Leinster v Dragons, Rodney Parade, Sunday 3rd of October at 2pm, RTE

[riocard911]

No reason to panic re 10, IMO. Harry is the heir apparent; but for a few unlucky breaks - e.g. the warm-up with de brother before the Northampton game last season - he'd be further. I'm confident, that he'll come good. And we've Frawley as back-up.

[FLIP]

Give Ringer the captaincy, Ryan not proving great as a captain at senior level, its like watching a bad POM impersonation glowering at referees & posturing, not enough leadership.

Sounds like a very good POM impression to me

[cormac]

Posters not giving Dragons much credit, they play like this for the rest of the season they’ll surprise a few people. They made the breakdown a complete mess, once you do that its game on. Their defence 13 against 15 was fantastic and not getting the credit it deserves. Much smarter in terms of adapting to the referee too.
I am a huge fan but RB had a complete shocker, may well have blown his chances of Irish involvement this season. I’d go with Frawley ahead of him never mind his brother on this form.
In mitigation the handling conditions were poor, but no team has a right to win, has to be earned. Team not at the right pitch mentally yesterday, that’s on Leo & Co IMO. Bad day at the office for them too.
Give Ringer the captaincy, Ryan not proving great as a captain at senior level, its like watching a bad POM impersonation glowering at referees & posturing, not enough leadership.

I think one of the reasons that the Dragons aren't getting much credit is that they offered even less than we did in attack. They defended well and pressured us in possession but I can't recall them even getting a sniff of a try

[fourthirtythree]

I think Dragons will be angry with themselves they didn't win, so I don't think I'm giving them too much or too little credit. They didn't win despite how bad we were so they are right to be angry

[Oldschoolsocks]

I'm really worried by James Ryan's captaincy, he has an awful lot to learn before he becomes an effective captain at any level.



btw - who is coaching the pack at the moment? and why the f%~k are the rucks not being resourced properly?

[curates_egg]

Give Ringer the captaincy, Ryan not proving great as a captain at senior level, its like watching a bad POM impersonation glowering at referees & posturing, not enough leadership.

Sounds like a very good POM impression to me

His work has also been a lot more unseen over the past season too!

[riocard911]

Give Ringer the captaincy, Ryan not proving great as a captain at senior level, its like watching a bad POM impersonation glowering at referees & posturing, not enough leadership.

Sounds like a very good POM impression to me

His work has also been a lot more unseen over the past season too!

"Unseen" only by the match officials. The rest of us can see PO'M flopping all over the ball at rucktime incessantly.

[Blue Man]

Was it 6 dropped balls for R Baird?

I counted five but he was only on for 17 minutes, a few more minutes and he would surely have cracked the big six

[the spoofer]

Was it 6 dropped balls for R Baird?

I counted five but he was only on for 17 minutes, a few more minutes and he would surely have cracked the big six

Did you include the dropped lineouts?

[leinsterforever]

I only saw about 10 minutes of the game, but what I would say is that if they're trying to play a slightly different way - as Ryan seemed to indicate in some pre-match comments - then it can take time to get cohesiveness. I remember reading the Scarlets' forum during the 2016/17 season and they were distinctly unimpressed with how their team was performing. And then obviously everything clicked for them around play-off time.

[ronk]

That was shocking. Parts of the game were functioning but the errors were perfectly times to rob momentum. It was one of those games where one breakthrough score would have got us back in gear and we would have been able to pull away.

There was one stage where I was crying out for us to score a drop goal just to get things moving.

It wasn't even about changing up tactics, it was just getting out of a funk.

Yeah, at one point yesterday in the second half we got a penalty about 40 out and 10 in from touch - a tricky enough kick in the conditions it must be said - but I was just praying that we'd go for the points, just to act as a disrupter. (we didn't, we kicked for the corner, lost the lineout yadda yadda yadda)

16 visits to the Dragons 22. 13 turnovers, 2 penalties conceded and a try scored (and that was against 14).
https://www.the42.ie/leinster-dragons-b ... 8-Oct2021/

You don't play badly in other areas when you get 16 visits to the 22 and concede 6 points total, and one of those was for their scrumhalf throwing the ball at Baird on the ground.

It's normally a strength, so it's fixable.

On one hand I admire the doggedness which kept us going at it when it hadn't worked. Really I just want us to be smarter and more efficient.

[Blueberry]

I only saw about 10 minutes of the game, but what I would say is that if they're trying to play a slightly different way - as Ryan seemed to indicate in some pre-match comments - then it can take time to get cohesiveness. I remember reading the Scarlets' forum during the 2016/17 season and they were distinctly unimpressed with how their team was performing. And then obviously everything clicked for them around play-off time.

You lucky lucky b*stard only having to sit through 10 minutes of it....

[Ruckedtobits]

Leinster Management will undoubtedly have pencilled in teams for each of the initial block of five games, so what to do now? Do they radically revise those team-sheets? Do they merely tinker at the edges or do they give that Dragons Squad the opportunity to redeem themselves?

Game selection, with significantly fewer games in the schedule, is more important than ever before. Without an A competition, getting sufficient games of appropriate quality for c. 55 players is going to be a nightmare anyway for Management and significant revisions in those selection plans could see some players get little or no senior opportunities.

The immediate requirement is to get the ship back on course, however that is achieved. Getting a high-quality performance and ideally five match points, must be the target for the Zebre game. Does that mean bringing in J10 immediately or does Ross B (JGP, Conor O'Brien etc al) get a chance for redemption, recognising that leaving him (them) to stew with the memory of the Dragons horror show sucking confidence out by the day, may not bring a long-term gain?

These are the days when a Management group earn their corn. It won't be the first time that Cullen, Lancaster, Contepomi or McBride had to deal with the consequences of a totally unexpected team no-show. However, despite the abject performance, only one League point was left behind and there are five more on offer this weekend. So getting a team on the pitch who can recover the Squad confidence is probably the most important objective for the week.

Looking forward to watching how they go about getting the group back up on the horse. As Heaslip said during analysis on Sunday, they haven't all become bad players in a week. Longer term issues such as team captaincy and group leadership can be given more time to resolve or solve, for now the priority to getting a top-quality performance and five points.

[riocard911]

On a positive note: as far as I am aware, Leinster are the only team to have played 160 minutes in the URC without conceding a try!

[wixfjord]

I'm not sure playing guys who've had a bad performance again to give them a chance at 'redemption' or boost their confidence personally.

This is a professional arena. Such a poor performance should be reflected in selection.

Fans and management bang on about squad depth and competition for places ad nauseum, if you have such a bad day, the next guy up should be given his shot imo.

[Oldschool]

I'm not sure playing guys who've had a bad performance again to give them a chance at 'redemption' or boost their confidence personally.

This is a professional arena. Such a poor performance should be reflected in selection.

Fans and management bang on about squad depth and competition for places ad nauseum, if you have such a bad day, the next guy up should be given his shot imo.

By and large agree however players like COB and Leavy, Deegan even, who have had virtually no game time for an extended period are entitled to bit of slack.

[ronk]

I think we need to rotate where we were going to rotate. For example if we were going to give Harry Byrne a start next, he should still get a game.

Besides the team were apparently asked to try something new. If it doesn't work out you don't want to come down too hard on the players. Otherwise we'll stop adapting and it will cause bigger problems down the line.

[Flash Gordon]

I'm not sure playing guys who've had a bad performance again to give them a chance at 'redemption' or boost their confidence personally.

This is a professional arena. Such a poor performance should be reflected in selection.

Fans and management bang on about squad depth and competition for places ad nauseum, if you have such a bad day, the next guy up should be given his shot imo.

Think you have to look at a body of work and also how much game times some of these lads have had. Ryan Baird is getting a bit a of a pasting here but the guy has phenomenal ability and a very good body of work. He had a bad game he probably won't again.

[wixfjord]

I'm not sure playing guys who've had a bad performance again to give them a chance at 'redemption' or boost their confidence personally.

This is a professional arena. Such a poor performance should be reflected in selection.

Fans and management bang on about squad depth and competition for places ad nauseum, if you have such a bad day, the next guy up should be given his shot imo.

Think you have to look at a body of work and also how much game times some of these lads have had. Ryan Baird is getting a bit a of a pasting here but the guy has phenomenal ability and a very good body of work. He had a bad game he probably won't again.

I'm not saying write anyone off, but Baird strikes me as the type of guy who might need a kick in the hole now and again. Personally I wouldn't have him starting the next game after a bench cameo like that!

(But then again I've absolutely no insight and am looking on from afar!)

[ronk]

I'm not sure playing guys who've had a bad performance again to give them a chance at 'redemption' or boost their confidence personally.

This is a professional arena. Such a poor performance should be reflected in selection.

Fans and management bang on about squad depth and competition for places ad nauseum, if you have such a bad day, the next guy up should be given his shot imo.

I agree. If you aren't fully motivated to play in Newport then there are other players who are. Leinster have worked hard to establish a competitive environment where there's rotation but not for the sake of it, you compete to get more chances.

I'd temper that somewhat with the fact that it's early season with some undercooked players and trying a more open game in bad conditions. But only somewhat.