Leinster v Scarlets Sat 16th October 2021 17:15 TG4

[the spoofer]

On paper, this looked a really strong Leinster side and 50 points suggests a strong performance; however, the reality is that it was a poor performance once again littered with basic individual errors and completely lacking cohesion.

The backrow was poor for the first hour with Conan rusty after the prolonged break and Doris out of position at 6.
The second row lacked power, I’m worried about Ryan as he remains well below his form of 2-3 years ago.

Johnny looked solid, if unspectacular but his half back partner JGP was very average and kicked badly.

There seems to be an attempt to expand the game plan to rely less on grunt from the pack and get the ball to the 3/4s early but the Scarlets defense wasn’t being fixed, allowing them to drift onto the Leinster wide attackers. At times it felt as if we were shuffling it out to Lowe who was almost in touch when he got it and had two defenders on him. The accuracy of our backline passing and lines of running were bad.

Once again there were too many turnovers (sixteen). Far too often, players went into contact upright or isolated resulting in a turnovers.

Lowe’s defending was bad for both tries and even the ever dependable Keenan made mistakes.

I thought the scrum looked unbelievably powerful but the ref was very harsh on us and allowed the Scarlets pack to illegally spoil the contest. Porter is a serious athlete and it was great to see Furlong back.

Hopefully something is building in terms of style of play and with more matches will come greater cohesion and fewer individual errors.

So much to disagree with but I’ll pick out “the second row lacked power” as it’s so obviously wrong. RM could easily have got man of the match.

[Theleinsterlad]

On paper, this looked a really strong Leinster side and 50 points suggests a strong performance; however, the reality is that it was a poor performance once again littered with basic individual errors and completely lacking cohesion.

The backrow was poor for the first hour with Conan rusty after the prolonged break and Doris out of position at 6.
The second row lacked power, I’m worried about Ryan as he remains well below his form of 2-3 years ago.

Johnny looked solid, if unspectacular but his half back partner JGP was very average and kicked badly.

There seems to be an attempt to expand the game plan to rely less on grunt from the pack and get the ball to the 3/4s early but the Scarlets defense wasn’t being fixed, allowing them to drift onto the Leinster wide attackers. At times it felt as if we were shuffling it out to Lowe who was almost in touch when he got it and had two defenders on him. The accuracy of our backline passing and lines of running were bad.

Once again there were too many turnovers (sixteen). Far too often, players went into contact upright or isolated resulting in a turnovers.

Lowe’s defending was bad for both tries and even the ever dependable Keenan made mistakes.

I thought the scrum looked unbelievably powerful but the ref was very harsh on us and allowed the Scarlets pack to illegally spoil the contest. Porter is a serious athlete and it was great to see Furlong back.

Hopefully something is building in terms of style of play and with more matches will come greater cohesion and fewer individual errors.

God I must have been watching a different game to you, thought the performance was fantastic especially against a scarlets team that came to play. Thought our pack from 1-8 were great and when the bench came on it just kept going. I think Dan Sheehan will be our 1st choice hooker in the next year if he goes on the way he’s playing, his pings are brilliant and his first throw in was a perfect hit at the back of the line out. Christ what our opposition must think playing against Porter kelleher and furlong. I think Ross is a great match for Ryan and will take a lot of the responsibility off his shoulders. Back line are really looking good in attack and will only improve on putting more of their breaks away when they get them. We are warming up nicely!

[curates_egg]

As someone said, so much to disagree with in that blueman post, but Conan looking “rusty”? He was on the rampage from the outset: one of the first players to settle.

I was worried about the Porter experiment because I am generally mistrusting of IRFU meddling, but it is already starting to look inspired.

Moloney is having an exceptional run, but I do fear second row will be our Achilles heel in Europe.

[ronk]

I can see where the doubt comes from when there's a performance with 16 turnovers and it does show how a basically good performance can go wrong or rack up 50 points with little differences.

I do think it was a good performance against an improved Scarlets. We're not there yet but it's coming together.

[ronk]

Oh and we normally beat Scarlets by going direct. They're a tough side to go around so I wouldn't read too much into them closing down Lowe.

[Ruckedtobits]

On paper, this looked a really strong Leinster side and 50 points suggests a strong performance; however, the reality is that it was a poor performance once again littered with basic individual errors and completely lacking cohesion.

The backrow was poor for the first hour with Conan rusty after the prolonged break and Doris out of position at 6.
The second row lacked power, I’m worried about Ryan as he remains well below his form of 2-3 years ago.

Johnny looked solid, if unspectacular but his half back partner JGP was very average and kicked badly.

There seems to be an attempt to expand the game plan to rely less on grunt from the pack and get the ball to the 3/4s early but the Scarlets defense wasn’t being fixed, allowing them to drift onto the Leinster wide attackers. At times it felt as if we were shuffling it out to Lowe who was almost in touch when he got it and had two defenders on him. The accuracy of our backline passing and lines of running were bad.

Once again there were too many turnovers (sixteen). Far too often, players went into contact upright or isolated resulting in a turnovers.

Lowe’s defending was bad for both tries and even the ever dependable Keenan made mistakes.

I thought the scrum looked unbelievably powerful but the ref was very harsh on us and allowed the Scarlets pack to illegally spoil the contest. Porter is a serious athlete and it was great to see Furlong back.

Hopefully something is building in terms of style of play and with more matches will come greater cohesion and fewer individual errors.

That's a viewpoint presented in a very authoritive manner. Very little of it is entirely valid. Yes we made mistakes, but individual rather than collective. We played at a high tempo, after the first 16 mins, and Scarlets defence was back close to their 2015-19 standard.

This was a decent progression from the last two performances. Not up to the Quins or Bulls displays, but getting there. We have used about 45 players in four competitive games. Trying to prepare a different team every week leads to some shortcomings in teamwork. Thus far, I'd be very satisfied with progress to date.

[Blueberry]

On paper, this looked a really strong Leinster side and 50 points suggests a strong performance; however, the reality is that it was a poor performance once again littered with basic individual errors and completely lacking cohesion.

The backrow was poor for the first hour with Conan rusty after the prolonged break and Doris out of position at 6.
The second row lacked power, I’m worried about Ryan as he remains well below his form of 2-3 years ago.

Johnny looked solid, if unspectacular but his half back partner JGP was very average and kicked badly.

There seems to be an attempt to expand the game plan to rely less on grunt from the pack and get the ball to the 3/4s early but the Scarlets defense wasn’t being fixed, allowing them to drift onto the Leinster wide attackers. At times it felt as if we were shuffling it out to Lowe who was almost in touch when he got it and had two defenders on him. The accuracy of our backline passing and lines of running were bad.

Once again there were too many turnovers (sixteen). Far too often, players went into contact upright or isolated resulting in a turnovers.

Lowe’s defending was bad for both tries and even the ever dependable Keenan made mistakes.

I thought the scrum looked unbelievably powerful but the ref was very harsh on us and allowed the Scarlets pack to illegally spoil the contest. Porter is a serious athlete and it was great to see Furlong back.

Hopefully something is building in terms of style of play and with more matches will come greater cohesion and fewer individual errors.

That a viewpoint presented in a very authorities manner. Very little of it is entirely valid. Yes we made mistakes, but individual rather than collective. We played at a high tempo, after the first 16 mins, and Scarlets defence was back close to their 2015-19 standard.

This was a decent progression from the last two performances. Not up to the Quins or Bulls displays, but getting there. We have used about 45 players in four competitive games. Trying to prepare a different team every week leads to some shortcomings in teamwork. Thus far, I'd be very satisfied with progress to date.

+ 1 - Glass half full for me, what is encouraging for me is we are looking hugely powerful up front and trying to keep tempo high. To be it looks like the coaches have a blueprint to play at the highest level in Europe and win a fifth star and that utimately is all that matters. That pack last night looks like a step above physically what we have done before, yes bigger tests lie ahead but Marseille is the target and we are looking like we are heading the right direction.

[Blue not red blood]

I actually thought our pack looked very big.
While I love Ruddock , Doris brought a different level of speed and agility at 6.
Throw in Deegan and we have a really mobile back row

[wixfjord]

Yeah I thought Doris was good in the 6 jersey yesterday too.

The challenge will be whether he can do enough of the lineout and close quarter stuff that Ruddock does as a blindside when we're playing better/bigger sides.

[JB1973]

The driving line out and scrum were exceptional by leinster, Porter had a great match

Thought you looked a bit suspect in defence when the scarlets ran at you , they just couldn't get enough ball to make it a contest though

[Experimental]

The pack looked really powerful. I thought Molony played really well, probably his second best game for Leinster that hes played. I thought Dillane was really poor against Munster last weekend, I'd definately have molony ahead of him at the moment, he needs to keep going the way hes going. We weren't perfect, but there are a lot of teams out there very worried about facing our new front row. Frawley was great and really thought Gareth Davies should have gotten a red for leading with the head in a tackle. I liked Doris at 6, hes still learning to do a job there, Id like to see him attempting to steal more ball tho, which I think hes well capable of.

[CiaranIrl]

I thought our pack was outstanding, but I feel like there's a risk as the season progresses that the backline won't click because they won't have to. Our forwards can win most of the games we'll play on their own. Very few teams will be able to live with our front row.

We could nearly start to do things like limiting ourselves to certain types of play when URC games have already been won. Like, once you have the BP in the bag and a large cushion, only players in the backline should score tries. Our backline play hasn't clicked yet - we will need to find that fluidity sooner rather than later.

[ronk]

The Davies call was terrible. He accelerated after Frawley dropped the ball, he's allowed do that but it reinforces his responsibility for the contact. He's going in high to deliver a king hit on a player who's left himself open. Get it wrong and pay the price. Calling it a rugby incident is blaming Frawley for making a natural movement and being smashed in the face by a guy who's lined him up for a cheap shot.

[Laighin Break]

Yeah I was surprised it didn't get at least a yellow card and penalty.
Frawley's "dip" was what every player does when catching a kick static, so should be taken into account by the would-be tackler.

[ronk]

I thought our pack was outstanding, but I feel like there's a risk as the season progresses that the backline won't click because they won't have to. Our forwards can win most of the games we'll play on their own. Very few teams will be able to live with our front row.

We could nearly start to do things like limiting ourselves to certain types of play when URC games have already been won. Like, once you have the BP in the bag and a large cushion, only players in the backline should score tries. Our backline play hasn't clicked yet - we will need to find that fluidity sooner rather than later.

We've traded depth for a stronger starting pack. The easy fix is pick weaker packs some of the time and let the backs go out and win.

[mildlyinterested]

I thought our pack was outstanding, but I feel like there's a risk as the season progresses that the backline won't click because they won't have to. Our forwards can win most of the games we'll play on their own. Very few teams will be able to live with our front row.

We could nearly start to do things like limiting ourselves to certain types of play when URC games have already been won. Like, once you have the BP in the bag and a large cushion, only players in the backline should score tries. Our backline play hasn't clicked yet - we will need to find that fluidity sooner rather than later.

We've traded depth for a stronger starting pack. The easy fix is pick weaker packs some of the time and let the backs go out and win.

Assuming the backs are good enough to go out and win without a dominant pack.

[erskinechilders]

https://www.espn.com/rugby/matchstats?g ... gue=270557

I think based off a lot of the early season form we're trying to play a more expansive game. We're definitely trying to offload a lot more. I hope ( fingers crossed ) that this is our coaches recognising that we can't bully the big English & French teams the way we can with all of the URC teams. Playing at a faster pace with less ruck focus and more offloads will help tire out the bigger packs.

[CiaranIrl]

I thought our pack was outstanding, but I feel like there's a risk as the season progresses that the backline won't click because they won't have to. Our forwards can win most of the games we'll play on their own. Very few teams will be able to live with our front row.

We could nearly start to do things like limiting ourselves to certain types of play when URC games have already been won. Like, once you have the BP in the bag and a large cushion, only players in the backline should score tries. Our backline play hasn't clicked yet - we will need to find that fluidity sooner rather than later.

We've traded depth for a stronger starting pack. The easy fix is pick weaker packs some of the time and let the backs go out and win.

Whisper it, but I think that our weakest pack is better than most of the URCs best pack.

[Oldschool]

I thought our pack was outstanding, but I feel like there's a risk as the season progresses that the backline won't click because they won't have to. Our forwards can win most of the games we'll play on their own. Very few teams will be able to live with our front row.

We could nearly start to do things like limiting ourselves to certain types of play when URC games have already been won. Like, once you have the BP in the bag and a large cushion, only players in the backline should score tries. Our backline play hasn't clicked yet - we will need to find that fluidity sooner rather than later.

We've traded depth for a stronger starting pack. The easy fix is pick weaker packs some of the time and let the backs go out and win.

Whisper it, but I think that our weakest pack is better than most of the URCs best pack.

Dragons pack much disagree.

[Flash Gordon]

As someone said, so much to disagree with in that blueman post, but Conan looking “rusty”? He was on the rampage from the outset: one of the first players to settle.

I was worried about the Porter experiment because I am generally mistrusting of IRFU meddling, but it is already starting to look inspired.

Moloney is having an exceptional run, but I do fear second row will be our Achilles heel in Europe.

Also surprised by the Conan comment. He made 57 meters and lead the forwards in tackle count. Thought he looked excellent.