I wouldn't go overboard about the bad spell we had, it was pretty much down to a couple of big errors each from Ross and Dev, and struggling with their maul. It's not like there was a collective drop in standards or poor attitude.
I thought Ross played within himself after the intercept and the kick on the full, seemed reluctant to release the ball and put boot to ball a fair bit. He was exceptional at the start at the game though, as were the whole team. That first 20 minutes was unbelievable. Lyon may not have been up to much but we identified space brilliantly and were really brave with releasing our passes at the last second and weren't shy about moving it.
Sorry to keep going on about it but I'm loving this move to get Ringrose more involved. He's so skillful and reads everything so well that it really suits him and he would have been my MOTM. The way Josh can adapt his game to getting the ball more in open space when his defence isn't really needed is a big asset as well.
Our maul defence needs work but we were without Ryan and Doris who make a big difference to it IMO. Doris managed to get on the ball carrier straight away when he came on and won us a turnover, it's a real strength of his.
Porter phenomenal off the bench again, he was everywhere in that last half an hour.
Dave Kearney was a close contender for MOTM.
Check needed on suitability of all studs even though there was a lot of overnight rain. Some sloppy mid-field passing.
Luke 'picking and looking' rather than 'get there and pass' as he did against Connacht.
Up front Porter was superb from when he arrived. Dev & Fardy worked their socks off. Max was excellent in possession but, IMO, should have kept ball in scrum and gone for push-over when Lambey was carded. But he is certainly developing still.
Henshaw & Ringrose are a delight to see in attack but both need more care in possession as too many passes when to deck. Dave K and James Lowe have become resident occupants of our wings with great appetites for work
Lyon came to stop us playing and use every trick to break up our rhythm. They were hughly assisted by Whitehouse and his pedantic TMO.
A good 5 points and very happy with the way we handled an annoying opponent.
Ruckedtobits wrote:Dave Kearney was a close contender for MOTM.
Check needed on suitability of all studs even though there was a lot of overnight rain. Some sloppy mid-field passing.
Luke 'picking and looking' rather than 'get there and pass' as he did against Connacht.
Up front Porter was superb from when he arrived. Dev & Fardy worked their socks off. Max was excellent in possession but, IMO, should have kept ball in scrum and gone for push-over when Lambey was carded. But he is certainly developing still.
Henshaw & Ringrose are a delight to see in attack but both need more care in possession as too many passes when to deck. Dave K and James Lowe have become resident occupants of our wings with great appetites for work
Lyon came to stop us playing and use every trick to break up our rhythm. They were hughly assisted by Whitehouse and his pedantic TMO.
A good 5 points and very happy with the way we handled an annoying opponent.
Dave is having a great run, would love to see him get a shot in green although you would imagine there are a good few ahead of him.
Is 30 and a half too young to have a Indian Summer? Dave K is sure having a great season anyhow and he's lovin it! TBH, when Lowe came in and Larmour emerged I thought oul Davey boy was done and he'd end up going to Hell or going to Connacht.
Not a great game but 42-14, another massive win. I bet our tries and points for are better in the Heino than in the Pro14 because the Pro14 is a sh!t league.
Nuggets 41st try for Leinster.
You know I'm going to lose,
And gambling's for fools,
But that's the way I like it baby, I don't want to live FOREVER!
Very weird game. Looked sharp with some great angles of running and some clever passing. We also had some very poor handling and dreadful maul defence. Yet we won comfortably. A win of any kind next week and we're number 1 seeds.
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The sport that unites Catholic, Protestant and dissenter has had its day of days. Pity anybody who can't enjoy it. Some day.
Jonny tight lips wrote:
Dave is having a great run, would love to see him get a shot in green although you would imagine there are a good few ahead of him.
Examples? If we assume Stockdale is still locked in at 11 then Earls and Conway are looking at 14. He might back himself there.
If his brother starts then it would look like Larmour for the right wing. But if Rob doesn’t make the 23 and Larmour starts at fullback then it’s 2 from 3: Dave K, Conway, Earls. The other 2 have incumbency and he’s worked with them more.
Jonny tight lips wrote:
Dave is having a great run, would love to see him get a shot in green although you would imagine there are a good few ahead of him.
Examples? If we assume Stockdale is still locked in at 11 then Earls and Conway are looking at 14. He might back himself there.
If his brother starts then it would look like Larmour for the right wing. But if Rob doesn’t make the 23 and Larmour starts at fullback then it’s 2 from 3: Dave K, Conway, Earls. The other 2 have incumbency and he’s worked with them more.
Are we not assuming Rob won't be in the 6N squad? Wasn't he omitted from the 'stocktake'?
Jonny tight lips wrote:
Dave is having a great run, would love to see him get a shot in green although you would imagine there are a good few ahead of him.
Examples? If we assume Stockdale is still locked in at 11 then Earls and Conway are looking at 14. He might back himself there.
If his brother starts then it would look like Larmour for the right wing. But if Rob doesn’t make the 23 and Larmour starts at fullback then it’s 2 from 3: Dave K, Conway, Earls. The other 2 have incumbency and he’s worked with them more.
I would imagine Stockdale, Conway and Earls are a head of him for certain and Larmour if Addison plays 15.
That was a frustrating game to watch – Lyon were cynical in defence and we were impatient in attack, so we struggled to score the points that our share of possession suggested.
Our mindset seemed to slip a little after we made two early chances and I have the feeling that the players began to think it was going to be an easier fixture than it turned out to be. I empathise with them. There's been a lot of praise and hype in the media for Leinster, and Lyon had been completely written off - when they looked iffy in the first minute it was very tempting to think that they'd do a Bourgoin and roll over entirely. To their credit, they didn't. And to our credit, we won very handily and got our bonus point. If we took the obvious lesson from it – keep your attacking focus – then I'd say we did alright to take the lesson and a 42-14 win out of it.
Their maul was very strong again, as it had been in the away fixture. Defending it is something that we continually have to work on, because we don't have a lot of big bodies in our pack compared to the likes of Racing, Clermont and Saracens.
hugonaut wrote:That was a frustrating game to watch – Lyon were cynical in defence and we were impatient in attack, so we struggled to score the points that our share of possession suggested.
Our mindset seemed to slip a little after we made two early chances and I have the feeling that the players began to think it was going to be an easier fixture than it turned out to be. I empathise with them. There's been a lot of praise and hype in the media for Leinster, and Lyon had been completely written off - when they looked iffy in the first minute it was very tempting to think that they'd do a Bourgoin and roll over entirely. To their credit, they didn't. And to our credit, we won very handily and got our bonus point. If we took the obvious lesson from it – keep your attacking focus – then I'd say we did alright to take the lesson and a 42-14 win out of it.
Their maul was very strong again, as it had been in the away fixture. Defending it is something that we continually have to work on, because we don't have a lot of big bodies in our pack compared to the likes of Racing, Clermont and Saracens.
I'd agree. I think it's one major weakness this season in our game (maul defence); and I'm not sure if it's all down to body size. When it comes to the business end (Qtr, Semi, Final) it could be crucial as games get tighter.
