Leinster A '20-21'

cormac · Post by **cormac** » January 15th, 2021, 4:32 pm

if there's a mistake to be made you can count on a Leinster player to make it

erskinechilders · Post by **erskinechilders** » January 15th, 2021, 4:35 pm

Really disappointing from a number of Leinster forwards. Sheehan, Baird & Dunne were all poor today. You would imagine those 3 were running the lineout and that was a complete mess. Dunne missed a tonne of tackles. Sheehan was anonymous in open play and Baird was poor. McCann and Izuchukwu by the best forwards on the pitch.

alanair · Post by **alanair** » January 15th, 2021, 4:38 pm

And another try- no more than they deserved ... they were good ... but really we were sh1te

alanair · Post by **alanair** » January 15th, 2021, 4:39 pm

Never offside !!!

riocard911 · Post by **riocard911** » January 15th, 2021, 4:42 pm

FT: 37-14. Can't win them all, I guess...

Dave Cahill · Post by **Dave Cahill** » January 15th, 2021, 4:43 pm

Well beaten, Ulster took the foot off the gas at 16-0 which allowed us back into it, but they put it back down after our second try and won easing away

alanair · Post by **alanair** » January 15th, 2021, 4:46 pm

riocard911 wrote: ↑January 15th, 2021, 4:42 pm FT: 37-14. Can't win them all, I guess...

Certainly with our ‘big’ players not showing up...very disappointed in manner of defeat ... and disappointed in our lack of a lineout seemingly now at any level

LeinsterLeader · Post by **LeinsterLeader** » January 15th, 2021, 4:46 pm

Dave Cahill wrote: ↑January 15th, 2021, 4:43 pm Well beaten, Ulster took the foot off the gas at 16-0 which allowed us back into it, but they put it back down after our second try and won easing away

Is there anything to be said for blaming it on Johnny Sexton?

riocard911 · Post by **riocard911** » January 15th, 2021, 4:50 pm

Excellent performance by Bill Johnston.

p.s. Can I take it, that any further discussion about the shortcomings of the Ulster Academy is now moot?.....

Ruckedtobits · Post by **Ruckedtobits** » January 15th, 2021, 4:59 pm

mildlyinterested wrote: ↑January 15th, 2021, 4:21 pm Yikes

Excellent by ulster.. much look much better athletically in the backs.

Way better skills.

+1
Sexton, McIlroy, Rankin, Balacombe, Stockdale et al......what are they feeding them on? Jamie Osborne looked the only Leinster back who was even the same species.

LeRouxIsPHat · Post by **LeRouxIsPHat** » January 15th, 2021, 5:00 pm

Said it many times that I'm all for us pushing the envelope and don't mind seeing mistakes when we try risky passes or offloads because we need to do it year round to be ready for the big games in Europe (and for Ireland) but I think we've lost sight (at senior and A level) of the need to get our ball carriers making yards or holding defenders on the inside. It means that we end up way too deep and our alignment is often poor. I'm not suggesting we do this but if that pack today played the kind of turgid one out rugby that Ireland played over the last two years then we'd have been infinitely better. Yes we need to develop our game but we also need to find a much better balance that allows the backs to play and to get those carriers like Baird and Sheehan on the ball in the wide channels as play unfolds.

It would also help if we had a lineout of course. Given that Ireland have identified the need for POC I would hope that Leinster are also looking for a specialist coach and have the finances to do so.

Impressive performance from Ulster though, some very promising players in their side and they could make breakthroughs quite quickly because the first team doesn't have great depth.

erskinechilders · Post by **erskinechilders** » January 15th, 2021, 5:08 pm

LeRouxIsPHat wrote: ↑January 15th, 2021, 5:00 pm
It would also help if we had a lineout of course. Given that Ireland have identified the need for POC I would hope that Leinster are also looking for a specialist coach and have the finances to do so.

WE have Leo Cullen? What is he doing other than lineout? WE also have McBryde who was a hooker. Surely between them we could sort it out?

wixfjord · Post by **wixfjord** » January 15th, 2021, 5:30 pm

It really was men against boys in the backline. We had skinny guys who looked fresh out of 6th year (because some of them are) coming in, Ulster had a few proper units.

Disappointed with Baird, didn't really show up.

wixfjord · Post by **wixfjord** » January 15th, 2021, 5:33 pm

In a weird way, it's pretty interesting how a lineout unit can go so spectacularly wrong at a whole club like this. Seems to have been a gradual decline and all of a sudden things have gone to pot. It's contagious!

We seem to have no hooker who can throw into a lineout consistently and no semblance of a strategy to make things easier or quicker.

Our lifters don't seem well drilled at all either, loads of examples of guys almost bumping into each other or missing lifts.

It's such a clear problem that I would assume they'll devote a lot of man hours and a specific task force to fixing it.

wixfjord · Post by **wixfjord** » January 15th, 2021, 5:34 pm

erskinechilders wrote: ↑January 15th, 2021, 5:08 pm

What is he doing other than lineout?

What is our head coach doing other than the lineout?!

mildlyinterested · Post by **mildlyinterested** » January 15th, 2021, 5:36 pm

Age of ulsters 11 to 15

11. 19
12. 18
13. 20
14. 19
15. 20

Leinster's

11. 20
12. 21
13. 19
14. 26
15. 20

riocard911 · Post by **riocard911** » January 15th, 2021, 5:42 pm

LeRouxIsPHat wrote: ↑January 15th, 2021, 5:00 pm Said it many times that I'm all for us pushing the envelope and don't mind seeing mistakes when we try risky passes or offloads because we need to do it year round to be ready for the big games in Europe (and for Ireland) but I think we've lost sight (at senior and A level) of the need to get our ball carriers making yards or holding defenders on the inside. It means that we end up way too deep and our alignment is often poor. I'm not suggesting we do this but if that pack today played the kind of turgid one out rugby that Ireland played over the last two years then we'd have been infinitely better. Yes we need to develop our game but we also need to find a much better balance that allows the backs to play and to get those carriers like Baird and Sheehan on the ball in the wide channels as play unfolds.

It would also help if we had a lineout of course. Given that Ireland have identified the need for POC I would hope that Leinster are also looking for a specialist coach and have the finances to do so.

Impressive performance from Ulster though, some very promising players in their side and they could make breakthroughs quite quickly because the first team doesn't have great depth.

Agree with the above. In certain respects this match reminded me of the seniors' loss to Connacht. What ever happened to "beat the cr@p out of them up front before you even think about going wide"? We played, as if turning on the Leinstertainment button solves all ills. It doesn't. Leinster need to get back to being able to win ugly - the sooner the better.

backrower8 · Post by **backrower8** » January 15th, 2021, 5:45 pm

riocard911 wrote: ↑January 15th, 2021, 4:50 pm Excellent performance by Bill Johnston.

p.s. Can I take it, that any further discussion about the shortcomings of the Ulster Academy is now moot?.....

Bill Johnston the main difference for me and by a distance. A mature performance.

Jack Boyle, U19, held his own against Tom O'Toole. I didn't expect that,

erskinechilders · Post by **erskinechilders** » January 15th, 2021, 5:54 pm

wixfjord wrote: ↑January 15th, 2021, 5:34 pm
erskinechilders wrote: ↑January 15th, 2021, 5:08 pm

What is he doing other than lineout?
What is our head coach doing other than the lineout?!

What I mean what is his role on the training ground? Easterby & Dawson look after contracts along with Leo.
Lancaster oversees attack & defence.
McBryde looks after the scrum
Contepomi looks after the backs
Hogan looks after the breakdown
That leaves Leo looking after the forwards, and mainly the lineout. So my question is, if Leo is charge of the lineout, which I presume he is, what on earth is going on? Obviously he oversees the lot of it, but surely the blame falls on him here for the lineout malfunctioning across the senior and A team.

hugonaut · Post by **hugonaut** » January 15th, 2021, 5:59 pm

Great performance from Ulster 'A', much the better side in both halves.

A few things stood out for me. Firstly, our starting halfbacks couldn't solve the problem that Ulster's rush defense posed them. We played far too much off No10 and, until Paddy Patterson came on, practically nothing off No9. It was a similar situation in the loss against Connacht in the Pro14.We kept on asking the same question of the Ulster defense, and that question was, "Will you please tackle us in midfield behind the gainline?"

Secondly, some very weak tackling and disorganised fringe defense from Leinster, which is not something that we have seen in quite a while at 'A' level before this season, but was there in the game at Thomond too. I was surprised to see Sean O'Brien miss a couple of front-on tackles, one on Izuchukwu and one on Reid – he's a good player, and good players shouldn't miss two of those in a game. Our fringe defense became very ragged in the second half ... I suppose that one of the reasons behind that is it's a team that hasn't played much rugby, and there's a bit of confusion about roles. It's also a friendly and players want to take the opportunity to play individually well, so they can tend to freelance a bit.

Thirdly, in comparison to Ulster, our handling was second-best, by some distance. Again, not something we're used to seeing from Leinster players. Lots to work on there, both in terms of individual skills and then more group skills, like keeping depth, craftier support lines etc.

Finally, our lineout was, once again, very insecure. It's becoming very frustrating to watch. Oftentimes when your lineout goes well it doesn't commented on, or it gets taken for granted, but there's no danger of that this season! It's been the biggest weakness of our season and there's a lot of blame to go round, enough for players and coaches alike.

Babbling 'brook

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