He was right, heâs always right.
Similar to a lot of the Tfk rubby analysis right there
ah lovely
ROG provides an evisceration of Leinster in the examiner today
That archive thing doesnât seem to work for the examiner, can you paste it up?
Who writes it for him? I doubt heâs coming up with words like âexampli gratisâ and âeschewingâ by himself.
Whereâs the rest of it or did he run out of words to use?
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YOU needed to see the drama of Leinsterâs Champions Cup semi-final in its totality to understand the tidal sways of energy in a big game. It was a phenomenon in itself. It also presented an exampli gratis of a psychological implosion, meltdown or whatever pejorative term youâd prefer.
Five days later, I still havenât worked it out in my head what Leinster were at in eschewing the late penalty and the three points to level the tie. It might be a club policy with Leinster even since Johnny Sextonâs time to go for the jugular irrespective of the circumstances. But surely not.
When you have a problem on loop â there or thereabouts but never getting the job done - Leinsterâs default setting of kicking to the corner instead of making the scoreboard work must be open to serious interrogation. Inevitably, it will come back to bite you, and there will never be a better example of it than Saturday in Dublin. What was the Leinster brains trust thinking with a very kickable penalty and four minutes left to NOT take the draw - and still have three minutes remaining to close out the deal?
Whenever has a loss ever been better than a draw? I just canât get it myself, even now. The Saints still had 14 men on the field at that stage with Josh Kemeny in the bin (and would lose another to a yellow in the frantic, remaining minutes).
Worst case scenario, no matter how ambitious you are - and we really should be using the word arrogant here â you make it a draw. Then with your worldie talents, you can get a try or a drop goal to win the game. In the laymanâs vernacular, Leinster got their you-know-what opened by not doing the sensible thing and eschewing the hero route. Leinsterâs under appreciation of the T&Cs of Cup rugby has never been too far from the surface over the past number of years and once again, under-appreciating its nuances has taken them at the knees.
Letâs play devilâs advocate here: Sam Prendergast kicks to the corner and Leinster roll over for the winning try, and we are all saying âgreat, ballsy callâ. No we are not. Read the room Leinster please. In the build-up, following their 114-0 combined evisceration of Glasgow and Harlequins, some wondered would Northampton get better than nil at the Aviva.
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Andy Farrell: âWhy wouldnât we take Johnny Sextonâs experience on tour?â
By the 77th minute, all had changed utterly and it was the moment to point to the posts, close out the deal after and fret over the inadequacies of the day in the Monday review. The only folk who actually believed Leinster werenât going to win the Champions Cup semi-final were in the away dressing room, because you canât deliver a display and counter punch like Northampton did unless you actually (not almost, actually) believe you are beating the odds.
Amongst other things, the complication with this going forward for Leinster is it franks the impression of them in every teamâs head and in their pre-match huddle, but if we are telling the truth, you didnât need this perspective to harden.
Leinsterâs glass chin at the business end of the season is something already laminated in the upper echelon of European rugby. You could see the last 20 minutes of that game that they were frozen deer, paralysed by the stress and pressure of the moment. That was evident too in the respective coaches boxes. When the game was in the money moments, few if any wanted the ball in Leinster blue. Thatâs the downside of decimating all before them in the URC and in the earlier stages of the Champions Cup. And as a by the by, Iâm not sure the semi-final of Europeâs primary cup competition should be a home game for either side. And letâs not start with this RDS lark.
In their heads, they never thought they could lose this game. With their recent Champions Cup history, Leinster should be the most desperate team across the sporting landscape to prove the doubters wrong, and if those blowouts over Glasgow and Harlequins softened their underbelly it shouldnât have softened their focus on making the final and righting the wrongs of the past few campaigns. Unforgivable.
When they get over the finishing line again, and then again after that, they are back to level par. At this moment, theyâre the subject of sniggers behind cupped hands across Europe.
There are 12 Leinster lads heading with Andy Farrell on the Lions tour and they have some amount of points to prove because their seasons with Ireland were poor and now this with their club. If Farrell hadnât already made his mind up, Saturday was confirmation that Australia is too soon for Prendergast. The ten jersey for Irelandâs summer tour will be interesting now vis-a-vis Jack Crowley.
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A few quibbles but Farrell has picked on form for Lions squad
Not starting Andrew Porter and Jordie Barrett against Northampton? Itâs pretty easy explain away the prop one, they clearly felt Porter was the better option to finish. Jordie Barrett may not be the high twitch fibre bolt of lightning back, but he is a thoroughbred across the piece, as we saw in the game against Quins. Maybe Leinster management were showing to their squad that this is a 23-man game or perhaps they were making their point to the IRFU on high tariff signings not being at the expense of indigenous talent. But we are only speculating on that point.
Whatever the reason, it left us scratching our head after the quality of Barrettâs performance in the quarter-final, one that had âmore, pleaseâ writ large all over it.
For Northampton there is no available evidence to indicate they canât do the same in the final against Bordeaux, but the French side have serious tape on the Saints now. When we are dishing out the end of season awards, remind me to nominate backs coach Sam Vesty for their attack plan in Dublin.
Itâs one thing sketching out your patterns and ideas on an A4. Being really good is bringing them to life, scoring 37 points away from home at Leinster, devising an attack structure by narrowing the Leinster line in terms of manipulating the rucks in the middle of the pitch, going after Prendergast in first phase and not letting the 12, 13 and James Lowe get involved. The Saints succeeded in engaging two Leinster tacklers in the breakdown, one guard on either side, and another defenders close to the guard- thatâs six Leinster lads engaged close to the ruck. And how often did they leave Lowe and Tommy OâBrien wondering who to hit?
It again underscored the fundamental challenge for Irish rugby around our structured game. Leinster scored points from structured play, the Saints were the opposite. It was a joy to watch Fin Smith play freely. While we saw robotic rugby from Leinster.
On top of that, Leinster kept feeding Northampton dollops of encouragement. You are looking for energy from the get-go, and the visitors had plenty of ambition and variety in their locker to capitalise on any chink presented to them. Even at stages when their tyres werenât fully pumped, they got massive reward for going after Leinster.
Imagine, they led for the whole game in Dublin, where no-one gave them a chance of felling the big blue.
*Iâm looking blankly here at the Top 14 standings, and the name of Castres Olympique sitting above us in fifth. And all I can think of is a devastated community in mourning after the death Thursday of their 30-year-old Fijian wing Josaia Raisuqe, whose car was in a collision near the training centre with a train. I canât say I knew him well but I knew him. To his family, colleagues and friends, I can only offer thoughts and prayers for their healing.
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Tony Leen is the ghost writer. Do you not think a degree educated man could come up with the word eschewed without someone holding his hand?
All joking asideâŚid say itâs a few weeks too soon for you to read the article. Leave it off
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ROG could onock that out no bother. Heâs an unbelievable talker and gets away with shit no one else ever would with the fan base. He nearly, nearly buried Sexton at the World Cup in 11â, but ultimately, Jonathan was too big to bury and was the best we ever had.
Leinster losing the last few years can be explained fairly simply really looking at the losing margins. No Johnny Sexton.
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Agreed. What about the few years they lost with him?
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I think theyâd more in hand this year anyway. No consideration for anything else, Iâd go out and get a George Forde type if I could repeat the year.
Casper Gabriel played for Leinster A today interestingly enough.
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Casper is gonna overtake Prender Jr unless Toulouse sign him up
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Iâve been a glutton for punishment this week and have already watched/read plenty of analysis.
Gets worse the more you see and read of it.
Tony Leen definitely ran that through Chat Gpt before hitting submit.
Was the penalty not right out by the sideline? Iâm not sure Ross Byrne wouldâve scored it anyway.
They had an earlier one on about 76 minutes that they also eschewed that was about 15 in from the sideline on the far side and twenty yards out. Iâd have tapped it over.
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That was the second oneâŚthey passed on another one few mins before that
They also had Jordie Barret on the pitch who has kicked more than a few in his day