Leinster v Salarysins

[Dexter]

Haven't seen any of the SH games but didn't notice any great difference in the Bristol v Saracens game from earlier in the season. Try was disallowed for a very marginal obstruction on Itoje which, to my mind, had zero impact on the try being scored as he wasn't in a position to make a tackle anyway.

that was a great try and should have stood. Itoje didn't really have a chance of making a tackle.
Was reminded of our disallowed try against clermont in the semis a few years ago in Lyon..but..that was correctly ruled out. I was on my way back from getting some drinks in the stadium and missed the block early on in the move....thought we were back in the game then. wasn't until I saw the replay and the ref made the right call that day, in fairness.

Yeah terrible decision by the officials IMHO, but it greatly pleased the "neutral" BT commentary team!

[Barry]

assume saracens will have to self isolate for 2 weeks on their arrival in Ireland from the UK !! same would apply to the match officials ?

[mildlyinterested]

assume saracens will have to self isolate for 2 weeks on their arrival in Ireland from the UK !! same would apply to the match officials ?

No, govt can give exemptions so presumably this will be the case, assuming saracens are tested before leaving and all pass.

[curates_egg]

assume saracens will have to self isolate for 2 weeks on their arrival in Ireland from the UK !! same would apply to the match officials ?

No, govt can give exemptions so presumably this will be the case, assuming saracens are tested before leaving and all pass.

No exemption is needed, since it is a guideline from the HSE (to restrict your movements for two weeks), and not a law. However, the optics of giving the thumbs up to a rugby team from England, while telling the 100,000s Irish expats and their families that visits should be avoided...would not be great. Certainly, I would be shagged off with it.
If you really believe this arbitrary travel advisory is necessary, you should surely not be waiving through young men, who will be scrumMing down together with Irish residents and lying on top of each other at rucks (depending on the ref).

[mildlyinterested]

assume saracens will have to self isolate for 2 weeks on their arrival in Ireland from the UK !! same would apply to the match officials ?

No, govt can give exemptions so presumably this will be the case, assuming saracens are tested before leaving and all pass.

No exemption is needed, since it is a guideline from the HSE (to restrict your movements for two weeks), and not a law. However, the optics of giving the thumbs up to a rugby team from England, while telling the 100,000s Irish expats and their families that visits should be avoided...would not be great. Certainly, I would be shagged off with it.
If you really believe this arbitrary travel advisory is necessary, you should surely not be waiving through young men, who will be scrumMing down together with Irish residents and lying on top of each other at rucks (depending on the ref).

Well prepare to be "shagged off then"

[curates_egg]

No, govt can give exemptions so presumably this will be the case, assuming saracens are tested before leaving and all pass.

No exemption is needed, since it is a guideline from the HSE (to restrict your movements for two weeks), and not a law. However, the optics of giving the thumbs up to a rugby team from England, while telling the 100,000s Irish expats and their families that visits should be avoided...would not be great. Certainly, I would be shagged off with it.
If you really believe this arbitrary travel advisory is necessary, you should surely not be waiving through young men, who will be scrumMing down together with Irish residents and lying on top of each other at rucks (depending on the ref).

Well prepare to be "shagged off then"

I guess the alternative to being shagged off, would be for us all to also just exempt ourselves from the arbitrary guidelines.

For you, it might seem all quite ok. But rugby is a minority sport, and the public debate in Ireland is so rabidly against travel (and frequently against rugby). So I would guess a shagged off expat Leinster fan is not going to be the top of the shagged off list.

[wixfjord]

However, the optics of giving the thumbs up to a rugby team from England, while telling the 100,000s Irish expats and their families that visits should be avoided...would not be great. Certainly, I would be shagged off with it.
If you really believe this arbitrary travel advisory is necessary, you should surely not be waiving through young men, who will be scrumMing down together with Irish residents and lying on top of each other at rucks (depending on the ref).

That makes no sense.

Admitting a heavily tested pro rugby team travelling for work to play a game and then leave is nowhere near the same thing as giving guidance to hundreds of thousands of people who want to enter the country to avoid unnecessary travel.

You make it sound like Sarries are just a group of lads who might meet up at the airport rather than a group who are likely to have been tested 3-4 times in the week leading up to the game and won't be mixing with the general population when they arrive.

You clearly have some personal issue with this guideline, but the 'public debate' about travel that you keep referring to isn't 'rabid'. It's fairly rational to want to control movement into the state during a pandemic and limit the numbers of people who are travelling for a holiday.

Also by the way, didn't you describe the guidelines of travel from Europe elsewhere as 'effectively banning travel'?

So which is it, an 'arbitrary travel advisory' or an 'effective ban'?


(As an aside,there are few things as shrill and pompous as an ex-pat who relentlessly complains about decisions made in the country they chose to leave and don't live in any more.

Just ask Ewan Mackenna.)

[leinsterforever]

I was thinking how Leinster should go about having an extra playmaker in the backline. There was some debate on here recently about what a playmaker actually is. For me, it's someone who has enough vision and skill and decision making qualities to conceivably fill in at fly-half, someone who can unlock a defence with a pass after drawing defenders to themselves.

Hugo Keenan at fullback would be one option. He's a sweet passer of the ball and seems to have the instincts to use his skill creatively too. It may seem a bit too adventurous suggesting Keenan as a possibility, but going into that game with them thinking they only have to shut down Sexton as a playmaker isn't the best place to be. They have Goode to bring that extra creativity outside 10. How else could you get another playmaker in there? Frawley at 12, with Henshaw at 13... maybe? That'd be interesting to see. Henshaw's better position is probably 13 (in attack anyway) and Frawley's a good tackler and him being there could keep Sarries guessing a bit more. Maybe they should try that in one of the two upcoming games. You'd probably need the extra bulk Henshaw has over Ringrose at 13 if it was an outhalf-style 12 in there.

It's unlikely they're going to not select Ringrose or Larmour for this. And starting your first European match in a quarter final against Saracens isn't a great place for an inexperienced fullback like Keenan or Frawley to be. They'd design a plan to specifically target them. What might be good would be having Frawley and Keenan at 22 and 23 so they could come off the bench and offer something different.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I think if there's any team we can trust to do the right thing then it's Saracens.

[Dave Cahill]

assume saracens will have to self isolate for 2 weeks on their arrival in Ireland from the UK !! same would apply to the match officials ?

No, govt can give exemptions so presumably this will be the case, assuming saracens are tested before leaving and all pass.

From 4 August, Ireland has given 10 countries a green rating, meaning anyone arriving in the country from any of them will not have to restrict their movements on entry; Britain is not among them. It means that Saracens would not be allowed in without going into quarantine as elite sportsmen and women have not been offered an exemption, although sports’ associations are pressing for one to be made and expect a response within days: the Republic of Ireland’s football team, which contains several players based in England, starts training for its Nations Cup match against Bulgaria this month.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/ ... -breakdown

[mildlyinterested]

assume saracens will have to self isolate for 2 weeks on their arrival in Ireland from the UK !! same would apply to the match officials ?

No, govt can give exemptions so presumably this will be the case, assuming saracens are tested before leaving and all pass.

From 4 August, Ireland has given 10 countries a green rating, meaning anyone arriving in the country from any of them will not have to restrict their movements on entry; Britain is not among them. It means that Saracens would not be allowed in without going into quarantine as elite sportsmen and women have not been offered an exemption, although sports’ associations are pressing for one to be made and expect a response within days: the Republic of Ireland’s football team, which contains several players based in England, starts training for its Nations Cup match against Bulgaria this month.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/ ... -breakdown

Yeah so an exemption would be sought for Sarries.

[riocard911]

So with Leo no longer being Taoiseach, but rather this post currently being held by a Munsterman does that affect our chances of getting said exemption? Will they being have words about it in cabinet? How many ministers can we count on to get it over the line?..

[LeRouxIsPHat]

So with Leo no longer being Taoiseach, but rather this post currently being held by a Munsterman does that affect our chances of getting said exemption? Will they being have words about it in cabinet? How many ministers can we count on to get it over the line?..

We've been cashing in our political chips to get the senior cup final played, not sure we're bothered about the low end stuff like this.

[Morf]

What has Kildare done to repay that eh?

[riocard911]

Paul Rees in the Guardian does a good job of explaining the public health obstacles to completion of this year's Pro 14 and Heino here:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/ ... -breakdown

Should Saracens not get an exemption from the RoI government for the ECRC quarter-final in Lansdowne Road, I suggest moving the venue to Ravenhill, to which both teams could legally travel (assuming I've understood the UK/NoI regulations correctly).

[alanair]

So with Leo no longer being Taoiseach, but rather this post currently being held by a Munsterman does that affect our chances of getting said exemption? Will they being have words about it in cabinet? How many ministers can we count on to get it over the line?..

Leo Cullen was Taoiseach , when ? , can you back this up ??

[wixfjord]

Looking more and more likely we'll see a back three of Lowe, RK, Larmour for this one?

Both with DK's injury but also we could really do with some of RK's aerial threat and presence imo.

Hopefully he's up for a swansong...

[elephantman]

Looking more and more likely we'll see a back three of Lowe, RK, Larmour for this one?

Both with DK's injury but also we could really do with some of RK's aerial threat and presence imo.

Hopefully he's up for a swansong...

Looks that way but wouldn’t be surprised to see Cian Kelleher play his way in there.

CK is certain to get some game time over the next few weeks. We’re looking a bit light in numbers in the back three.

Andrew Smith might be needed too.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Definitely think Rob will have a good shot at Saracens but yesterday made me think that the team will end up having having a few weird selections with the injury roll that’s bound to happen between now and the end of that game.

I wouldn’t say we’ve seen the last of Deegan on the wing!

[awaaf]

I think when weighing up whether to make exemptions for televised sports events, such as the close-out of the 2019/20 Rugby competitions, significant weight should be given to the morale benefit to large numbers of people (especially older people). For me as for many the spring lockdown would have been a lot easier with some more televised sport especially Rugby. Our relative ignorance of Covid at the time meant that couldn't reasonably happen. If we are facing into further restrictions this Autumn then it would be great if we could make use of our increased knowledge of how to live with Covid to keep sport going. In that context exemptions for such events are very valid.