Leinster Squad 21-22

[wixfjord]

If all three of Leavy, Connors & VDF were fit tomorrow though Penny wouldn't be near a Leinster 23, never mind an Irish 23. That's a massive blocker if he wants to get into green.

[ronk]

If all three of Leavy, Connors & VDF were fit tomorrow though Penny wouldn't be near a Leinster 23, never mind an Irish 23. That's a massive blocker if he wants to get into green.

If he was playing in Ulster or Munster and those 3 were fit he wouldn't be near an Ireland squad either. Sean O'Brien could play 30 games next season for London Irish he won't. Penny will get over 15 games and 900 minutes if he stays fit, regardless of if everyone else is around.

We had Sean O'Brien, Leavy, vdF and Jordi Murphy at the same time for years. They didn't all play as much as they wanted, but none of them withered for lack of game time.

Playing for Leinster will only be a blocker for him if Faz wants it to be.

[mildlyinterested]

Pennys biggest blocker from intl caps will be his size.

[ronk]

Pennys biggest blocker from intl caps will be his size.

Maybe. I like good compact opensides in the Keith Gleeson mould. The big French packs often pick them. Especially when they balance with a big blindside.

[mildlyinterested]

Pennys biggest blocker from intl caps will be his size.

Maybe. I like good compact opensides in the Keith Gleeson mould. The big French packs often pick them. Especially when they balance with a big blindside.

You might like them.. very little to suggest Farrell does.

[ronk]

Pennys biggest blocker from intl caps will be his size.

Maybe. I like good compact opensides in the Keith Gleeson mould. The big French packs often pick them. Especially when they balance with a big blindside.

You might like them.. very little to suggest Farrell does.

I'm not convinced yet that he doesn't. He's picked POM there, mostly used vdF and appears to have preferred Connors briefly but hard to tell with injuries.

I suppose it's natural to be suspicious that an league legend wouldn't go for that type of specialist. Penny is still young and new enough that not using him is more likely explained by other reasons. Josh isn't exactly huge either.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

It’s not like Farrell has ignored any smaller 7s, there weren’t any.

Herring isn’t the biggest but he likes him. He could have picked Cooney over smaller scrumhalves, he’s given Billy Burns a chance, could have picked Tom Daly over Hume at the weekend, could have not backed Larmour or Earls in favour of bigger players.

I’m not seeing much evidence that Farrell is that fussed about size.

[ronk]

There’s Cloete, I suppose…

I agree. Two other examples would be Gatland picking Aki but leaving Ringrose and bringing Beirne and leaving POM.

Maybe the size thing is coming from how he seems to like putting McCluskey and Farrell together.

[Oldschool]

Great discussion on SP.
SP has everything you'd want in a 7 and a bit more besides, leadership for example.
His size is only an issue if you need him as a frequent lineout option.
Surprisingly he's 6' tall but not surprisingly he's 102kg.
He's built like a tank and knows how to use it.
There are three things (at least) that I'd like to see more of from Leinster and Irish players in general.
1. Better support play.
2. Better passing.
3. More grunt in the pick and go sense.
SP does all of those things well but he excels at number three.
Leaving Leavy out of the equation it's between SP and JVDF. VDF, probably at his peak now, has the edge at the moment however SP is very young with loads more to come.

[ronk]

Penny is 21. He's 7 years younger than vdF and 4 younger than Connors.

I didn't want him to get a taste of international rugby now for the sake of now, I wanted him to get ready for when we need him.

Ireland have usually had one openside available lately.

[cormac]

Given that we've no games scheduled in November I don't suppose there's any chance that we might try to organise a game against any of the touring sides?

[ronk]

Id say to there's already something pencilled in, but in the current environment it's easier to announce it later than to announce it an then change it.

[Dave Cahill]

Given that we've no games scheduled in November I don't suppose there's any chance that we might try to organise a game against any of the touring sides?

While we'd all love to watch Leinster take on one of the Southern Hemisphere giants or Japan, there are a number of factors that make it unlikely.

It wouldn't be a full strength Leinster team, none of our international squad members would be available. So unless it were one of the top tier sides, would there be much interest in watching Leinster Light take on Tonga midweek when you could watch Ireland take on New Zealand that weekend? People have limited incomes and we could still be dealing with limited attendances both of which could make the game unviable financially. And if it were one of the top tier sides, well they need paying to show up, half a million euro is the going match fee for the All Blacks. If that kind of money were available, I'd much rather it were spent on playing staff. 2008 should be a salutory lesson when organising one of these games. Leaving aside the absolute disaster of the organisation of the game, in 2008 Munster brought the All Blacks to Thomond Park, we brought Rocky Elson, Isa Nacewa and CJ vd Linde to the RDS. Rua Tipoki suffered a serious injury in the game that effectively finished his Munster career and was a major contributory factor in their loss in Croke Park.

[wixfjord]

So you're saying there's a chance?

[cormac]

Given that we've no games scheduled in November I don't suppose there's any chance that we might try to organise a game against any of the touring sides?

While we'd all love to watch Leinster take on one of the Southern Hemisphere giants or Japan, there are a number of factors that make it unlikely.

It wouldn't be a full strength Leinster team, none of our international squad members would be available. So unless it were one of the top tier sides, would there be much interest in watching Leinster Light take on Tonga midweek when you could watch Ireland take on New Zealand that weekend? People have limited incomes and we could still be dealing with limited attendances both of which could make the game unviable financially. And if it were one of the top tier sides, well they need paying to show up, half a million euro is the going match fee for the All Blacks. If that kind of money were available, I'd much rather it were spent on playing staff. 2008 should be a salutory lesson when organising one of these games. Leaving aside the absolute disaster of the organisation of the game, in 2008 Munster brought the All Blacks to Thomond Park, we brought Rocky Elson, Isa Nacewa and CJ vd Linde to the RDS. Rua Tipoki suffered a serious injury in the game that effectively finished his Munster career and was a major contributory factor in their loss in Croke Park.

I'm pretty much just wondering out loud on the topic so if it's totally pie in the sky these days, then fair enough.

Obviously I realise that we'd be without the international players and I had a good inkling that attracting the All Blacks would be an expense too far. On the flip side we've currently no games at all for five weeks between Rd.6 of the URC (29/30 October) and Rd.7 (3/4 December) with the chance that it'll be even longer between home games. We're already going to have fewer home games next season due to the restructure of the season so was wondering whether it would be cost effective to stage a home game against the likes of Argentina or Japan. Would we get 10k+ for a midweek fixture of that nature in November? Would the IRFU object on the basis that it might affect their ticket sales for the international matches against such opposition?

[mildlyinterested]

Mark Hernan pictured with returning squad players today.

[Morf]

Not someone you were too confident about getting an academy place iirc.

[mildlyinterested]

Not someone you were too confident about getting an academy place iirc.

yep, he wasn't included in last years intake, but looks like he joined sometime during the season.

[mildlyinterested]

good to see Brian Deeny looks to be back fit to start pre-season.

[mildlyinterested]

Hugh Hogan will depart Leinster Rugby after eight and a half years to take up a role with Welsh outfit Scarlets.