Leinster vs Bath - 4th April 15:15BST

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Leinster Rugby:

15Rob Kearney 14Fergus McFadden 13Ben Te'o 12Ian Madigan 11Luke Fitzgerald 10Jimmy Gopperth 9Isaac Boss
1Cian Healy 2Sean Cronin 3Mike Ross 4Devin Toner 5Mike McCarthy 6Jordi Murphy 7Sean O'Brien 8Jamie Heaslip (capt)

16Richardt Strauss 17Jack McGrath 18Martin Moore 19Tom Denton 20Dominic Ryan 21Eoin Reddan 22Gordon D'Arcy 23Zane Kirchner



Bath Rugby:

15Anthony Watson 14Horacio Agulla 13Jonathan Joseph 12Kyle Eastmond 11Matt Banahan 10George Ford 9Micky Young
1Paul James 2Rob Webber 3Kane Palma Newpor t4Stuart Hooper (capt) 5David Attwood 6Carl Fearns 7Francois Louw 8Leroy Houston
16Ross Batty 17Nick Auterac 18Max Lahiff 19Matt Garvey 20Alafoti Fa'osiliva 21Peter Stringer 22Sam Burgess 23Tom Homer


Match Officials
Referee Jerome Garces (France)
Touch Judge 1 Christophe Berdos (France)
Touch Judge 2 Patrick Pechambert (France)
Fourth Official Eric Gauzins (France)
TMO Eric Gauzins (France)
Citing Commissioner Yves Thieffine (France)

Leinster are shiite this season, are fifth in the league and in the semi-finals of the European Cup.

Have they even played a decent half of rugby this season?

Pot Hale wrote:Leinster are shiite this season, are fifth in the league and in the semi-finals of the European Cup.

Have they even played a decent half of rugby this season?

Probably the 2nd half against Ulster at the RDS

Leinster have had a reasonably poor season by their high standards and have not played the great rugby we all know they can. That said, they have also had a horrible run of injuries and lost the majority of their backbone for the 6N. I expect a decent run in from them now and also believe that they are good enough to beat Toulon. Wasps highlighted a lot of areas where Leinster can exploit them.

Can Leinster play at the tempo needed to beat Toulon? If the starting half backs remain I would say no.

I don't see why not LT, Leinster are a very solid team and realistically should dominate the scrums. Given that front foot I can see Leinster doing well. They are due a good performance I feel.

I would not back against a Leinster Sarries final myself...

They (Leinster) will give it a go anyway. Nothing to lose. As Nachos says, for many various reasons Leinster have been quite positively schit for most of the season.... and yet there they are....still clinging to two competitions. That really is some feat when you recognise just how bad they've been at times.

If their form improves from here on in they'll be a handful as they've already proving a handful even at their miserable mediocre level.

I'd assume that had Bath won the game, their coach wouldn't be feeling any fear at coming up against Toulon. They'd have felt confident enough that they had the ability to take on Toulon and reach a final. I can't see why a stutteringly off-form rag tag fugitive fleet that is currently Leinster wouldn't feel they could give themselves a fighting chance if they now knuckle down and provide some decent rugby for a change.

Toulon are probably the only other European team with a breakdown to match Leinster's. We rely on it for points, and if Toulon dominate there we lose

But what if Leinster dominate the breakdown Kunu? I saw Wasp's give Toulon a lot of competition at the breakdown in the second half as well as dominate in the scrum and had Toulon under pressure. I really think that Toulon were lucky to not have the TMO look back to the leadup to the second Wasp's try as Ali Williams would certainly have seen a yellow. At that point, Wasps were on top (even if 7 points behind) and may have forced a result had Williams have been rightfully carded.

Toulon can be beaten and Leinster are a team that can beat them, if you frustrate Toulon early, they can collapse. I think that Leinster have a very good chance.

I'm worried we'll get more than beaten, we'll get humiliated. We're not scoring tries and we're missing a huge number of tackles. Not a good combination when going to France to play the European Champions.

Discipline is the key against Toulon, its what cost Wasp's in the first half. Leinster will have to be very tight and not give away anything but also play at a high tempo, Toulon WILL tire. I cannot see a humiliation on the cards for Leinster, they have too many big game players who will step up.

I just struggle to see how a half back pairing of Boss and Gopperth can keep the tempo high enough. In an arm wrestle I think Toulon are too strong, physically.

Doubt it would ever be a humiliation, even if Leinster were as poor as against Bath as Toulon tend to stop playing when they think they have the game won. They pretty much did this against Wasps after about 15 minutes. Of course we saw how this can backfire in Cardiff against the Blues.

TJ you'll find that it's generally 3 pointers that win RWCs and RWC knockout matches.

Fecklessrogue I agree, no England cannot yet. He stood up well against Wales but went missing vs Ireland.

Madigan was the match winner, Ford was not.

Doesn't mean I think Ford is bad, far from it but calling him world class is just hyperbole.

The tight games this weekend were settled by the boot.

Both Leinster and Saracens were outscored in the tries but won.

on current form, I think leinster has more than a chance. Toulon last few games saw them going a step down in the 2nd half. they were outplayed by wasps and toulouse as well. if it wasnt for Michalak 100% kicking success Wasps could well have been in the SF and nobody would have complained. their scrum halves are too slow and their scrum struggled. their main weapons are their fetchers (bastareaud and armitage). the only positive for them is that Giteau is just getting back from injury and should add so well needed oil in that otherwise rusty back line.

Look, Leinster are never going to be favourites!!!     Indeed I'll rephrase that, they might very well be favourites to be the one team to take a helluva beating from those two semi-final games.

That'll suit them because they can do nothing about those perceptions and therefore only have the pressure of saying to themselves - 'One Click Game is all we need to make the bookies wheeze'.  One game where everything clicks and concentration levels are sustained for a full 80.  
They haven't had an A game all season.  Maybe an A game isn't in them or their coach.  That's very possible; and some Leinster fans are looking forward to that possibility so that they can 'offload' the coach - offloading being something Leinster and Ireland seem to have become allergic to in the last year or so!  

- but I'm sure the players will look forward to the possibility of proving everyone wrong.  They'll enjoy plotting in the long grass and who knows what might show up.  If it's a side that can't play and gets beaten badly then nobody will be shocked or surprised - least of all their fans.  

But.............................. these players and coaches MUST know that the rugby they're playing right now is much too fragile to threaten the very best sides of Europe.  There is a bizarre aspect to Leinster all through the season - a seeming determination to resist common-sense rugby at all costs.  Can O'Connor be really so bad as a tactician?  Or is it the perfect plan for a perfect year of sending the opposition to sleep just at the right time of the year to make them pay for shut-eye.

Something is not right - a team playing so badly should not have the wherewithal to stumble through to a European semi-final, especially given how much improved most sides are from a few years ago.  Something is not right about Leinster.  I've been saying it for most of the season.  The bad form isn't adding up.  Play no rugby at all in a first half against Glasgow - I mean no rugby!  Then in the first part of the second half score 27 points to end up with a draw they never looked like having a hope of getting after the first half.  You don't learn how to play incisive high tempo rugby during a break.  You come with the ability.  The first half was an out and out smoke-screen for some O'Connorean reason that I can't fathom.  But I won't ever believe they couldn't play in that first half.  

Leinster, with most of the current Irish squad, have the same temperament as that very Ireland team this season.  Weirdly and stubbornly 'pragmatic' to the extent that they have fans pulling their hair out; but always seeming to do enough to do enough...and no more.  So possibly they have no A game in them; but if they have, I think it would be sufficient to take Toulon out and stumble 'pragmatically' to another final

Commiserations to Bath. Played a very attractive brand of rugby at the weekend and were slightly unfortunate to come out the wrong side of the scoreboard.

Leinster will need to improve... a lot.

The semi will be in the south of France so should be good weather, a firm pitch. Running rugby conditions. None of that feels like Boss/Gopperth territory. I reckon Te'o will be able to look after Basteraud. Honestly don't know who would have the upper hand in the breakdown battle. With Jordi, Jamie and SOB we should do well, but Toulon are so strong there. Toner can look after Ali but McCarthy will never cope with Bakkis. Our front row, and replacement front row can hold parity with anyone. Our back 3 are all honest grafters who won't be found wanting.

So that makes it doubt over the ability of Boss/Jimmy to play a high tempo game for 80 minutes, 50:50 contest at the breakdown and Toulon with an advantage in the engine room.

But Toulon will also have home field advantage and much better form.

Reckon Toulon by 14-18 points.

Why not a reddan-madigan combo then?

whocares wrote:Why not a reddan-madigan combo then?

Redden has enough puff to keep a game high tempo for perhaps 40. 80? - don't think so. He doesn't have the stamina. Plus, he's hardly robust enough to face Toulon either. If Leinster were still in it at 60 then perhaps he might be good to up the pace and try to stretch. But from a beginning - I don't think so.

Oh what I'd give for Stringer!

whocares wrote:Why not a reddan-madigan combo then?

It would be the sexy partnership to put out. But Fly is right, Reddan doesn't have the leg(singular) to last a full game. Leinster actually have a perfect scrum-half for this kind of game, the kid McGrath but MOC hasn't developed him as an option in the first team in 2 seasons, keeping with Boss in classic style (MOC feels the pressure of the fans and the journo's, and his reaction to that pressure is to pick the older, safer (and slower) option to cover his arse). It tends to be the reason why Leinster this year have only shown their 'potential' in brief 20 minute spurts. And you can see the call coming onto the pitch from upon high when they are to bunker down and defend a lead. So depressing. MOC has over relied on the marquee players and not really developed the squad, it was the 'second string' the 'A' side that was our depth which would match opponents, he hasn't given many of them the carrot to kick on and the depth has suffered for it. Where is the kid McGrath, Ringrose, Kelleher, Leavy, Marshall......... stop it bandwagon, deep breath, not the place.

SecretFly wrote:

Oh what I'd give for Stringer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KeJgris2-w&spfreload=10  recent footage of Stringer absolutely annihilating Austin Healey in a passing competition. The accuracy and power he has is as good as ever.

His technique is (and always has been) superb. The accuracy and power is so consistent, and he manages to put the power on the pass in a similar way to how golfers transfer power up through the body and into the club. Never needed to take 2-3 steps before firing the ball. So many scrumhalves should take notes from that technique.

He's looking for a job.  

I'd love to see him come back to Ireland - to any of the Provinces.  I still think he'd be a wasp of a bench scrumhalf to have come on in 2nd halves during the WC.  I think he's the alternative, accurate, experienced, pace setting scrumhalf we need to compliment Murray's more rugged, physical, methodical break-down first half presence.  I think he's fitter and has more stamina than Reddan and I'd say Capt'n POC would love to see him back behind the pack, slapping butts, barking orders, jumping on opposition backs, biting ankles and getting things moving.

Truly, Stringer should be back in Ireland and back with Ireland by the WC.  And what a story it would be.

Absolutely no problem here if Stringer became a bolter for the RWC. He might be 37 but he looks as fit as a 27-y-o, still has the best pass I've ever seen from an Irish SH and as gobby a little bollix as ever, which is what you need in a SH. Certainly better from the bench than Boss