Champions Cup 1/4 Final: Exeter V Leinster

[Twist]

1. Without doubt the best rugby podcast "on these Isles" is our very own BTTV with Jason, John & Dave. Murray, Gavan & Birch, who I rate highly and also listen to regularly, come second.

2. Any bets de meeja muppets this week will use the fact, that we only beat Munster by 10 points and in contrast Exeter by 12 to suggest that the Southern Cousins are improving as opposed to merely treading water?

Gavan Casey ruins the 42.ie pod for me, loves the sound of his own voice rather than actually letting the experts do the talking. They used to have a guy do it who was much better as he didn’t try and make it about him

Do you mean Andy McGeady? If so, I respectfully disagree. I found him absolutely unbearable

[Blue Man]

Might just be a massive case of leinster bias here after enjoying a big win and ignoring the walkover we got last week but this feels like a really strong competition to me now and not just a patched together tournament that’ll be tainted by all the disruptions.

La Rochelle and all four teams playing tomorrow are really strong. Exeter were the champions and Sale had a big win last week and were very competitive for most of the game today.

That round of 16 really sold the competition to everybody. I think if people had some reservations [as I did] about how valid the tournament was going to be, the standard of matches last weekend convinced them.

The walkover against Toulon did us no good. I am usually pretty circumspect about our chances in knockout games, but I thought that we were going to absolutely slaughter them. It was the single game over the course of the last year that I felt most keenly about missing – a sunny Friday afternoon of a long weekend against a team that had had the whip hand over us but is now in decline. I was very confident that we would put 40 points on them.

With no game last week, we were slow to get going against Exeter and looked disjointed in our backline defense. We gave ourselves a real uphill run to get back into the game. It's a great win that is up there with one of our best ever in Europe – knocking over the reigning European [and English] champions in an away knock-out game is a big achievement, and we did it the hard way.

Sums it up very nicely. The big question now is whether we rest players for the Rainbow cup game, running the risk of going into a semifinal undercooked, or we go fully locked and loaded risking injuries (backrow, scrum half and center are particular areas where our depth is being tested)?

[Degz]

Still buzzing after that performance.

[the spoofer]

Anyone been able to find anywhere with stats for the game?

Assume you found some by now but just in case

https://www.epcrugby.com/report/leins ... tatistics

Thanks Xan.

Any chance of the molecast making a return?

[Oldschool]

this game will be won by the forwards..

You were right.

[Theleinsterlad]

Battlefield intelligence and chiselled emotions showed why Leinster are the smartest team in Europe

Neil Francis
Is their no accountability in journalism? Say whatever you want, make all kinds of predictions and wahay, start all over again.

Mike Ross caught him out really well a number of weeks ago about the abusive writing he has done about players - he is a disgrace in the language he uses in what I believe is more for the tabloid papers than a broadsheet

[Theleinsterlad]

Re-watching and Kelleher's work rate, carries and tackles, in the first half is off the charts. This was an exceptional performance when the team needed him.

Yeah watched it again and a couple of extras

JVF - our competition in the squad is making two players in this position world class. Josh forced Connors to up his game a level and now the same has happened to josh raising his game another level. Was a monster in attack and defence.

Kelleher - had the best game yet for Leinster. He is a pure beast

Fardy - some posted that he’s not up to it, but he was at most rucks doing his usual dark arts, saying quiet words to the ref (seems to be the only non captain to get away with that!). And if you watch the kelleher break down the line from a throw in, he beautifully took the pillar defender out without either the ref or linesman coping it. He is getting old but he can still put in a shift

Baird - there is a fire building up in this guy. Every time he comes on he is making impacts. Yesterday he dominated the line out when he did

Ross - contepomi got injured in a semi and Johnny stepped up to show what he is about. Yesterday Ross did the same. The guy took two haymakers that were meant to put him out and he got up after both and slotted 3 pointers. Also his tackling is v. Impressive for a 10. Took down Sam Simmons at the line - massive performance yesterday

Porter - I think he is the new superman

[D4surfer]

Battlefield intelligence and chiselled emotions showed why Leinster are the smartest team in Europe

Neil Francis
Is their no accountability in journalism? Say whatever you want, make all kinds of predictions and wahay, start all over again.

Mike Ross caught him out really well a number of weeks ago about the abusive writing he has done about players - he is a disgrace in the language he uses in what I believe is more for the tabloid papers than a broadsheet

“The pitiful standard of the PRO14 means Leinster need a miracle against Chiefs”

Just a reminder of his headline from last week. I refuse to pay to read his drivel.

[LeinsterLeader]

Good stats breakdown here including player stats.

Keeping Simmonds to 13m in carries went a long way to winning this (Johnny Sexton had more). Conan and JVDF the big tacklers for us. All the back contributed to meters gained for us.

https://www.rugbypass.com/live/european ... 021/stats/

[Peg Leg]

Those two hits to the face on Byrne were a farce

[LeinsterLeader]

Those two hits to the face on Byrne were a farce

T'would seem quite a lot of other people thought so too

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/should-i ... al-exeter/

[OTT]

Reynal is a funny fish, he was super hot on infringing when forming a maul off a lineout drive during the 6 nations, I think he did us twice in try scoring positions once against Italy and against England, he also did England for it in the same game. Yesterday the Exeter try at the start of the second half was as clear a signature Reynal hotspot when Francis lead the formation of their maul despite being ahead of the man with the ball and he does nothing, like it was as clear as day even watching it live.
Anyway it didn’t effect the result but he’s really inconsistent in what he likes or doesn’t like, it must be tough to play a ref like that.

[wixfjord]

On the rewatch, there are three big stand out things we need to get right before semi imo.

- Luke needs to tighten up his passing and kicking in these massive pressure games. In first half yesterday he had two shocker passes, one of which led to Sexton getting mashed by Ewers, the other of which led to the Ross Byrne hit. Cannot afford that.

- Our backline defence has to improve. Toulouse/Clermont/Racing would rip us apart. Getting Ringer back in at 13 would go a long way, but there were positional errors that were shown up in first 10 mins, along with some really poor tackling.

- Our aerial game needs a lot of work. Larmour in particular is an issue here. Albeit this isn't as big a concern against a French side.

[Keith]

Reynal is a funny fish, he was super hot on infringing when forming a maul off a lineout drive during the 6 nations, I think he did us twice in try scoring positions once against Italy and against England, he also did England for it in the same game. Yesterday the Exeter try at the start of the second half was as clear a signature Reynal hotspot when Francis lead the formation of their maul despite being ahead of the man with the ball and he does nothing, like it was as clear as day even watching it live.
Anyway it didn’t effect the result but he’s really inconsistent in what he likes or doesn’t like, it must be tough to play a ref like that.

Thought Reynal was fine except for the high tackles, which I do have a bit of sympathy for him there. To be honest I'm glad now he didn't dish out a red or yellows as they've no excuses now.

[OTT]

Reynal is a funny fish, he was super hot on infringing when forming a maul off a lineout drive during the 6 nations, I think he did us twice in try scoring positions once against Italy and against England, he also did England for it in the same game. Yesterday the Exeter try at the start of the second half was as clear a signature Reynal hotspot when Francis lead the formation of their maul despite being ahead of the man with the ball and he does nothing, like it was as clear as day even watching it live.
Anyway it didn’t effect the result but he’s really inconsistent in what he likes or doesn’t like, it must be tough to play a ref like that.

Thought Reynal was fine except for the high tackles, which I do have a bit of sympathy for him there. To be honest I'm glad now he didn't dish out a red or yellows as they've no excuses now.

I agree with you actually but if we lost the game because of that try I’m talking about I’d be absolutely raging because he doesn’t allow teams do that at mauls, in the biggest games he penalises teams for doing what Exeter did but in this game he didn’t bother when it was clear as day what happened, I thought that very strange. Anyway as you say, there’s no excuses for anyone now. I’m still a bit hyped after the win.

[Keith]

Reynal is a funny fish, he was super hot on infringing when forming a maul off a lineout drive during the 6 nations, I think he did us twice in try scoring positions once against Italy and against England, he also did England for it in the same game. Yesterday the Exeter try at the start of the second half was as clear a signature Reynal hotspot when Francis lead the formation of their maul despite being ahead of the man with the ball and he does nothing, like it was as clear as day even watching it live.
Anyway it didn’t effect the result but he’s really inconsistent in what he likes or doesn’t like, it must be tough to play a ref like that.

Thought Reynal was fine except for the high tackles, which I do have a bit of sympathy for him there. To be honest I'm glad now he didn't dish out a red or yellows as they've no excuses now.

I agree with you actually but if we lost the game because of that try I’m talking about I’d be absolutely raging because he doesn’t allow teams do that at mauls, in the biggest games he penalises teams for doing what Exeter did but in this game he didn’t bother when it was clear as day what happened, I thought that very strange. Anyway as you say, there’s no excuses for anyone now. I’m still a bit hyped after the win.

Fair enough. I do think french refs in particular are very harsh on us with mauls in general but of course I'm completely biased there.

[wixfjord]

Also on the rewatch - Kelleher would've been up there as MOTM for me. He is some baller. I love how we're using his carrying ability in set plays too. The lineout move before HT was lovely.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Kelleher really has kicked on recently. I’ve obviously been skeptical about his throwing but I think he looks more comfortable now and I’d be delighted to be wrong about it always being an issue.

Thought Conan played well but when you see the stats he was phenomenal. Same thing happened after the England and Munster games, maybe I’ve just got a bit of a blind spot when it comes to him!

[wixfjord]

Conan really enjoyed the win too. Watch his reaction after the final two scrums

[ronk]

Watching Kelleher feels a little bit like watching a player in fast forward.