Leinster vs Connacht

So Christmas is over hope everyone had a good one but the rugby world keeps on spinning (suck on that Mayan's!) and Leinster welcome Connacht to the RDS on Saturday at 7:45.

With the Irish team in training Leinster will be further hit regarding team options and with all the injuries this could be a good chance for Connacht to claim a win on the road.

Who is gonna win?
Who is gonna be in Irish Camp?
What teams are you expecting to see?

Other thoughts?

Leinster team I'd pick.....

VDM-Cronin-Hagan
Cullen-Browne
McLaughlin-Ruddock-Jennings
Boss-Madigan
Goodman-O'Malley
Carr-K2-Conway

Dundon-McGrath-Bent-Toner-Ryan-Cooney-Reid-Fitzgerald

The medical team have reported no major injury concerns for the province arising from the trip to Belfast, with Noel Reid having been withdrawn as a precaution after twisting awkwardly and feeling dazed. Second row Leo Cullen, meanwhile, required five stitches to a cut above his eye, but he will also take a full part in training this week.
Luke Fitzgerald continues to make positive strides in his recuperation and the Ireland back will train fully with the squad this week. If he doesn’t make Saturday’s clash it is hoped that he will be in contention for the trip to Edinburgh in the next round of PRO12 matches.

The team will be announced on Friday lunchtime.

The Leinster squad will train on Christmas eve before breaking for Christmas Day and they will then resume preparations for the weekend’s interprovincial clash on Wednesday.

There are now over 16,400 tickets sold for Saturday’s game and tickets are still on sale

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:The medical team have reported no major injury concerns for the province arising from the trip to Belfast, with Noel Reid having been withdrawn as a precaution after twisting awkwardly and feeling dazed. Second row Leo Cullen, meanwhile, required five stitches to a cut above his eye, but he will also take a full part in training this week.
Luke Fitzgerald continues to make positive strides in his recuperation and the Ireland back will train fully with the squad this week. If he doesn’t make Saturday’s clash it is hoped that he will be in contention for the trip to Edinburgh in the next round of PRO12 matches.

The team will be announced on Friday lunchtime.

The Leinster squad will train on Christmas eve before breaking for Christmas Day and they will then resume preparations for the weekend’s interprovincial clash on Wednesday.

There are now over 16,400 tickets sold for Saturday’s game and tickets are still on sale

Its hard to trust these squad reports now. Which is a huge shame.

LeinsterFan4life wrote:

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:The medical team have reported no major injury concerns for the province arising from the trip to Belfast, with Noel Reid having been withdrawn as a precaution after twisting awkwardly and feeling dazed. Second row Leo Cullen, meanwhile, required five stitches to a cut above his eye, but he will also take a full part in training this week.
Luke Fitzgerald continues to make positive strides in his recuperation and the Ireland back will train fully with the squad this week. If he doesn’t make Saturday’s clash it is hoped that he will be in contention for the trip to Edinburgh in the next round of PRO12 matches.

The team will be announced on Friday lunchtime.

The Leinster squad will train on Christmas eve before breaking for Christmas Day and they will then resume preparations for the weekend’s interprovincial clash on Wednesday.

There are now over 16,400 tickets sold for Saturday’s game and tickets are still on sale

Its hard to trust these squad reports now. Which is a huge shame.

Yeah I agree, there are only so many times I will believe that Fitzgerald is one week away or Kearney is likely to start at the weekend.

Would you believe this Pedro?

http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/rabo-direct-pro-12/2012/1227/360502-odriscoll-kearney-fitzgerald-close-to-return/

very weak team named for Connacht. can't be arsed to copy it in here as I'm on a phone and it's a bit fiddley.

on the Leinster site.

Connacht should see this as a big opportunity for their first away win of the pro era in 10 years in Dublin.

LEINSTER:

15: Andrew Conway
14: Fergus McFadden
13: Brendan Macken
12: Andrew Goodman
11: Fionn Carr
10: Ian Madigan
9: Isaac Boss

1: Heinke van der Merwe
2: Aaron Dundon
3: Michael Bent
4: Ben Marshall
5: Devin Toner
6: Rhys Ruddock
7: Shane Jennings CAPTAIN
8: Jordi Murphy

REPLACEMENTS:

16: Sean Cronin
17: Jack McGrath
18: Mike Ross
19: Leo Cullen
20: Dominic Ryan
21: John Cooney
22: Noel Reid
23: Adam Byrne

Connacht definitely should target us

What is the point of these inter pros if we don't have our best players available for them?
It makes a mockery of the pro12 tbh.

It makes sense for the irfu to rest players in games where an Irish team will win.
Not fair but makes sense.

I think we could find this one pretty tough. Thought eom would be back by now

Jenifer McLadyboy wrote:Would you believe this Pedro?

http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/rabo-direct-pro-12/2012/1227/360502-odriscoll-kearney-fitzgerald-close-to-return/

Do I dare jen? These reports have lost my trust, will be interested to see if they ever regain it

Good start so far, Boss looking dangerous

Hernshaw looking dangerous for Connacht and our defence looks less than water tight

Lineout ball to the front not called crooked again. The linesmen really have to start sorting this out, its happening in every game and makes a mockery of the lineout being a competitive set piece.

Bent getting taken in the scrum and is obviously now not the answer to the Irish TH position even though he now has a cap or two.

Yeah Val I agree, poor stuff.

Unreal little kick from Marmion, looking like a great player this season

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:Yeah Val I agree, poor stuff.

Unreal little kick from Marmion, looking like a great player this season

The improvement he has shown year on year is very impressive, even this time last year in the u20s Six Nation he looked poorish. I doubt many people saw him improving this much, Connacht are very lucky he did though, as their alternatives are appalling.

On Bent, we really didn't have any other options at tighthead so picking Bent was fair enough imo.

I was all for McGrath starting the U20 matches but Marmion held the jersey and has really kicked on.

Is Jordi Murphy actually playing 8? Seems like a bit of a ridiculous decision considering he has, at times, looked to light at 7.

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:I was all for McGrath starting the U20 matches but Marmion held the jersey and has really kicked on.

He was alright during the JWC, but nothing he showed there suggested this type of season was coming.

valjester wrote:Is Jordi Murphy actually playing 8? Seems like a bit of a ridiculous decision considering he has, at times, looked to light at 7.

Yeah he's played 8 a few times this season and looked good. Looks like Jennings isn't playing and the commentators haven't said anything about it.

Jeez Macken's defence is poor, Griffin went straight through and Poolman did the same earlier.

McFadden is a psycho!

valjester wrote:

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:I was all for McGrath starting the U20 matches but Marmion held the jersey and has really kicked on.

He was alright during the JWC, but nothing he showed there suggested this type of season was coming.

Hernshaw will do very well at JWC too I think

Conway hasn't really kicked on and justified the hype has he? When him and Zebo, and then Gilroy played underage with him, he looked the better prospect but the other two are light years ahead of him in terms of development.

Hopefully he doesn't go the way of McFadden.

Jebus Goodman just ran over 3 lads

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:

valjester wrote:

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:I was all for McGrath starting the U20 matches but Marmion held the jersey and has really kicked on.

He was alright during the JWC, but nothing he showed there suggested this type of season was coming.

Hernshaw will do very well at JWC too I think

It will be interesting to see if he actually goes. There is a senior tour in the summer, and an A tour as well, plus the Lions tour which means I wouldn't be surprised if he was involved in one of those. Bit unfortunate with Farrell's injury and Henshaw playing for the Connacht side that its unlikely either of them will play much for the u20s this year, would have been a monster pairing.


Connacht will cursing not taking their chances.

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:

valjester wrote:

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:I was all for McGrath starting the U20 matches but Marmion held the jersey and has really kicked on.

He was alright during the JWC, but nothing he showed there suggested this type of season was coming.

Hernshaw will do very well at JWC too I think

will he be in the JWC? I thought it was more for developing underage players. I dont think u20's has anymore to offer Henshaw, he's way past that level.

McFadden is playing outstandingly well in the last 3 weeks or so.

Yeah Conway is massively disappointing, he's had some nice touches in this game but overall he hasn't produced. Gilroy and Zebo are a dot further up the road compared to him.

Leinster starting to play some good stuff, Macken carrying well.

valjester wrote:

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:

valjester wrote:

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:I was all for McGrath starting the U20 matches but Marmion held the jersey and has really kicked on.

He was alright during the JWC, but nothing he showed there suggested this type of season was coming.

Hernshaw will do very well at JWC too I think

It will be interesting to see if he actually goes. There is a senior tour in the summer, and an A tour as well, plus the Lions tour which means I wouldn't be surprised if he was involved in one of those. Bit unfortunate with Farrell's injury and Henshaw playing for the Connacht side that its unlikely either of them will play much for the u20s this year, would have been a monster pairing.


Connacht will cursing not taking their chances.

Who are the wolfhounds playing?

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:McFadden is playing outstandingly well in the last 3 weeks or so.

Yeah Conway is massively disappointing, he's had some nice touches in this game but overall he hasn't produced. Gilroy and Zebo are a dot further up the road compared to him.

Leinster starting to play some good stuff, Macken carrying well.

McFadden hasn't delivered on his potential though, he really should be more than a injury stop gate for Leinster and a complete liability at international level.

LeinsterFan4life wrote:

valjester wrote:

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:

valjester wrote:

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:I was all for McGrath starting the U20 matches but Marmion held the jersey and has really kicked on.

He was alright during the JWC, but nothing he showed there suggested this type of season was coming.

Hernshaw will do very well at JWC too I think

It will be interesting to see if he actually goes. There is a senior tour in the summer, and an A tour as well, plus the Lions tour which means I wouldn't be surprised if he was involved in one of those. Bit unfortunate with Farrell's injury and Henshaw playing for the Connacht side that its unlikely either of them will play much for the u20s this year, would have been a monster pairing.


Connacht will cursing not taking their chances.

Who are the wolfhounds playing?

I heard somewhere that there will be a tour to Georgia, I think, although it hasn't been confirmed.

I'd say that he is starting to, he really has looked good

7-0 Leinster at halftime, try from a quick Madigan penalty

Scrum to Leinster on Connacht 5

and they mess it up

10-0

Conway hasn't kicked on as much as you would hope but part this has to be the first team players that he has ahead of him for his province. Zebo and Gilroy were called up pretty quickly due to injuries to the incumbents in their way. This year, when he did get his chance, he was part of a pretty misfiring (by leinster's standards) outfit. At 22 years old it might be a bit early to call it for him. Also did he get injured today? Missed the part where he was subbed off.

He has been given a lot of opportunities this season and has not performed well.

Looked injured but not seriously.

Marmion just left what is an appalling game as the best player on the pitch

Ross scores 17-0
7mins left

Leinster pick and go's x1,000,000

Full time 17-0

Snooze

I agree that he hasn't preformed well this year but I wouldn't write him off as a prospect.

Felt the back row and Mcfadden did well today. Mcfadden seems to be growing into his role on the wing. Certainly gets through a lot of work out there.

Feed went out, anything to note in the last couple of minutes?

Well that was awful.

What do people think of the Leinster scrum this year? Seems to have gotten a good bit worse (as has most aspects of play I suppose) this year.

Golden wrote:Well that was awful.

What do people think of the Leinster scrum this year? Seems to have gotten a good bit worse (as has most aspects of play I suppose) this year.

Yeah man looked pretty poor I think that has something to do with our second rows dying an absolute death in the club
Has there been one aspect of our game that has improved?
Maybe our 2nd string guys now have more experience and are better than they were but other than that we have gone backwards in most areas

The scrum has definitely gotten worse this year. Comparing preformances in Irish jerseys vs preformances in Leinster ones, it seems our locks are a huge issues. There is no secondary drive after engage.

In many cases, our second or third string guys have become our first string. At 13 we are down to Macken who has yet to show he is up to it.

Leinster scrum is solid, nothing more, like last year i think. Not sure Bent is an improvement over fellow Hawera man Nathan White.

Backrow was everywhere tonight and Goodman looks very powerfull.

I think white was the better player from what Ive seen of Bent. Ross just seems a year older although hes still the best we have.

McCarthy should add some ballast to the scum i suppose, but what has happened to Toner? He looked so much better last year.

The team really havent clicked this season, they just seem to be grinding their way through games.

Golden wrote:I think white was the better player from what Ive seen of Bent. Ross just seems a year older although hes still the best we have.

McCarthy should add some ballast to the scum i suppose, but what has happened to Toner? He looked so much better last year.

The team really havent clicked this season, they just seem to be grinding their way through games.

I agree with all of that, watching him come in for Ireland he looked good, but his last few performances have been really bad.

Toner is hugely disappointing because he looked like he had solved loads of his problems and was developing in a really positive way. That just has not continued.

Will BOD, Kearney, Fitz, K2, EOM make the difference back up?
I think they will to some extent, but they are all backs and our problem appears to be up front

Toner def seems to have taken some significant steps backwards. His body positioning going into contact is always off. He never seems to take contact on his terms and is therefore either driven backwards or ineffectual. K2 might help in games like this but seems to be 2nd choice to the combination of Heaslip, SOB and Jennings for the bigger games.

The others might make a difference in that they present more threat and therefore will tie up the attention of the back row and make room elsewhere.