Castres v. Leinster

[COYBIB]

And if we had those players every week, we might

If you take out the bits with Sexton, Nacewa and O'Brien, how long is the video? Only four players started both games, only two from Sunday started that seasons final.

All that video does is highlight the paucity of the performance, because at the end of the day, a better Leinster team expended a lot of energy against a worse opposition to achieve pretty much the same result in the same manner! We won with six penalties.

I totally agree with you Dave, that it's not remotely fair to expect Leinster to be as good as they were then, O'Driscoll, Sexton, Nacewa - they're not players that can be replaced, plus of the players we still have, most have been injured this season, but I suppose what is really starting to grate is the complete refusal to play rugby.

It's not like we're playing rugby but we just don't have the players to execute like we used to, it's the entire abandonment of everything that was built and to start again with such an inferior structure.

I wouldn't mind if MOC took over from a losing team and tried something new, but he took over from a winning team and I recall a quote (at least I think it was a quote ) of possibly Dawson saying that MOC was very impressive, impressed all the players when meeting them and was aiming to pick up from where Schmidt left off...presumably in structure and style of play... I can't help but feel he completely bluffed his way into this job and if he ever gives classes on interview technique I would get a bank loan to attend, because if I could obtain a level of job he has with the level of skills he has for it, I'll be preparing my announcements on ECB interest rate changes very soon.

I have been pretty patient with MOC, but let's face it, we could have Cory Jane, Savea and Dagg as our back three and we'd still be playing this way.

I missed the first 10 minutes of the Castres game because I was making tea in the kitchen and was dreading switching it on. My wife hates rugby now because she knows that it doesn't take Leinster losing to put me in a bad mood, it just takes Leinster playing. Matt O'Connor might be responsible for domestic unrest and divorce, that is how toxic his rugby is.

I'm not asking for or expecting Leinster to be anywhere near the team we were, I just want to see Leinster play rugby. We've regressed terribly under MOC, I think he's dis-improved our squad and I think we're getting worse.

Declan Kidney won a grand slam in his first season, and was possibly (definitely) the worst Irish coach of the professional era. And he came with one idea, and each season he came up with nothing new, Ireland got worse and worse until we had our worst ever 6 nations finish. MOC reminds me A LOT of Kidney. Both with his style (or lack there of) of rugby, and his negative and persistently bizarre selections and sticking with certain players and ignoring of other ones.

[goreyguy]

meh leinster didnt make many tackles as a team and forwards spent a lot of time over resourcing rucks

[paddyor]

Ruddocks were as bad. Well he attempted one more tackle but he missed it.

I'm more worried about his recent form than Douglas's. For Douglas starting with everyone fit in the European cup is ahead of schedule. And he did earn the opportunity, just didn't take it.

I wouldn't be too worried about the tackle stats. Only 60/12 for us in the entire game as we had most of the possession. If you're hitting rucks you're not going to be making too many tackles either. McCarthy wacked up 4/1 in his time on the pitch but he's used to the system (as evidenced by how often he shoots out of the line). i'd hope Douglas improves with time. Castres were kicking an awful lot of ball over the forwards heads in the first half and moved it wide often enough too. Douglas looks slower than MacCarthy too.

Ruddock carried 11 times for a cumulative 6m(Ryan is 11 for 5m). Hardly prolific but despite flooding the ruck there was a lot of sh*t ball. I think it has more to do with Castres being wide to his threat as a carrier though.

All 3 were at rucks as "presents" (in parlance of the demented mole) and even played scrum half.

[paddyor]

meh leinster didnt make many tackles as a team and forwards spent a lot of time over resourcing rucks

Yep

[fourthirtythree]

Ruddocks were as bad. Well he attempted one more tackle but he missed it.

I'm more worried about his recent form than Douglas's. For Douglas starting with everyone fit in the European cup is ahead of schedule. And he did earn the opportunity, just didn't take it.

I wouldn't be too worried about the tackle stats. Only 60/12 for us in the entire game as we had most of the possession. If you're hitting rucks you're not going to be making too many tackles either. McCarthy wacked up 4/1 in his time on the pitch but he's used to the system (as evidenced by how often he shoots out of the line). i'd hope Douglas improves with time. Castres were kicking an awful lot of ball over the forwards heads in the first half and moved it wide often enough too. Douglas looks slower than MacCarthy too.

Ruddock carried 11 times for a cumulative 6m(Ryan is 11 for 5m). Hardly prolific but despite flooding the ruck there was a lot of sh*t ball. I think it has more to do with Castres being wide to his threat as a carrier though.

All 3 were at rucks as "presents" (in parlance of the demented mole) and even played scrum half.

Yeah, the point about the tackle stats is not the number made really. We simply didn't have to make many. But if you are going to pick on someone based on stats it would probably be Ruddock as he missed two. Douglas was withdrawn like Ruddock and neither had a good game. But this was three in a row for Ruddock (am I missing something) which is more of a worry. He didn't seem to be blasting people out of it either so I just wonder if there is something up with him.

Taking the trolls bait about Douglas was probably the mistake here. Let's face it, it wasn't a very honest troll.