The Official Irish Rugby Thread

[nelly sham]

A lot of anti Leinster chat on here the last few days but it should be remembered that they have donated us 6 players:

Tadhg Beirne, Oli Jager, Joey Carbery, Jeremy Loughman, Sean O'Brien and Paddy Patterson

Jordie Barrett will only be playing for them for 6 months so not worth getting too excited about it imo

That's a bit disingenuous though. Beirne and Jager were told they weren't good enough for Leinster, they went and made their own way in the professional game.

It wasn't that long ago Munster sent a bunch of lads north to save Leinster from Eddie Hekenui and the likes. It actually was a long time ago, I'm just getting old.

 

[CaptainSensible]

I don't think Barrett is anywhere near Keenan or Ringrose, but that is bye the bye.

In general the evidence against high profile kiwis coming to Europe at the end of their careers is pretty damning, most seem to treat it as merely topping up their pension fund with the exception of Brad Thorne, and yes I include Dougie Howlett in that, for who he was and what he contributed to Munster I thought he was a disappointment.

Look at the 3 best signings from there that Ireland have had, Bundee, Gibson Park and Lowe, none of them All blacks, the residency rule gave them an incentive and they've performed accordingly the rest have been meh in my opinion, and I don't think Barrett will do anything to break that trend.

You can see the logic behind the central contracts but with Leinster dominating the Irish set it is time to change it and maybe give each province a similar amount but ring fence some funds for whichever province supplies the bulk of players to Ireland so they can expand their squad to compensate for when these players are in the Irish set-up, but stipulate these extra squad members are Irish as opposed to beefing up with extra foreign players.

Currently with the way it is, the obvious thing for Munster and indeed Ulster is to pump more funds into underage at possible the expense the senior squad as if and when these players develop Munster will reap the benefits not just the obvious in having better players but also increased funding if they go on to play for Ireland. It is not beyond the realms of possibility as in the early noughties Munster schools regularly beat their Leinster counterparts and that fed through to the senior team where we dominated Irish squads.

 

[How bad boy]

I think your point about the backup squad members being Irish is important. It really helps Irish rugby that Leinster have that level of strength in their second string that they can win URC matches anyway.

In fact, it's a great argument against signing Barrett. If they were losing matches while the internationals were away, there's maybe a valid case.
Leinster have lost a total of 2 matches this season. One away to Glasgow right after the world cup, and they lost the new year's day match against Ulster by a point.
They fundamentally don't need bolstering right now.


With regards to pumping in more into underage, just checked the various provinces academy squads, Ulster, Leinster and Munster all have 18 academy players, Connacht 15.
Where should the development finance go? Clubs to make the AIL stronger? Schools? Better coaching for academies?
Presumably all of the above.

 

[jeepers]

Versus

 

[How bad boy]

Hopefully Leinster selling out Croke Park in 3 hours will at least cover some of the costs of Barrett...

 

[Carmona]

This women's Six Nations, how many watch the games on the box? It has some attraction if there's a match up, but when England are racking up cricket scores, jeez, no thanks.

 

[MerchantOfEnnis]

England 38-3 Ireland

After 37 minutes

 

[How bad boy]

Leinster getting a fair kicking Vs the Lions too. Very much a second string team though

 

[Meridian]

The IRFU should take a page out of the GAA book in this regard :

LEINSTER supporters will not be able to sip on their usual mid-match pints when they attend Croke Park on May 4.

Leinster fans facing major change from normal matchdays at Croke Park fixture

LEINSTER supporters will not be able to sip on their usual mid-match pints when they attend Croke Park on May 4. Their upcoming Champions Cup semi-final versus Northampton Saints will be the first …

www.thesun.ie

 

[MerchantOfEnnis]

The IRFU should take a page out of the GAA book in this regard :

LEINSTER supporters will not be able to sip on their usual mid-match pints when they attend Croke Park on May 4.

Leinster fans facing major change from normal matchdays at Croke Park fixture

LEINSTER supporters will not be able to sip on their usual mid-match pints when they attend Croke Park on May 4. Their upcoming Champions Cup semi-final versus Northampton Saints will be the first …

www.thesun.ie

I love that they waited until after 82k tickets had been sold to reveal that little piece of info. The Larry Leinsters won't know what to do without their points of hoino.

Along with the Dart being out of service that weekend they're really making it difficult to tempt the goys over to Dublin 3