Leinster v Ulster Easter special

First topic message reminder :

It's here at last.

The winner of this one will have one hand and a few fingers on a home semi.

Leinster in decent shape. Missing Bod, Fitz, Redser, Sexto & Ferg from the top 23. Perhaps a week early for Strauss too.

Form is decent too. Can we keep it going?

Ulster have more injuries and less form. A HC quarter the following week. And lest we forget..... (Yes I'm going to use that phrase again)

LAST TIME THEY BEAT LEINSTER OUTSIDE RAVENHILL WAS IN THE SAME MILLENNIUM AS THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS.

Means feck all though. They are a quality side, and well able to give us a shock.....But will they?

LEINSTER:

15: Rob Kearney
14: Dave Kearney
13: Brendan Macken
12: Gordon D'Arcy
11: Isa Nacewa
10: Ian Madigan
9: Isaac Boss

1: Cian Healy
2: Richardt Strauss
3: Mike Ross
4: Devin Toner
5: Quinn Roux
6: Kevin McLaughlin
7: Shane Jennings
8: Jamie Heaslip CAPTAIN

REPLACEMENTS:

16: Sean Cronin
17: Jack McGrath
18: Jamie Hagan
19: Leo Cullen
20: Rhys Ruddock
21: John Cooney
22: Andrew Goodman
23: Andrew Conway

ULSTER
(15-9): J Payne, A Trimble, D Cave, S Olding, C Gilroy, P Jackson, R Pienaar;
(1-8): T Court, R Best, R Lutton, J Muller, D Tuohy, R Diack, C Henry, N Williams;
Replacements (16-23): R Herring, C Black, K McCall, L Stevenson, I Henderson, R Wilson, P Marshall, P Nelson.

Agreed. That said, Jackson certainly answered criticisms about not being creative enough or able to take the ball to the line. For Ireland he sat deep and looked to orchestrate things with his passing. Last night he did that but running onto the ball flat and at pace.

Pretty pronounced upturn in the quality of his play. The pass for Diack showed he can make the right decision and execute a difficult pass while running onto the ball and committing defences. Just what people were saying Madigan had over him.

Ok... must remember... peace, love and Irish rugby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB4cpeFpQgs&list=UU-S6cXyil4qbIPfb2hrcH4w&index=16

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:

MrsP wrote:

From an Ulster pov I am delighted with the skill set our 21 year old OH currently displays.

From an Ireland pov I am delighted with the potential of both lads.

As a 606v2 poster I am just relieved that there are fewer threads ruined by the ....... is better than ....... rubbish. Let's not reawaken that nonsense over these 2 lads. Let's just enjoy watching them develop!

Can I please become MrP?

Great talents the pair of them and I am looking forward to seeing them play with and against each other a lot more in the future.

I am sorry to disappoint you Pete but the position of "MrP" is currently occupied. I will inform you should a vacancy arise !

Notch wrote:Agreed. That said, Jackson certainly answered criticisms about not being creative enough or able to take the ball to the line. For Ireland he sat deep and looked to orchestrate things with his passing. Last night he did that but running onto the ball flat and at pace.

Pretty pronounced upturn in the quality of his play. The pass for Diack showed he can make the right decision and execute a difficult pass while running onto the ball and committing defences. Just what people were saying Madigan had over him.

Ok... must remember... peace, love and Irish rugby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB4cpeFpQgs&list=UU-S6cXyil4qbIPfb2hrcH4w&index=16

What is that TJ saying to Clancy at the end of that clip?

"Is it a try!?"
"Can't argue it tbf. Don't worry George, we'll get them back for it somehow!"

Just joking. He says something about Madigan coming offside when Leinster are defending lineouts and to watch for it.

Didn't notice at the time but Cullen actually took over as captain officially when he came on.

What was all the booing about when Henderson scored?

probably because they didnt go to the TMO. It was a great call by the TJ in fairness. No point in using the TMO if he knows the answer.

Maybe, although there really wasn't any doubt.

Watching it again and Clancy actually tells Boss not to "milk it" after he "buys" the second penalty by seeming to be impeded at the breakdown. Missed that the first time.

What do you Leinster fans make of the decision to remove the captaincy from Heaslip mid-match? Not sure I've seen that before.

Cullen is club captain so it makes sense that he would take the captaincy when he came on, this is fairly standard practice Mrs P.

rodders is it not normally if the on field captains went off then it passes back to the club captain?

That's what I thought too Marty.

I wasn't aware of the captaincy changing unless the captain went off but I wasn't sure if I just hadn't noticed before.

I would have thought that its very rare for the starting captain to hand over the armband unless he is going off.

marty2086 wrote:rodders is it not normally if the on field captains went off then it passes back to the club captain?

Wouldn't have thought so. I'd assume that everyone knew Cullen would assume the captaincy when on the field and that everyone was happy with the set up including Heaslip.

The change of armband wot is wot did lose us the game...............




Well, blame Mrs P...she gave us the excuse! I didn't spot the clear fall off in performance after that incidence originally...but looking back on it now with my rear-view mirror specs on. It was the only reason we lost.

So now it's my fault!

Did Joe Schmidt say that too in his post match interview?

I has got to be great for Ulster that they can beat us in the RDS for the 1st time, missing John Afoa, with half of their team not fully fit.

Gives them great belief going into next week. If they can beat Sarries it will not make me feel any better from a Leinster pov. But It will make me feel like my pain was not in vain.

I will be there to cheer you on. Section L25.

Jenifer McLadyboy wrote:I has got to be great for Ulster that they can beat us in the RDS for the 1st time, missing John Afoa, with half of their team not fully fit.

Gives them great belief going into next week. If they can beat Sarries it will not make me feel any better from a Leinster pov. But It will make me feel like my pain was not in vain.

I will be there to cheer you on. Section L25.

All class as usual Jen. Likewise, I'll be cheering for Leinster on Friday and even Munsters most ardent haters can't stop me from hoping they at least emerge with their dignity intact at the Stoop and hopefully sneak a win to boot!

Best game, I've seen Heaslip play in a while, although didn't look much if a captain!

Ye Heaslip looked back to his best and carried well for once. He offers so much in defence. He is still the best 8 by a long way at Leinster.

Yeah, of course Leinster's lack of 'Leinster' at the weekned annoyed me. They just seemed so impotent in attack. I think they might have been on Ulster's tryline for another half hour and still wouldn't have concocted a true scoring effort. But that's their issue to deal with and that's for later.

As for HEC... I'm right behind Ulster and Munster. One seems to have more genuine hope than the other. But the pressure mounts on each now as they no longer just have their own fans to please now. We'll all be on their backs...and we're damned opinionated critics, us fancy boys in Blue We want steamrolling efforts from both teams.

How many times has Isa played Centre for us? The fact that Macken got injured so early and Isa had to move into a pretty unfamiliar role, along with Goodman at 12 and Boss playing poorly meant it was hard to create good backs moves.

Boss should be saved for Clermont away games there his speciality. Cooney did well when he came on.

Also Ruddock is looking really good this season. Locky better watch out!

LeinsterFan4life wrote:Ye Heaslip looked back to his best and carried well for once. He offers so much in defence. He is still the best 8 by a long way at Leinster.

I wasn't impressed and he was still far from his best. If Robbie Diack or James Coughlan played like that in a big interpro it would reinforce my notion of them as good solid provincial players who are really just squad options the top level of test rugby. Not saying that I would be critical of them- that would have been a very good performance for a player of that calibre.* But given Heaslip is Ireland Captain and the highest paid rugby player in Ireland, I'm hardly inclined to be handing out the plaudits to the man who's meant to be our test sides best player for playing like that.

His predecessor as Ireland Captain, BOD, would consistently drag teams over the line in situations like that. Guys who have been his teammates in the backrow recent years like Ferris and O'Brien shift into their top gear in games like that and make the difference between a four point loss and a three point win. Predecessors in the Ireland 8 shirt like Axel Foley and Denis Leamy in his pomp wouldn't be happy with that performance. Even his opposite number Nick Williams who was derided for a long time as one of the biggest flops in provincial rugby has got us across the line in a good few tight games this season. Whenever Heaslip gets on the ball against Ulster, I never feel worried about us losing the collision. He can always be knocked backwards by any decently physical backrow. Not good for a 'test class' 8. An 8 that can't carry very well is a bit like a centre that can't pass very well. Whatever else he does well, it's always a bad weakness.

I hope this summer Gatland leaves him off the plane so he can concentrate in settling into his role as Ireland Captain on the North American tour in a slightly less high pressure environment. Give him a chance to prove he has the right stuff to do it. Missing out on the Lions would be a blessing in disguise because he needs to have a point to prove and some hurt to motivate him. He's not been truly impressive in quite some time.

* (Indeed Heaslip was very much outshone by Diack who was unlucky to miss out on man of the match.)

Jenifer McLadyboy wrote:I has got to be great for Ulster that they can beat us in the RDS for the 1st time, missing John Afoa, with half of their team not fully fit.

Gives them great belief going into next week. If they can beat Sarries it will not make me feel any better from a Leinster pov. But It will make me feel like my pain was not in vain.

I will be there to cheer you on. Section L25.

The support of Leinster fans will be very much appreciated!



I hope most of the fans of all three provinces have a fantastic weekend and get to as many of the three games as possible. It would be lovely to see Leinster and Munster shirts at Twickenham etc!

Irish Provinces abu!