Away to Scarlets, 30/01, Saturday @ 7.35pm

[hugonaut]

Josh Murphy doing the press this week so I'm thinking

6-Murphy 7-Leavy 8-Conan ?

The pack looks grand. Your backline has a bit of the "Connacht Match" look about it!

yeah.. lots of injuries in the backs.. but at least we'd have two recognized 10's on the field as opposed to that weird JOB experiment.

still convinced we'd have won that if they had just replaced Sexton with Hawkshaw.

If we get DK and James Lowe on the field as wingers we'll be in very good shape for this time of year. The pack has a lot of serious players in it, lots of recent [2019 and 2020] internationals available. While they're not capped, Dooley, Molony and Josh Murphy are having good, productive seasons for us too.

Molony's work off the ball has impressed me – he works hard to get into positions and offer himself as a carrier or a decoy carrier, and both he and Murphy have improved a lot as ball carriers this season, both of them look a little bit quicker and get over the gainline more than they used to. Dooley is a little bit up and down, but he was excellent against Montpellier in both the scrum and in general play. He's naturally a bigger man than Ed Byrne, which is always going to have some sort of meaning in the front row.

[Blue Man]

So maybe something like this:

1. Dooley
2. Cronin
3. Furlong
4. Molony
5. Toner
6. Baird
7. Leavy
8. Conan
9. McGrath
10. HB
11. Kearney
12. Frawley
13. Turner
14. Kelleher
15. O'Reilly
16. Tracey
17. Byrne
18. Bent
19. Fardy
20. Murphy
21. HOS
22. Hawkshaw
23. Comerford

This throws up some interesting selection points and squad considerations:

Will Furlong start or come on as a sub?
Is Bent fit?
Baird at lock ahead of Dev with Murphy at lock?
We’re threadbare at 13 and how many O’Briens can be injured at the same time?!! (COB, TOB, JOB. ROL)
Will Lowe get a run?
I’m not sure O’Reilly is ready yet.
I like Hawkshaw as a 12.
Any chance Osborne gets a run in the centre?
Really want to see HB step up - and has Frawley been moved from 10 too soon?

[Ruckedtobits]

Playing Max O'Reilly at full back creates a real defensive weakness (ref Connacht & Ulster A) and Osborne certainly looked like he had "earned" further selection based on his display against Ulster A.

Although Scarlets are fairly strong in mid-field, I would like to see HB, alongside Turner & Osborne, with Frawley at 15 and playing as a second playmaker. Although I don't believe that we need to develop further talent at full-back, I believe that this position can be closest to the No 10 role in acquiring top level experience.

[mildlyinterested]

Playing Max O'Reilly at full back creates a real defensive weakness (ref Connacht & Ulster A) and Osborne certainly looked like he had "earned" further selection based on his display against Ulster A.

Although Scarlets are fairly strong in mid-field, I would like to see HB, alongside Turner & Osborne, with Frawley at 15 and playing as a second playmaker. Although I don't believe that we need to develop further talent at full-back, I believe that this position can be closest to the No 10 role in acquiring top level experience.

True on O'Reilly, open to any suggestions on who else to play at fullback. Moving Frawley there would be a very left field move.

Turner/Osborne midfield was pretty ugly defensively against Ulster A too.

I'd love to see Osborne at 15, but I imagine that's unlikely too.

[johng]

If we had Lowe and Kelleher on the wings we could put Dave at FB. Sure we'll know in 26 hours

[mildlyinterested]

If we had Lowe and Kelleher on the wings we could put Dave at FB. Sure we'll know in 26 hours

think it was telling that Furlong was released to train on Monday, but Lowe was not.

[Leinster Lout]

I thought Baird was suffering from concussion, and what's why he wasn't considered for Ireland? Odd he wasn't included if he wasn't injured.

[mildlyinterested]

I thought Baird was suffering from concussion, and what's why he wasn't considered for Ireland? Odd he wasn't included if he wasn't injured.

No he trained on Monday with Leinster.

Not sure his form recently deserves an irish call-up.

[the spoofer]

Josh Murphy doing the press this week so I'm thinking

6-Murphy 7-Leavy 8-Conan ?

The pack looks grand. Your backline has a bit of the "Connacht Match" look about it!

yeah.. lots of injuries in the backs.. but at least we'd have two recognized 10's on the field as opposed to that weird JOB experiment.

still convinced we'd have won that if they had just replaced Sexton with Hawkshaw.

If we get DK and James Lowe on the field as wingers we'll be in very good shape for this time of year. The pack has a lot of serious players in it, lots of recent [2019 and 2020] internationals available. While they're not capped, Dooley, Molony and Josh Murphy are having good, productive seasons for us too.

Molony's work off the ball has impressed me – he works hard to get into positions and offer himself as a carrier or a decoy carrier, and both he and Murphy have improved a lot as ball carriers this season, both of them look a little bit quicker and get over the gainline more than they used to. Dooley is a little bit up and down, but he was excellent against Montpellier in both the scrum and in general play. He's naturally a bigger man than Ed Byrne, which is always going to have some sort of meaning in the front row.

I'd have Molony in the Irish camp. He is playing at that level this season.

[the spoofer]

I thought Baird was suffering from concussion, and what's why he wasn't considered for Ireland? Odd he wasn't included if he wasn't injured.

No he trained on Monday with Leinster.

Not sure his form recently deserves an irish call-up.

Agreed. His performance for the A's deserved a kick up the arse.

[mildlyinterested]

I thought Baird was suffering from concussion, and what's why he wasn't considered for Ireland? Odd he wasn't included if he wasn't injured.

No he trained on Monday with Leinster.

Not sure his form recently deserves an irish call-up.

Agreed. His performance for the A's deserved a kick up the arse.

wasn't very good against Connacht either.. taking too much on with the ball in hand from memory

[mildlyinterested]

yeah.. lots of injuries in the backs.. but at least we'd have two recognized 10's on the field as opposed to that weird JOB experiment.

still convinced we'd have won that if they had just replaced Sexton with Hawkshaw.

If we get DK and James Lowe on the field as wingers we'll be in very good shape for this time of year. The pack has a lot of serious players in it, lots of recent [2019 and 2020] internationals available. While they're not capped, Dooley, Molony and Josh Murphy are having good, productive seasons for us too.

Molony's work off the ball has impressed me – he works hard to get into positions and offer himself as a carrier or a decoy carrier, and both he and Murphy have improved a lot as ball carriers this season, both of them look a little bit quicker and get over the gainline more than they used to. Dooley is a little bit up and down, but he was excellent against Montpellier in both the scrum and in general play. He's naturally a bigger man than Ed Byrne, which is always going to have some sort of meaning in the front row.

I'd have Molony in the Irish camp. He is playing at that level this season.

Under this ireland coach I can't see Molony getting much of a look due to his lack of power.

[D4surfer]

Bookies have it Leinster 1/3, Scarlets 10/3 with a 9 point handicap.

[Blue Man]

Obviously I want (and expect) to see a win but I’ll be really interested in our performance across a number of areas:

Lineout - it just has to get better
Ruck- backrow needs to be better at poaching in defense and faster with the clear out in attack
Scrum half - Luke needs to keep up the form he showed last weekend and get the ball away fast
Out half - I want to see an all singing, all dancing display from Harry! Seriously, we need to see signs that he can fulfill his potential
Frawley - really want to see him prominent as a second play maker
Furlong - a safe return with no reoccurrence of the injuries
3/4s - accurate passing and better counter attacking (as a unit)

[leinsterforever]

I'd have Molony in the Irish camp. He is playing at that level this season.

I think he could be close to becoming first choice for Leinster. If he's the best lineout operator out of all the locks it's hard to overlook him when the lineout's been a bit all over the place. He looks good in the loose too.

[leinsterforever]

Playing Max O'Reilly at full back creates a real defensive weakness (ref Connacht & Ulster A) and Osborne certainly looked like he had "earned" further selection based on his display against Ulster A.

Although Scarlets are fairly strong in mid-field, I would like to see HB, alongside Turner & Osborne, with Frawley at 15 and playing as a second playmaker. Although I don't believe that we need to develop further talent at full-back, I believe that this position can be closest to the No 10 role in acquiring top level experience.

I like the idea of Frawley at 15, but with Turner and Osbourne by all accounts being poor defensively in the 'A' match I think he might be needed at 12.

One option at 15 might be to call up Jack Kelly from the 7s, but if that hasn't happened already it's probably too late for this match.

Leinster were losing the collisions against Connacht, which has to have made it more difficult for O'Reilly to defend and cover kicks. If the forwards do better in the physical battle it'll make life easier for the fullback. The other issue was that he was in alongside another back three player making his debut in Andrew Smith. If he's got experienced wings Kearney and Kelleher alongside him things should be a lot sounder. If they want to be better defensively they should select DK on the right wing and Kelleher on the left.

[Fan with smartphone]

I'd have Molony in the Irish camp. He is playing at that level this season.

I think he could be close to becoming first choice for Leinster. If he's the best lineout operator out of all the locks it's hard to overlook him when the lineout's been a bit all over the place. He looks good in the loose too.

Hard to believe he is still only 26. Best years are ahead of him I’d have thought.

[hugonaut]

I'd have Molony in the Irish camp. He is playing at that level this season.

I think he could be close to becoming first choice for Leinster. If he's the best lineout operator out of all the locks it's hard to overlook him when the lineout's been a bit all over the place. He looks good in the loose too.

Hard to believe he is still only 26. Best years are ahead of him I’d have thought.

Definitely agree. He's playing good rugby at the moment, he very rarely gets injured and he has a rock solid head on his shoulders. The lack of interest from the Ireland camp isn't a massive injustice or anything – every single lock selected is a better athlete than him – but it doesn't mean that he's not performing well for Leinster.

Actually, if you look at their minutes [as of 29.01.21] Molony has played the most minutes [for Leinster] out of any of our six locks:

1. Molony: 445 mins
2. Fardy: 434 mins
3. Ryan: 417 mins
4. Baird: 355 mins [includes a start at No6]
5. Toner: 352 mins
6. Dunne: 40 mins

[D4surfer]

Scarlets team

15 Johnny McNicholl; 14 Tom Prydie, 13 Tyler Morgan, 12 Steff Hughes (capt), 11 Ryan Conbeer; 10 Sam Costelow, 9 Dane Blacker; 1 Phil Price, 2 Marc Jones, 3 Javan Sebastian, 4 Morgan Jones, 5 Sam Lousi, 6 Blade Thomson, 7 Dan Davis, 8 Uzair Cassiem

Reps: 16 Taylor Davies, 17 Kemsley Mathias, 18 Werner Kruger, 19 Tevita Ratuva, 20 Carwyn Tuipulotu, 21 Will Homer, 22 Angus O’Brien, 23 Paul Asquith.

[mildlyinterested]

Leinster Rugby (caps in brackets):

15. Max O’Reilly (1)
14. Cian Kelleher (20)
13. Liam Turner (5)
12. Ciarán Frawley (32)
11. Dave Kearney (158)
10. Harry Byrne (17)
9. Luke McGrath (139) CAPTAIN
1. Peter Dooley (84)
2. James Tracy (120)
3. Tadhg Furlong (108)
4. Ross Molony (106)
5. Ryan Baird (17)
6. Josh Murphy (39)
7. Dan Leavy (71)
8. Jack Conan (98)

16. Seán Cronin (190)
17. Ed Byrne (62)
18. Tom Clarkson (4)
19. Jack Dunne (10)
20. Scott Fardy (69)
21. Hugh O’Sullivan (25)
22. David Hawkshaw (4)
23. Jamie Osborne (0)