Leinster v Munster, URC Final Round, Sat. 21st May, 7:15pm, Aviva

[blockhead]

Those 2 LBPs in South Africa now show their true value.
We chase a 5th Star the following weekend and can now rest the entire starting team against Munster if ye want.
The risk is Zero.
Thing is though, with it being the last game of the final round, we all will now what it takes to send those noisy neighbours back down to South Africa for a quarter-final.
If Munster win, a home QF against Glasgow/Edinburgh in a half empty TP.
If Munster lose, a 20,000km round trip to play maybe at altitude, and with a bit of luck, hot too!
Are we going to let them come up here and beat us in front of a big crowd? Fup no!
Lets tear them a new one.

[ronk]

If we had played them yesterday next week would have been a big anticlimax.

This is a huge match for Munster. A home QF (and possibly even a semi) in Thomond could be a nice earner and pay off a bit of their debt. With us in the final there's a big opportunity and a win late in the season would be a good boost just after season tickets went on sale. Plus the trip to SA is a tough one. Additionally there are international places up for grabs and there'll be some matchups: Kendellan-Penny, McCarthy-Ahern, Byrne-Carbery and we'll see who else.

[Colmodon]

I expect we'll see

Ed Cronin Clarkson
Baird Toner
Soroka Deegan Penny
Nick Harry
Larmour Osborne ROL Cosgrave
MOR

McKee, Milne, Vakh, JMurph, M Molony, Foley, Hawkshaw, Adam Byrne

[ronk]

I’d go Baird at 6, start McCarthy. Drop Soroka to the bench.

I’d start McGrath because he needs game sharpness. Ross Byrne on the bench for the same reason.

[wixfjord]

Great to have this game to give guys a run out that need it.

I’d go
Byrne, Tracy, Vakh, Baird, McCarthy, Soroka, Penny, Deegan, McGrath, Ross, Russell, Osborne, ROL, Larmour, MOR

Cronin, Dooley, Clarkson, Toner, Murphy, Foley, Harry, Frawley

Would be nice to get Cronin and Dev a win but really it’s about preparing for Marseille and avoiding injuries.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I expect we'll see

Ed Cronin Clarkson
Baird Toner
Soroka Deegan Penny
Nick Harry
Larmour Osborne ROL Cosgrave
MOR

McKee, Milne, Vakh, JMurph, M Molony, Foley, Hawkshaw, Adam Byrne

This would be my team too, wouldn't risk anyone from yesterday.

Dev to be captain and I hope himself and Cronin get great send offs!

[Long time lurker]

It would be a nice opportunity for Clarkson to start. I'd love to see Foley get the start too. But it's really a dead rubber.

[Blueberry]

stick out the kids and tell them to go have fun - shot to nothing and you never know !!

Even if we get hammered means nothing and no one will remember this if we lift the 5th Star in Marseille.

All the pressure on Munster to deliver.

[hugonaut]

Great to have this game to give guys a run out that need it.

I’d go
Byrne, Tracy, Vakh, Baird, McCarthy, Soroka, Penny, Deegan, McGrath, Ross, Russell, Osborne, ROL, Larmour, MOR

Cronin, Dooley, Clarkson, Toner, Murphy, Foley, Harry, Frawley

Would be nice to get Cronin and Dev a win but really it’s about preparing for Marseille and avoiding injuries.

Wouldn't put Luke, Ross or Frawley in harms way for this one Wixfjord.

Baird I can totally see ... he has some chance of making the matchday squad for the final, but he needs to get some proper rugby under his belt. A European final is a ferocious situation and you can't replicate it in training.

[riocard911]

This may be a dead-rubber fixture for us, but we need to at least give them impression of taking it seriously, otherwise we'll have our new pals in Safferland complaining, we let Munster win, in order to spare another Irish province a semi in the Southern Hemisphere.

[wixfjord]

Great to have this game to give guys a run out that need it.

I’d go
Byrne, Tracy, Vakh, Baird, McCarthy, Soroka, Penny, Deegan, McGrath, Ross, Russell, Osborne, ROL, Larmour, MOR

Cronin, Dooley, Clarkson, Toner, Murphy, Foley, Harry, Frawley

Would be nice to get Cronin and Dev a win but really it’s about preparing for Marseille and avoiding injuries.

Wouldn't put Luke, Ross or Frawley in harms way for this one Wixfjord.

Baird I can totally see ... he has some chance of making the matchday squad for the final, but he needs to get some proper rugby under his belt. A European final is a ferocious situation and you can't replicate it in training.

Luke & Ross need game time though. If not, both will go into the final with 20 minutes game time each in 6 weeks.

What happens if JGP/Sexton go down in the first 5 mins? As you've said, you can't replicate it in training.

Logic on Frawley would be to give him 20 minutes run at the end at 15 or 10, positions he may need to fill in Marseille if things go wrong.

Likewise Baird, Larmour need time if they're to push for the 23 in any of the knockout games and Joe McCarthy will likely be benching in a HEC Final so I would think needs time to get up to speed.

[cormac]

This will be Leo's 200th game in charge of Leinster. That's excluding the two games against Toulon and Montpellier that were given as walkovers.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

This will be Leo's 200th game in charge of Leinster. That's excluding the two games against Toulon and Montpellier that were given as walkovers.

Hope he’s not distracted and makes the day all about himself.

Some achievement

[hugonaut]

This may be a dead-rubber fixture for us, but we need to at least give them impression of taking it seriously, otherwise we'll have our new pals in Safferland complaining, we let Munster win, in order to spare another Irish province a semi in the Southern Hemisphere.

I genuinely don't give a sh*t about noise like that. People whinging about Leinster being better than them are ten-a-penny.

This game is a free hit for us, and we should make it a hitting match. There's a lot of tickets sold, we're going to have a number of guys who have put their careers into the club for a long, long, time going out in front of a big crowd under lights ... so let's not waste the opportunity to tear into this crowd. Just sow it into them from gun to tape.

In the pack, I'd start the lads who are going to be heading off: Dirty Dev, Nugget, Pistol Pete Dooley, Black Jack Dunne and Dr. Josh Murphy. It's going to be a big day for them, they're going to want to get on the pitch and give it everything while they can. We won't have that many weapons in the backline, so our best option is to keep it grim and hand-to-hand. Keep the game tight and ugly, like a French semi-final. I'd start that headcase Martin Moloney on the openside. The lad is a kamikaze, doesn't know fear. All going to plan, the game will still be in the mixer in the 45-55 minute period and we can start bringing on lads to play some rugby football union, pass to Larmour for the first time in the game etc.

If I thought we could get away with a 7-1 split in this, I'd go for it. Would love to get Sean O'Brien or Alex Soroka involved. Would REALLY love to get Ferg out of retirement for it.

Forwards [1-8]: P. Dooley, S.Cronin, V. Abdeladze, D. Toner, J. Dunne, J. Murphy, M. Moloney, M. Deegan
Backs [9-15]: McCarthy, H. Byrne, R. Russell, J. Osborne, R. O'Loughlin, J. Larmour, M. O'Reilly
Subs [16-23]: E. Byrne, J. Tracy, T. Clarkson, R. Baird, J. McCarthy, S. Penny, C. Foley, D. Hawkshaw

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Outstanding post from start to finish

[hugonaut]

Great to have this game to give guys a run out that need it.

I’d go
Byrne, Tracy, Vakh, Baird, McCarthy, Soroka, Penny, Deegan, McGrath, Ross, Russell, Osborne, ROL, Larmour, MOR

Cronin, Dooley, Clarkson, Toner, Murphy, Foley, Harry, Frawley

Would be nice to get Cronin and Dev a win but really it’s about preparing for Marseille and avoiding injuries.

Wouldn't put Luke, Ross or Frawley in harms way for this one Wixfjord.

Baird I can totally see ... he has some chance of making the matchday squad for the final, but he needs to get some proper rugby under his belt. A European final is a ferocious situation and you can't replicate it in training.

Luke & Ross need game time though. If not, both will go into the final with 20 minutes game time each in 6 weeks.

What happens if JGP/Sexton go down in the first 5 mins? As you've said, you can't replicate it in training.

Logic on Frawley would be to give him 20 minutes run at the end at 15 or 10, positions he may need to fill in Marseille if things go wrong.

Likewise Baird, Larmour need time if they're to push for the 23 in any of the knockout games and Joe McCarthy will likely be benching in a HEC Final so I would think needs time to get up to speed.

I disagree. There's a significant difference between Larmour/Baird [who haven't played for Leinster since 05/03/22 and 19/02/22 respectively, and have missed loads of contact training due to injury] and McGrath/Byrne who both played yesterday and last week, and haven't missed any training at all this year.

Luke is on 900+ minutes for the season, Ross is on 1000+ minutes for the season. They're not short on gametime this season. Both Baird and Larmour are, both overall and in recency terms.

It's a p*ss-poor scenario if either Luke or Ross gets injured [or sent off] in a game against Munster that is of absolutely no importance to us and then misses the final.

[ronk]

Outstanding post from start to finish

It's a thing of beauty.

It's not the end of the season for those lads. There's up to 3 URC games and the first one at least is going to be one where resting the team from the final makes sense. The Munster game is a chance to get players hot for the last 2-4 games.

And the way to get hot is to play to win while resting the players who would benefit from it.

[blockhead]

This may be a dead-rubber fixture for us, but we need to at least give them impression of taking it seriously, otherwise we'll have our new pals in Safferland complaining, we let Munster win, in order to spare another Irish province a semi in the Southern Hemisphere.

I genuinely don't give a sh*t about noise like that. People whinging about Leinster being better than them are ten-a-penny.

This game is a free hit for us, and we should make it a hitting match. There's a lot of tickets sold, we're going to have a number of guys who have put their careers into the club for a long, long, time going out in front of a big crowd under lights ... so let's not waste the opportunity to tear into this crowd. Just sow it into them from gun to tape.

In the pack, I'd start the lads who are going to be heading off: Dirty Dev, Nugget, Pistol Pete Dooley, Black Jack Dunne and Dr. Josh Murphy. It's going to be a big day for them, they're going to want to get on the pitch and give it everything while they can. We won't have that many weapons in the backline, so our best option is to keep it grim and hand-to-hand. Keep the game tight and ugly, like a French semi-final. I'd start that headcase Martin Moloney on the openside. The lad is a kamikaze, doesn't know fear. All going to plan, the game will still be in the mixer in the 45-55 minute period and we can start bringing on lads to play some rugby football union, pass to Larmour for the first time in the game etc.

If I thought we could get away with a 7-1 split in this, I'd go for it. Would love to get Sean O'Brien or Alex Soroka involved. Would REALLY love to get Ferg out of retirement for it.

Forwards [1-8]: P. Dooley, S.Cronin, V. Abdeladze, D. Toner, J. Dunne, J. Murphy, M. Moloney, M. Deegan
Backs [9-15]: McCarthy, H. Byrne, R. Russell, J. Osborne, R. O'Loughlin, J. Larmour, M. O'Reilly
Subs [16-23]: E. Byrne, J. Tracy, T. Clarkson, R. Baird, J. McCarthy, S. Penny, C. Foley, D. Hawkshaw

Suprisingly solid looking bench there.
However, I think Ruddock will start and captain. Does not rule him out of the final mind you.
Think also that they might start Baird and see is he up for a spot on the bench for Marseille.
Serious impact player.

[Dexter]

This may be a dead-rubber fixture for us, but we need to at least give them impression of taking it seriously, otherwise we'll have our new pals in Safferland complaining, we let Munster win, in order to spare another Irish province a semi in the Southern Hemisphere.

I genuinely don't give a sh*t about noise like that. People whinging about Leinster being better than them are ten-a-penny.

This game is a free hit for us, and we should make it a hitting match. There's a lot of tickets sold, we're going to have a number of guys who have put their careers into the club for a long, long, time going out in front of a big crowd under lights ... so let's not waste the opportunity to tear into this crowd. Just sow it into them from gun to tape.

In the pack, I'd start the lads who are going to be heading off: Dirty Dev, Nugget, Pistol Pete Dooley, Black Jack Dunne and Dr. Josh Murphy. It's going to be a big day for them, they're going to want to get on the pitch and give it everything while they can. We won't have that many weapons in the backline, so our best option is to keep it grim and hand-to-hand. Keep the game tight and ugly, like a French semi-final. I'd start that headcase Martin Moloney on the openside. The lad is a kamikaze, doesn't know fear. All going to plan, the game will still be in the mixer in the 45-55 minute period and we can start bringing on lads to play some rugby football union, pass to Larmour for the first time in the game etc.

If I thought we could get away with a 7-1 split in this, I'd go for it. Would love to get Sean O'Brien or Alex Soroka involved. Would REALLY love to get Ferg out of retirement for it.

Forwards [1-8]: P. Dooley, S.Cronin, V. Abdeladze, D. Toner, J. Dunne, J. Murphy, M. Moloney, M. Deegan
Backs [9-15]: McCarthy, H. Byrne, R. Russell, J. Osborne, R. O'Loughlin, J. Larmour, M. O'Reilly
Subs [16-23]: E. Byrne, J. Tracy, T. Clarkson, R. Baird, J. McCarthy, S. Penny, C. Foley, D. Hawkshaw

Post of the season

[Oldschool]

This may be a dead-rubber fixture for us, but we need to at least give them impression of taking it seriously, otherwise we'll have our new pals in Safferland complaining, we let Munster win, in order to spare another Irish province a semi in the Southern Hemisphere.

I genuinely don't give a sh*t about noise like that. People whinging about Leinster being better than them are ten-a-penny.

This game is a free hit for us, and we should make it a hitting match. There's a lot of tickets sold, we're going to have a number of guys who have put their careers into the club for a long, long, time going out in front of a big crowd under lights ... so let's not waste the opportunity to tear into this crowd. Just sow it into them from gun to tape.

In the pack, I'd start the lads who are going to be heading off: Dirty Dev, Nugget, Pistol Pete Dooley, Black Jack Dunne and Dr. Josh Murphy. It's going to be a big day for them, they're going to want to get on the pitch and give it everything while they can. We won't have that many weapons in the backline, so our best option is to keep it grim and hand-to-hand. Keep the game tight and ugly, like a French semi-final. I'd start that headcase Martin Moloney on the openside. The lad is a kamikaze, doesn't know fear. All going to plan, the game will still be in the mixer in the 45-55 minute period and we can start bringing on lads to play some rugby football union, pass to Larmour for the first time in the game etc.

If I thought we could get away with a 7-1 split in this, I'd go for it. Would love to get Sean O'Brien or Alex Soroka involved. Would REALLY love to get Ferg out of retirement for it.

Forwards [1-8]: P. Dooley, S.Cronin, V. Abdeladze, D. Toner, J. Dunne, J. Murphy, M. Moloney, M. Deegan
Backs [9-15]: McCarthy, H. Byrne, R. Russell, J. Osborne, R. O'Loughlin, J. Larmour, M. O'Reilly
Subs [16-23]: E. Byrne, J. Tracy, T. Clarkson, R. Baird, J. McCarthy, S. Penny, C. Foley, D. Hawkshaw

Post of the season

Almost.
Should have been Medicine Man Murphy.