I suppose it is a circular argument, youâre right. I think the recent record is more relevant than 18-21. I donât think Northampton were a very strong semi finalist by European cup standards.
Theyâre strong enough that theyâre most likely the premiership winners and they beat the URC leaders home and away in the Champions Cup. I think they beat almost every other European team outside of Leinster and Toulouse in that semi.
By definition- there are only a handful of teams every year that are at the very top tier of Europe. Leinster are one of them. That leaves limited opportunity to encounter the others!
I didnât think they were very impressive against a really weakened Munster team in the semi so was going off that, but fair enough, canât argue with anything youâve put there.
I donât think they were that impressive either and while they had chances to put the game away they left themselves in a position to get clipped.
Def ran a risk with the team with the H-cup the week later. A reasonable risk to my mind considering the run of results and trying to win two competitions. Fair play to Munster - they made them pay. They rightly couldnât give a fuck who Leinster put out on the pitch.
Hopefully now we get a fixture in the next couple of weeks between two full strength teams.
Kleyn shouldnât have been picked for Ireland in the first place and I donât know what Schmidt was thinking by picking him ahead of Toner for RWC2019. Anyway, it ended up being another shambles of a RWC for us and then Farrell had no interest in picking him once he took over.
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Agreed.
Hopefully Munster manage a win because with the turnover of players they wonât have a snowballs chance next year.
Did he really though? Or did he just do what youâd expect? I thought he was probably at around par for the day
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Iâm only basing my opinion on my reaction at the time in the stadium. Seemed to be popping up a lot and some big plays either side of the ball. Iâd certainly push back on the suggestion he was below average or didnât show up,
Henshaw, McCarthy, Porter, Sheehan others that stood out to me. VdF and Frawley def impacted when they came on.
They are the only 4 Iâd have as playing above par on the day⌠the rest played ok but you need a good cohort to play a blinder to win a final IMO
I thought henshaw was very avg. Solid in defence, very little threat in attack. Thought he needed to stamp authority in the midfield to perhaps kick osborne on but never came.
Other 3 had very good games. McC robbed of a try i thought.
Most defenders beaten and solid metres carried. I think he did pretty well
https://twitter.com/huwgriffinrugby/status/1794763310300278825?s=46
OâDriscoll throwing Ross Byrne under the bus.
Rouri o Connor queried had they a dossier done on the ref pre game.
Gerry Thornley nearly broke down to tears when he was asked should Cullen be sacked.
General theme is alright thatâs itâs Ross byrnes fault.
Remember last year when he had a chance to win the European cup for Leinster in his home town on what is essentially his home pitch from 45 yards and he turned it down to go down the line.
No way o gara or sexton or a Wilkinson turn that chance of glory down.
Thats a game and a half. As in literally- a full game and a half. So, take 20% off those stats for 80 min comparisons.
1 line break from your outside centre is not much to be too content with id have thought?
Avgâd about 5m per carry⌠in the 13 channel where there is most space to be found.
Stats can be skewed depending on how you want to read them i suppose
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Is that not the captainâs decision?
Leinster have one of these leadership groups that decide but thatâs a load of old rubbish.
If he wanted it heâd have gotten it.
The reality of it is that if Ross Byrne was on the field in the 79th minute that drop kick would have gone over the bar.
OâDriscoll is a prick.
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He didnât fancy it v La Rochelle the previous year
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