u/Some-Speed-6290

First test of it for Cullen with his post match interviews now.

If he doesn't call out Craig Evans it's going to be the same old story this season.

Treatment is genuinely a joke.

Sharks collapse and just get given a penalty. Evans literally warns Clarkson by starting with "Sharks hit early and you have to accept it"

Literally a penalty against them and he's lecturing Clarkson about it with a threat of a card.

And this isn't an Evans thing, it's a shit referee thing that is ruining the sport because World Rugby are terrified to make referees officiate set piece on anything but reputation

Nienaber made a point that he is capable of coaching a system other than the blitz at the end of last season. Any one think there's chance he actually changes this season?

We'll never have the player profile of South Africa and Leo will never go to the level of abusing referees that Rassie has done to get every call our way to make the system work in the biggest games.

Huge chance for Harry in the second half if he can get on early. Even bigger chance if he gets on with Doak. Hopefully he can take it.

Frawley showing what he's shown previously at 10, particularly the second half of last season. Maybe Farrell, Cullen, Nienaber and Lancaster know something the couch experts and presenters like Molloy don't?

Feel free to delete as not strictly Leinster but just some thoughts:

- defence is all over the place as most of the team are yet again trying to fundamentally change how they defend. Result is gaps everywhere.

- I still don't understand how / why the Ireland lineout is consistently so much worse than Leinster's. Are Deegan / Baird really just that much better than Prendergast and / or Beirne at the lineout?

- we aren't being helped by refereeing and are massively missing Doris and Beirne at the breakdown. BOK has turned it into a free for all and we aren't cheating in the same way.

- as Leinster did against the Stormers, there's too often no one running onto the ball at pace and instead taking it from a standing start and losing collisions as a result.

The elephant in the room around attendance that the likes of O'Connor never mention because it doesn't effect them is the sheer amount of money people spend on Leinster.

Did the maths, on my own (me and my wife) in the last 12 months and it's very comfortably in the thousands spent across season tickets and knockout games (and that's without Ireland games which I simply cannot afford anymore). It's getting hard to justify.

Never mentioned by the click bait merchants because they have no comprehension of the issue from their free tickets and corporate dining.

Joe McCarthy, Sheehan, Tommy O’Brien, Kelleher, Ringrose, Furlong and Larmour all to be "assessed" this week (aka out)

No updates on Baird, Tector or Paddy McCarthy

We saw it last year with Jackman talking about how great a call it was to start Barrett on the bench for impact in the final 20, and others talking about the genius of Healy starting so Porter is in for the endgame. That then immediately turned into a witch-hunt from the same people who praised it pre match.

Now we're seeing Irish "journalists" across the board suddenly saying Leinster are going to win tomorrow after years of shitting on the team and talking about how terrible they've been all season.

Maybe I'm cynical, but feels an awful lot like trying to raise expectations to then be able to put the knife in if Bordeaux turn up and deliver a win as the massive favourites they are. The English media do it all the time and feels like the likes of Jackman and O'Connor are following suit

Just saw a stat that genuinely shocked me. Our 10s simply haven't played enough rugby. Here's the comparison.

Professional games played:

- Fin Smith (23 years old) 127

- Harry Byrne (27 years old) 107

- Sam Prendergast (23 years old) 63

We're acting shocked that our tens have weaknesses in their games when they've played significantly less rugby than a 23 year old English fly half who is finding his way himself.

It's genuinely insane how little rugby Irish players actually play.