He's 23 and in what is effectively his 2nd season of pro rugby.artaneboy wrote:No, we aren’t too hard on him. His mistakes were major and consistent systems failures of positioning. God knows it caused Leinster enough grief this year already. I don’t think comparisons with others matters much on that measure.paddyor wrote:Are we a bit hard on Byrne re his defense? I'm not saying he doesn't make mistakes but statistically he was as good as Zebo or Sweetnam in 2017(and conceded fewer turnovers). I know they wouldn't be the highest bar in terms of defense but people make less of an issue with them. Maybe it's because he looks so hesitant but he does generally make his tackles.
I was nervous for him and thought he played conservatively in Saturday. Didn’t really commit to a couple of those garryowens, etc. But while you’d have been delighted if he’d ripped it up, a la Stockdale- in the final analysis he made no mistakes (always a big plus with Joe) and I’d say he can be pleased for him in his overall performance.
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He finished last season 87% tackle success 78/12 from 1435 mins in 20 games. It's probably a safe bet that he has more clean sheets than not. It probably helps that he had the benefit of playing against a saints B team in the Aviva and a 14 man Montpellier at the RDS. It also probably helps that we generally had a lot possession. On the other side he played in a lot of cobbled together backlines that were more than a little ropey at times.
For comparison
Stockdale finished last season 79% tackle success 55/15 from 1063 mins in 20 games. Most of his game time was during the 6N, played very little HEC.
Sweetnam finished last season 80% tackle success 99/24 from 1688 mins in 24 games. He also has a higher number of turnovers conceded probably due to the kick chase part of the Munster game plan.
Neither of them seem to have their defense questioned as much as Byrne. Some more experienced players
McFadden finished last season 87% tackle success 46/7 from 678 mins in 10 games.
Kearney finished last season 82% tackle success 31/7 from 467 mins in 8 games.
Nasewa finished last season 80% tackle success 75/20 from 1564 mins in 21 games. Some of these were at 15 obviosuly so not entirely like for like.
I'm not saying he doesn't have issues but he gets a harder time than others. IMHO it's because he's not a dominant tackler even if he generally does make his tackles. But I can't really remember him laying someone out the way Ringrose did in first season(was on the wing against a Welsh side IIRC) or driving someone back 5m like Stockdale did last Saturday. If you're wondering, none of the others have his upside in attack (metress gained, tries, assists, defenders beaten & clean breaks).