Zebre v Leinster Sat 17 Sep KO 1pm RTE2

[Barry]

We have British teams in the league, I’m guessing that’s why.

Applying that logic - if the Italian president kicked the bucket, we should expect that a game played 10 days later between Glasgow and Dragons would be preceded by a minutes silence ?
Don't think so, its just another example of the world losing it's sanity.

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk

[paddyor]

How was his post-match handshaking?

[Flash Gordon]

Otherwise, we played some very good rugby in the first half and Jenkins was really excellent, the pack really dragged us away with that win our backline were as poor as I've seen. Hopefully that was a sign of things to come from Jenkins who was excellent. Our defensive work was really poor as the stats show. I see Max O'Reilly and Rob Russell getting a lot of criticism here Ngatai also looked a bit lost in the system. Hopefully the collective performance was down to a lack of game time and pre-season games.

Ngatai ran for the most metres, beat the most defenders, made the most offloads, carried the most, passed the most and made the most tackles of any of our three quarters.

Some of those are as a function of the position he plays [you are very likely going to make more tackles at No12 in any game than you are as a winger or an outside centre], but most of them were as a result of him simply playing better than the players around him. He wasn't the problem. He had a very young player outside him having a mixed game and two players further outside who were playing like drains.

We had practically no threat in the outside backs. Dave Kearney in his 30s has become a great finisher and try-scorer [something which he wasn't in his 20s] but he's not going to make multiple line-breaks for you over the course of the game.

Yes of course on the 12 position and tackles.

I was referring to the defensive system and how he operated - it's very understandable that he will need a couple of games. My recollection is that he got taken out by a simple skip pass for the first try, either him or Ross Byrne was in the wrong position for the 2nd because they ran into each other and Charlie went down and on the 4th I thought he was in no man's land - he looked knackered at that stage and basically jogged up to the line - then Osborne missed his tackle.

Not at all worried about the guy because he's a good player but the difference in defensive linespeed between Henshaw/Ringrose and the two lads last weekend was pretty significant.

[hugonaut]

That's interesting. He certainly had a few nice impacts in attack. Albeit it wouldn't be hard to have better stats than our 11-15 at the weekend either.

He did look absolutely gassed at times in second half and was struggling to get into position.

Where are you getting your stats from btw? ESPN have stopped doing them!

Just a combination of the outline stats on URC and Leinster Rugby stats on our match report, Wixfjord.

URC: https://www.unitedrugby.com/match-centr ... tabs-stats
Leinster: https://www.leinsterrugby.ie/match-stat ... d=22ZL0564

It's quite frustrating that ESPN have stopped publishing [or maybe even collecting] the URC stats, but it's not their responsibility. The URC obviously have them – if you can publish who had the most offloads, for example, you have to count the offloads of every player – but they choose not to publish them. I don't understand the logic for that decision. People are interested and will visit their website more frequently to check things like player performances in different games rather than to read match reports.

[wixfjord]

Otherwise, we played some very good rugby in the first half and Jenkins was really excellent, the pack really dragged us away with that win our backline were as poor as I've seen. Hopefully that was a sign of things to come from Jenkins who was excellent. Our defensive work was really poor as the stats show. I see Max O'Reilly and Rob Russell getting a lot of criticism here Ngatai also looked a bit lost in the system. Hopefully the collective performance was down to a lack of game time and pre-season games.

Ngatai ran for the most metres, beat the most defenders, made the most offloads, carried the most, passed the most and made the most tackles of any of our three quarters.

Some of those are as a function of the position he plays [you are very likely going to make more tackles at No12 in any game than you are as a winger or an outside centre], but most of them were as a result of him simply playing better than the players around him. He wasn't the problem. He had a very young player outside him having a mixed game and two players further outside who were playing like drains.

We had practically no threat in the outside backs. Dave Kearney in his 30s has become a great finisher and try-scorer [something which he wasn't in his 20s] but he's not going to make multiple line-breaks for you over the course of the game.

Yes of course on the 12 position and tackles.

I was referring to the defensive system and how he operated - it's very understandable that he will need a couple of games. My recollection is that he got taken out by a simple skip pass for the first try, either him or Ross Byrne was in the wrong position for the 2nd because they ran into each other and Charlie went down and on the 4th I thought he was in no man's land - he looked knackered at that stage and basically jogged up to the line - then Osborne missed his tackle.

Not at all worried about the guy because he's a good player but the difference in defensive linespeed between Henshaw/Ringrose and the two lads last weekend was pretty significant.

Relooking at first try, I don't think you can blame him for that. He has to take the 13 who is running a dummy flat line, Osborne/Russell & MOR are just totally disconnected outside him.

The second try was the cross kick, nothing to do with Ngatai/Byrne who both are taking their inside men and again Osborne/DK/MOR are just not connected at all. DK bites in and the kick is bang on so leaves an overlap. Ngatai gets bumped by the Zebre player but wasn't going to get near the touchdown in any case.

On the fourth again it's really Osborne's issue. He fails to follow Ngatai (who has to cover the opposing attackers that have constricted into a pod) in and leaves a big hole for their backrow to run into between 12 & 13. He then gets ran over one on one. There's no real danger in this instance as Leinster have a 4 on 2 on the outside, just a missed one on one tackle.

What I will say about the last one is I'm not sure how Osborne is in the 13 channel, since Frawley was on at that stage and Osborne went to 15 I think?

If you look at a phase earlier, Big Mike is also left defending at pillar with a man outside him because Russell isn't on the wing. At that stage our guys didn't really know who was defending where it seems.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Otherwise, we played some very good rugby in the first half and Jenkins was really excellent, the pack really dragged us away with that win our backline were as poor as I've seen. Hopefully that was a sign of things to come from Jenkins who was excellent. Our defensive work was really poor as the stats show. I see Max O'Reilly and Rob Russell getting a lot of criticism here Ngatai also looked a bit lost in the system. Hopefully the collective performance was down to a lack of game time and pre-season games.

Ngatai ran for the most metres, beat the most defenders, made the most offloads, carried the most, passed the most and made the most tackles of any of our three quarters.

Some of those are as a function of the position he plays [you are very likely going to make more tackles at No12 in any game than you are as a winger or an outside centre], but most of them were as a result of him simply playing better than the players around him. He wasn't the problem. He had a very young player outside him having a mixed game and two players further outside who were playing like drains.

We had practically no threat in the outside backs. Dave Kearney in his 30s has become a great finisher and try-scorer [something which he wasn't in his 20s] but he's not going to make multiple line-breaks for you over the course of the game.

Yes of course on the 12 position and tackles.

I was referring to the defensive system and how he operated - it's very understandable that he will need a couple of games. My recollection is that he got taken out by a simple skip pass for the first try, either him or Ross Byrne was in the wrong position for the 2nd because they ran into each other and Charlie went down and on the 4th I thought he was in no man's land - he looked knackered at that stage and basically jogged up to the line - then Osborne missed his tackle.

Not at all worried about the guy because he's a good player but the difference in defensive linespeed between Henshaw/Ringrose and the two lads last weekend was pretty significant.

Yeah it was clear that he was all over the place at times in defence, he can be top in certain stats but still have played poorly. The offload stat sounds meaningless to me given that we lost the ball from one of them and he should have held on to it. I'm not worried about him either, aside from thinking that we needed a 13 more than a 12, but it was a bad day at the office. He has a decent kicking game, I was disappointed we didn't see more of that instead of things falling apart when we moved the ball wide.

We could look for excuses with it being the first game of the season and Ngatai being new, but at the same time he was the only new player in the backs and these guys should know each other well at this stage. I really think we need to have an outside back lined up in case we need one for the end of the season. If players stay fit then it won't be a big issue, but one or two injuries and we'll struggle, and you'd have to worry about Kearney's durability at this stage, and maybe Larmour too. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Ringrose ends up starting a couple of games on the wing.

It was only one game so I doubt there'll be a rethink about playing Osborne at 13 just yet but he really is going to be a very important player for us this season regardless. It'll be interesting to see where he plays on tour but to me it looks like he might be our backup 13 when the internationals are away but then shift to the back three when they're back.

[dropkick]

I thought it was a bit strange that there was a minute silence for the death of queen Elizabeth before the game, considering it didn't affect either team (or rugby in general). Does anyone know if this was a URC directive?

I thought I was seeing things. Crazy that it was allowed happen.

[Oldschoolsocks]

How was his post-match handshaking?

I didn’t notice if he slapped any bottoms neither

[Xanthippe]

I thought it was a bit strange that there was a minute silence for the death of queen Elizabeth before the game, considering it didn't affect either team (or rugby in general). Does anyone know if this was a URC directive?

I thought I was seeing things. Crazy that it was allowed happen.

Is it really that big a deal? On the night there were at least 9 players on the Zebre team and four on ours plus (at least) Lancaster, Goodman, McBryde and Easterby who are either British or Commonwealth subjects so it definitely did affect both teams.

[Ruckedtobits]

I thought it was a bit strange that there was a minute silence for the death of queen Elizabeth before the game, considering it didn't affect either team (or rugby in general). Does anyone know if this was a URC directive?

I thought I was seeing things. Crazy that it was allowed happen.

Is it really that big a deal? On the night there were at least 9 players on the Zebre team and four on ours plus (at least) Lancaster, Goodman, McBryde and Easterby who are either British or Commonwealth subjects so it definitely did affect both teams.

+1

[dropkick]

I thought it was a bit strange that there was a minute silence for the death of queen Elizabeth before the game, considering it didn't affect either team (or rugby in general). Does anyone know if this was a URC directive?

I thought I was seeing things. Crazy that it was allowed happen.

Is it really that big a deal? On the night there were at least 9 players on the Zebre team and four on ours plus (at least) Lancaster, Goodman, McBryde and Easterby who are either British or Commonwealth subjects so it definitely did affect both teams.

No big deal at all. Sure why not get the players to wave union jacks while they're at it.

[blockhead]

DK (53 tries) moved to within 3 of Denis Hickie who is in 4th on the all-time Leinster list.

[Flash Gordon]

DK (53 tries) moved to within 3 of Denis Hickie who is in 4th on the all-time Leinster list.

Arguably our most under rated player of all time.

[scentofgunpowder]

DK (53 tries) moved to within 3 of Denis Hickie who is in 4th on the all-time Leinster list.

He has gotten so much more prolific with age, he was nowhere near being on pace to threaten the records for most of his career, had scored 29 tries as of his 30th birthday.

Tries per game 08/09 - 17/18 = .18
Tries per game 18/19 - present = .58

[Flash Gordon]

DK (53 tries) moved to within 3 of Denis Hickie who is in 4th on the all-time Leinster list.

He has gotten so much more prolific with age, he was nowhere near being on pace to threaten the records for most of his career, had scored 29 tries as of his 30th birthday.

Tries per game 08/09 - 17/18 = .18
Tries per game 18/19 - present = .58

That's incredible, it really is.

[joooooe]

DK (53 tries) moved to within 3 of Denis Hickie who is in 4th on the all-time Leinster list.

He has gotten so much more prolific with age, he was nowhere near being on pace to threaten the records for most of his career, had scored 29 tries as of his 30th birthday.

Tries per game 08/09 - 17/18 = .18
Tries per game 18/19 - present = .58

That's incredible, it really is.

There's an interview with him in the42 where he basically says that Leinster weren't set up for wingers to score tries for the early part of his career and that the current setup suits his game: https://www.the42.ie/dave-kearney-leins ... 9-Sep2022/

It also says that DK has scored a try for Leinster in each of the past 14 seasons, which is amazing.

[scentofgunpowder]

He has gotten so much more prolific with age, he was nowhere near being on pace to threaten the records for most of his career, had scored 29 tries as of his 30th birthday.

Tries per game 08/09 - 17/18 = .18
Tries per game 18/19 - present = .58

That's incredible, it really is.

There's an interview with him in the42 where he basically says that Leinster weren't set up for wingers to score tries for the early part of his career and that the current setup suits his game: https://www.the42.ie/dave-kearney-leins ... 9-Sep2022/

It also says that DK has scored a try for Leinster in each of the past 14 seasons, which is amazing.

I think that's definitely a major factor, but Dave has definitely found his mojo and improved his finishing majorly late in his career. Adam Byrne, Lowe, Barry Daly, Isa, and Rory O'Loughlin were all pretty prolific from 2016 on, whereas Dave didn't break 5 tries in a single season until 18-19.

[johng]

I see James Lowe has caught Isa on the try scoring and Luke McGrath has caught Rob Kearney

[blockhead]

Yeah, JLO on 47 tries in 65 apps...fenominon!

[Serb]

Sharks are playing Zebre at the moment. Sharks have played a lot better than we did, racking up a 28-3 point lead right before half time, but the match has gone a similar direction — Zebre crossed for their 6th try to tie the game at 39-39.

They caused Sharks problems in similar ways to the game against us and similarly let themselves down with very poor discipline in the first half, being down to 13 men at one point.