Leinster Squad 19-20

[mildlyinterested]

That's an awful lot of chat about a lad that will never play for Leinster again.
He's gone. No need to spend pages discussing him/how he left/why he left.

[Workhorse]

Larmour was exposed by England, Carbery by Clermont. Kearney was a FB all through his development years, was only briefly on the wing to accommodate Girvan before his performance against the ABs forced people to recognise his best position. Henshaw at FB in the infamous 2019 experiment was a disaster as we can all remember Wings like Conway, Zebo and Lowe are all fine at FB until it comes to test level where defensive nous is key. Cannot understand why it is not held in the same regard as flyhalf. The symbiosis between Sexton and Kearney was key to so much success. Yet one is treated like goldust and the other is just cast aside with a rookie given the role.

Full back is a specialist position, and it's very very difficult to be a great full back like Kearney but it's not that hard relatively to be a good full back especially with good wingers outside you because the base skills are similar to playing wing and your physical attributes can more easily compensate for poor positioning to an extent.

Outhalf though that initial learning curve is very difficult because mentally you have to know what you want to do.

As a fullback the mental side of the game comes with time and you can learn that from the wing by listening to what the 15 is telling you and working out why he's saying that.
At 10 that mental aspect can only be gained from playing there because it's so different to anywhere else on the pitch again bar maybe 9 but it's a rare breed of player that can play 9 & 10

[Up Wexford]

Hahah, sorry, forgot about all the other rugby thats going on.....

[ronk]

That's an awful lot of chat about a lad that will never play for Leinster again.
He's gone. No need to spend pages discussing him/how he left/why he left.

History is a strong factor for determining the future. We all know he's not coming back and don't want to revisit it.

But I'd rather be griping occasionally about Carvery in 4 years time than going on about Baird, Penny, Doris and Turner.

[Morf]

Hahah, sorry, forgot about all the other rugby thats going on.....

Sometimes less is better than engineered pointless and circular more.

[heno]

This wouldn't have been an issue if Schmidt and the Incompetron Millennium Edition had any kind of foresight and placed Madigan in Connacht when they had the opportunity to do so before he signed for Bristol.

Do you mean this as a general foresight into more options? Because I think at the time Madigan signed for Bristol, no one had been charged. Jackson had been dropped for the Chicago game but played again for Ireland the next summer after Madigan had signed. So I think it's but much to expect schmidt to know how all that was going to play out.

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[hugonaut]

This wouldn't have been an issue if Schmidt and the Incompetron Millennium Edition had any kind of foresight and placed Madigan in Connacht when they had the opportunity to do so before he signed for Bristol.

Do you mean this as a general foresight into more options? Because I think at the time Madigan signed for Bristol, no one had been charged. Jackson had been dropped for the Chicago game but played again for Ireland the next summer after Madigan had signed. So I think it's but much to expect schmidt to know how all that was going to play out.

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Madigan was open to going to Connacht to get him out of Bordeaux, but Willie Ruane [Connacht's CEO] said that they didn't need him ... because they had Marnitz Boshoff, Steve Crosbie and Shane O'Leary [source: https://www.the42.ie/connacht-ian-madig ... 4-Feb2017/ ].

Obviously they also had Jack Carty [who Ruane also mentioned] but the point is more effective when you leave him out ... and it's just as valid. You need two good outhalves in a squad, and the reason that they weren't interested in Madigan was because they had three pretty ordinary players on the books.

If Ruane was on his toes, and been positive about it – "Madigan is obviously a superb player, and while he's currently contracted to a big club, we would love to have a player of his calibre here at Connacht. Having him play in Galway would no doubt be for the good of Irish rugby" he would have had a decent chance of getting IRFU cash to cover a significant proportion of the cost.

Schmidt was obviously a Madigan fan [he gave him 28 caps] and would have liked him to be available for selection and getting regular gametime. Madser would have had to take a paycut from what he was earning at Bordeaux, but he'd be back eligible for test rugby and competing for a World Cup squad and a trip to Japan.

Unfortunately Ruane played it like a dope.

[Dave Cahill]

This wouldn't have been an issue if Schmidt and the Incompetron Millennium Edition had any kind of foresight and placed Madigan in Connacht when they had the opportunity to do so before he signed for Bristol.

Do you mean this as a general foresight into more options? Because I think at the time Madigan signed for Bristol, no one had been charged. Jackson had been dropped for the Chicago game but played again for Ireland the next summer after Madigan had signed. So I think it's but much to expect schmidt to know how all that was going to play out.

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An Irish international outhalf was basically hocking himself around Ireland, issuing come and get me pleas in all the media, looking to come home and Connacht had no one at that level at all. They could have gotten him at a song (a song they probably wouldn't even have to sing alone ), but were super snitty about it.

I do think that there should have been more foresight in the Ulster issue as well, as it happens. There were only two possible rugby outcomes - a) Jackson would be available to play for Ulster after the trial, and b) Jackson wouldn't be available to play for Ulster after the trial. If Madigan were signed for Ulster, then no matter what the outcome was, the worst case scenario, again from a rugby pov, was that Ulster would have an International outhalf.

[LeinsterLeader]

The indo saying we should be back Training on Monday (all going well). Testing the players and staff to begin tomorrow.

[Pilotman123]

Anyone know what the fixture list is gonna be like next season? Is there gonna be Celtic cup and will the Pro14 start later ?

[meathman3]

Anyone know what the fixture list is gonna be like next season? Is there gonna be Celtic cup and will the Pro14 start later ?

Scheduled to run concurrently with the finishing out of 2020 6N around the end of October after HCup final which is scheduled as Oct 17th.
New 6N pencilled in from Oct 23rd to cover the Autumn internationals.

[Ruckedtobits]

Anyone know what the fixture list is gonna be like next season? Is there gonna be Celtic cup and will the Pro14 start later ?

No signs thus far of any Celtic Cup and certainly Leinster are concerned about the possibility of no A Competition other than Interpros. A games have been a vital element of player development since Leo took over and we certainly need them with our Squad composition, including Academy players.

The current prospective match schedule will see Leinster lose the usual quota of 18 - 22 players from mid-October until end November. Hopefully by the end of September we will have a H Cup Final in our sights and a Pro14 title in our hands. However, we will then face a 6/7 week period which is at present unknown for Provincial rugby.

The key aspect for this season is how essential it is to hit the ground running. A really tough coaching objective but Leinster have the coaching ticket to bring it off.

[mildlyinterested]

Lots of young leinster players missing out on valuable game time in 2020 due to covid, may cause a few to look elsewhere when their contracts are up.

[Flash Gordon]

Lots of young leinster players missing out on valuable game time in 2020 due to covid, may cause a few to look elsewhere when their contracts are up.

They might but European rugby is a financial mess as a result of COVID so most clubs will be looking to shed rather than recruit I'd imagine.

[mildlyinterested]

Lots of young leinster players missing out on valuable game time in 2020 due to covid, may cause a few to look elsewhere when their contracts are up.

They might but European rugby is a financial mess as a result of COVID so most clubs will be looking to shed rather than recruit I'd imagine.

apart from the other provinces who will happily take leinster squad and academy players.

[mildlyinterested]

James Lowe still in NZ, wonder when he will return... will have a two week quarantine to go through when he does

[ronk]

James Lowe still in NZ, wonder when he will return... will have a two week quarantine to go through when he does

Safest place for him

[alanair]

Im sure I saw Scott Fardy ( with partner & child) walking by Sandymount strand on Tues - Did he not also ‘fly the coop’ ?

[mildlyinterested]

Im sure I saw Scott Fardy ( with partner & child) walking by Sandymount strand on Tues - Did he not also ‘fly the coop’ ?

No, his wife is pregnant and they didn't fly back to Aus.

Lowe only recently enough went back to NZ.

[Pilotman123]

So what would you say will happen to the usual Leinster A players then? Would you say the coaches will roll the dice and play them in a pro14 game or will they just stick to playing Ail? Really hope they do form an A team and play some fixtures as it’s crucial for our development and one of the many reasons on why we’re a successful club