Quarter Final vs Sharks, Sat 6th May 17:00 (RTE 2)

[jezzer]

Bosch was great against Toulouse.

[BlockB]

The Sharks will jet down in Ireland at midday on Wednesday with nobody giving them a chance of beating Leinster in their URC quarter-final at Aviva Stadium on Saturday.

The Durbanites, hit by injuries, left South Africa with key players Siya Kolisi, Eben Etzebeth, Jaden Hendrikse and Curwin Bosch all absent.

https://www.news24.com/sport/rugby/unit ... e-20230503

So they're only missing their first choice halfbacks, the best lock in world rugby (arguably), and the inspirational World Cup winning Bokke captain......

[wixfjord]

Sharks have a very poor first phase defence, particularly out wide.

We will make serious hay with some of Goodman's set piece specials if the scrum and lineout is solid.

[BlockB]

Sharks have a very poor first phase defence, particularly out wide.

We will make serious hay with some of Goodman's set piece specials if the scrum and lineout is solid.

Yeah they've had no consistency with selections in the centre so there's often a disconnect there defensively. Add to that that their wingers, in defence, tend to run around the pitch like puppy just let off it's leash and you have pretty big areas to target. If you hold onto the ball long enough (and it usually doesn't take too long) you'll score against them. Alongside this, aside from Kok they can be pretty average with dealing with kicks behind or high balls into their half (and even with Kok his positioning is poor). I suspect this will be even more true with Bosch out.

[paddyor]

Ticketmaster looks like about 15k sold. Not bad.

[blockhead]

The Sharks will jet down in Ireland at midday on Wednesday with nobody giving them a chance of beating Leinster in their URC quarter-final at Aviva Stadium on Saturday.

The Durbanites, hit by injuries, left South Africa with key players Siya Kolisi, Eben Etzebeth, Jaden Hendrikse and Curwin Bosch all absent.

https://www.news24.com/sport/rugby/unit ... e-20230503

So they're only missing their first choice halfbacks, the best lock in world rugby (arguably), and the inspirational World Cup winning Bokke captain......

Any word on Rohan Janse van Rensburg the crazy centre, sent off against us in the last game in the RDS? I think he was stretchered of in the Heino QF away to Toulouse.
Dirty bugger but he can get past defences with ease.

[BlockB]

https://www.news24.com/sport/rugby/unit ... e-20230503

So they're only missing their first choice halfbacks, the best lock in world rugby (arguably), and the inspirational World Cup winning Bokke captain......

Any word on Rohan Janse van Rensburg the crazy centre, sent off against us in the last game in the RDS? I think he was stretchered of in the Heino QF away to Toulouse.
Dirty bugger but he can get past defences with ease.

Came on as a replacement against Munster so presumably he’s fit. Good going forward but can be a liability in defence

[hugonaut]

Really good news to see both Ronan Kelleher and Joe McCarthy back out on the training pitch. I had written off Kelleher for the remainder of the season [in my head].

McKee has done brilliantly for us – out Academy Player of the Year by a street – but we had got very, very skinny at hooker with Kelleher out and Tracy retired. McElroy would be a very, very big step down, and Baron is not ready for knockout rugby and would be a significant weakness.

Big Joe is very lightly raced this year ... he hasn't played since mid January for anybody and didn't play an awful lot before then. He should be completely fresh, which could prove very useful at the end of the season. But he has to stop giving away so many penalties in order to make a positive contribution. Penalties really hurt you in knock-out rugby.

[hugonaut]

Bosch is a big loss. They'll be lacking even more control now.

Relieved that he is unavailable. He gives them a lot of their shape. As the linked article above states, they really crumbled against Munster when he was off the pitch.

The thing about the SA sides is that they will [figuratively] keep punching all the way through to the end. That is a big part of the SA mental build-up, that rugby is a physical contest from kick-off to final whistle. They won't throw their hat at it or tap out at any stage. You have to keep on top of them for the full 80 mins. Keep on putting them in bad positions, keep on building the score, keep on showing up in their faces. No matter how many players they are missing, it will still be a very uncomfortable game to play.

[Schumi]

So they're only missing their first choice halfbacks, the best lock in world rugby (arguably), and the inspirational World Cup winning Bokke captain......

Any word on Rohan Janse van Rensburg the crazy centre, sent off against us in the last game in the RDS? I think he was stretchered of in the Heino QF away to Toulouse.
Dirty bugger but he can get past defences with ease.

Came on as a replacement against Munster so presumably he’s fit. Good going forward but can be a liability in defence

Could say the same about the Sharks as a whole.

[Xanthippe]

looks like they struggle to get 19k at this game.

having to play this game in the aviva really is a mess.

Only got 9k for the quarter-final against Glasgow in the RDS last season. This game was always going to be hard to shift tickets for regardless of location simply because it’s sandwiched in between a number of more expensive and appealing knockout games.

Tickets are cheap though - really good seats for €60 and a lot of decent seats for €25.

I get it's a busy time of year, and there have been a lot of games, but to me that's something Leinster fans should be savouring, not getting sick of.

Those really good seats for €60 - I have two of them from the season ticket holder sale which are now not being used (Block 126 Row H). The total cost was €106 (€38 each plus tm charges) but I'd talk to anyone who'd offer in the region of €80

[BlockB]

Any word on Rohan Janse van Rensburg the crazy centre, sent off against us in the last game in the RDS? I think he was stretchered of in the Heino QF away to Toulouse.
Dirty bugger but he can get past defences with ease.

Came on as a replacement against Munster so presumably he’s fit. Good going forward but can be a liability in defence

Could say the same about the Sharks as a whole.

This is true

[neiliog93]

Bosch is a big loss. They'll be lacking even more control now.

Relieved that he is unavailable. He gives them a lot of their shape. As the linked article above states, they really crumbled against Munster when he was off the pitch.

The thing about the SA sides is that they will [figuratively] keep punching all the way through to the end. That is a big part of the SA mental build-up, that rugby is a physical contest from kick-off to final whistle. They won't throw their hat at it or tap out at any stage. You have to keep on top of them for the full 80 mins. Keep on putting them in bad positions, keep on building the score, keep on showing up in their faces. No matter how many players they are missing, it will still be a very uncomfortable game to play.

They completely and embarrassingly folded against Toulouse in the last 20, having been competitive before then.

[desperado]

Based on the clip posted on Twitter yesterday of training; it might be a significantly changed 23.

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[wixfjord]

Based on the clip posted on Twitter yesterday of training; it might be a significantly changed 23.

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That was taken from Monday training where very few of the starting 15 from weekend were training.

I think there'll be significant changes, but wouldn't read a huge amount into that video either.

[Oldschool]

Surprised that there haven't been any "leaks" on our likely 23.
I suspect there might be a few changes and Leo has asked/kept his cards close to his chest.

[mildlyinterested]

Surprised that there haven't been any "leaks" on our likely 23.
I suspect there might be a few changes and Leo has asked/kept his cards close to his chest.

Team rarely ever leaks.

[BlockB]

Surprised that there haven't been any "leaks" on our likely 23.
I suspect there might be a few changes and Leo has asked/kept his cards close to his chest.

Team rarely ever leaks.

Does that mean Gerry's sources with regards to Ireland come from another province?

[jezzer]

There'll naturally be changes but you cant have frontline players out for a fortnight leading up to a final. So itll be a mixture, especially considering the main guys will have zero rugby if we lose this one. Id play Ross for example and give the SF game to Harry or Frawls if we win, like we did before when Ross started in place of Johnny in a league SF.

At hooker, you'd prob ice Sheehan and give Kelleher and McKee a chance to stake their claims for the final bench.

Horses for courses across the positions.

[desperado]

Based on the clip posted on Twitter yesterday of training; it might be a significantly changed 23.

Sent from my SM-G990B using Tapatalk

That was taken from Monday training where very few of the starting 15 from weekend were training.

I think there'll be significant changes, but wouldn't read a huge amount into that video either.

Aah! I saw the clip posted Monday. They must have just posted more from the same session yesterday.

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