Leinster v Toulouse HC SF Sat 14th May 3:00pm

[Dexter]

Confirmed for next Sat @ 3pm.
Season ticket holders pre sale from 10am Monday.

[riocard911]

Any chance of Arnold getting cited for the bodyslam/piledriver on Zebo?

[curates_egg]

Ah stop.

[curates_egg]

Ruddock for Conan the only change I’d make to the XV.
I think there’s a shout for bringing Baird onto the bench. I’d say there’s a chance Byrne might replace Healy too.

We’ll need Furlong and Porter to last 65 minutes at least.

I really hope that we can get a good atmosphere going, and that this isn’t another one of those drinking sessions for various Koh Samui Cup groups of goys.

[CiaranIrl]

Ruddock for Conan the only change I’d make to the XV.
I think there’s a shout for bringing Baird onto the bench. I’d say there’s a chance Byrne might replace Healy too.

We’ll need Furlong and Porter to last 65 minutes at least.

I really hope that we can get a good atmosphere going, and that this isn’t another one of those drinking sessions for various Koh Samui Cup groups of goys.

I'm also in the Ruddock for Conan camp. I'd also consider Toner for Maloney for this game. Toner is exceptional in maul defense. He's technically excellent, and Toulouse will go after us there for sure.

I'm a big fan of McCarthy, but I'm not a big fan of having lads on the bench that they don't trust to bring on until the 74th minute. There's nothing wrong with him not being ready yet. Maloney and Conan on the bench would inject a huge amount around the 55m mark when Toulouse will start to tire.

[Long time lurker]

I wouldnt bring Toner in. He's not at the level. I'd start Ruddock for Doris. Doris is a poor ball handler. He's good for a couple of knock on. I'd bring Murphy back onto the bench. Ed Byrne for Healy and I'd start Sheehan.

[Xanthippe]

Confirmed for next Sat @ 3pm.
Season ticket holders pre sale from 10am Monday.

Ah but we’re getting shafted - the pre sale will be on a ‘first come first served’ basis and without the seat map being available which, knowing Ticketbastard, means we’ll be offered the backs of stands and corners.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I’d be happy with Dev coming in somewhere as well, his work in the lineout, maul, and scrum are all areas we struggled in and he excels there. I think we can improve the lineout with the same personnel as yesterday, not sure about the other areas. I’d also be happy for Dunne to come in and just work his arse off for the last half an hour while others try and do the fancy stuff.

I like Molony but for me it’s hard to look beyond him as being a position we should look at changing or at least have a better backup plan this week.

[the spoofer]

Confirmed for next Sat @ 3pm.
Season ticket holders pre sale from 10am Monday.

Ah but we’re getting shafted - the pre sale will be on a ‘first come first served’ basis and without the seat map being available which, knowing Ticketbastard, means we’ll be offered the backs of stands and corners.

There won’t be any issue with tickets for this so you could ignore the presale and buy in better areas.

[hugonaut]

Ruddock for Conan the only change I’d make to the XV.
I think there’s a shout for bringing Baird onto the bench. I’d say there’s a chance Byrne might replace Healy too.

We’ll need Furlong and Porter to last 65 minutes at least.

I really hope that we can get a good atmosphere going, and that this isn’t another one of those drinking sessions for various Koh Samui Cup groups of goys.

Definitely a shout for Baird on the bench. He'll have another week of contact under his belt and he can bring a lot of pop.

He has played in a good few big matches in his career already – Six Nations games against England, Wales, Scotland and Italy, European knockouts against La Rochelle [SF], Exeter [QF], Saracens [QF] and Pro 14 knockouts against Munster in the 2021 Pro14 final and the 2020 Pro14 semi-final.

We are going to look to play this game at a million miles an hour. Toulouse are going to be bigger than us in every position in the pack, but they had a hell of a tough match against Munster that went 100+ minutes. They'll have flown home on Saturday night absolutely knackered, and they'll be flying out again on Thursday to play in the same stadium against another team with home advantage. We're a better team than Munster and they won't have any opportunity to fix the problems that Munster exposed [the most obvious one being that they are wide open to jackals].

[Dexter]

Confirmed for next Sat @ 3pm.
Season ticket holders pre sale from 10am Monday.

Ah but we’re getting shafted - the pre sale will be on a ‘first come first served’ basis and without the seat map being available which, knowing Ticketbastard, means we’ll be offered the backs of stands and corners.

I saw that.. and yeah, totally agree with you. Such a shower....

[footrush]

Confirmed for next Sat @ 3pm.
Season ticket holders pre sale from 10am Monday.

Ah but we’re getting shafted - the pre sale will be on a ‘first come first served’ basis and without the seat map being available which, knowing Ticketbastard, means we’ll be offered the backs of stands and corners.

There won’t be any issue with tickets for this so you could ignore the presale and buy in better areas.

Did the same for yesterday’s game in Welford Road, bought off the Tigers site from their map rather than from our allocation. Not a big fan of buying things unseen !.

[Ruckedtobits]

I wouldnt bring Toner in. He's not at the level. I'd start Ruddock for Doris. Doris is a poor ball handler. He's good for a couple of knock on. I'd bring Murphy back onto the bench. Ed Byrne for Healy and I'd start Sheehan.

If Sheehan has a weakness, it's the scrum. Kelleher is significant stronger in the scrum, but his darts are more wayward than Sheehan's.

Lots of logic, except tempo, to starting with Dev. We can't let their maul become the weapon of our destruction and Dev's our best weapon to defend against that. But we definitely lose mobility. There's a case to bring Dev & Rhys into the pack to give more physicality compared with Molony & Conan. Keep them for the bench & spring them on 50 mins to up the pace and finish with tempo.

I certainly think Leocaster will be doing a lots of thinking & talking about options today & tomorrow.

If you want a preview as to how we should play them, watch the first 60 mins of Toulouse v Ulster in the first leg of the round of 16. That's the template and Toulouse looked big & ordinary.

https://ulster.rugby/content/report-tou ... -26-090422

[LeinsterLeader]

Initial betting has us 8/9 point favorites for Saturday

[CiaranIrl]

I’d be happy with Dev coming in somewhere as well, his work in the lineout, maul, and scrum are all areas we struggled in and he excels there. I think we can improve the lineout with the same personnel as yesterday, not sure about the other areas. I’d also be happy for Dunne to come in and just work his arse off for the last half an hour while others try and do the fancy stuff.

I like Molony but for me it’s hard to look beyond him as being a position we should look at changing or at least have a better backup plan this week.

Agree with all that. Malony is excellent, but in many ways he's a 'less good version' of James Ryan. He's a workhorse, he's smart, he's good in the lineout, he clears rucks and tackles with excellent technique etc. But I was a bit taken aback when the IT & 42 interviews with him last week said he was 107kgs. That's giving up an awful lot of size to most second rows out there - 10kgs off Ryan, 20kgs off Toner and a preposterous 40kgs off Meafou.

[CiaranIrl]

And before someone says it, yes I know that we need to run them all over the place and keep the tempo up. But as an old coach used to say to us, "there's only one ball - only one player can carry it at a time." I suggested Beirne at 6 before the Ireland v France game and about a half dozen people rubbished it, but I stand by that call. There will be mauls - we will need to deal with them.

[Blue Man]

I can’t see many changes. Larmour and Baird might come into the 23 but that’s it. Whilst I agree that the back row was off form on Saturday, Doris with a lot of errors and Conan still looking lethargic post COVID, they are quality players who deserve another outing and I think they will deliver. Second row beef still a problem (J blind not the answer) but Molony will keep his place. Healy looked limp off the bench on Saturday, I really hope he has a 30 minute scrummaging stint left in the legs. Kelleher adds a lot to the scrum vs Sheehan so we need him fit.
This is an enormous match, a battle of aristocrats, it’s why we follow Leinster and I think we will win.

[leinster23]

Can't really buy into the talk of starting Dev, the guy is a club legend but he's not really performing at this level anymore. Molony has been performing better all year in the league and reversing that because a bit of panic directly after facing one of the best mauls in Europe would be a mistake.

I thought Molony put himself around well on Saturday and contributed effectively. Obviously in an ideal world there'd be someone of a higher level to put alongside Ryan but right now there isn't and we have to make the best of it. Ross has been an excellent servant of the club and has earned his place in the team, whether that will last going forward is another question but right now there isn't a superior alternative. If the coaches thought Dev could still be the guy they'd have had him on the bench ahead of McCarthy who they clearly didn't really trust to bring on.

On the other hand, I'd agree with guys calling for Ruddock. Conan sadly isn't offering as much as usual at the minute and bringing Rhys in would actually do a lot to solve many of the issues discussed in this thread. Bringing Baird in for McCarthy would probably the smart move too.

[ronk]

There might be an argument for Dev on the bench though. He's powerful and will be good in mauls. He'll be a risk to their possession in lineouts. He has a big half hour in him, if he's not carrying anything.

I imagine that Toulouse would feel pretty good about facing an academy guy who just turned 21 and made his debut this year. He's never faced anything like Toulouse in a Heineken Cup semi. Toner is ready, he's done it before and he knows what's coming. Hopefully he'll do it again.

[blockhead]

I’d be happy with Dev coming in somewhere as well, his work in the lineout, maul, and scrum are all areas we struggled in and he excels there. I think we can improve the lineout with the same personnel as yesterday, not sure about the other areas. I’d also be happy for Dunne to come in and just work his arse off for the last half an hour while others try and do the fancy stuff.

I like Molony but for me it’s hard to look beyond him as being a position we should look at changing or at least have a better backup plan this week.

Agree with all that. Malony is excellent, but in many ways he's a 'less good version' of James Ryan. He's a workhorse, he's smart, he's good in the lineout, he clears rucks and tackles with excellent technique etc. But I was a bit taken aback when the IT & 42 interviews with him last week said he was 107kgs. That's giving up an awful lot of size to most second rows out there - 10kgs off Ryan, 20kgs off Toner and a preposterous 40kgs off Meafou.

Information on player weights can be very inaccurate. Sometimes its not updated for years. Molony is 113Kg on the Leinster website for eg. I bet that even that is out of date and he has naturally beefed up since then as men tend to do as they move into the later 20s.
I remember the 2019 world rugby website having Bundee Aki at 6'8'' and James Ryan at 14stone. And the TV graphics would use that info in pack weights graphics, mad.
One of the Irish U20s this season was listed as 132stone an 3'6'', and this stuff dosent get changed very quickly.