain the Heineken Cup and win the Magners League but if we were just to win the League that would be no small feat.

[Danthefan]

In some respects I'm satisfied with Leinster's season already, we've proved it wasn't a fluke and we are one of the best teams in Europe. We've also gone from September til April competing on two fronts and competing well, unfortunately that's catching up with us now. I really think we'll end this season with a trophy.

[Clermont]

I think he will play. Our season depends on this match against Toulouse, and you just know he'll want to play regardless of injury.
Lets be frank here, the Magners League is very much second fiddle to the H Cup (and rightly so). If we loose this Saturday the season will be a failure regardless of what we do in the Magners.

Think that's very harsh to be honest. There is a reason that retaining the Heineken Cup has be achieved only once before. I wouldn't describe the season as a failure if we won the Magners League and bowed out in the semi final or final. Will it be as memorable as last season? Of course not but it, in my eyes, doesn't make for a failure of a season.

I'd love to retain the Heineken Cup and win the Magners League but if we were just to win the League that would be no small feat.

I see your point & I didn't mean to be over dramatic in what I said, but I feel that we have to judge ourselves against the very best teams in Europe. And without meaning to degrade the Magners league, the best teams play in the H Cup!

Just winning the league would be a nice finish to the season; but could you honestly look in the mirror & say you're happy if that's what happens?
-I know I couldn't!

[[Jackass]]

Any season that ends in silverware is a good season in my opinion.

This is one of those games that it doesn't come any bigger.

We've set ourselves up nicely in the league, and now everything hinges on these 80 minutes. If we get through, I really believe we can do the unprecidented double.

We're in the semi's of both competitions, and we should have home advantage in the rest of the play-offs, so this really is the ultimate challenge.

[Culdub]

In some respects I'm satisfied with Leinster's season already, we've proved it wasn't a fluke and we are one of the best teams in Europe. We've also gone from September til April competing on two fronts and competing well, unfortunately that's catching up with us now. I really think we'll end this season with a trophy.

Completely agree, especially when you consider the players we lost to injury early in the season and the run of injuries we've had since the Six Nations. I know it's the nature of the game and is true for all teams but to be at the top of the Magner's League and competing for a place in the HEC final is pretty good going. Saturday can't come soon enough.

[true blue 06]

In some respects I'm satisfied with Leinster's season already, we've proved it wasn't a fluke and we are one of the best teams in Europe. We've also gone from September til April competing on two fronts and competing well, unfortunately that's catching up with us now. I really think we'll end this season with a trophy.

Completely agree, especially when you consider the players we lost to injury early in the season and the run of injuries we've had since the Six Nations. I know it's the nature of the game and is true for all teams but to be at the top of the Magner's League and competing for a place in the HEC final is pretty good going. Saturday can't come soon enough.

taking into the account the players we;ve been missing through out the season its been a good year, in two seni finals, with the double on the cards. we've had a huge list of injuries, luke, sexton, sean o'brien, cj etc and jenno was wrongfully banned for 3 months. saturday is going to be a big ask, i think if we win it , we'll win the HEC, we're a fair bit better than both biarritz and munster, if we lose it, i can't see us losing the magners

[Bones]

Today's Indo (I know, but I thought I'd post it anyway).

SHAUN BERNE is set to fill the Leinster out-half jersey for their Heineken Cup semi-final against Toulouse on Saturday as Jonathan Sexton has failed to recover from the jaw injury he sustained in the quarter-final three weeks ago.

Leinster declined to comment on the situation last night and, after extensive treatment, remain hopeful Sexton will recover in time. However, the 24-year-old is understood to still be in considerable pain from the injury, which is aggravated by place-kicking and has resulted in the player losing weight.

It is a significant blow for player and province as the Ireland international has been a pivotal figure this season. It will mean the kicking duties passing to Berne with further complications arising from the expected unavailability of centre Fergus McFadden with a calf injury.

[olaf the fat]

[
I see your point & I didn't mean to be over dramatic in what I said, but I feel that we have to judge ourselves against the very best teams in Europe. And without meaning to degrade the Magners league, the best teams play in the H Cup!

Just winning the league would be a nice finish to the season; but could you honestly look in the mirror & say you're happy if that's what happens?
-I know I couldn't!

Cant agree with that sentiment, we are currently one of the very best teams in Europe. The best teams in Europe play in the ML, the Hcup winners in 06,08,09 and 2 of the last 4 in 2010 are ML teams. We cant play in the French League, but if you use the Hcup as guide they have not produced as many recent winners as the ML has.

There are only a few games left this season, and we have got to the semis in the Hcup and the league - cracker of a season to follow up on our first winning of the Hcup

[ceemec]

Today's Indo (I know, but I thought I'd post it anyway).

SHAUN BERNE is set to fill the Leinster out-half jersey for their Heineken Cup semi-final against Toulouse on Saturday as Jonathan Sexton has failed to recover from the jaw injury he sustained in the quarter-final three weeks ago.

Leinster declined to comment on the situation last night and, after extensive treatment, remain hopeful Sexton will recover in time. However, the 24-year-old is understood to still be in considerable pain from the injury, which is aggravated by place-kicking and has resulted in the player losing weight.

It is a significant blow for player and province as the Ireland international has been a pivotal figure this season. It will mean the kicking duties passing to Berne with further complications arising from the expected unavailability of centre Fergus McFadden with a calf injury.

An insurmountable loss I fear. Shaun Berne will have to have the game of his life for us to be in with any sort of a sniff.

[boyneside winger]

Today's Indo (I know, but I thought I'd post it anyway).

SHAUN BERNE is set to fill the Leinster out-half jersey for their Heineken Cup semi-final against Toulouse on Saturday as Jonathan Sexton has failed to recover from the jaw injury he sustained in the quarter-final three weeks ago.

Leinster declined to comment on the situation last night and, after extensive treatment, remain hopeful Sexton will recover in time. However, the 24-year-old is understood to still be in considerable pain from the injury, which is aggravated by place-kicking and has resulted in the player losing weight.

It is a significant blow for player and province as the Ireland international has been a pivotal figure this season. It will mean the kicking duties passing to Berne with further complications arising from the expected unavailability of centre Fergus McFadden with a calf injury.

An insurmountable loss I fear. Shaun Berne will have to have the game of his life for us to be in with any sort of a sniff.

Very harsh on Berne. The last time (I recalll) we got a bonus point for scoring 4 tries was away to Scarletts in the H Cup.........Berne played 10. He'll do a good job, no worries.

[Danthefan]

Oh well. There's always next season's HEC. We can concentrate on the ML anyway.

[Clermont]

We all had concerns when Sexton was missing for the Scarlets game & Beirne came through in spades.
Have faith people!!!

I'm actually comfortable with how we're going into this game, quietly, under the radar with everyone expecting us to lose; I wouldn't have it any other way.

[awol]

Id be Lying if i thought Berne would be the man to do that job in the Match containing the best 2 teams in the tournament.

However, You run with what you have. Berne will step up and surely hes been working towards this for the last few weeks.

Will he need the game of his life for us to beat Toulouse, Probably. But then again, how many gave us any hope last year against Munster, Leicster.... How many thought we would go to Thomond a few weeks back and Lose?

Head says Toulouse, heart still screams its possible. Bring it on.

[ceemec]

Today's Indo (I know, but I thought I'd post it anyway).

SHAUN BERNE is set to fill the Leinster out-half jersey for their Heineken Cup semi-final against Toulouse on Saturday as Jonathan Sexton has failed to recover from the jaw injury he sustained in the quarter-final three weeks ago.

Leinster declined to comment on the situation last night and, after extensive treatment, remain hopeful Sexton will recover in time. However, the 24-year-old is understood to still be in considerable pain from the injury, which is aggravated by place-kicking and has resulted in the player losing weight.

It is a significant blow for player and province as the Ireland international has been a pivotal figure this season. It will mean the kicking duties passing to Berne with further complications arising from the expected unavailability of centre Fergus McFadden with a calf injury.

An insurmountable loss I fear. Shaun Berne will have to have the game of his life for us to be in with any sort of a sniff.

Very harsh on Berne. The last time (I recalll) we got a bonus point for scoring 4 tries was away to Scarletts in the H Cup.........Berne played 10. He'll do a good job, no worries.

I'm a big fan of Berne and think he's been a good signing but this is a far cry from Llanelli. He's a good runner of the ball and creative with ball in hand but he doesn't have the physicality of Sexton nor the tactical game. Jauzion stepping in at him or Picamoles/Sowerby coming off the back of the scrum will not be comfortable watching. Llanelli never really had a run at him. The big thing though is goal kicking. If he can turn in a top class goal kicking display we'll be in with a shot. The thing is, his range isn't huge and I can see us turning down what would normally be kickable penalties. Fingers crossed he has the game of his life.

[Dave Cahill]

I am entirely confident in Shaun Berne. I was before the Scarlets game, and I still am.

[Danthefan]

I am entirely confident in Shaun Berne. I was before the Scarlets game, and I still am.

Dave do you not think he's had some horror shows at 10? He did very well against the Scarlets but I can equally remember, Embra away, Ulster away, Connacht away.

Even if you don't agree with that, do you think his placekicking is up to standard? Because we could start Stephen Larkham in his prime on Saturday and still lose, because we don't have a decent goalkicker.