Connacht v Leinster Rainbow Cup Sat 8/5 19.35

[Twist]

Let Fardy take the conversion

[Blueberry]

An interesting game purely because of its proximity to the LAR game.

Only sentiment I had was chalk and cheese......the Maul was just silly stuff. To go 16-0 down as we literally seemed to forget how to play rugby for 15 minutes and then rock in 4 tries in a few minutes when we remembered how to play rugby is just silly.

It is an entirely different standard and is gonna to be an ongoing problem for Leinster. Not sure there is any easy fix.

[Dave Cahill]

This is a bit of a forward battering.

Nice to see, but again you'd have to wonder how these types of league games serve Leinster when you look at last week.

Even the most ardent Pro14/Rainbow Cup booster would have to admit it's a totally different level.

It’s a week late. But nice to see an improvement happening in areas where weakness was exposed.

Hard to know if there was an improvement orjust a significantly lower standard of opposition who would not be able to expose the same weaknesses..

Having said that, the attitude was great

[ronk]

An interesting game purely because of its proximity to the LAR game.

Only sentiment I had was chalk and cheese......the Maul was just silly stuff. To go 16-0 down as we literally seemed to forget how to play rugby for 15 minutes and then rock in 4 tries in a few minutes when we remembered how to play rugby is just silly.

It is an entirely different standard and is gonna to be an ongoing problem for Leinster. Not sure there is any easy fix.

There are 6 countries in the Pro14, the disruption this year was severe in ways that didn’t affect French clubs with their large central TV deal. Standards dropped this year, there isn’t a lot we can do about the opposition in the short term. Long term 4 of the best and most physical sides in the world are joining the Pro16.

This wasn’t a weak Connacht pack, they had a fair bit of experience and I don’t think people expected the game to turn the way it did. It’s not like our maul does that to them at will.

[Ruckedtobits]

After 10 minutes, I feared the end of an epock was in view. But then, without any external influence, the leaders called a halt (and Murphy started to apply the laws), and much of my confidence was restored.

But yet it was a lesser standard; it was a line-out maul we could boss; it was a mid-field we could penetrate with guile and without physique and it was opponents against whom we could restore confidence on the hoof.

Those 10 minutes somewhat haunt me. Connacht looked at ease on the ball. Our normally aggressive defenders like Penny, Murphy, Conan, Tracy and even McGrath all fell off tackles and made decisions like Under 9's. Our back-line depth anticipated ball from every breakdown would emerge only on our side and our forwards assumed that merely arriving at a breakdown would ensure that the ball would be placed on a salver for our scrum-half.

Maybe we need to respect all opponents a little more until we have established the ground rules of competition. Perhaps we should remember that you must earn the right to attack wide in any competition and having the ability to do so is not a licence.

Pleased by half-time that much had been corrected, at least for this level of contest. Looking forward to seeing whether yesterday was a time of learning or just a blip.

[outcast eddie]

Was RB taken off because of Crawley's injury?

Worrying indication on the state of our stocks a out-half if so.

[munster#1]

This game really highlights the strength, or lack of in the league.

That was one of the strongest Leinster teams that Connacht have faced in a while, and it looked like men against boys.

Given the commentary surrounding the announcement Munster’s similar team, and the digs at lack of development, it was strange to see Leinster go so strong for that game.
Is this a statement from Leinster that they are going full bore for the Rainbow cup, or was that a once off to try to make a statement and prevent 3 losses in a row?

[OTT]

This game really highlights the strength, or lack of in the league.

That was one of the strongest Leinster teams that Connacht have faced in a while, and it looked like men against boys.

Given the commentary surrounding the announcement Munster’s similar team, and the digs at lack of development, it was strange to see Leinster go so strong for that game.
Is this a statement from Leinster that they are going full bore for the Rainbow cup, or was that a once off to try to make a statement and prevent 3 losses in a row?

10 changes to the starting team from last weekend but great that it’s enough to make Munster fans sh!t their pants that Leinster might come for their Rainbow Cup.

Full Bore: full speed or maximum capacity...not quite. Long season but you are getting very lazy.

[FLIP]

Development is a full time job at Leinster, Vs the afterthought it is at Munster.

[munster#1]

This game really highlights the strength, or lack of in the league.

That was one of the strongest Leinster teams that Connacht have faced in a while, and it looked like men against boys.

Given the commentary surrounding the announcement Munster’s similar team, and the digs at lack of development, it was strange to see Leinster go so strong for that game.
Is this a statement from Leinster that they are going full bore for the Rainbow cup, or was that a once off to try to make a statement and prevent 3 losses in a row?

10 changes to the starting team from last weekend but great that it’s enough to make Munster fans sh!t their pants that Leinster might come for their Rainbow Cup.

Full Bore: full speed or maximum capacity...not quite. Long season but you are getting very lazy.

I don’t think anyone is shitting it over this tournament.
If the Pro14 is the Mickey Mouse league then this is the mini mouse cup.

Just curious to see what Leinster fans think will happen as I was a bit surprised that Leinster picked such a strong 23, but perhaps you are not.
No need to try to take offence from my post as none was meant at all.

If Leinster do take it serious, then at least it offers a bit of credence to the cup.

[Oldschool]

Hmmm Baird wasn't great there.

Nor Keenan, but thats due to a lack of experience for both. Keenan well full tilt across and got stepped very easily - Baird went too high and focussed on the ball instead of just stopping the man

An old bull and a young bull are standing on a hill looking down on the cows. The young bull says, "lets run down there and f%~k a cow". "Hold on" says the older bull, "lets walk down there and f%~k all of them" (Robert Duvall in Colors)

A good joke (not to mention advice ) but in circulation long before Duvall's version.

[ronk]

This game really highlights the strength, or lack of in the league.

That was one of the strongest Leinster teams that Connacht have faced in a while, and it looked like men against boys.

Given the commentary surrounding the announcement Munster’s similar team, and the digs at lack of development, it was strange to see Leinster go so strong for that game.
Is this a statement from Leinster that they are going full bore for the Rainbow cup, or was that a once off to try to make a statement and prevent 3 losses in a row?

10 changes to the starting team from last weekend but great that it’s enough to make Munster fans sh!t their pants that Leinster might come for their Rainbow Cup.

Full Bore: full speed or maximum capacity...not quite. Long season but you are getting very lazy.

I don’t think anyone is shitting it over this tournament.
If the Pro14 is the Mickey Mouse league then this is the mini mouse cup.

Just curious to see what Leinster fans think will happen as I was a bit surprised that Leinster picked such a strong 23, but perhaps you are not.
No need to try to take offence from my post as none was meant at all.

If Leinster do take it serious, then at least it offers a bit of credence to the cup.

That comes across as sexist, which I don't think was your intention. The Pro14 isn't the Heineken Cup but it's not an easy tournament and there are good sides.

Connacht picked a strong side, Leinster rotated and even the positions where we didn't were positions with injuries in the depth chart. Leinster needed a bonus point having lost the first game.

[Serb]

Hard to know what way we will go with the Rainbow Cup from this point on. When we played Munster, we had something better to play for, so we played second string for the most part, only really keeping fits team players who needed game time. We rarely go that weak, and usually mix in a lot more first choice players.

As it turns out, that was a bad decision, so now we have nothing better to play for, so I’d probably expect us to return to the usual pattern of mixing in experience with youth / squad players like we did last night.

[Oldschool]

10 changes to the starting team from last weekend but great that it’s enough to make Munster fans sh!t their pants that Leinster might come for their Rainbow Cup.

Full Bore: full speed or maximum capacity...not quite. Long season but you are getting very lazy.

I don’t think anyone is shitting it over this tournament.
If the Pro14 is the Mickey Mouse league then this is the mini mouse cup.

Just curious to see what Leinster fans think will happen as I was a bit surprised that Leinster picked such a strong 23, but perhaps you are not.
No need to try to take offence from my post as none was meant at all.

If Leinster do take it serious, then at least it offers a bit of credence to the cup.

That comes across as sexist, which I don't think was your intention. The Pro14 isn't the Heineken Cup but it's not an easy tournament and there are good sides.

Connacht picked a strong side, Leinster rotated and even the positions where we didn't were positions with injuries in the depth chart. Leinster needed a bonus point having lost the first game.

Don't think it was sexist either but sometimes you have to dumb down the message so that the intended audience understands it.

[ronk]

There's also an unintended audience.

[Oldschool]

There's also an unintended audience.

Dumbing it down should cover that.

[FLIP]

Are there any highlights of this game anywhere? Nothing from Pro14 Twitter or Leinster.

[ronk]

It's on TG4 player in full

[Blue Man]

The first 10 minutes was calamitous, silly penalties, unforced errors and lack of intensity. In fairness, the pack upped the aggression at the breakdown with some good counter-rucking and poaching, with Murphy prominent in a lot of the good work. For all of Penny’s exciting running, he is weak at the ruck (attack and defence) and this was particularly evident to me when VdF came on, watching them side by side, it’s clear that Penny has a lot to learn and a long way to go if he wants to be an international class openside (let’s ignore the no. 8 nonsense!).

The passing in the backs and running lines was impressive at times. In particular, I liked Frawley as a second 5-8. However, his injury profile is concerning, I hope he has the durability for professional rugby.

Connacht were soft, particularly up front and we were able to bully them, most notably with our maul.
I’ve consistently posted on this forum that, beating up physically weaker teams in the Pro1X is not adequate preparation for the business end of the ERC. I think we should be looking to develop a more expansive game. The Second half against Connacht was a bit rudderless but we could still beat them up and grab a few maul tries which is disappointing as what I would much rather see us do is develop continuity and control, as opposed to resorting to the maul.

Towards the end of the match, there was a complete lack of structure, loosing Frawley and Byrne didn’t help; then once Luke (who didn’t have his best game) went off it descended into farce with a complete lack of any control at half back.

So in summary, good resilience to come back from a shocking start, some good aggression from the pack and nice passing in the backs but a disjointed performance. That it was still enough to put 50 points on Connacht is concerning for the League. The sooner we play the Saffas on a regular basis, the better.

[Flash Gordon]

Funny in some ways, but it wasn’t a classy thing they did.

Maybe things have changed over the years, but it was always traditional to let a retiring foward have a kick in his last game, especially if he wa a real clubman.

That's right, I remember Kieran Dawson taking a kick for Ulster and I think Bakkies Botha for the Barbarians. I was at the game in Galway when Muldoon kicked, don't think anyone was offended by that it was more the hammering we took before the kick that bothered me!