Leinster v Racing 21 Jan

[Dexter]

Poor effort.

PSA: quoting trolls undermines the mute/foe function.
You’re not wrong though.

Oops sorry!

[curates_egg]

That cross-field kick from Ross. A complete miss-hit or did he just not see one of the Racing players?

I was wondering if he thought he had advantage. All very peculiar

He was having such a great game until that facepalm moment. It was very weird. Never on.

[neiliog93]

Racing rattled Leinster today in a comparable manner to what La Rochelle and Saracens have done in previous seasons. The former two plus Toulouse are all capable of doing that on their day. Still a mountain to climb for Leinster to win a HC (without even mentioning the South African teams).

[munster#1]

Congratulations lads and ladies.
Leinster are a formidable force this season, and topping the table in the manner that they have is something that should be massively celebrated.

Right now it looks like the HC is Leinster’s to lose.

Poor effort.

How could you possibly take offence to that post?

[Ruckedtobits]

That cross-field kick from Ross. A complete miss-hit or did he just not see one of the Racing players?

I was wondering if he thought he had advantage. All very peculiar

He was having such a great game until that facepalm moment. It was very weird. Never on.

There were several kicks, by players of both team, that flew very Oddly. I wonder was one of the balls overinflated. Russell and Ross gestured about it after three different kicks from hand.

[curates_egg]

I was wondering if he thought he had advantage. All very peculiar

He was having such a great game until that facepalm moment. It was very weird. Never on.

There were several kicks, by players of both team, that flew very Oddly. I wonder was one of the balls overinflated. Russell and Ross gestured about it after three different kicks from hand.

Regardless of the flight of the ball, Larmour was well covered. There were two defenders I think.

[Twist]

Honestly , if he doesnt get cited for that clear as day flying headbutt theres something very wrong. I think he thinks he's still playing American football

Should be cited for the leggings alone

[pangurban1]

Big up Leinster so any failure is perceived as a choke?
How could anybody look at todays game and think of Leinster as certs, unless you jest.

[Oldschoolsocks]

Big up Leinster so any failure is perceived as a choke?
How could anybody look at todays game and think of Leinster as certs, unless you jest.

Yup, he’s clearly out fishing

[hugonaut]

Racing rattled Leinster today in a comparable manner to what La Rochelle and Saracens have done in previous seasons. The former two plus Toulouse are all capable of doing that on their day. Still a mountain to climb for Leinster to win a HC (without even mentioning the South African teams).

Absolutely – it's a f*cking hard tournament to win!

I've seen more than a few comments about these results 'not meaning anything at the end of the season', but results matter. Winning matters. We're going to be at home in our next knock-out game because of the way we won these games. That matters. Figuring out ways to beat the Ospreys and Racing when you're down on the scoreboard is important.

The idea that we should win every game at a canter and look invulnerable is absolutely wild ... nobody does that. The Crusaders have never done that, Toulouse have never done that.

This has been an absolutely sensational start to the season: the lads have done brilliantly and deserve huge credit. They're the ones who set high standards for themselves and are more conscious than anybody that they can't win a trophy in January. But the idea that as a fan you can't enjoy the games and enjoy such a winning streak because they haven't won a trophy yet? That's f*cking weird. This is great rugby, these are great results. Enjoy it.

[munster#1]

Big up Leinster so any failure is perceived as a choke?
How could anybody look at todays game and think of Leinster as certs, unless you jest.

There are no dead certs in a cup, but Leinster are so good at the moment that they must be considered favourites.

Leinster fans should enjoy being favourites rather than getting offended by it.

[Ruckedtobits]

Racing rattled Leinster today in a comparable manner to what La Rochelle and Saracens have done in previous seasons. The former two plus Toulouse are all capable of doing that on their day. Still a mountain to climb for Leinster to win a HC (without even mentioning the South African teams).

Absolutely – it's a f*cking hard tournament to win!

I've seen more than a few comments about these results 'not meaning anything at the end of the season', but results matter. Winning matters. We're going to be at home in our next knock-out game because of the way we won these games. That matters. Figuring out ways to beat the Ospreys and Racing when you're down on the scoreboard is important.

The idea that we should win every game at a canter and look invulnerable is absolutely wild ... nobody does that. The Crusaders have never done that, Toulouse have never done that.

This has been an absolutely sensational start to the season: the lads have done brilliantly and deserve huge credit. They're the ones who set high standards for themselves and are more conscious than anybody that they can't win a trophy in January. But the idea that as a fan you can't enjoy the games and enjoy such a winning streak because they haven't won a trophy yet? That's f*cking weird. This is great rugby, these are great results. Enjoy it.

Totally agree. There are other routes to winning trophies. Ask any South African you know. However, I'm really enjoying this journey however far it takes us

[LeinsterLeader]

Think on this too ....we comprehensively beat one of Europe’s top sides today without Sexton, Jenkins, Furlong, Lowe and Henshaw, all likely starters if fit for the biggest games.

Truly incroyable!

[blockhead]

I wonder did the Leinster brutal pre-match warm up have anything to do with their slow start?
Ruddock, on his back for about 5mins with medics.
Porter, blood pouring from a gash on the head.
McCarthy, bloody nose.
This was minutes before kick-off!

[riocard911]

Honestly , if he doesnt get cited for that clear as day flying headbutt theres something very wrong. I think he thinks he's still playing American football

Should be cited for the leggings alone

100%! Should be a law against unsightly apparel like that, in ainm Dé!!!

[artaneboy]

Honestly , if he doesnt get cited for that clear as day flying headbutt theres something very wrong. I think he thinks he's still playing American football

Should be cited for the leggings alone

Seriously, he was a disgrace in the end game. As well that torpedo assault with his head on Ringrose, a minute before that he tackled Ross around the neck, and wasn’t penalised. He was out of control. Citing Commissioner needs to take a hard look at those cumulative incidents.

[ronk]

Racing are a side with ambitions to win the tournament. They were fighting to stay in the comp and they played well. They defended well and made a lot of good decisions in defence

Leinster made plenty of unforced errors, especially 2 dropped balls right on the line (attacking so flat seemed a plan), but also coughing up 2 lineouts in drive over maul positions. We didn't panic and kept at them. They tired and the gaps got a bit bigger, which was likely to happen. You have days where you play well but they don't stick, by the end we were executing flicks, offloads etc.

That said I absolutely think we should have taken our points the 2nd time around at the end of the first half. They don't need to exit.

Also we were top seed and fans got their moneys worth. Kick the ball out when time is up. There was nothing to gain by an extra try. Instead we almost lost Ringrose scoring an unnecessary try. We learnt nothing puffing up the scoreline.

[curates_egg]

I wonder did the Leinster brutal pre-match warm up have anything to do with their slow start?
Ruddock, on his back for about 5mins with medics.
Porter, blood pouring from a gash on the head.
McCarthy, bloody nose.
This was minutes before kick-off!

I thought we started really well. Some of our best play came in the opening quarter. Some amazing offloading. The interplay between Osborne and Ringrose on the gameline was superb.
We could easily have had three tries.

We started to let them into the game around the 20 minute mark.

It was odd to see so much attrition after a warmup.

[artaneboy]

Racing are a side with ambitions to win the tournament. They were fighting to stay in the comp and they played well. They defended well and made a lot of good decisions in defence

Leinster made plenty of unforced errors, especially 2 dropped balls right on the line (attacking so flat seemed a plan), but also coughing up 2 lineouts in drive over maul positions. We didn't panic and kept at them. They tired and the gaps got a bit bigger, which was likely to happen. You have days where you play well but they don't stick, by the end we were executing flicks, offloads etc.

That said I absolutely think we should have taken our points the 2nd time around at the end of the first half. They don't need to exit.

Also we were top seed and fans got their moneys worth. Kick the ball out when time is up. There was nothing to gain by an extra try. Instead we almost lost Ringrose scoring an unnecessary try. We learnt nothing puffing up the scoreline.

Ah, that relentlessness is one of the factors that makes teams fear us- and is a real factor in our success: they know they’ll have to play the full 80+ minutes; it effects their performance. Also, in fairness you can’t post facto rationalise that a serious act of foul play is likely to be perpetrated and could potentially take out one of your best players.


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[Ruckedtobits]

Racing are a side with ambitions to win the tournament. They were fighting to stay in the comp and they played well. They defended well and made a lot of good decisions in defence

Leinster made plenty of unforced errors, especially 2 dropped balls right on the line (attacking so flat seemed a plan), but also coughing up 2 lineouts in drive over maul positions. We didn't panic and kept at them. They tired and the gaps got a bit bigger, which was likely to happen. You have days where you play well but they don't stick, by the end we were executing flicks, offloads etc.

That said I absolutely think we should have taken our points the 2nd time around at the end of the first half. They don't need to exit.

Also we were top seed and fans got their moneys worth. Kick the ball out when time is up. There was nothing to gain by an extra try. Instead we almost lost Ringrose scoring an unnecessary try. We learnt nothing puffing up the scoreline.

Agree. However, as others have mentioned, we probably were too aggressive in our lines of running during the first 15 mins. Passes were extremely flat and players arriving at top speed making the risk of knock-ons or forward passes very high. Also, unlike the Gloucester game many of the attacking shapes were very close to the previous breakdown making the lines of attack very cluttered.

In the following 10 minutes, we attacked slightly wider and on one occasion we had five successive one-out runners taking passes and running hard slightly wider but commiting their defenders which resulted in Ringrose getting a cut-back breakthrough which caused them mayhem.

Great to see this quality of carrying with pace & aggression.