Leinster @ Glasgow, 20 Sep 2013

[simonokeeffe]

Jack has been lasting the 80 quite well so we are ok at loosehead. By full training what exactly do they mean or what training had he been doing; eg no full contact?

Tibaldi did a lot of (illegal) damage to reddan's service by standing beside middle of ruck, not backfoot, then jumping on reddan as he picked the ball up

Form he is in can see Gopperth keeping his place, fullback at very least

Healy has been doing pre-season training like the other Lions.

bring him as no17 and deploy if needed
healy blowing out the cobwebs from the bench would be handy for 20 mins

[deco]

Tough start for Leinster even if you had all your lions playing!

Glasgow are a good side and have the pace in the back 3 to hurt leinster, (not sure if maitland will be playing) . However they will miss Niko Matawalu big time and I also think they will miss Barclay at 7.

The Glasgow pack is decent but no more than that and I would expect you to get the nudge on them at scrum time. There are question marks over Hogg as a kicker and you won't beat leinster unless you take every chance to score points you get .
If Leinster are able to get some of their back 3 players back from injury/lions release I fancy you to pull off the win in what should be a high scoring exciting game

As for returning lions, I'm not sure a 1 size fits all policy should apply, Kearney played a lot less rugby than Heaslip on tour and I don't think he should require as long a rest period.

I hadn't heard that Niko Matawalu was out. He was a real handful last year - apart from some woeful passing which let us off the hook a few times. Great player to watch, no idea what he's going to do next - he probably has no idea himself!

I'd love to be going to this game, Glasgow is one of my favourite trips.

[johng]

I hadn't heard that Niko Matawalu was out.

At least another 2 weeks. Thank Jaysus.

[waterboy]

Anyone know where they'll be located in the ground for this? Thought I'd sort the tickets now rather than at the game if possible. I'll be tootling up the motorway early Friday afternoon from Newcastle if anyone fancies a lift (I'll be going A69 --> then M6 --> M74).

Just saw OLSC tweet to get tickets for block B of main stand. Also Glasgow tweeted only 700 tickets left and they are pushing for a sellout

[domhnallj]

Just saw OLSC tweet to get tickets for block B of main stand. Also Glasgow tweeted only 700 tickets left and they are pushing for a sellout

Thanks for the heads up.

[suisse]

Edit. Having a nightmare posting today.

[suisse]

With due respect to the other teams in the competition, I'd have them in the top echelon in the league in terms of their squad, along with ourselves and the currently mis-firing Ulster. As we saw last year, the Ospreys still have a ton of quality up front, but they're shy of depth in their backline. Beck, Bishop and Fussell are, within the limits of their current squad, irreplaceable. Munster could be very good and have started the season well, but it's difficult to get an accurate read on them when they were no better than ordinary in the Pro12 last year and have only played the 10th and 12th ranked clubs from last season's campaign.

In any case, Glasgow should be right up there as title contenders. Aside from the big, talented squad, they're well coached – very nuggety and clever at the breakdown, much better than solid defensively and capable of playing a really nice brand of attacking rugby [although they typically play that narrow offloading game with Matawalu at No9]

I agree with all of this, so it makes it surprising they never do especially well in the HEC. I like Glasgow - they look a much better run club than the one time HEC semi finalists Edinburgh - but their European form is relatively poor. They don't exactly get stellar groups, unlike Treviso and the Ospreys who regularly find themselves in dreadful ones. But they never qualify and, in truth, despite one 2nd place finish, haven't come remotely close. The ranking system is flawed so I care much for the fact that Edinburgh are ahead of Ospreys, Glasgow, Llanelli and Gloucester, sides that would beat Eburg comfortably imo.

This season they find themselves alongside the reigning champions, Toulon, plus Cardiff and Exeter. Their group is awkward but possibly the easiest of all the third seeded teams - The Ospreys got the champions of Rabo and France (Castres seed 4) plus the losing English finalists; Connacht got Nigel Wray and Toulouse; Scarlets got 2 french teams and Quins etc. Will they qualify? Not a chance.

Last season, they picked up 1 win and a total of 6 points. The previous year they finished 2nd and 12 points behind Leinster (2 wins, 12 points). Before that, 3 from 6, third and 12 points. Their 2007-08 total of 3 from 6 and 16 points (3rd spot) represents their best ever performance in this competition. They regularly stumble between 2 and 3 wins. 3 should be their absolute minimum goal this season. 4 is possible.

[suisse]

Heaslip had a very, very long season last year. Before going away with the Lions, he had played the fourth most minutes of any player in the touring squad in all competitions [club and test] with 2056mins. The three players above him were all Leicester and England players: Parling first, with 2346mins; Tuilagi second at 2244mins; and Dan Cole third with 2094 mins

This is incredibly interesting on so many fronts.

[grahamwa]

Before going away with the Lions, he had played the fourth most minutes of any player in the touring squad in all competitions [club and test] with 2056mins. The three players above him were all Leicester and England players: Parling first, with 2346mins; Tuilagi second at 2244mins; and Dan Cole third with 2094 mins.

Yeah, agreed very good stats. Do you have a link for the source? Would like to have a look around to see minutes played of the Scottish & Welsh guys contracted to the SRU/WRU just to see if they're similarly "protected".

[hugonaut]

Before going away with the Lions, he had played the fourth most minutes of any player in the touring squad in all competitions [club and test] with 2056mins. The three players above him were all Leicester and England players: Parling first, with 2346mins; Tuilagi second at 2244mins; and Dan Cole third with 2094 mins.

Yeah, agreed very good stats. Do you have a link for the source? Would like to have a look around to see minutes played of the Scottish & Welsh guys contracted to the SRU/WRU just to see if they're similarly "protected".

Independent research.

I can give you the numbers for Hogg and northern hemisphere numbers for Maitland [he played a season of Super Rugby before arriving at Glasgow, but it was impractical to include those numbers in the spreadsheet].

Hogg
Age 20/21
Total Games Participated In 2012/13

: 25
Total Starts + Subs: 20+5
Tests: 8+0
ERC: 4+1
Pro12: 8+4
Other: N/A

Total Minutes Played: 1576
Test Minutes Played: 549
Test Minutes as a % of Total Minutes Played: 34.84%
ERC Minutes Played: 264
Pro12 Minutes Played: 763
Other Minutes Played: N/A
Average Mins/Game: 63

Maitland
Age 24
Total Games Participated In 2012/13 [pre Lions]: 16
Total Starts + Subs: 14+2
Tests: 5+0
ERC: 3+1
Pro12: 6+1
Other: Super Rugby 2012 & NPC 2012 [source: http://www.itsrugby.co.uk/player_8494.html], although very few of the NPC games and none of the Super Rugby games actually fall into the NH season window

Total Minutes Played: 1045
Test Minutes Played: 350
Test Minutes as a % of Total Minutes Played: 33.49%
ERC Minutes Played: 243
Pro12 Minutes Played: 452
Other Minutes Played: N/A
Average Mins/Game: 65

[grahamwa]

Cheers hugonaut, much appreciated.

[JB1973]

However they will miss Niko Matawalu big time

I hope to God they miss him more than the Ospreys missed Kahn Fotuali'i at the weekend. I really expected the Os to struggle at scrumhalf after he left but I was a little surprised and a lot impressed with Tito Tebaldi's performance. Had the Os won I'd have had him as MOTM.

Tebalidi looks a very decent 9, he doesn't have the x factor Khan has but he looks a tidy scrum half and seems fully committed to the cause, a good addition.

This is a big game for both sides, if Glasgow win they have beaten the top sides from last year and will really fancy their chances for a tilt at the title.

If Leinster win they will have beaten two of the play off teams (and drawn with the 5th team) while not even having their lions or their 2 big NIQ summer signings playing.

This would really send a message to the other pro 12 sides that you mean to retain the title.

I don't see the rush to get Healy back after 1 week contact training, your front row is going really well as it is, next week you have the blues at home a much easier fixture and It would make more sense to me to ease him into that game (possibly off the bench) and then let him loose on Munster the week later.


Just on the welsh players playing time., because our players are not centrally contracted the WRU do not have the same amount of influence in dictating how much game time the players have.

There are clauses regarding player release prior to international games and for training camps as far as I know they are as follows

" In future the Wales team will be able to play up to 13 international matches plus two more non-international games on an agreed tour every year with the appropriate training release times built in.

Before each competition players will be released from the Regions 13 days before the first international for squad training to begin."

Some welsh players tend to play lots of games for their region (at the ospreys the likes of Ryan,Alun Wyn Jones and Tupric will play pretty much every game they can) others tend play very little regional rugby (biggest culprits here are warburton 46 games in 5 years and Jamie Roberts 70 games in 7 years ) big salaries for guys who play on average 10 games a year

[Blue not red blood]

only 400 left as of this morning.
Meeting a mate over there and he was told that info from Glasgow

[domhnallj]

only 400 left as of this morning.
Meeting a mate over there and he was told that info from Glasgow

Yep, was surprised last night at the lack of choice - pretty much standing only which is what I ended up getting.

[sheepshagger]

only 400 left as of this morning.
Meeting a mate over there and he was told that info from Glasgow

Yep, was surprised last night at the lack of choice - pretty much standing only which is what I ended up getting.

+1

According to their Twitter, game will be a sell out (although not all stands will be open).

[simonokeeffe]

only 400 left as of this morning.
Meeting a mate over there and he was told that info from Glasgow

Yep, was surprised last night at the lack of choice - pretty much standing only which is what I ended up getting.

+1

According to their Twitter, game will be a sell out (although not all stands will be open).

that doesnt make a lick of sense

[grahamwa]

The temporary stands at either end will not be in place (so I suppose that is what the previous poster was getting at). The can only be fitted a few times a year due to planning restrictions and I've also heard it is due to the athletic season still "running" The standing ends have no cover, and it is not tiered so it'll be wee ones to the front. At least the forecast for Friday at the moment is dry, light winds*.

* changes by the hour

[simonokeeffe]

The temporary stands at either end will not be in place (so I suppose that is what the previous poster was getting at). The can only be fitted a few times a year due to planning restrictions and I've also heard it is due to the athletic season still "running" The standing ends have no cover, and it is not tiered so it'll be wee ones to the front. At least the forecast for Friday at the moment is dry, light winds*.

* changes by the hour

Cheers. Ulster had to evacuate a temporary stand about 2 years ago at half time as the wind was shaking it so much

[grahamwa]

Cheers. Ulster had to evacuate a temporary stand about 2 years ago at half time as the wind was shaking it so much

Too much Standing Up (maybe)

[simonokeeffe]

Cheers. Ulster had to evacuate a temporary stand about 2 years ago at half time as the wind was shaking it so much

Too much Standing Up (maybe)

have to (red) hand that one to you