Gloucester Vs Leinster, Saturday 14th January 2023

[Glevumyap]

It was a pleasure to host your mob yesterday, a really passionate, good humoured bunch of fans who (unfortunately) support a side way too strong for us to give a proper game to at the moment.

The thing that struck me the most was the constant fast Leinster ruck speed. I didn’t see anything spectacular in terms of one-off bits of attacking magic but the attritional nature of having to defend against the next phase before you’re properly set made us look clumsy and passive in defence (that one beautiful tip-on notwithstanding).

Hope those of you that travelled had a good time and a safe journey back. Maybe we’ll get another dash at you next season.

Cheers All

[Blueberry]

Super game, for me our 10, 12 and 13 were just so continually dangerous that we constantly cut them to pieces. Some of Ross's passing was sublime.

Osborne is developing so quickly, looks like Robbie has someone breathing down his neck !! What progress he is making. Boot is a serious and reliable weapon too.

Word for VDF , so much work around the ruck with some ridiculous clear outs , so much work.

On the Gloucester forum whinging just ignore, always gonna be a few moaners who prefer to blame anything but their own performance. Seem to remember we had a spate of moaners about high salary teams during the era of Toulon and more recently Sarries. Bottom line there are 3 leagues feeding into this cup and best team wins, no way the playing field will ever be level entirely with salaries etc etc. So get on with it or moan !!

[Ruckedtobits]

Ross Byrne was excellent yesterday and showed again that he is the Conductor par excellance of the Leinster team. He can also throw in a bit of virtuoso, witness his flick-on for Hugo's and Leinster fifth try. Pure instinct and class. He never had the acceleration to make himself a super star at out-half but he has matured into excellence in his direction and management of our Squad, whoever the players involved.

Harry's 30 minutes on the pitch were proof that Leocaster is / are determined to give him minutes & opportunities, but surely it has become self-evident that raw talent doesn't surpass vision and appreciation of team. Maybe the objective at this point is to have Harry available if / when J10 and Ross are both in an Irish Squad. If so, Harry needs to learn to use the skills and talents of all his teammates before he decides to use his skills alone. Certainly from the 52th minute, Leinster were less effective than in the previous 51 minutes.

[RoboProp]

In Harry's defence, he only had Gibbo playing with him for a few minutes

[wixfjord]

Ross Byrne was excellent yesterday and showed again that he is the Conductor par excellance of the Leinster team. He can also throw in a bit of virtuoso, witness his flick-on for Hugo's and Leinster fifth try. Pure instinct and class. He never had the acceleration to make himself a super star at out-half but he has matured into excellence in his direction and management of our Squad, whoever the players involved.

Harry's 30 minutes on the pitch were proof that Leocaster is / are determined to give him minutes & opportunities, but surely it has become self-evident that raw talent doesn't surpass vision and appreciation of team. Maybe the objective at this point is to have Harry available if / when J10 and Ross are both in an Irish Squad. If so, Harry needs to learn to use the skills and talents of all his teammates before he decides to use his skills alone. Certainly from the 52th minute, Leinster were less effective than in the previous 51 minutes.

Worth watching his reaction at 2.18 on the match clock.

Absolutely pumped up after a big opening 2 mins for us. Haven't seen him like that before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPfrEWl ... Try-lights

His 50/22 was brilliant, ROG esque and that flick for the Keenan try was lovely too.

[wixfjord]

On the rewatch, J Ryan was excellent yesterday.

Back to his best in terms of carrying and ruck nuisance.

Baird is also playing with way more bite to his game. Snapping onto the ball with venom a bit like JVDF. He made some huge close in carries and played that 'Rhys' role well.

Could see him getting a run in green this 6N.

[wixfjord]

Also thought JGP was really good. Back to his usual flow.

[RoboProp]

Also thought JGP was really good. Back to his usual flow.

Agreed, was great to see

[wixfjord]

The lineout move we pulled out just after HT was lovely. Baird detaches from lineout and Sheehan throws over the top to him. He makes 4-5 easy yards and sets us up on their line.

[blockhead]

The lineout move we pulled out just after HT was lovely. Baird detaches from lineout and Sheehan throws over the top to him. He makes 4-5 easy yards and sets us up on their line.

So,
Gloucester 14-106 Leinster
Glocks are 4th in the Prem.
Interesting.

[desperado]

Just back. The largest travelling support from Leinster in a long time - well it seemed that way. Gloucester fans around us were great. Plenty of chat and lots of genuinely good fans (of rugby); even though their team was on the end of a beating they appreciated the excellence of Leinster.

[blockhead]

Just back. The largest travelling support from Leinster in a long time - well it seemed that way. Gloucester fans around us were great. Plenty of chat and lots of genuinely good fans (of rugby); even though their team was on the end of a beating they appreciated the excellency of Leinster.

2000 supposed to have been there, fair play to all of you.

[pangurban1]

I had a glance over at their forum too and most of it was admiration of the Leinster back line play.

There were some comments that you could take umbrage at, but it’s their playground and they make the rules of play so I’m OK with that.

Also they’re not wrong when they say they’re effectively playing against a tier 1 nation, but it was acknowledged that the bulk of our players came through our academy too.

Overall I would give their forum a mark of probably great craic to go for pints with and the slagging would be good natured and on point…

Theyre calling us a “Tier 1 nation” as a way to undermine us though. As though we’re cheating by having really good players. Its completely stupid. We have a lot of internationals because Leinster produces a lot of players of that standard.

And they couple it with talk about our supposedly massive budget. Who was our last big name signing? They don’t even know what our budget is. How many of them do you think had heard of Jamie Osborne before this year?

They keep laying into the URC for being uncompetitive. But the Ospreys (13th in URC) ran us a lot closer than Glaws (3rd in the prem).

They dont mention that we have to endure the IRFU nudging players like Joey towards other provinces. They ignore the hammering we gave Racing and their billionaire owner. They’re poorly informed whingers.

Carping about unfair advantages that dont actually exist is obviously preferable to giving credit to Leinster for focussing on good coaching and maximising youth development

There's a few Lunster or Munster fans on there, "nobody outside Dublin supports Leinster and instead support Munster because they are more like a club".
Think a few guys mentioned Racing having a big budget and it not doing them any good v Leinster

[desperado]

Loads of talk about our scrum, so decided to actually see what happened today.

Read it for yourself or take a look at the game lock timestamps here. Pretty sure I've captured them all, but not 100% on that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPfrEWl ... Try-lights

In total, from what I can see, we gave away 4 scrum pens and we gained 3.

There was also a number of 'early engage' free kicks given away. 2 to Glos and 2 for us.

Milne gave away two pens when he was on.

I think people might have a confirmation bias about the scrum which makes them see it in a negative light.

In summary, it was absolutely fine. Not dominant, but not dominated either.

On our ball, we generally sought to get the ball away lightning quick and get Doris or JGP moving. We made massive gains from using the scrum as a launch for our moves. If we had've kept the ball in we probably could've milked a pen or two, but we got it away as quickly as possible and made huge yards because of it.

They had a different approach. Much slower to get the ball away and tried the shove a few times. They made some big efforts, but Porter/Mike gave away 1 penalty each. Hardly a 'major problem' and particularly we're down two big TH locks in Jenkins/McCarthy along with Tadhg.


=======

6.35 Glos put in. Good contest, scrum stable. Carreras kicks to corner.

9.28 Leinster put in. Stable scrum, lightning channel 1 ball that Doris takes quickly and makes 4-5 yards.

12.58 Leinster put in. We get nudge on. Scrum turns around and reset. On second put in Glos front rows go down but we go channel 1. Clean ball and Doris wheels away again making metres.

17.08 Leinster put in. Free kick to Glos for early engage.

19.40 Leinster put in. Quick strike and this time JGP scoots away making 5-6 metres. Very quick ball to Osborne.

21.24 Leinster put in. Free kick to Leinster for early engage.

35.01 Glos put in. With Porter off and Milne on Glos go for a second shove and get their first scrum pen. PEN GLOS

38.02 Glos put in. Big shove from Glos. Ackerman moves into front row and penalty given away by Mike. PEN GLOS

41.35 Leinster put in. Free kick to Leinster for early engage. We choose to scrum again. After a few resets we get very clear ball and JGP sprints away. From first phase we get ball to their 22 making 20+ metres.

45.08 Glos put in. They go for shove but no movement. They clear ball to backs.

48.45 Leinster put in. Glos front row go down and we win the pen. PEN LEINSTER

50.08. Glos put in. Glos win pen for Porter standing up. PEN GLOS

54.15. Glos put in. Free kick Glos for early engage.

56.04. Leinster put in. We go through them and win pen. PEN LEINSTER

58.02. Leinster put in. After reset we again push forward. Glos penalised for illegal bind and we win pen. PEN LEINSTER

66.29. Leinster put in. With Doris off for yellow we put Osborne in. Clean ball which McCarthy kicks low into touch in their 22.

73.39 Glos put in. Milne penalised for elbow going down. Deeny on at this stage also. PEN GLOS

Just watching the recording.In fairness to Milne, the pen when he came on with Porter in the bin; was against Big Mike. Milnewas holding his own on the LH side; and Ruskin got a nudge on and it wheeled with Big Mike going down on a knee. That's what Brouset called; and that's what it looked like.

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[blockhead]

Just back. The largest travelling support from Leinster in a long time - well it seemed that way. Gloucester fans around us were great. Plenty of chat and lots of genuinely good fans (of rugby); even though their team was on the end of a beating they appreciated the excellency of Leinster.

2000 supposed to have been there, fair play to all of you.

From Thier Forum:

I’m not sure how many on here were at the game yesterday but I am amazed that nobody has made mention of the travelling Leinster support who took over a good part of the Shed. Our Shed! From my place near the halfway line, to my left was a sea of blue. We always get there early, tradition, but they just kept on coming in with their enormous flags and loud comments about how it was going to be 57:nil again. Also they never stopped singing and although we countered with several renditions of ‘We are the Gloucester Boys’ the state of the game have them a lot more opportunities to sing and if I ever hear ‘Molly Malone’ again, it will be too soon. They weren’t rude but were very loud and really enjoying themselves- why wouldn’t they? All opposing fans take pride in coming to The Shed but I cannot remember so large an invasion and I have been supporting from there for the best part of 40 years. Just wondering what others on here thought

[riocard911]

Just back. The largest travelling support from Leinster in a long time - well it seemed that way. Gloucester fans around us were great. Plenty of chat and lots of genuinely good fans (of rugby); even though their team was on the end of a beating they appreciated the excellency of Leinster.

2000 supposed to have been there, fair play to all of you.

From Thier Forum:

I’m not sure how many on here were at the game yesterday but I am amazed that nobody has made mention of the travelling Leinster support who took over a good part of the Shed. Our Shed! From my place near the halfway line, to my left was a sea of blue. We always get there early, tradition, but they just kept on coming in with their enormous flags and loud comments about how it was going to be 57:nil again. Also they never stopped singing and although we countered with several renditions of ‘We are the Gloucester Boys’ the state of the game have them a lot more opportunities to sing and if I ever hear ‘Molly Malone’ again, it will be too soon. They weren’t rude but were very loud and really enjoying themselves- why wouldn’t they? All opposing fans take pride in coming to The Shed but I cannot remember so large an invasion and I have been supporting from there for the best part of 40 years. Just wondering what others on here thought

Hats off to the travelling Blue Army. As someone, who had to do with following the match on the gogglebox, I salute all of you!!!! Keep those flags flying - and "Molly Malone" coming!!!!

[Jcahill1]

Was at the game, echo previous comments about how welcoming the home support was.

Question for some of the stat gurus, is this the longest we have gone unbeaten in a single season?

[cormac]

Was at the game, echo previous comments about how welcoming the home support was.

Question for some of the stat gurus, is this the longest we have gone unbeaten in a single season?

No. In the Covid interrupted season of 2019/20 we won our first 24 matches.

[JKBA]

Theyre calling us a “Tier 1 nation” as a way to undermine us though. As though we’re cheating by having really good players. Its completely stupid. We have a lot of internationals because Leinster produces a lot of players of that standard.

And they couple it with talk about our supposedly massive budget. Who was our last big name signing? They don’t even know what our budget is. How many of them do you think had heard of Jamie Osborne before this year?

They keep laying into the URC for being uncompetitive. But the Ospreys (13th in URC) ran us a lot closer than Glaws (3rd in the prem).

They dont mention that we have to endure the IRFU nudging players like Joey towards other provinces. They ignore the hammering we gave Racing and their billionaire owner. They’re poorly informed whingers.

Carping about unfair advantages that dont actually exist is obviously preferable to giving credit to Leinster for focussing on good coaching and maximising youth development

The budget stuff is pie in the sky, I don't know what our budget is for playing staff. Ultimately their real problem is that they need to manage within a salary cap, we don’t everything else is just noise.

Re the Tier 1 nation, I think it was acknowledged that most are from the academy and not bought in.

At the end of the day I wouldn’t be reading too much into what a Glaws fan is writing on a Glaws forum, it’s their place to vent

It's hardly pie in the sky, our salary budget is clearly over £5 million pounds. But why should we have have budget as low as them? It's not our fault their league is in turnmoil. Also we use our budget to retain academy developed players and sign quality coaches, hardly the worst way to use the higher wage bill.

But 5mil isn't the actual cap, the guys who play international rugby get thousands extra from the RFU. To make a meaningful comparison you would have to give us credit or additional cap equal to the RFU bonus every time one of our players turns out for Ireland. There are also generous allowances for having home grown players. Given our abundance of internationals and home grown players we could easily be under the cap.

[5starfan]

Just to echo above posts re travelling support.

I did post yesterday morning remarking the numbers at Dublin Airport. Clearly, many had also gone out Friday. I taught our support was magnificent yesterday and looked to me like more than 2000.

There's such a hunger for this competition amongst supporters and this has to transfer to the players. Let's hope we can get some serious noise going in Aviva next Saturday.