Gordon D’Arcy from Wexford?
Was there another?
D’Arcy is reverting to a narrative from his day on schools rugby. This swing between its being the best thing ever to limiting is ridiculous.
The issue with the Leinster squad would be relevant if the URC was more challenging and Leinster were therefore losing games when international players were unavailable. As it happens, Leinster have no issue with lining up home game after home game in the playoffs.
The fact that Leinster do have so many international players is a relevant factor and one ignored in the moaning about funding but it reduces give the standard they generally play against. I do think it is a factor when trying to win two competitions at the pointy end of the season in playoff rugby, but I think all teams would have the same issue if they got into the same position Leinster did every season.
The lack of refresh in the squad is again down to Cullen. He needs to let players go more. The 2018-2019 refresh of the squad was solely down to a number of players self selecting to leave/retiring.
Leinster backrow and centres look done, bar the captain. That’s their issue. They probably lack a bit of power and pace around the field now against the best teams. Front 5 were good.
Move Dan Sheehan to back row permanently. Job is oxo
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They really never addressed the shit show that was the Northampton defeat.
Cullen alluding to the media’s reporting of the game a few weeks ago was the start of it.
It’s a bit odd it was jordi Barrett dictating things too. He came for a short spell. Surely must have put a few noses out of joint?
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Let’s just hope James Lowe accepts the 600k per annum.
You’re right though, it’s time to look at fitting the ballast of Sheehan and Kellerher into the same team.
Hopefully it doesn’t stop Gus McCarthy joining either Casper or Sam in Munster at some point. JJ realistically has only 2-3 seasons left despite his military mind.
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He was the best player so they took it
D’Arce is blaming the same system that produced nearly every good player Ireland have had for the last 10 years. Players coming through don’t look as good as before though is the only thing.
He’s onto something on the systems players v seeing the game players alright. The recruitment point was nonsense though.
Noel Mc, Nigel Carolan, Richie Murphy all got a serious tune out of these lads out of schools system at 20s level when they were massively underpowered Vs the English and french particularly
They coached them to a plan that worked for what they had. Drilling them into a system is something some coaches do…others don’t…I think the players are flexible enough to work under both if asked to
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It’s not the system so much as them not being strong enough over the ball or quick enough over the ground on Saturday.
Different story if it was the Leinster teams from the La Rochelle years with prime Van Der Flier, Furlong, old head Sexton.
It’s players first and foremost. They don’t have them any more like the way they used to.
The image of Jordie Barrett tucking his gumshield into his sock will haunt Leinster and Irish Rugby for 50 years.
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Sorry pal, I don’t buy that at all. It’s excuses. There’s 22 internationals, 12 lions in that 23. More than enough quality for an international game.
Look at the starting 15, half or more are in decline. That’s the passing of time, Cullen is not a great head coach, but the gap on Saturday was too wide to put down just to coaching.
Ireland can call on Tadhgh Beirne, Crowley, Balacoune, McCloskey, they’d all make a huge difference for Munster
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I would say theyre biggest problem was that they were completely deficient in the backrow, centre and at 10. Those players can’t play in those combinations any more without help from others.
Bad coaching and mental fragility.
Ireland are also probably 50/50 in games versus the top 3 in the world since 2018 (last Leinster Champs Cup win). The win rate against the next best (Oz, England, Argentina, Scotland) is probably more like 80-90%.
Leinster at their full strength of course are close to Ireland and with a serious amount of class added in the last 2 seasons from NIQs (preceding that the international quality wasn’t good tbf) that makes up for the gaps.
Leinster are 0/5 in Champs Cup finals since then which would be the equivalent level of peak to a Top 3, I’d argue. You can push the line that semis and maybe quarters are at an equivalent level but I’d very much take that on a game by game basis. Looking back at those wins, I’d argue really only the Toulouse home semi final win and the La Rochelle quarter final win get close to that level (who weren’t at their previous levels of quality but I’d allow as it was a sort of voodoo game for them). I’d say the Sarries 2020 loss at home (they were still a serious outfit then) and La Rochelle away semi final tab up to that level. I wouldn’t include the Northampton game, that is one they simply should never have lost. So really I’d say Leinster are 2 from 9 in those major clubs games since that season. Neither of those victories are on the road or on a neutral site either- when you compare Ireland winning in Paris or SA or NZ it’s stark- I would never back Leinster to go into a Toulouse and win a game, for example but it’s not out of the question for Ireland to do it in equivalent environments.
Leinster have a padded URC win rate since then. Really only one of those wins has serious value (last year) with the SA sides joining and Leinster are 1 from 4 there. Charitably the URC might be said to be at those next 4 international game levels, where Ireland have a seriously high win % in. I think that’s charitable though really in all honesty.
So overall Leinster’s performances are dramatically below the Irish ones. The players deserve a lot of criticism for sure but on the Conan point of versus Northampton, that wouldn’t have been the case in a Farrell coached team, or at least you wouldn’t have had this idea of indecision festering. The Murray decision versus England in that Twickenham game was his decision within the context of how they played, for better or for worse. That Conan was looking to the sideline then was an indication of a team that didn’t know what they were doing.
Cullen and JVN can get pissy all they like but the reality is they are coaching a team that only ever has a handful of games that matter a year. It’s like coaching a Real Madrid or Barcelona or Bayern or Old Firm team in that regard. Nobody cares that you have an 80% win rate against dross opposition, your job is to win the important few games. This seems hard for some around Leinster to acknowledge as they compare to 15 years ago but the truth is the quality elsewhere has gone down and the quality of Leinster overall has gone up- comparing the league win rate of a Schmidt or Cheika to today is pointless.
We have a peer group of games that shows this group of players have underperformed. We can go into the specifics of the management thats been already posted a lot but the proof is in the pudding.
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Could be the coaching isn’t helping but they were beaten up in the HCup Final.
Dorris needs to front up in a big way, fantastic Rugby Player but Ireland seems to get the best of him.
Great summation and would agree with all of it but Ireland are in decline since the World Cup in 23. They were so relentless back then, playing brilliant rugby and had a phenomenal ability to retain the ball. Theyre far removed from that peak now. You couldn’t say any of those lads is a better player now than they were then. Leinster have slipped too accordingly.
They’re not at the level they were in the La Rochelle finals or anything like it. Bordeaux might squeak past that team, but there’s no way they batter them.
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