mildlyinterested wrote: ↑February 10th, 2021, 2:44 pm
Luke's stats for Jan 2021:
minutes played tries carries metres gained defenders beaten tackles
SFW!
If his pass was quicker and persistently accurate, he would (and should) have displaced Murray 18 months ago.
However, it isn't and he hasn't and Leinster continue to have one of the best pound-for-pound rugby players in Europe available most weeks, whose sole weakness is that he isn't a great passer.
Yep I tend to agree.. huge shame that he could never get his passing sorted out as it's the only thing that's preventing him from being an elite scrumhalf.
A dedicated skills coach might help him get more consistency, but it's probably too late for Luke.
Still you'd fancy him to get over 200 leinster caps.
Passing may be his sole weakness, but we’re talking about a scrum half here — when you have ~90 touches in a game like he did vs Scarlets and 80 of them are passes, having a bad pass becomes a bit of a problem.
I do like Luke all the same, his snipes are excellent and he has a great eye for the try line. He has games where he hits nearly every pass on the money and follows it up with games where most passes go over the receivers head.
I do wonder how much Leinster are held back by his less than excellent pass. Maybe not at all, it’s not like we’ve done badly with him at 9, but maybe we could have replicated the European dominance of 09-12 with someone more reliable at the helm?
I'd be quite happy with us bringing in a kiwi and letting them do a 5 year residency. This has being a problem for ages and we haven't been able to solve like other problem positions. Let's do a Munster on it!
Serb wrote: ↑February 11th, 2021, 12:48 am
Passing may be his sole weakness, but we’re talking about a scrum half here — when you have ~90 touches in a game like he did vs Scarlets and 80 of them are passes, having a bad pass becomes a bit of a problem.
I do like Luke all the same, his snipes are excellent and he has a great eye for the try line. He has games where he hits nearly every pass on the money and follows it up with games where most passes go over the receivers head.
I do wonder how much Leinster are held back by his less than excellent pass. Maybe not at all, it’s not like we’ve done badly with him at 9, but maybe we could have replicated the European dominance of 09-12 with someone more reliable at the helm?
we didn't lose to saracens last october due to luke mcgrath's passing.
sunshiner1 wrote: ↑February 11th, 2021, 6:21 am
I'd be quite happy with us bringing in a kiwi and letting them do a 5 year residency. This has being a problem for ages and we haven't been able to solve like other problem positions. Let's do a Munster on it!
we've done this already, it hasn't solved anything.
I think patience is needed in this position. Granted we are not in luxurious position of a few years where we had Reddan & Boss as our senior 9's and then we had Luke behind them. JGP will be 29 this year and Luke just turned 28 so we've at least 3 years left of the two of them at their peak. There are a few excellent prospects coming through at schools level, the best of which I think is Gunne from Michaels. 3 years to find and develop a 9 shouldn't be beyond us.
Not sure about excellent prospects... lack of game time this year certainly won't have helped.. lets hope the scrumhalves have spent their time off working on their passes.
Senior team appearances at 9:
Luke McGrath - 11 starts, 4 sub apps - 858 mins
Jamison Gibson Park - 4 starts, 2 sub apps - 275 mins
Hugh O'Sullivan - 4 sub apps - 60 mins
Rowan Osborne - 3 sub apps - 28 mins
'A' team 9 appearances
Cormac Foley - 2 starts, 2 sub apps
Hugh O'Sullivan - 2 starts
Rowan Osborne - 2 sub apps
Paddy Patterson - 1 sub apps
Last edited by mildlyinterested on March 3rd, 2021, 1:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
mildlyinterested wrote: ↑March 3rd, 2021, 12:59 pmSenior team appearances at 9:
Hugh O'Sullivan - 4 sub appearances - 60 mins
Rowan Osborne - 3 sub appearances - 28 mins
'A' team 9 appearances
Cormac Foley - 2 start, 2 sub
Hugh O'Sullivan - 2 start
Rowan Osborne - 2 sub
Paddy Patterson - 1 sub
Looks like they really don’t have any faith in the upcoming scrum halves
Lock9541 wrote: ↑March 3rd, 2021, 1:03 pm
Looks like they really don’t have any faith in the upcoming scrum halves
that's been clear for awhile.. McCarthy returning would further underline that.
most young and upcoming scrumhalves need to play to develop.. and leinster's young 9's just haven't played enough rugby at any level to develop further.
Not sure if Osborne featuring on the bench ahead of HOS indicates much about their futures at leinster but somewhat surprising to see he has overtaken him in recent weeks.
Jonny tight lips wrote: ↑March 5th, 2021, 2:23 pm
I wouldnt be surprised if both of them left with McCarthy coming back. Might aswel give Foley the gametime as 4th and see if they fancy him.
I would be surprised if they only had 4 contracted scrumhalves next season.
Jonny tight lips wrote: ↑March 5th, 2021, 2:23 pm
I wouldnt be surprised if both of them left with McCarthy coming back. Might aswel give Foley the gametime as 4th and see if they fancy him.
I would be surprised if they only had 4 contracted scrumhalves next season.
With at the very least one Munster 9 locked into an Irish 23 I doubt there's any chance 2 Leinster 9s will be with Ireland.
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defenders beaten minutes played
tries
defenders beaten
