Leinster in talks with a top notch 2nd row?

Just seen this on the Leinsterfans forum. "There are serious talks going on with Top Notch second row. Obviously I cant say who,but hopefully we can get this guy across the line..."

The guy that posted this is supposed to be an ultra reliable source. Any thoughts on who it could be?

Martin Johnson and Hersh as the reliable source.

Hmmm I wonder who the lad could be, not sure how many available top notch 2nd rows there are at the moment?

Sharpe??
Bekker??

Jeez I don't know!

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:Hmmm I wonder who the lad could be, not sure how many available top notch 2nd rows there are at the moment?

Sharpe??
Bekker??

Jeez I don't know!

Would love to get Sharpe. Thought he was Australia's best player during the rugby championship.

Great move for a great team, but who is the long term replacement for Leo Cullen?

Anyone get the impression that Schmidt doesn't rate Toner' to highly? I though he was massively improved last year.

There could well be a short term deal for a SH lock who isn't going to Japan or on the AIs. Ali Williams anybody? He's working his way back up and had a stint at Nottingham not so long ago.

I'm kinda hoping that Tigers are looking at a similar deal for an open side.

Bakkies Botha

Bakkies Botha is 1 year in to a 3 year deal at Toulon, Leinster would have to be paying a fortune to buy him out of that contract plus his salary.

I really hope it's not Ali Williams. Well past his sell-by date.

It's possible he could be in one of the touring squads due to head north in a week or so. And he starts after the internationals. But whoever it is would be well flogged.

Sumtin tells me it's going to be another Kiwi. Joe is busy building a long white cloud in the backroom of Donnybrook in his spare time.

Won't be long now before you see a little silvery-green fern over the door and AIG take over sponsorship from Bank of Ireland.

Ali Williams signed a new contract with the NZRU, so we can rule him out.

Just my 2 cents but I would HATE if we got Botha or Ali Williams. Two of my least favourite players in world rugby.

Give me Sharpe or Horwill, maybe one of the Argie locks maybe......I'd be well happy.

I am not sure if he doesn't trust Toner enough or if he doesn't trust Cullen enough. In all fairness we have World Class players all over the park but at second row we have a largish group of very average lads.

I thought Toner was improving a lot last year and even when Thorn arrived Toner was playing some sick stuff, he doesn't seem to have kicked on that much though. Disappointed that Browne got chosen over him in the HCup games but I guess we needed the grunt considering we were so weak in the backs.

Interesting that you mentioned an argentinian pete because manuel carriza just got released from Biarritz and is now playing his club rugby in argentina.

Another name mentioned on leinsterfans is Jason Eaton. He wants to play in Europe for the HC, although it sounds like Racing Metro are signing him.

I wonder if the IRFU will allow us to sign a NIQ lock?

We have Goodman, Isa, VDM and Roux as NIE's but our project player just turned in to Irish Qualified so maybe they will let Roux turn in to the project player and let us have another NIE.........

Who is Jason Eaton........??

Are there any Frnech locks bouncing about, they are generally quite good and would suit our style as well

According to wiki, he used to play for the hurricanes and has made 17 apperances for the ABs

Jason Eaton ex AB very good at the Super Level but lost form a few years ago due to injury and didn't get back into the ABs.

What about Chabal? Whats his current situation?

Horwill would be my perfect choice to be honest but really don't think that is very likely.

LeinsterFan4life wrote:What about Chabal? Whats his current situation?

Had his contract terminated by Racing Metro. He played a bit in Australia and I believe is now in the 2nd Tier of French rugby with Lyon.

Would not touch him with a barge pole for any Irish team.

red_stag wrote:

LeinsterFan4life wrote:What about Chabal? Whats his current situation?

Had his contract terminated by Racing Metro. He played a bit in Australia and I believe is now in the 2nd Tier of French rugby with Lyon.

Would not touch him with a barge pole for any Irish team.

Ok its we can definatley rule him out so

Maybe Carizza?

formerly known as Sam wrote:There could well be a short term deal for a SH lock who isn't going to Japan or on the AIs. Ali Williams anybody? He's working his way back up and had a stint at Nottingham not so long ago.

I'm kinda hoping that Tigers are looking at a similar deal for an open side.

Sharpe and Williams are both touring for the AIs

Any chance we can talk Gray out of his contract at Sale? He's surely damaging his chances of touring with the Lions be staying with them...?

I hope Richie Gray has a get out clause in his Sale contract that states if redpath gets sacked, he can leave.

If so, I hope it's him!!

Wishful thinking mind.....

With ESPN losing rugby rights, Ben Kay is looking for a job.

Otherwise Simon Shaw, Lionel Nallet, Jamie Cudmore and Fabian Pelous may be available.

LondonTiger wrote:With ESPN losing rugby rights, Ben Kay is looking for a job.

Otherwise Simon Shaw, Lionel Nallet, Jamie Cudmore and Fabian Pelous may be available.

Nallet and pelous: I'd take either of them!

Donnacha O'Callaghan was spotted in O'Connell street buying a Leinster replica jersey ......

greytiger wrote:Martin Johnson and Hersh as the reliable source.

More reliable sources reveal that Hersh is not the reliable source.














He's the player

VinceWLB wrote:Maybe Carizza?

I was thinking the same, he is back in Argentina right now after being ditched from France. And it would make sense for him to want to be back and a short term deal would allow him to be back in the NH spot light in order to try and find a full time contract afterwards.

What about Matfield? I know he's retired from international rugby but he might want a swansong for Leinster?

beshocked wrote:What about Matfield? I know he's retired from international rugby but he might want a swansong for Leinster?

Didn't he have a season or two in France (Toulon?) before, maybe a return there would be better for his back pocket.

Leinster are probably looking for a more long term solution than that. I'd hope whoever it is will sign a 3 year deal at least.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

beshocked wrote:What about Matfield? I know he's retired from international rugby but he might want a swansong for Leinster?

Didn't he have a season or two in France (Toulon?) before, maybe a return there would be better for his back pocket.

Leinster might not be able to offer as much as Toulon but he would probably have a higher chance winning a HC with Leinster.

Richie Grey was the obvious choice but that ship has sailed.

red_stag wrote:Richie Grey was the obvious choice but that ship has sailed.

Does he have a relegation release clause? After all it is pretty safe to say they should get relegated.

Agree with that red stag. I think many clubs are gutted Gray is at Sale. I am sure Gray is regretting his choice too!

I wonder if he has a clause in his contract if Sale get relegated or even if they don't qualify for the HC.

What about a kiwi like Whitelock?

I reckon they should just develop a few players.

This is what happened with props. Leinster had Ollie le Roux and Stan Wright and CJ van der Linde and Heinke van der Merwe and Will Green.

When you couple this with Ulster prop Simon Best retiring through injury and them having Botha and Afoa at the same time as Leinsters army of foreign props, it meant that we were feiced for props when Munsters options (Hayes, Buckley and Archer) weren't up to it.

They've had Nathan Hines and then Brad Thorn and Quinn Roux and now want another foreign second row.

Feicoff and develop some players. You did it with Rocky Elsom. He came in he played great and left and you gave Kevin McLaughlin and Sean O'Brien a chance - both did great.

Lets see more of that and less of what happened with the prop situation. Learn the lessons.

Come now stag be fair now......

.... they're about as likely to develop a decent big tough lock down in D4 as Munster are to produce an outside centre who can chew gum and walk in a straight line at the same time....... .....

Nice work Stag, but you're completely ignoring the fact that there was a national propping "crisis" involved and Leinster now have 1 NIQ front rower, the rest of the country are producing seconds rows and Muller will be out of Ulster soon (the end of this season i think), the new rules around foreign signings dictate only one player per position, so unless Leinster sign a foreign lock Munster might not get to keep both of their foreign props.

Necessity is the mother of invention Rodders

Munster were worse for just signing foreign centre after foreign centre than Leinster were with props. Halstead - Mafi - Tipoki - Tuitupou - de Villiers - Laulala.

I think we are bringing that one to a halt slightly with Earls, Downey and Hanrahan.

beshocked wrote:Agree with that red stag. I think many clubs are gutted Gray is at Sale. I am sure Gray is regretting his choice too!

I wonder if he has a clause in his contract if Sale get relegated or even if they don't qualify for the HC.

What about a kiwi like Whitelock?

Why on earth would Whitelock go? He's signed on to the NZRU for a few more years at least, come on man, this isn't fantasy rugby

In all fairness we are the province putting out all IQ teams most regularly.
We have what 1 guy on our team who is first choice and a NIE player.

Cullen only has a year left in him and then we can have a good NIE and Toner playing together.......simples

Mickado wrote:Nice work Stag, but you're completely ignoring the fact that there was a national propping "crisis" involved and Leinster now have 1 NIQ front rower, the rest of the country are producing seconds rows and Muller will be out of Ulster soon (the end of this season i think), the new rules around foreign signings dictate only one player per position, so unless Leinster sign a foreign lock Munster might not get to keep both of their foreign props.

Mick your completely right. I'd like to think that we are starting to see Dave Kilcoyne oust Wian du Preez from the Munster loose head shirt. I hope so anyway.

Leinster now have 1 NIQ front rower after buying Sean Cronin, Richardt Strauss, Mike Ross, Michael Bent and Heinke van der Merwe. This remedied the situation however just like we did with our centres so too did Leinster swap from foreign prop to foreign prop to foreign prop.

Healy is a great player. Lets get to work on developing more.

Learn from Munsters misktakes. We suffered a generation gap as a result of our successes. Dont Leinster do the same.

There are some fine props coming through the academy, both of the props in the U20's side at the world cup were from Leinster.

Developing players is obvioulsy the ideal for any club, but if we can't develope them I'd prefer if we at least bought in Irish players.

I think we are all addressing the prop situation as it got so bad for a while.

Im just saying that Leinsters and to a lesser extent Ulsters actions around 2007-2010 put all our eggs in the basket of Tony Buckley.

Munster did the same thing with centre.

I dont want it to happen with second rows. Leinster to me wasted their time with Hines and Thorn. Who did they develop out of it. Diddly squat.

Toner says he learned loads from THorn

Hope so guys.

Didn't loads of them come out and publicy say it, most of the pack and McFadden???

Feic developing a 2nd row i want a big name! We have thornbury, flanagan and tadhg Beirne in the academy. All of them look very promising 2nd rows. What we need now is a big name signing to come in and pass onto these guys what he knows. Let these guys develope for a couple of years in the B&I Cup.

Say what that they learned from Thorn? I should hope so. But to be honest while its great having established players learning from him its a bit redundant to have to go and sign another second row.