Leinster v La Rochelle Heineken Cup Final Sat 28th May 4.45 Marseille

[OTT]

We go again.

Hard luck boys.

[paddyor]

Don’t buy the power argument at all. That was mental imo.

[odyboody]

Always saying one of the big differences between us and puff ball is we have supporters they have fans.
Time to support.
Glasgow must be sitting themselves anticipating the back lash next weekend.
Or studying the blueprint for taking us apart

[riocard911]

Don’t buy the power argument at all. That was mental imo.

+1

[SoupyNorman]

Don’t buy the power argument at all. That was mental imo.

+1

Power was certainly a factor. But Leinster imposed themselves in the other aspects of the game. Far more issues with the backs today than the forwards. It's more a testament to how incredible and consistent he has been since his breakthrough that that was by far the pooreat I have seen Hugo Keenan play.

[CiaranIrl]

Always saying one of the big differences between us and puff ball is we have supporters they have fans.
Time to support.
Glasgow must be sitting themselves anticipating the back lash next weekend.
Or studying the blueprint for taking us apart

Dragging up the football fans are cr@p thing is tired old nonsense, but I totally agree with you that there's too much criticism here. These players have worked their asses off all year, and they came up short. They're still heroes and I absolutely love this team. They're hurting ten times more than any of us. Thanks for everything you give us lads.

[artaneboy]

Don’t buy the power argument at all. That was mental imo.

There’s a lot of mental. But heft is a big part too. Joe needs to be our future.


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[hugonaut]

Don’t buy the power argument at all. That was mental imo.

Yeah, we needed to play a very, very good game and we couldn't manage it. Between La Rochelle as opponents and the occasion, we were out of our comfort zone. Our game has a lot of moving parts, so there is more places where it can go wrong.

[wixfjord]

A 12 point favourites team has just lost a Euro final due to underperformance, nerves and errors and despite being ahead for much of the game.

I'm sure fans and particularly players are hurting.

But that's the reality.

It doesn't make anyone less of a 'fan' or 'supporter' to state the facts.

We didn't live up to the massive pre-game expectation unfortunately.

[ronk]

Perfect is the enemy of better.

Hard to separate the power from the mental aspect because of causality.

They got us in the kill zone and we were too tired to break out.

[Dave Cahill]

Theres nothing wrong with critical analysis as long as its within the bounds of propriety

[wixfjord]

Theres nothing wrong with critical analysis as long as its within the bounds of propriety

Yep, and there's been nothing remotely close to 'improper' at all about post match reaction here anyway.

[Leinsterimp]

Please no talk of power or size.

That wasn't why we lost this game.

I think that might be our chance of Euro success gone now for a good while. This was the one to win.

Sexton retiring, Sarries back in and Saffers adding to the comp. What a shame.

They dominated the scrum and in the maul. None of our forwards made any hard yards in contact. Of course that’s to do with power. We’re missing a massive carrying six and/or lock.

[tingman]

Pity we saved our worst performance of the season for the most important game of the season.

Small margins as always...high "tackle" from JGP and they go into our 22 and stay there. Did we touch the ball during their YC?

We let ourselves get sucked into their plan as opposed to imposing ours on them. With our fast tempo game on -- no way Skelton would have lasted the course. Overall very nervy, poor execution, picked off at breakdown- in fact we just weren't in it.

And yet again, when we needed to alter course, we couldn't.

[CiaranIrl]

Theres nothing wrong with critical analysis as long as its within the bounds of propriety

Yep, and there's been nothing remotely close to 'improper' at all about post match reaction here anyway.

You're acting like someone accused someone of being 'improper' (quotes are yours).

[Dave Cahill]

Josh has won the european player of the year award

[LeinsterLeader]

Josh has won the european player of the year award

Well deserved

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Really didn’t think we had such a poor performance in us this time. Said it a few times recently that we coped really well with setbacks but we didn’t at all today, we looked rattled and doubled up on so many errors.

I’ve seen it mentioned that we couldn’t get our game going. I don’t think that’s quite true, not in the way it was against La Rochelle last year or Saracens before that. We were able to get go forward and create space but the accuracy of passing, pass selection, and dropped balls just killed us. They obviously got to us at the breakdown as well but that was always going to happen and we had enough good ball and attacking opportunities to overcome that for the one killer score we probably needed.

Really surprised by how nervous we looked. The handling errors were bad enough but stepping into touch when not under any pressure reminded me more of Ireland in the 2019 QF when the team was all over the place. It was like a different team to the one that beat Toulouse. In all honesty I think the scoreboard flattered us. We got out of jail with a couple of stupid La Rochelle penalties (the obstruction and the trip) but couldn’t build on that at all.

Think the coaches made a few errors as well as the players. Furlong probably justified his selection although was quiet in attack. I don’t think Lowe did though, he clearly wasn’t right and was barely involved.

Power was certainly a factor as well which brings me to another error. I think we were crying out for McCarthy to be on at least ten minutes earlier. All we were doing was soaking up the pressure and couldn’t muster the power to stop them dead or throw them back either in the tackle or at the breakdown. Molony struggled to impose himself today and McCarthy was right there waiting to add his physicality but we left it too late.

Just so frustrating because we didn’t need to get anywhere near the level of performance of the Toulouse game to win today but couldn’t manage it.

Well done to La Rochelle anyway, the odds were stacked against them but they fought for everything and kept their composure brilliantly at the end, well deserved.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Obviously everyone worked their socks off but just while I think of it, special mention to Ringrose and Sheehan. At times it felt like there were two of them with how often they popped up all over the pitch both in attack and defence. JGP had some huge defensive moments too.

[Hippo]

Obviously everyone worked their socks off but just while I think of it, special mention to Ringrose and Sheehan. At times it felt like there were two of them with how often they popped up all over the pitch both in attack and defence. JGP had some huge defensive moments too.

I'd agree 100% with this, they were outstanding.