Embra v Leinster

First topic message reminder :

The Leinster squad trained in UCD on Monday afternoon ahead of Friday night's trip to face Edinburgh in Murrayfield in the RaboDirect PRO12 (KO: 7.35pm) with a number of internationals expected to return to the fray... Andrew Conway received a dead leg when competing for a ball in the air during Saturday night's victory over Connacht. It is anticipated that he will be fit to train during the week and available for the trip to Edinburgh. Richardt Strauss is expected to return to the fray over the coming weeks and Shane Jennings, who was a late withdrawal from Saturday's line up due to illness, is expected to return. Jennings could be joined by a number of other Ireland internationals - such as Cian Healy, Jamie Heaslip, Sean O'Brien and Jonathan Sexton - who were unavailable last weekend. Kevin McLaughlin, meanwhile, was rested as a precaution after sustaining a shoulder knock against Ulster the previous weekend and is also expected to be in the mix. There are no other fresh injury concerns for the province and the management are hopeful that Ireland trio Luke Fitzgerald, Rob Kearney and Brian O'Driscoll - who continue to make positive strides in their respective rehabilitation programmes - will come into the frame this week ahead of Thursday's lunchtime team announcement. Isa Nacewa is also set to return either this week or next after suffering deep tissue bruising to his arm in the recent Round 4 Heineken Cup clash against ASM Clermont Auvergne. In a further boost, second row Mark Flanagan - who has been unavailable since undergoing a back operation in July - is set to be available for Clontarf in the AIL this weekend away to St. Mary's College.

EDINBURGH:

15: Greig Tonks
14: Dougie Fife
13: Matt Scott
12: Ben Atiga
11: Tim Visser
10: Piers Francis
9: Greig Laidlaw CAPTAIN

1: Allan Jacobsen
2: Andy Titterrell
3: Willem Nel
4: Grant Gilchrist
5: Sean Cox
6: Stuart McInally
7: Dimitri Basilaia
8: David Denton

REPLACEMENTS:

16: Steven Lawrie
17: Robin Hislop
18: Geoff Cross
19: Perry Parker
20: Netani Talei
21: Richie Rees
22: James King
23: Sep Visser

LEINSTER:

15: Rob Kearney
14: Fionn Carr
13: Brian O'Driscoll
12: Gordon D'Arcy
11: Luke Fitzgerald
10: Jonathan Sexton
9: Eoin Reddan

1: Cian Healy
2: Sean Cronin
3: Mike Ross
4: Leo Cullen CAPTAIN
5: Devin Toner
6: Kevin McLaughlin
7: Sean O'Brien
8: Jamie Heaslip

REPLACEMENTS:

16: Aaron Dundon
17: Heinke van der Merwe
18: Michael Bent
19: Tom Denton
20: Shane Jennings
21: Isaac Boss
22: Ian Madigan
23: Andrew Conway

Why take off basilia, our best player tonight, for a lock!

Shocking defence Edinburgh - Leinster waltzing through the line. Matt Scott caught in two minds and did neither

Try for Sexton. Come on Leinster pick up the intensity and get the bonus point

Post by RDW_Scotland Today at 8:55 pm
Our big Georgian has had a good game tonight - very abrasive and aggressive

So he is subbed off

More powder puff tackling but why no Edinburgh pen at the last scrum?

We'll do well to get an LBP for this

Unlucky bounce there

Damn that was almost a fantastic try for Edinburgh

McComb gets a fifth for Ulster and Warren gets one back on the 80th minute.

45-15

Conway on for Kearney. Does this mean that Fitz and BOD are gonna play the full 80?

Much better play from Edinburgh.

Take away those two tries from the yellow and this is a fairly close game - small margins for Edinburgh this season between success and failure!

RDW - they have been completely outplayed even if you take out that ten mins. come close to parity in the 2nd half maybe

Yellow for Heaslip

Very nice break from Francis there, green shoots?

I'm not saying we would have won - but we've definitely been in it. I wouldn't say outplayed either, espcially up to the yellow card.

Francis is had a nice wee spell there - shame we bawsed up the lineout and are about to lose more points

But it all comes to nowt as Edinburgh over throw the attacking lineout from 5m

Not sure who is worse. Edinburgh for their overall abysmal play or Leinster for allowing them back into the match.

They better get the fourth try at thsi stage.

Lovely break from O Brien. Edinburgh just had to win that line out.

Leinster now go over with madigan

That sums up Edinburgh's season - attacking platform near their line, lineout lost, try scored for the opposition in the next few phases of play.

Not good enough.

And they do.

I'm pleasantly surprised.

And Leinster's 4th try came all the from that overthrow 95m down the opposite end of the pitch

SOB is back to his 2011 form in terms of running threw people. Hes been simply magnificent since his return from injury

This is depressing! Why haven't we figured out how to defend the inside ball. It's so predictable and yet we buy it every time!

Basics!

And here comes the self destruct button - kick off not ten.

That was absolutely criminal - they are down to 14 men and we lose a converted try.

Too many misswed tackles, too many forwards standing off rucks, too many missed tackles in the backs, just a load of mince

Worst restart of the year! Went all of 5m

Is there any hope of Edinburgh moving to a smaller stadium in the near future?

And Tonks knocks-on into touch relieving more pressure.

I'm glad I didn't pay to see this!

And again - why no edinburgh pen at that scrum?

Golden wrote:Is there any hope of Edinburgh moving to a smaller stadium in the near future?

In a word? No.

Golden wrote:Is there any hope of Edinburgh moving to a smaller stadium in the near future?

No - there simply is not a suitable one in the city. Redevelopment of meadowbank a very vague possibility

Theres no Football grounds or anything that they could rent? I know they lose some revenue then but Leinster only rent the RDS

Golden wrote:Theres no Football grounds or anything that they could rent? I know they lose some revenue then but Leinster only rent the RDS

No - Both too small pitches for rugby

You've got to wonder why we went for that lineout rather than the scrum when heaslip was carded!

Go nel!

William Nel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Golden wrote:Is there any hope of Edinburgh moving to a smaller stadium in the near future?

If I had a £1 for every time someone asks this question I could pay for Edinburgh to have a purpose built stadium!

Best try of the game

Nice try lads. Unfortunate about the stadium

Respect.

Nel did something good, get him off!!

take away that try and even still Nel has had a good game tonight - tough job against a formidable front row and he stood up pretty well.

Why do Edinburgh only decide to turn up in the last 10 minutes when the game is lost?

Nel got a schooling in the scrum early on did he not?

Dougie Fife looked decent, Tonks a few good touches, Francis showed a few glimpses of why he was bought. Denton tried hard, Nel OK. the rest - mince

Is there a better sight in rugby than a tighthead selling a dummy and sprinting the 20-30m to touch down?

Golden wrote:Is there a better sight in rugby than a tighthead selling a dummy and sprinting the 20-30m to touch down?

of course. when the tight head doesn't play for the other team.

Can anyone explain the edinburgh defensive tactic? Every other team in the world advances when the attacking team moves the ball from the ruck. Edinburgh stay exactly on the gainline, and once the ball gets into the 13 channel, actually go backwards. Thats half of our problem, opposition gets so much time and space, because no one pressures them.

Imperialbigdave wrote:Can anyone explain the edinburgh defensive tactic? Every other team in the world advances when the attacking team moves the ball from the ruck. Edinburgh stay exactly on the gainline, and once the ball gets into the 13 channel, actually go backwards. Thats half of our problem, opposition gets so much time and space, because no one pressures them.

Lack of confidence?

Agreed about defence - it is pretty bad. Looking forward to mcginty following Bradley out the door

Lots of honest from some of the Edinburgh guys on Twitter - at least looks like they are genuinely gutted and desperate to get a win.

At the very least it has got them some sympathy from the punters!

I may have asked Steven Lawrie to get the forwards to work on their lineouts all week though....

Just watched recorded game. Did anyone notice once again how rubbish Laidlaw was at 9?? He must NOT play at 9 in 6N!!!

He provided hardly any quick ball. I'm assuming it was his decision as captain to go for lineout when score was 9-24 and Leinster had just got a man in the bin? If they had taken easy points and then added the amazing Nel try, suddenly Edinburgh have a winning bonus point (in theory). He is just far too conservative. Wether AR coached this conservatism into him or not is debatable but I am almost certainly convinced that he is a big part of Edinburgh's blundering season. Once again (as it was against Glasgow) Reese comes on and things suddenly came to life. Plays began to link up properly and cohesion between forwards and backs began to take place. There was Pace!! Zip!!!

Now I said a while back that Laidlaw could be better suited at 9... I take that back BIG TIME!! Prygos, Blair anyone but Laidlaw.

Okay rant over! That last bit of the game (when Reese came on) was really great. Its a thing of beauty when a prop scores a try. I am assuming he went off at the end for a huge dose of oxygen

Visser's defence has become so bad players are diving through his legs haha!