Successful first year for Leo?

[D'Arse]

I'm thrilled that we've finished top of the league in Leo's first year in charge. Even if we don't win the league outright I'll consider this a successful year for Leo in this his first year in the top job. However, the dwindling attendances in the RDS lead me to think that others don't share my view. How do you guys feel about this season?

[wixfjord]

I'm thrilled that we've finished top of the league in Leo's first year in charge. Even if we don't win the league outright I'll consider this a successful year for Leo in this his first year in the top job. However, the dwindling attendances in the RDS lead me to think that others don't share my view. How do you guys feel about this season?

Ulster game is probably the definition of whether he's in the positive or negative column!
Win and a performance and all is good, lose, particularly lose badly, and we'll be facing into 3 months of pure negativity.

Overall, I think we've seen some good signs this year, but the period since the Munster game has been disappointing.

Still, I think this coaching team has come in under difficult circumstances and deserve a full shot at it next season at least.

[goreyguy]

If he wins the pro 12 there can't be many complaints about how the pro 12 went despite some poor performances, although there is plenty to work on. Less said about europe the better, especially the final game.
If he does an Anthony Foley and lose the final or semi final handily then questions need to be asked about performance, team direction and selection.

Leinster are miles off where we used to be and it's far from certain that he has the overall vision and coaching ability to bring us back to the top level in europe. That's where we should be measured as the pro 12 is largely a poor league where full strength sides rarely play each other and when leinster have had full strength or near to full strength side out they have often played pretty poorly.

Need for more coaches involved in the setup, an experienced attack/backs/skills coach ideally to combine with dempsey. Maybe a dedicated forwards coach too.

Hopefully we can go out and beat Ulster and get into a final against Connacht/Glasgow and beat them but i'm not expecting it to be pretty and maybe that's the future of leinster rugby for awhile under Cullen and the current players given the talent available in the backline.

[blockhead]

Leinster should seek to appoint a DOR over the summer. Leo has done ok but this is a big club and needs to be better coached. He still has a lot to learn and his long term career prospects would be improved if he got to work under a more experienced coach. Foley's reputation has been scuppered over the last year, I would hate to see the same thing happen to a real legend. Win the Pro12 or not we need a top class experienced man at the helm.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I would say that for this to have been a successful season he has to show that the really good performances (Bath at home, Munster away etc) were what he was trying to achieve and that they become more frequent as time goes on. If not then they were blips and this season was a waste.

The two big black marks I'd have against him are his use of subs and not being able to figure out why our attack goes to sh!t in the 22.

I think there have been plenty of positives though and I'd be hopeful about the future, also like the way Leo carries himself.

[hugonaut]

I think it has been pretty successful, but the way we have taken some absolute whippings [both games against Wasps, recently against Ulster] is worrying and dispiriting. I didn't think I'd see those sort of results this season.

Also, if the recent examples of Foley, O'Connor and Lam are good indicators [and they should be], it'll be a much more pointed question and a much more definite answer after his second season in charge.

[Ruckedtobits]

IMO, Leinster fans need to adjust their sights to 'realistic' rather than 'idealistic'.

The period 2003-15 was referred to as a "Golden Age" for good reason. In Ireland and Leinster & Munster, there was an opportunistic, confluence of players, of a quality that was rare in Irish rugby over the previous 40 years. Perhaps twice in that period had the Irish team got 10-12 players of true international quality at the same time - c. 1971-4 and 1979 - 83.

From 2003-15 we had fitter, more experienced, highly-skilled players in most positions and sometimes more than one quality contender in 5 positions. We won Provincial and International trophies & titles regularly and the players did not seem to lose their appetite for success.

This combination is very rare. Ask some of the Welsh and English players of the past decade or even the English and French players of the same era. Winning, at international or European level is a very tough ask and doesn't come easily, ever.

So, the barometer for Leo, Girv and Kurt should be realistic and objective. IMO, the defence has improved, the line-out has improved, the scrum has improved. The attack has improved compared to last year, but is a shadow of what it was in the previous 5 years. The back-three threat is almost non-existant in counter-attack and our maul only functions sporadically.

The Squad depth is encouraging and now only our half-back back-up worries me.

So, regardless of the next 2 games, I reckon score is 6.5 out of 10. Win the Pro12 and I'd move that up to 7 out of 10.

If we could develop Adam Byrne and rehab Luke Fitz to play outside Henshaw and Ringrose next season in an attacking fashion, I believe we could be capable of getting to a European semi. That would constitute an 8 out of 10 standard for me. Winning Europe is 9 out of 10 and getting Pro12 and ERPC is the full deck.

So, definitely going in the right direction. Guaranteed to get there? Definitely not. But much happier that we are on the right path, than I was a year ago

[D'Arse]

...if we could ... rehab Luke Fitz ......

If only - but in terms of being realistic we have to accept that Luke will never be fit for more than a handful of games at a time. History has proven this time and time again unfortunately.

[jezzer]

Longtime Leinster fans like most of us are on here - we know when the team is playing up to potential and when it isn't. We also know when the gameplan is suited to the players and the opposition.

The fact that we can not play up to potential and not always have a gameplan that suits and STILL win the league says something about the quality of player we still have at Leinster, but says even more about the league.

To be fair, it also says something about our defence, but I don't think the credit for that can go to Leo.

We can do better. It's really as simple as that.

[neiliog93]

We have to beat Ulster at home and make the final. If we lose the final badly like Munster last year (or lose the home semi-final at all), then questions have to be asked. The concern is that better teams have found us out badly at times (hammered twice by Wasps, beaten well by Toulon, hammered by Ulster etc).

[simonokeeffe]

He gets a passing grade for this season

next season we have to get out of European pool and make league playoffs again or its a failure

[Blue Voodoo]

Topping the pro 12 in the regular season before the play offs counts as a success in Leo's first year
If we manage to go on and get to the final or win the trophy then it is a very successful season
Either way there is a decent start made which he can build on next year and hopefully get out of our euro pool

There are some positive signs of more attacking rugby this season although it feels like it has not really clicked fully in many games. I would expect a bit more from the Ringrose Henshaw Sexton back line next year

[molloyjh]

When judging Leo we have to put everything that has happened this year into context:

• The majority of our coaching set-up is inexperienced (and McQuilkan has been out of top flight rugby for some time)
  The RWC deprived us of our internationals for longer than normal (and disrupted our pre-season with them)
  The European pool we had was very difficult due to our league standing from last year
  Our internationals only returned the week before the Champions Cup kicked off
  Injuries deprived us of a few of our best for almost the entire season (SOB has managed just 6 games, and 4 starts, so far this season and the less said about Cian Healy the better)
  We don't have a skills coach and have lost a lot of back room staff recently

Given all of that it shouldn't come as a surprise that Europe was a step too far. If we're really honest it was only the Wasps games that were real disappointments. We had the beating of Bath away but for scrum issues and beat them at home with the young lads. I wouldn't be losing sleep over losing to Toulon away and we were competitive at home against them with the benches being the difference (we had Nick McCarthy and Tom Denton on the bench for example). The Wasps games were incredibly disappointing, the away one particularly. No Leinster side should ever allow that to happen to them. But at the same time they had nothing to play for at that stage and Marsh played most of the game. When Sexton was on we had looked dangerous initially. So there's context there too. Still that result was completely unacceptable, if totally meaningless at the same time.

In the league we started out quite well I thought. Our first few away games were poor, but we were blooding a few younger guys like Byrne so it wasn't the end of the world. There were positive steps in our attacking game when we were at home particularly. But when the internationals came back we started to lose a bit of that. I'm not sure if that was because the internationals themselves were struggling to get into the new set-up or because we were playing better sides buy that time. It was probably a bit of both. But over the last couple of months we've been pretty disappointing. We should have won away to Connacht and even away to Glasgow really. The Munster game was a huge let off, but we were found out big time against Ulster a couple of weeks ago. We seem quite predictable in attack and even against Treviso at times we looked fairly average. Yet when Sexton is on we have gone through spells of looking quite dangerous as well. In the first half against Ulster there were real positive signs from him and Te'o I thought.

In all that it should be remembered we're lacking real big ball carrying options. Guys like SOB and Healy to get us on the front foot. But we have seen a good few young lads come through and make an impression. Dooley, Tracey, Molony, VDF, Leavy and Ringrose have all stood up when we needed them to. Mick Kearney looks to have been a very good signing as well. So while we've missed guys we've also brought through some good talent (they may not all have gotten their first caps under Leo but they've all made their mark under him).

As Ruckedtobits said we need to be realistic. It hasn't been a perfect season and there are a few legitimate complaints we can have with the coaching set-up, but overall I think it's fair to say that Leo has done a decent job so far given the context. Not enough for us to be singing his praises, but enough to warrant another season. If we can get in a skills coach (at least) I think that would be a help. It could have been an utter disaster of a season with inexperienced coaches and a hugely disrupted squad. It hasn't been overall. And I do think that there will be improvements next season. With a handier pool in Europe we might not have the same black mark against us next season either.

[curates_egg]

When judging Leo we have to put everything that has happened this year into context:

• The majority of our coaching set-up is inexperienced (and McQuilkan has been out of top flight rugby for some time)
  The RWC deprived us of our internationals for longer than normal (and disrupted our pre-season with them)
  The European pool we had was very difficult due to our league standing from last year
  Our internationals only returned the week before the Champions Cup kicked off
  Injuries deprived us of a few of our best for almost the entire season (SOB has managed just 6 games, and 4 starts, so far this season and the less said about Cian Healy the better)
  We don't have a skills coach and have lost a lot of back room staff recently

Given all of that it shouldn't come as a surprise that Europe was a step too far. If we're really honest it was only the Wasps games that were real disappointments. We had the beating of Bath away but for scrum issues and beat them at home with the young lads. I wouldn't be losing sleep over losing to Toulon away and we were competitive at home against them with the benches being the difference (we had Nick McCarthy and Tom Denton on the bench for example). The Wasps games were incredibly disappointing, the away one particularly. No Leinster side should ever allow that to happen to them. But at the same time they had nothing to play for at that stage and Marsh played most of the game. When Sexton was on we had looked dangerous initially. So there's context there too. Still that result was completely unacceptable, if totally meaningless at the same time.

In the league we started out quite well I thought. Our first few away games were poor, but we were blooding a few younger guys like Byrne so it wasn't the end of the world. There were positive steps in our attacking game when we were at home particularly. But when the internationals came back we started to lose a bit of that. I'm not sure if that was because the internationals themselves were struggling to get into the new set-up or because we were playing better sides buy that time. It was probably a bit of both. But over the last couple of months we've been pretty disappointing. We should have won away to Connacht and even away to Glasgow really. The Munster game was a huge let off, but we were found out big time against Ulster a couple of weeks ago. We seem quite predictable in attack and even against Treviso at times we looked fairly average. Yet when Sexton is on we have gone through spells of looking quite dangerous as well. In the first half against Ulster there were real positive signs from him and Te'o I thought.

In all that it should be remembered we're lacking real big ball carrying options. Guys like SOB and Healy to get us on the front foot. But we have seen a good few young lads come through and make an impression. Dooley, Tracey, Molony, VDF, Leavy and Ringrose have all stood up when we needed them to. Mick Kearney looks to have been a very good signing as well. So while we've missed guys we've also brought through some good talent (they may not all have gotten their first caps under Leo but they've all made their mark under him).

As Ruckedtobits said we need to be realistic. It hasn't been a perfect season and there are a few legitimate complaints we can have with the coaching set-up, but overall I think it's fair to say that Leo has done a decent job so far given the context. Not enough for us to be singing his praises, but enough to warrant another season. If we can get in a skills coach (at least) I think that would be a help. It could have been an utter disaster of a season with inexperienced coaches and a hugely disrupted squad. It hasn't been overall. And I do think that there will be improvements next season. With a handier pool in Europe we might not have the same black mark against us next season either.

This, this, this. This should be last word. Close the thread.

[riocard911]

When judging Leo we have to put everything that has happened this year into context:

• The majority of our coaching set-up is inexperienced (and McQuilkan has been out of top flight rugby for some time)
  The RWC deprived us of our internationals for longer than normal (and disrupted our pre-season with them)
  The European pool we had was very difficult due to our league standing from last year
  Our internationals only returned the week before the Champions Cup kicked off
  Injuries deprived us of a few of our best for almost the entire season (SOB has managed just 6 games, and 4 starts, so far this season and the less said about Cian Healy the better)
  We don't have a skills coach and have lost a lot of back room staff recently

Given all of that it shouldn't come as a surprise that Europe was a step too far. If we're really honest it was only the Wasps games that were real disappointments. We had the beating of Bath away but for scrum issues and beat them at home with the young lads. I wouldn't be losing sleep over losing to Toulon away and we were competitive at home against them with the benches being the difference (we had Nick McCarthy and Tom Denton on the bench for example). The Wasps games were incredibly disappointing, the away one particularly. No Leinster side should ever allow that to happen to them. But at the same time they had nothing to play for at that stage and Marsh played most of the game. When Sexton was on we had looked dangerous initially. So there's context there too. Still that result was completely unacceptable, if totally meaningless at the same time.

In the league we started out quite well I thought. Our first few away games were poor, but we were blooding a few younger guys like Byrne so it wasn't the end of the world. There were positive steps in our attacking game when we were at home particularly. But when the internationals came back we started to lose a bit of that. I'm not sure if that was because the internationals themselves were struggling to get into the new set-up or because we were playing better sides buy that time. It was probably a bit of both. But over the last couple of months we've been pretty disappointing. We should have won away to Connacht and even away to Glasgow really. The Munster game was a huge let off, but we were found out big time against Ulster a couple of weeks ago. We seem quite predictable in attack and even against Treviso at times we looked fairly average. Yet when Sexton is on we have gone through spells of looking quite dangerous as well. In the first half against Ulster there were real positive signs from him and Te'o I thought.

In all that it should be remembered we're lacking real big ball carrying options. Guys like SOB and Healy to get us on the front foot. But we have seen a good few young lads come through and make an impression. Dooley, Tracey, Molony, VDF, Leavy and Ringrose have all stood up when we needed them to. Mick Kearney looks to have been a very good signing as well. So while we've missed guys we've also brought through some good talent (they may not all have gotten their first caps under Leo but they've all made their mark under him).

As Ruckedtobits said we need to be realistic. It hasn't been a perfect season and there are a few legitimate complaints we can have with the coaching set-up, but overall I think it's fair to say that Leo has done a decent job so far given the context. Not enough for us to be singing his praises, but enough to warrant another season. If we can get in a skills coach (at least) I think that would be a help. It could have been an utter disaster of a season with inexperienced coaches and a hugely disrupted squad. It hasn't been overall. And I do think that there will be improvements next season. With a handier pool in Europe we might not have the same black mark against us next season either.

A fine synopsis with which I concur. Certainly next season I would like to see Leo apply the competition for places principle more ruthlessly. For example, should the occasion arise, that Sean Cronin is making a hames of his line out throws, then the following week I would like to see him replaced by James Tracy. Ditto should Dave Kearney have a bad day defensively, then the following week I want to see Adam Byrne in ahead of him in the match day 23. No ifs and buts. I remember in the Arg v NZ match at the RWC last autumn Milner-Scudder blew an easy try chance with a knock-on. Steve Hansen had him off the pitch before he knew what happened to him. Thereafter he caught every pass thrown his way.....

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Reading this thread and the various comments about the squad makes me think there really is something wrong with how Irish players are prepared physically. Might be totally wrong but it just seems like we've been picking up more injuries than normal over the last few years.

[macboomba]

When judging Leo we have to put everything that has happened this year into context:

• The majority of our coaching set-up is inexperienced (and McQuilkan has been out of top flight rugby for some time)
  The RWC deprived us of our internationals for longer than normal (and disrupted our pre-season with them)
  The European pool we had was very difficult due to our league standing from last year
  Our internationals only returned the week before the Champions Cup kicked off
  Injuries deprived us of a few of our best for almost the entire season (SOB has managed just 6 games, and 4 starts, so far this season and the less said about Cian Healy the better)
  We don't have a skills coach and have lost a lot of back room staff recently

Given all of that it shouldn't come as a surprise that Europe was a step too far. If we're really honest it was only the Wasps games that were real disappointments. We had the beating of Bath away but for scrum issues and beat them at home with the young lads. I wouldn't be losing sleep over losing to Toulon away and we were competitive at home against them with the benches being the difference (we had Nick McCarthy and Tom Denton on the bench for example). The Wasps games were incredibly disappointing, the away one particularly. No Leinster side should ever allow that to happen to them. But at the same time they had nothing to play for at that stage and Marsh played most of the game. When Sexton was on we had looked dangerous initially. So there's context there too. Still that result was completely unacceptable, if totally meaningless at the same time.

In the league we started out quite well I thought. Our first few away games were poor, but we were blooding a few younger guys like Byrne so it wasn't the end of the world. There were positive steps in our attacking game when we were at home particularly. But when the internationals came back we started to lose a bit of that. I'm not sure if that was because the internationals themselves were struggling to get into the new set-up or because we were playing better sides buy that time. It was probably a bit of both. But over the last couple of months we've been pretty disappointing. We should have won away to Connacht and even away to Glasgow really. The Munster game was a huge let off, but we were found out big time against Ulster a couple of weeks ago. We seem quite predictable in attack and even against Treviso at times we looked fairly average. Yet when Sexton is on we have gone through spells of looking quite dangerous as well. In the first half against Ulster there were real positive signs from him and Te'o I thought.

In all that it should be remembered we're lacking real big ball carrying options. Guys like SOB and Healy to get us on the front foot. But we have seen a good few young lads come through and make an impression. Dooley, Tracey, Molony, VDF, Leavy and Ringrose have all stood up when we needed them to. Mick Kearney looks to have been a very good signing as well. So while we've missed guys we've also brought through some good talent (they may not all have gotten their first caps under Leo but they've all made their mark under him).

As Ruckedtobits said we need to be realistic. It hasn't been a perfect season and there are a few legitimate complaints we can have with the coaching set-up, but overall I think it's fair to say that Leo has done a decent job so far given the context. Not enough for us to be singing his praises, but enough to warrant another season. If we can get in a skills coach (at least) I think that would be a help. It could have been an utter disaster of a season with inexperienced coaches and a hugely disrupted squad. It hasn't been overall. And I do think that there will be improvements next season. With a handier pool in Europe we might not have the same black mark against us next season either.

This, this, this. This should be last word. Close the thread.

+1. (Except the last word part)

As Sexton has talked about, I do think we have let the culture slip under MOC and Cullen. He is obviously a very demanding personality but I get the impression that he was a little shocked and disappointed by what he found in the dressing room. I feel losing a standard bearer like Jennings is hurting us now off the field .So we really need our senior players and coaches to set and demand an incredibly high standard throughout the whole club (players, coaches, management staff, S&C, academy).

[jezzer]

When judging Leo we have to put everything that has happened this year into context:

• The majority of our coaching set-up is inexperienced (and McQuilkan has been out of top flight rugby for some time)
  The RWC deprived us of our internationals for longer than normal (and disrupted our pre-season with them)
  The European pool we had was very difficult due to our league standing from last year
  Our internationals only returned the week before the Champions Cup kicked off
  Injuries deprived us of a few of our best for almost the entire season (SOB has managed just 6 games, and 4 starts, so far this season and the less said about Cian Healy the better)
  We don't have a skills coach and have lost a lot of back room staff recently

Given all of that it shouldn't come as a surprise that Europe was a step too far. If we're really honest it was only the Wasps games that were real disappointments. We had the beating of Bath away but for scrum issues and beat them at home with the young lads. I wouldn't be losing sleep over losing to Toulon away and we were competitive at home against them with the benches being the difference (we had Nick McCarthy and Tom Denton on the bench for example). The Wasps games were incredibly disappointing, the away one particularly. No Leinster side should ever allow that to happen to them. But at the same time they had nothing to play for at that stage and Marsh played most of the game. When Sexton was on we had looked dangerous initially. So there's context there too. Still that result was completely unacceptable, if totally meaningless at the same time.

In the league we started out quite well I thought. Our first few away games were poor, but we were blooding a few younger guys like Byrne so it wasn't the end of the world. There were positive steps in our attacking game when we were at home particularly. But when the internationals came back we started to lose a bit of that. I'm not sure if that was because the internationals themselves were struggling to get into the new set-up or because we were playing better sides buy that time. It was probably a bit of both. But over the last couple of months we've been pretty disappointing. We should have won away to Connacht and even away to Glasgow really. The Munster game was a huge let off, but we were found out big time against Ulster a couple of weeks ago. We seem quite predictable in attack and even against Treviso at times we looked fairly average. Yet when Sexton is on we have gone through spells of looking quite dangerous as well. In the first half against Ulster there were real positive signs from him and Te'o I thought.

In all that it should be remembered we're lacking real big ball carrying options. Guys like SOB and Healy to get us on the front foot. But we have seen a good few young lads come through and make an impression. Dooley, Tracey, Molony, VDF, Leavy and Ringrose have all stood up when we needed them to. Mick Kearney looks to have been a very good signing as well. So while we've missed guys we've also brought through some good talent (they may not all have gotten their first caps under Leo but they've all made their mark under him).

As Ruckedtobits said we need to be realistic. It hasn't been a perfect season and there are a few legitimate complaints we can have with the coaching set-up, but overall I think it's fair to say that Leo has done a decent job so far given the context. Not enough for us to be singing his praises, but enough to warrant another season. If we can get in a skills coach (at least) I think that would be a help. It could have been an utter disaster of a season with inexperienced coaches and a hugely disrupted squad. It hasn't been overall. And I do think that there will be improvements next season. With a handier pool in Europe we might not have the same black mark against us next season either.

Isn't the fact that the coaching ticket is inexperienced kind of the point? Why should that be the excuse for Leo if people are complaining that we didn't need to have such an inexperienced coaching team in the first place? Kurt has been the bright spot. Ditto for your point about no skills coach. We also just lost our second S&C coach in a few years. Why are these excuses for Leo? Surely these are legit criticisms of him. He's the head coach.

Where I have sympathy for Leo is:
1) The Nu Schmidt interference, which is higher in Leinster than anywhere else. That would drive any coach nuts.
2) Girve hasn't delivered as functioning a backline as his credentials as a player and A coach would suggest.

[molloyjh]

Isn't the fact that the coaching ticket is inexperienced kind of the point? Why should that be the excuse for Leo if people are complaining that we didn't need to have such an inexperienced coaching team in the first place? Kurt has been the bright spot. Ditto for your point about no skills coach. We also just lost our second S&C coach in a few years. Why are these excuses for Leo? Surely these are legit criticisms of him. He's the head coach.

Where I have sympathy for Leo is:
1) The Nu Schmidt interference, which is higher in Leinster than anywhere else. That would drive any coach nuts.
2) Girve hasn't delivered as functioning a backline as his credentials as a player and A coach would suggest.

His inexperience was certainly the point when he was appointed and we had our concerns then. Given that there is literally nothing that can be done about that at this stage it should now be viewed on as context and not a stick to beat the guy with. The real issue with our coaching set-up is that we had next to no time to assemble one, and the responsibility for that lies at a higher level than Leo. There's little point in blaming Leo for that.

As for losing back room staff this isn't something that is within his control. People move on. He can influence things sometimes, but he can't control them. So again you simply can't blame him for that stuff.

None of this is about having sympathy for or excusing our head coach. It's about evaluating his performance based on the realities of the situation. His performance given those realities could have been better but could also have been a lot worse. There have been positives as well as negatives. And on balance, if we can flesh out our coaching staff with some more experience in key areas, then there's no reason to believe that we won't continue to improve next season. On that basis we should be holding on to Leo for now. That's not a ringing endorsement obviously, but I reckon it's a balanced enough viewpoint. Either way Leo is going nowhere. I would hope Leinster learned their lesson after last year about letting coaches so late in the year and we won't see anything like that happen again where it is avoidable.

[Logorrhea]

IMO, Leinster fans need to adjust their sights to 'realistic' rather than 'idealistic'.

The period 2003-15 was referred to as a "Golden Age" for good reason. In Ireland and Leinster & Munster, there was an opportunistic, confluence of players, of a quality that was rare in Irish rugby over the previous 40 years. Perhaps twice in that period had the Irish team got 10-12 players of true international quality at the same time - c. 1971-4 and 1979 - 83.

From 2003-15 we had fitter, more experienced, highly-skilled players in most positions and sometimes more than one quality contender in 5 positions. We won Provincial and International trophies & titles regularly and the players did not seem to lose their appetite for success.

This combination is very rare. Ask some of the Welsh and English players of the past decade or even the English and French players of the same era. Winning, at international or European level is a very tough ask and doesn't come easily, ever.

So, the barometer for Leo, Girv and Kurt should be realistic and objective. IMO, the defence has improved, the line-out has improved, the scrum has improved. The attack has improved compared to last year, but is a shadow of what it was in the previous 5 years. The back-three threat is almost non-existant in counter-attack and our maul only functions sporadically.

The Squad depth is encouraging and now only our half-back back-up worries me.

So, regardless of the next 2 games, I reckon score is 6.5 out of 10. Win the Pro12 and I'd move that up to 7 out of 10.

If we could develop Adam Byrne and rehab Luke Fitz to play outside Henshaw and Ringrose next season in an attacking fashion, I believe we could be capable of getting to a European semi. That would constitute an 8 out of 10 standard for me. Winning Europe is 9 out of 10 and getting Pro12 and ERPC is the full deck.

So, definitely going in the right direction. Guaranteed to get there? Definitely not. But much happier that we are on the right path, than I was a year ago

Enjoyed reading that. Very much a +1 from me.