He has been really good for three or four months at this stage. As he said himself, he had a slow start to the season [not dissimilar to last season] but has hit his straps since the interpros late in 2018 and is playing at a consistently high level.wixfjord wrote: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.
There's a really big selection call to be made with regards to the bench for the Ulster match. I think the starting backrow picks itself [Rhys, Leavy, Conan], but it's a big call between Max and SOB on the bench.
SOB's rep has plummeted over the Six Nations. He did well against England off the bench, was okay against Scotland, poor against Italy and anonymous against Wales. Apologies for repeating myself on this subject, but I firmly believe that his value lies in being an impact sub - for both Leinster and Ireland. His most 'Sean O'Brien-esque' performance came against England, when he only had to go for a quarter of an hour. So maybe the coaches look at it like that too.
But on the other hand, Max is playing really well, has played a lot of rugby this season, is about a decade younger than SOB and is a man on the upslope of his career. O'Brien is clearly on the downslope, and he's off to London Irish next season. So in the long- and mid-term, there's only one good decision: Deegan. And he might even be the better decision in the short-term.
