Leinster v Bulls Aviva Stadium 5.15 Sat 25th Sept TG4

[Oldschoolsocks]

Ledge

[enby]

Ref was an absolute disgrace. Penalty count of 5-12 says it all.

Good performance against a limited side. Set piece worked well although throwing every time to Ryan might be read by a more alert opposition. Bit lucky to win lineout for Tracy try but outstanding skill by Ruddock to claim the ball. VDF was excellent, lets hope he has an injury free season. Moloney had a very good game and Sheehan did well although if Joe was watching he must have been unimpressed by the wayward offloads. Sexton mixed it up well and took it lovely and flat. Decent bench and that new lad who came on at tight head held his own, he is the image of Healy!

All things considered, it was a good win. Hopefully the Bulls will get their act together as that team today will not add to the quality of the League and they won't get such a generous ref again

[riocard911]

Healys first scrum a penalty.

How much of a legend is this man?

That scrum was for me the highpoint of the match. Unbelievable! Go Ciano!!!

[leinsterfan100]

What's the story with the bars being closed....is that part of the restrictions ?

[curates_egg]

What happened to Doris? Not head again I hope?

A bit worrying for the league that we just hammered the best side in South Africa, given one of the main (unspoken) reasons for bringing them in was to stop us beating everyone.
Could we let Ireland play in the UCProCelticMagners and we swap for the World Cup?

[Oldschoolsocks]

Ref was an absolute disgrace. Penalty count of 5-12 says it all.

Good performance against a limited side. Set piece worked well although throwing every time to Ryan might be read by a more alert opposition. Bit lucky to win lineout for Tracy try but outstanding skill by Ruddock to claim the ball. VDF was excellent, lets hope he has an injury free season. Moloney had a very good game and Sheehan did well although if Joe was watching he must have been unimpressed by the wayward offloads. Sexton mixed it up well and took it lovely and flat. Decent bench and that new lad who came on at tight head held his own, he is the image of Healy!

All things considered, it was a good win. Hopefully the Bulls will get their act together as that team today will not add to the quality of the League and they won't get such a generous ref again

But we didn’t throw to Ryan every time. Ruddock and Molony were hit too, no?

[CiaranIrl]

What happened to Doris? Not head again I hope?

A bit worrying for the league that we just hammered the best side in South Africa, given one of the main (unspoken) reasons for bringing them in was to stop us beating everyone.
Could we let Ireland play in the UCProCelticMagners and we swap for the World Cup?

Calf injury according to the 42 post match article. I didn't see (was on the opposite side of the pitch) but like you, was concerned about the same thing.

Although with them going on about Devin Toner and all, hopefully they aren't wrong about why he went off!

https://www.the42.ie/leinster-bulls-rep ... 2-Sep2021/

"After Devin Toner rose into the clouds to claim a line-out on the left-flank, replacement hooker James Tracy..."

[alanair]

Ref was an absolute disgrace. Penalty count of 5-12 says it all.

Good performance against a limited side. Set piece worked well although throwing every time to Ryan might be read by a more alert opposition. Bit lucky to win lineout for Tracy try but outstanding skill by Ruddock to claim the ball. VDF was excellent, lets hope he has an injury free season. Moloney had a very good game and Sheehan did well although if Joe was watching he must have been unimpressed by the wayward offloads. Sexton mixed it up well and took it lovely and flat. Decent bench and that new lad who came on at tight head held his own, he is the image of Healy!

All things considered, it was a good win. Hopefully the Bulls will get their act together as that team today will not add to the quality of the League and they won't get such a generous ref again

I’m not sure actually if he’s a bad ref or not. His problem is that he doesn’t feel it necessary , to use the secondary signal , to indicate to the watching crowd, what the penalties are actually for. I’m sure he indicates the ‘what fors ‘ to the players , but that is not good enough.
I was mystified as to several of the penalties against us ( mainly due to the fact that they were the other end of the pitch) so was depending on him to indicate … but alas nothing…

The referee managers should have a word with him

[molloyjh]

Ref was an absolute disgrace. Penalty count of 5-12 says it all.

Good performance against a limited side. Set piece worked well although throwing every time to Ryan might be read by a more alert opposition. Bit lucky to win lineout for Tracy try but outstanding skill by Ruddock to claim the ball. VDF was excellent, lets hope he has an injury free season. Moloney had a very good game and Sheehan did well although if Joe was watching he must have been unimpressed by the wayward offloads. Sexton mixed it up well and took it lovely and flat. Decent bench and that new lad who came on at tight head held his own, he is the image of Healy!

All things considered, it was a good win. Hopefully the Bulls will get their act together as that team today will not add to the quality of the League and they won't get such a generous ref again

I’m not sure actually if he’s a bad ref or not. His problem is that he doesn’t feel it necessary , to use the secondary signal , to indicate to the watching crowd, what the penalties are actually for. I’m sure he indicates the ‘what fors ‘ to the players , but that is not good enough.
I was mystified as to several of the penalties against us ( mainly due to the fact that they were the other end of the pitch) so was depending on him to indicate … but alas nothing…

The referee managers should have a word with him

Yeah, I wasn’t overly impressed with him leaving the stadium but having watched it back here now he was fine. A few minor issues but hard to argue with too much at all. He was grand.

[wixfjord]

Sheehan's throwing is really good. Lovely flat trajectory.

[riocard911]

Ref was an absolute disgrace. Penalty count of 5-12 says it all.

Good performance against a limited side. Set piece worked well although throwing every time to Ryan might be read by a more alert opposition. Bit lucky to win lineout for Tracy try but outstanding skill by Ruddock to claim the ball. VDF was excellent, lets hope he has an injury free season. Moloney had a very good game and Sheehan did well although if Joe was watching he must have been unimpressed by the wayward offloads. Sexton mixed it up well and took it lovely and flat. Decent bench and that new lad who came on at tight head held his own, he is the image of Healy!

All things considered, it was a good win. Hopefully the Bulls will get their act together as that team today will not add to the quality of the League and they won't get such a generous ref again

I’m not sure actually if he’s a bad ref or not. His problem is that he doesn’t feel it necessary , to use the secondary signal , to indicate to the watching crowd, what the penalties are actually for. I’m sure he indicates the ‘what fors ‘ to the players , but that is not good enough.
I was mystified as to several of the penalties against us ( mainly due to the fact that they were the other end of the pitch) so was depending on him to indicate … but alas nothing…

The referee managers should have a word with him

Yeah, I wasn’t overly impressed with him leaving the stadium but having watched it back here now he was fine. A few minor issues but hard to argue with too much at all. He was grand.

I thought it was a relief, that he didn't watch the big screen for every incident, but rather let the TMOs check, while he get the game going.

[Ruckedtobits]

It seems like I may be in a small minority in thinking that Leinster's performance against the Bulls was an excellent display of good coaching and execution and that the Bulls will be major contestants in this competition.

The experiments of Porter & Healy are a work in progress but both started well in their new roles. Scrums are an important element of the game but only a small proportion of the game time. Both of their open-field contributions were stellar and enhanced the overall capacity of the Leinster pack.

Sexton and McGrath at half-back were a revelation. Their short-passing interplay allowed McGrath to demonstrate his excellent open-field running in a manner not seen since his under-age years. When the Leinster mid-field and back-row become attuned to what he can do and establish the link with him, he could become as lethal as Dupont.

Ross Molony has advanced to this point in his career by the long route. But along the way he has gathered habits and skills which could make him an invaluable Squad member in a successful European team. He'll never be 6' 8" and 120kg, but he's intelligent, a good line-out operator and a really smart forward with excellent hands and an awareness of what's happening around him. One of his offloads was superb and at least two of his body length dives to retrieve balls on the ground were extracts from back-row training manuals.

Dan Sheehan has improved his throwing to a point where Leinster can now expect to win ball consistently at 5/6 as well as at the front. His scrum work will benefit significantly from even 40 minutes against Bismark du Plessis and he looked comfortable with his new prop combination. However, it is ball-carrying and openfield running which is his USP. He has acceleration, pace and natural balance which allows him to make yardage gains far beyond the first point of contact from a tackler and that will only grow in importance as the weeks progress.

I could continue through the higher profile stars with highlights of their contributions and certainly, Keenan, Lowe, Ringrose, Frawley, Porter, Ryan, JVdF, Ruddock, Doris & Deegan made significant contributions. But it was the contributions and combinations that we hadn't seen before which left the deepest impression.

The Bulls showed for significant periods why they have been a successful team in SA. Given possession by opponents they can keep it for long periods and usually score. Leinster's try-line defence was effective in general, but the South Africans found spaces on their left wing which should have resulted in at least two tries from the opportunities they created.

The national media will downplay this win as "same ol, same ol", but it was a lot more than that and I'm looking forward to watching the further development of Leinster as this group grow in confidence and competence.

[Blueberry]

I’m not sure actually if he’s a bad ref or not. His problem is that he doesn’t feel it necessary , to use the secondary signal , to indicate to the watching crowd, what the penalties are actually for. I’m sure he indicates the ‘what fors ‘ to the players , but that is not good enough.
I was mystified as to several of the penalties against us ( mainly due to the fact that they were the other end of the pitch) so was depending on him to indicate … but alas nothing…

The referee managers should have a word with him

Yeah, I wasn’t overly impressed with him leaving the stadium but having watched it back here now he was fine. A few minor issues but hard to argue with too much at all. He was grand.

I thought it was a relief, that he didn't watch the big screen for every incident, but rather let the TMOs check, while he get the game going.

Agreed, thought he was fine and less of a showman with TMO faffing and endless conversations about decisions. More of this please. TMO made quick calls too and just got on with it.

[Blueberry]

It seems like I may be in a small minority in thinking that Leinster's performance against the Bulls was an excellent display of good coaching and execution and that the Bulls will be major contestants in this competition.

The experiments of Porter & Healy are a work in progress but both started well in their new roles. Scrums are an important element of the game but only a small proportion of the game time. Both of their open-field contributions were stellar and enhanced the overall capacity of the Leinster pack.

Sexton and McGrath at half-back were a revelation. Their short-passing interplay allowed McGrath to demonstrate his excellent open-field running in a manner not seen since his under-age years. When the Leinster mid-field and back-row become attuned to what he can do and establish the link with him, he could become as lethal as Dupont.

Ross Molony has advanced to this point in his career by the long route. But along the way he has gathered habits and skills which could make him an invaluable Squad member in a successful European team. He'll never be 6' 8" and 120kg, but he's intelligent, a good line-out operator and a really smart forward with excellent hands and an awareness of what's happening around him. One of his offloads was superb and at least two of his body length dives to retrieve balls on the ground were extracts from back-row training manuals.

Dan Sheehan has improved his throwing to a point where Leinster can now expect to win ball consistently at 5/6 as well as at the front. His scrum work will benefit significantly from even 40 minutes against Bismark du Plessis and he looked comfortable with his new prop combination. However, it is ball-carrying and openfield running which is his USP. He has acceleration, pace and natural balance which allows him to make yardage gains far beyond the first point of contact from a tackler and that will only grow in importance as the weeks progress.

I could continue through the higher profile stars with highlights of their contributions and certainly, Keenan, Lowe, Ringrose, Frawley, Porter, Ryan, JVdF, Ruddock, Doris & Deegan made significant contributions. But it was the contributions and combinations that we hadn't seen before which left the deepest impression.

The Bulls showed for significant periods why they have been a successful team in SA. Given possession by opponents they can keep it for long periods and usually score. Leinster's try-line defence was effective in general, but the South Africans found spaces on their left wing which should have resulted in at least two tries from the opportunities they created.

The national media will downplay this win as "same ol, same ol", but it was a lot more than that and I'm looking forward to watching the further development of Leinster as this group grow in confidence and competence.

Good post this and lots to be excited about. Sexton's class is immense and yes Luke had a super game, his trail running was super to watch. Mentions too for our new prop , solid game and really impressed with Ross Molony, bulked up. Think this bulls team will win many games, they have huge physical lumps but we were on a different level in terms of fitness and variety. The Bulls will sort their lineout which was a huge factor too.

Suspect Leocaster will be happy men today.

[riocard911]

It seems like I may be in a small minority in thinking that Leinster's performance against the Bulls was an excellent display of good coaching and execution and that the Bulls will be major contestants in this competition.

The experiments of Porter & Healy are a work in progress but both started well in their new roles. Scrums are an important element of the game but only a small proportion of the game time. Both of their open-field contributions were stellar and enhanced the overall capacity of the Leinster pack.

Sexton and McGrath at half-back were a revelation. Their short-passing interplay allowed McGrath to demonstrate his excellent open-field running in a manner not seen since his under-age years. When the Leinster mid-field and back-row become attuned to what he can do and establish the link with him, he could become as lethal as Dupont.

Ross Molony has advanced to this point in his career by the long route. But along the way he has gathered habits and skills which could make him an invaluable Squad member in a successful European team. He'll never be 6' 8" and 120kg, but he's intelligent, a good line-out operator and a really smart forward with excellent hands and an awareness of what's happening around him. One of his offloads was superb and at least two of his body length dives to retrieve balls on the ground were extracts from back-row training manuals.

Dan Sheehan has improved his throwing to a point where Leinster can now expect to win ball consistently at 5/6 as well as at the front. His scrum work will benefit significantly from even 40 minutes against Bismark du Plessis and he looked comfortable with his new prop combination. However, it is ball-carrying and openfield running which is his USP. He has acceleration, pace and natural balance which allows him to make yardage gains far beyond the first point of contact from a tackler and that will only grow in importance as the weeks progress.

I could continue through the higher profile stars with highlights of their contributions and certainly, Keenan, Lowe, Ringrose, Frawley, Porter, Ryan, JVdF, Ruddock, Doris & Deegan made significant contributions. But it was the contributions and combinations that we hadn't seen before which left the deepest impression.

The Bulls showed for significant periods why they have been a successful team in SA. Given possession by opponents they can keep it for long periods and usually score. Leinster's try-line defence was effective in general, but the South Africans found spaces on their left wing which should have resulted in at least two tries from the opportunities they created.

The national media will downplay this win as "same ol, same ol", but it was a lot more than that and I'm looking forward to watching the further development of Leinster as this group grow in confidence and competence.

I concur with everything above. Sure, we got off to a brilliant start, but our D, whenever we had the Bulls in our 22, was seriously impressive. Also thought Deegan put in a very good shift, when he came on early for Doris. Michael Ala'alatoa looks like he could prove to be a very clever signing.

[ronk]

I think we surprised them and built a nice lead. They adapted for a bit then came back at us but couldn't break our defence. We pulled away later.

They're a good side and they'll be better at home. It was a good game to be back for.

[wixfjord]

Also thought Deegan put in a very good shift, when he came on early for Doris. Michael Ala'alatoa looks like he could prove to be a very clever signing.

Yep, agree on both. Deegan looks bigger but still has that pace and step that sets him apart from other 8s. That break was beautiful.

On that showing, Ala'alatoa is a step up on Bent (as much as it's blasphemy to say that) and will be a Euro 23 man.

[wixfjord]

The break from Deegan comes from scrum pen around the 54 min mark. Worth a watch again. Lovely feet to leave a guy grasping at thin air, Ruddock's pass goes to ground but Frawley scoops and keeps the move going.

Some nice carries from Ala'alatoa after that too.

Ends up with ball being suspiciously spilled on the Bulls side out of a ruck.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I liked how comfortable Big Mike was at first receiver and linking with someone looping around. Sheehan just has to be in our first choice 23 now. They have a different shape but his play reminds me a lot of Cody Taylor.

JR looked sharp, really like when he’s aggressive on opposition ball. Hopefully Doris’ injury isn’t bad, he looked to be in great nick but Deegan was excellent off the bench. Pity he dropped the ball when he got pole axed that time, it was a huge hit but his ball protection was sloppy against Quins too.

Luke must have run close to fullback type numbers. We were obviously looking for inside balls but they showed how flat Sexton was playing too.

[wixfjord]

One of Adamson's calls that was total bullshit was the obstruction one on JGP.

He didn't move at all, Bulls player ran into him.