Leinster v Connacht Sat 19.45

[wixfjord]

Very interested to see how Leo rotates over the next few games.
Matches falling slightly differently to last year with Connacht up first.

I'd imagine we'll see a mix and match for Conn/Mun and then pretty much full whack against Ulster the week before Toulouse come to town?

A tough one to call but we might see something like:
Dooley, Cronin, Porter, Fardy, Ryan, Rhys, Leavy, Deegan, JGP, Johnny, DK, ROL, Ringrose, Byrne, Larmour
Tracy, Byrne, Bent, Molony, Doris, McGrath, Byrne, Reid

Would mean Furlong, Healy, Dev, VDF, Lowe etc all starting for Munster.

I'd definitely be starting ROL and Ringrose twice over the three games considering how well it went yesterday and how we'll need them for Toulouse.

[COYBIB]

Given how we're doing in our conference, I'd love to see players like Dooley, Kelleher, Dunne, O'Sullivan, the O'Briens etc., two or three of them scattered into an otherwise very experienced/strong first XV.

[wixfjord]

Dooley is 24 and has more caps than the rest of them combined, he's hardly in the same category!

I agree though, would be interesting to see someone like Keenan or COB get a run in a full side.

I hope to see COB in Thomond.

[hugonaut]

I would really like to see Bryan Byrne get the start against Connacht. His standard of play this season [in limited minutes] has been very, very good. He has also banged in 5 tries in 157 mins of rugby, so if we get 63 minutes out of him he'll give us two tries ... that's how it works, isn't it?

I'd also put Hughie O'Sullivan on the bench [apparently he had a hip strain after the Ospreys game, hence Patterson coming into the matchday squad]. I'd have him on the bench in all the interpros actually, alternating who is starting in front of him. Nick McCarthy's injury hurts us further down the line than his own absence because it effectively precludes us from picking Scott Fardy, who is playing great stuff when he gets the chance. If we direct selection [and some gametime] towards O'Sullivan over Christmas, it makes him a more viable option for selection on the bench in the second half of the season. We're also in a situation where if one of our senior scrum-halves picks up an injury, then we're turning to him in any case.

Would like to see Max Deegan start at No8; I'd say he has some bottled up dissatisfaction that needs releasing and a start in an interpro would give him the chance to do it. Leavy is low on minutes at this stage of the season - 42 for Ireland and 379 for Leinster – and his last two games have been at No6 and No8, so it makes sense to give him the run-out at openside.

Conor O'Brien inside Garry Ringrose is a centre partnership I'd like to see, with Locko as the outside backs cover. Ronan Kelleher in at sub hooker to give him a home debut and to give the under-appreciated James Tracy [he has played in 13 of our 14 games thus far] a weekend off.

Forwards [1-8]: E. Byrne, B. Byrne, M. Bent, S. Fardy, R. Molony, R. Ruddock, D. Leavy, M. Deegan
Backs [9-15]: L. McGrath, R. Byrne, J. Lowe, C. O'Brien, G. Ringrose, A. Byrne, D. Kearney
Subs [16-23]: P. Dooley, R. Kelleher, A. Porter, M. Kearney, C. Doris, H. O'Sullivan, C. Frawley, R. O'Loughlin

[paddyor]

You’d imagine Connachts selection for the Christmas period will be heavily skewed towards the 2 home games vs Munster and Ulster. So quite possibly no Aki, Bealham or Roux. Think we should use the opportunity to get some youth on the pitch.

As an aside 4 wins in the league to the 6N should wrap up the conference. I’d be confident of 3(Munster) and even at that it makes it a long way back for Scarlets and Ulster( 4 games). We’d need to lose half our remaining games to let them back in.

[leinsterforever]

Connacht
1. Dooley, 2. Tracy, 3. Porter, 4. Fardy, 5. Kearney, 6. Ruddock, 7. van der Flier, 8. Conan, 9. McGrath, 10. Byrne, 11. Lowe, 12. O'Loughlin, 13. J. O'Brien, 14. Byrne, 15. Larmour; 16. Byrne, 17. Byrne, 18. Bent, 19. Molony, 20. Deegan, 21. O'Sullivan, 22. Frawley, 23. C. O'Brien

Munster
1. Dooley, 2. Tracy, 3. Bent, 4. Toner, 5. Ryan, 6. Murphy, 7. Leavy, 8. Deegan, 9. Gibson-Park, 10. Byrne, 11. O'Loughlin, 12. C. O'Brien, 13. Ringrose, 14. Kearney, 15. Larmour; 16. Byrne, 17. Byrne, 18. Porter, 19. Fardy, 20. Doris, 21. O'Sullivan, 22. Frawley, 23. Byrne

Ulster
1. Byrne, 2. Cronin, 3. Furlong, 4. Molony, 5. Fardy, 6. Ruddock, 7. van der Flier, 8. Conan, 9. McGrath, 10. Sexton, 11. Lowe, 12. O'Loughlin, 13. J. O'Brien, 14. Byrne, 15. Larmour; 16. Byrne, 17. Healy, 18. Porter, 19. Toner, 20. Deegan, 21. O'Sullivan, 22. Byrne, 23. Kearney

Something like that...

[johng]

You’d imagine Connachts selection for the Christmas period will be heavily skewed towards the 2 home games vs Munster and Ulster. So quite possibly no Aki, Bealham or Roux. Think we should use the opportunity to get some youth on the pitch.

As an aside 4 wins in the league to the 6N should wrap up the conference. I’d be confident of 3(Munster) and even at that it makes it a long way back for Scarlets and Ulster( 4 games). We’d need to lose half our remaining games to let them back in.

they already rested those players this week in the amlin

[Oldschool]

Be inclined to give the 1st 15 the day off against Connacht.
Mixed selections against Munster and ditto against Ulster, but ensuring all the likely match day 23 against Toulouse get a run out.
Healy to be used only from the bench until Jack is back

[blockhead]

You’d imagine Connachts selection for the Christmas period will be heavily skewed towards the 2 home games vs Munster and Ulster. So quite possibly no Aki, Bealham or Roux. Think we should use the opportunity to get some youth on the pitch.

As an aside 4 wins in the league to the 6N should wrap up the conference. I’d be confident of 3(Munster) and even at that it makes it a long way back for Scarlets and Ulster( 4 games). We’d need to lose half our remaining games to let them back in.

Connacht pick a weakened team against Leinster? No chance, these are the games they target every year. I'd imagine Plumber will pick a decent team for Connacht knowing that we'll be forced to send the kids down to Mordor again.
We have 7 home games left and 4 away games.

[Jonny tight lips]

You’d imagine Connachts selection for the Christmas period will be heavily skewed towards the 2 home games vs Munster and Ulster. So quite possibly no Aki, Bealham or Roux. Think we should use the opportunity to get some youth on the pitch.

As an aside 4 wins in the league to the 6N should wrap up the conference. I’d be confident of 3(Munster) and even at that it makes it a long way back for Scarlets and Ulster( 4 games). We’d need to lose half our remaining games to let them back in.

Connacht pick a weakened team against Leinster? No chance, these are the games they target every year. I'd imagine Plumber will pick a decent team for Connacht knowing that we'll be forced to send the kids down to Mordor again.
We have 7 home games left and 4 away games.

Munster are looking good this year, I think that’s the game we should be targeting over the Xmas as it will stand to us in the playoffs. Looking at our games after Xmas I think we have to spot in the pool covered so if we loose against Conaught so what if it

[RoboProp]

I'd go full metal jacket against Connacht. It'll be the toughest test of the 3 as they always throw everything but the kitchen sink at us.

[Xanthippe]

Healy to be used only from the bench until Jack is back

I fully expect Healy to run out first against either Connacht or Ulster for his 200th cap.

[Ruckedtobits]

Healy to be used only from the bench until Jack is back

I fully expect Healy to run out first against either Connacht or Ulster for his 200th cap.

+1

[Degz]

Target the home games, send the kids down South.

[joooooe]

Target the home games, send the kids down South.

Although this makes sense to some degree, I'd love to see us send the first XV to Thomond and really have a go. I know a) it won't happen and b) our kids were good enough last year.

[wixfjord]

Target the home games, send the kids down South.

Although this makes sense to some degree, I'd love to see us send the first XV to Thomond and really have a go. I know a) it won't happen and b) our kids were good enough last year.

I'd actually prefer us to give a few guys who are bubbling under the experience in Thomond rather than going full whack.
Doris, O'Brien or someone like Keenan would hugely benefit from the experience.

[wixfjord]

From ROC on Twitter:

Leinster confirm that Rob Kearney had a "bad dead leg" and is expected to train this week. Otherwise, it's a quiet day on the injury front.

[leinsterforever]

I'd like to see Dev and Ryan in the second row down in Thomond to set a platform anyway, and Larmour at fullback to scare the bejaysus out of them

[LeinsterLeader]

Players are in a two day training camp with Ireland. Possible that that will effect selection for Saturday.

[betty swallocks]

I would expect Connacht to line out something like this for Saturday night's clash.
15 O'Halloran. 14 Leader. 13 Farrell. 12 Aki. 11 Healy. 10 Carty. 9 Blade.
1 Buckley. 2 Delahunt. 3 Bealham. 4 Roux. 5 Thornbury. 6 SOB2. 7 Butler. 8 Boyle.
16 Heffernan. 17 O'Donnell. 18 Carey. 19 Dillane. 20 Copeland. 21 Mitchell. 22 Horwitz. 23 Godwin.
Decent team.