Edinburgh Away, 22/03, 7.35pm

[leinster23]

Didn't see the game, not overly fussed about the result, but how did Luke and Leavy get on, and how did Frawley cope at 10?

[LeRouxIsPHat]

All things considered I'm happy enough after that, there were always going to be negatives given the side we had out and the quality of the opposition, and Whitehouse was incredibly harsh on us.

The scrum is a worry, maybe it would be better with a stronger second row but we need all those props to be doing better, it's not like we had someone like Vakh out there.

The lineout malfunctioned a bit but given how our pack ended up I'm not too bothered and like I said earlier I thought we challenged well earlier on and were good at defending the maul aggressively.

The backrow was excellent.

Luke was good apart from the one horrible mistake.

COB was great when he came on, pity we couldn't give him more ball. JOB excellent as well but we really didn't win enough ball for the backs. There was lots of disruption to midfield too which didn't help.

A horror show for Tomane, no way of dressing it up. The one thing I'd really love for him to change is to really drive his shoulder into people, the number of times he half makes a tackle and the player gets away is a joke. Felt for him near the end, his confidence must be through the floor.

[wixfjord]

Didn't see the game, not overly fussed about the result, but how did Luke and Leavy get on, and how did Frawley cope at 10?

Leavy was good, looked fit and fast which bodes well. Got a yellow which should've been a pen to us.

Wasn't a vintage night from Luke, not bad but made one big mess up with MCF. Overall though he showed enough to probably start next week.

Cronin was a bit of a worry, went off at HT after getting treatment for a hamstring injury.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Well that was pretty mediocre

But at the same time, it wasn't as bad as we might have feared. If we had a better front five we would have been a lot more competitive. We had no platform whatsoever, but thems the breaks the week between the 6N and a HEC quarter final. The effort was really good though

We were well organised too, which is pretty impressive for such a scratch side. And we kept going to the end.

[wixfjord]

JOB looks a really handy player. Looking forward to seeing more of him.

The less said about Tomane the better. Looks completely lost at times.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Didn't see the game, not overly fussed about the result, but how did Luke and Leavy get on, and how did Frawley cope at 10?

Leavy was good, looked fit and fast which bodes well. Got a yellow which should've been a pen to us.

Love the way Leavy makes a real impact every time he makes a tackle. Even when players get past him he tends to be able to wrap them up and throw them backwards, sometimes even just with one arm.

[carlow man]

JOB looks a really handy player. Looking forward to seeing more of him.

The less said about Tomane the better. Looks completely lost at times.

Shades of tuquiri when you look at what tomane is giving us. The guy has no idea what to do, started brightly and then went back to his usual cr@p self. Can't catch and can't pass. Doesn't matter what else comes into it, if he can't do either of those well then we may aswell rip up his contract and let him go play elsewhere. Thought he looked more trim but may be he's had an inch off his hair instead! Shame but with cob and rol backing up henshaw, there really is no need to have tomane on the books. Too slow and can't tackle so can't play on the wing. Sometimes a move just doesn't work out the way we all want it to but I can't see how he will be a success if he's worse than what we already have here

[Barry]

JOB looks a really handy player. Looking forward to seeing more of him.

The less said about Tomane the better. Looks completely lost at times.

Shades of tuquiri when you look at what tomane is giving us. The guy has no idea what to do, started brightly and then went back to his usual cr@p self. Can't catch and can't pass. Doesn't matter what else comes into it, if he can't do either of those well then we may aswell rip up his contract and let him go play elsewhere. Thought he looked more trim but may be he's had an inch off his hair instead! Shame but with cob and rol backing up henshaw, there really is no need to have tomane on the books. Too slow and can't tackle so can't play on the wing. Sometimes a move just doesn't work out the way we all want it to but I can't see how he will be a success if he's worse than what we already have here

any chance the team could wait until Tomane is in the jacks, then sneak out of Scotland before he notices ?

[bails]

About as enjoyable as a game in the MOC era.
What did we expect from Edinburgh ?

Would it not have made sense to pick a team that has the best chance of dealing with their strengths

Remember one non Irish player will sit out next week as well

You're some man for an overreaction!

Tonight mattered feck all in the grand scheme of things. Getting lads game time was the key.

Facts, we picked a team that would always struggle against an Edinburgh pack
We played very poorly
Every game in a Leinster shirt matters as losing becomes habitual
As I said before, the reserve players are not as good as in previous seasons
Yes game time is key, but not all in the same match.

Plenty of our Irish players are also in need of game time before next week, based on 6 nations performances.

[domhnallj]

Didn't see the game, not overly fussed about the result, but how did Luke and Leavy get on, and how did Frawley cope at 10?

Leavy was good, looked fit and fast which bodes well. Got a yellow which should've been a pen to us.

Love the way Leavy makes a real impact every time he makes a tackle. Even when players get past him he tends to be able to wrap them up and throw them backwards, sometimes even just with one arm.

Yeah, just watching the game now. His tackle technique is excellent, he must have massive upper body strenght.

[blockhead]

Tomane. Oh my god!
Is there nothing to be said for another mass?
I'm not angry, just concerned for the guy, he is a rugby player right?
Anyway, don't care about the result, OBVIOUSLY!
Hopefully no fresh injury concerns for us, or them

[Twist]

I feel like Tomane deserves to have one unqualified thing said in his defence, cos he’s getting a serious shoeing here! So here it is; he looks strong when he runs into contact. Two particularly good hand-offs stood out to me. I wouldnt bring it up if he wasnt getting such harsh reviews, just think the lad deserves at least one positive comment on his return!

In general, obviously the result didnt matter but I agree with the earlier comment that losing can be a habit. We should never accept it. We are the best club in Europe and the only way that will continue to be true is by the ruthless maintenance of high standards

JOB - looked great
Leavy - welcome back, never a yellow
Bent - ploughed a lonely furrow up front



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[leinsterforever]

He just doesn't look at home in the centre. He doesn't have the instincts and (to a lesser extent) the skillset to play there. It seems to me that he's more the type who gets on the end of things and finishes with a bit of pace and power - a kind of rugby league type winger. The coaches are doing him no favours by selecting him out of position imo. But then again there's a glut of options on the wing - Lowe, Larmour, Byrne, Daly, DK, McFadden - so he's not really needed there.

[Ruckedtobits]

Based on Leavy's physicality, almost all in defense, it's really hard to see how he wouldnt have made a serious difference last weekend in the Principality Stadium. A lesser case could be made for Ruddock, even if it might have diminished our line-out capacity.

Apart from that, really pleased with Jimmy O'Brien and CO'B. Excellent hard running and choice of lines and support play.

Certainly hope that Nugget is OK for next week, but Byrne certainly doesn't reduce our carrying threat in the loose.

[wixfjord]

You can see with Tomane that for a big experienced guy he's tentative and unsure of himself. He looks lost at times positionally and he doesn't seem to have the handling skills that guys from the academy do.
I also think he's unsure of the attacking system. Most of our guys play on autopilot at times. They know where to be and what to do. But little things like him kicking the ball away last night would indicate to me that he has habits from France that he's finding hard to shake off.

It's a pity, because he looks very fit and definitely has the power to do damage in attack and defence.

I wouldn't write him off totally just yet though. Let's remember that guys like Isa and Lowe took time to properly bed down for us too. He did make 15 tackles last night and I thought his first half an hour was good.

[wixfjord]

Some of the tackle counts for our forwards were ridiculous last night btw.
Josh Murphy had 29, Mick K 30, Rhys 25 and Deegan 20.

Deegan had a great showing. Won a great turnover, a brute in attack and good work rate.

[LeinsterLeader]

About as enjoyable as a game in the MOC era.
What did we expect from Edinburgh ?

Would it not have made sense to pick a team that has the best chance of dealing with their strengths

Remember one non Irish player will sit out next week as well

You're some man for an overreaction!

Tonight mattered feck all in the grand scheme of things. Getting lads game time was the key.

Facts, we picked a team that would always struggle against an Edinburgh pack
We played very poorly
Every game in a Leinster shirt matters as losing becomes habitual
As I said before, the reserve players are not as good as in previous seasons
Yes game time is key, but not all in the same match.

Plenty of our Irish players are also in need of game time before next week, based on 6 nations performances.

Interestingly, almost non of this is "fact"

[LeRouxIsPHat]

You can see with Tomane that for a big experienced guy he's tentative and unsure of himself. He looks lost at times positionally and he doesn't seem to have the handling skills that guys from the academy do.
I also think he's unsure of the attacking system. Most of our guys play on autopilot at times. They know where to be and what to do. But little things like him kicking the ball away last night would indicate to me that he has habits from France that he's finding hard to shake off.

He seemed to run the wrong line for that penalty too.

I thought you could see that he was afraid to pass late on in case it went wrong, his confidence was shot.

I really feel for him. I don't think he'll ever be what we need at 12 but he's way better than he's shown for us and it really has been a miserable time for him, understandable that he'd be finding it tough.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Some of the tackle counts for our forwards were ridiculous last night btw.
Josh Murphy had 29, Mick K 30, Rhys 25 and Deegan 20.

Really don't get why some people were down on the second rows. Josh gave away a stupid penalty and had a lineout go through his hands, and Kearney gave away a penalty at a maul when there was no need and the ref warned him, but apart from that I thought they were mostly very good.

Edinburgh did own the ball for parts of the game and obviously there's an argument to say that it's up to the pack to win the ball, but it's not all on them. Had Luke not flung that ball back (from a lineout that Max stole) then chances are we'd have got some territory and been able to close out the half with a four point lead. Whitehouse obviously played a big part in us being pegged back too, including playing with 14 men after a bullshit yellow card.

[Aird]

Twist your comment that the result didn’t matter is a dangerous generalisation and hope fully not an indication of the Leinster approach to the remaining league programme.
The other provinces have still to qualify from the league but of course it would be ok to rest players in yourfinal game.
The Victory for Edinburgh last night revived their hopes for the league and also did Munster no favours for next week.
Hopefully the threatened demo on the boarder for next Saturday which ironical threatened to close the boarder in the name of freedom of movement may not now take place and the Munster fans willl not have to go through customs on re-entry to the EU.