Rumour Mill

[LeinsterLeader]

CK's return from Conn for next season is confirmed by Gavin Cummisky in the Times today

[mildlyinterested]

CK's return from Conn for next season is confirmed by Gavin Cummisky in the Times today

otherwise pretty quiet rumor wise, which is odd, given number of high profile players out of contract.

[ceemec]

Kelleher is talented, no doubt about that. As some may recall, I'm not his biggest fan, but he's got ability. Put him together with a great coach like Lancaster, an inspirational mentor like Contepomi and standard setters like Sexton and Henshaw and he will have a good chance to fulfil his potential.

I think he's probably had a few corners knocked off him personality wise - just getting older and more mature, moving away from Dublin and having to live with the decision he made, which was a bit of a f*cking disaster career-wise.

If you recall back in 2014-15 [Matt O'Connor's second season], Kelleher was blowing the doors off in the B&I Cup in his first year in the academy – he scored 9 tries in 7 games and a load of tries for Lansdowne in the AIL. O'Connor only gave him 4 mins of gametime that season though [source: https://www.leinsterrugby.ie/player?PlayGuid=CK698197 ]. Leo gave him one start and three appearances off the bench the following season before December - although his form wasn't as good - but he got the hump and announced that he signed for Connacht in December 2015. We offered him a development contract, but he turned us down.

Connacht were on the up, we were pretty iffy at the time of his announcement. But when he joined them next season, they were still all patting themselves on the back from winning the league and got slaughtered in their first two games. Lam decided to take a whack of money off Bristol and announced at the start of December that he was going to head off at the end of the season. Back in Dublin, Lancaster had joined up, we turned into an attacking juggernaut and started scoring millions of tries. Connacht corpsed. Then Connacht hired Keane for 2017-18 and had an absolute disaster of a season. We won the European Cup and Pro14 double, became the greatest team in European history, and backboned Ireland's Grand Slam, the series win in Australia and victory over the All Blacks.

Like Conway, Kelleher thought he was skipping the queue to international honours by leaving Leinster to join a rival province. He f*cked himself though. Luke Fitz retired at the end of the 2015-16 season and his replacement Niall Morris didn't make it past the pre-season friendlies before he too had to retire. Leo had zero interested in playing Fanj. Dave Kearney got a serious ankle injury on the first day of October and didn't return for 18 weeks. Ferg missed 20 weeks over the same period [start of October until end of February]. Rob Kearney played his last match for Leinster that season against Castres in January. There was a huge amount of opportunities in the back three at Leinster in 2016-17.

Locko and AB+ [both born in 1994, like Kelleher] came out of nowhere – Locko hadn't played a minute for Leinster before 2016-17, Adam had played 3+1 – and scored 10 tries each that season. We scored 91 tries in the league, Connacht scored 47. If you're Kelleher, you're asking yourself, "WHAT HAVE I DONE?"

That sort of medicine can lead to a pretty strong attitude adjustment.

Whilst it's hard to deny the majority of the points you make, a lot of it is with the benefit of hindsight. At the time of his departure, the move was a fairly unsurprising decision. Whilst things like Fitz and Morris retiring along with the other significant injuries couldn't be foretold, I'm sure Kelleher was looking back at Leinster wistfully and wondering about relocating on a number of occasions.

But, with all that said, I can't agree that the move has been "a bit of a f*cking disaster career-wise." His time at Connacht has been a success. There's no way of knowing if he would have been the one to step into the vacated boots rather than Adam Byrne or ROL when those opportunities became available. And we brought in Daly (potentially due to Kelleher's departure, admittedly) who was a cut above Byrne or ROL as a winger as well as Lowe (and Tomane this season). Kelleher has gone on to start 36 games for Connacht and score 16 tries over the past three seasons which isn't a bad situation. It's actually extremely similar to what Adam Byrne has done at Leinster in that period too although he has enjoyed higher profile game time in a better team (36 and 14). But Byrne's progress stagnated last season partly through injury whilst Kelleher's stock rose despite also suffering a season ending injury in March.

There's only so much game time to go around in Leinster so there's a decent chance that his move west has actually worked out the best for everyone. With all that said, I'm not entirely convinced by his return. Unless we're losing a couple of players, I don't see him getting near the same amount of game time that he currently enjoys.

[COYBIB]

Once you're gone, you're gone. There's enough young talent coming through that we don't need to give a contract to a player who threw one and the investment in his development back in our face. Dangerous precedent making those players think there's a way back.

[mildlyinterested]

Once you're gone, you're gone. There's enough young talent coming through that we don't need to give a contract to a player who threw one and the investment in his development back in our face. Dangerous precedent making those players think there's a way back.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Once you're gone, you're gone. There's enough young talent coming through that we don't need to give a contract to a player who threw one and the investment in his development back in our face. Dangerous precedent making those players think there's a way back.

[carlow man]

Think that one is an irfu issue, not a Leinster one.

[arsebiscuits1]

Once you're gone, you're gone. There's enough young talent coming through that we don't need to give a contract to a player who threw one and the investment in his development back in our face. Dangerous precedent making those players think there's a way back.

....... Isa

[harblstuff]

Once you're gone, you're gone. There's enough young talent coming through that we don't need to give a contract to a player who threw one and the investment in his development back in our face. Dangerous precedent making those players think there's a way back.

....... Isa

Should have never come back. His return ruined Leinster forever, morally, financially and trophially.

[wixfjord]

Once you're gone, you're gone. There's enough young talent coming through that we don't need to give a contract to a player who threw one and the investment in his development back in our face. Dangerous precedent making those players think there's a way back.

You're a fan of the old cut off your nose/scorched earth approach aren't you?

Hopefully we can avoid this danger we've put ourselves in!

[backrower8]

Once you're gone, you're gone. There's enough young talent coming through that we don't need to give a contract to a player who threw one and the investment in his development back in our face. Dangerous precedent making those players think there's a way back.

In Leocaster we trust.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Once you're gone, you're gone. There's enough young talent coming through that we don't need to give a contract to a player who threw one and the investment in his development back in our face. Dangerous precedent making those players think there's a way back.

You're a fan of the old cut off your nose/scorched earth approach aren't you?

Hopefully we can avoid this danger we've put ourselves in!

Leixit means Leixit!

[Icarus]

Overheard at the Ulster match:
Jack McGrath was seen sipping coffee with Dan McFarlane.

[OTT]

Overheard at the Ulster match:
Jack McGrath was seen sipping coffee with Dan McFarlane.

This will be his second stint up there I think he moved there three or four years ago, he announced it to everyone in the Mary’s clubhouse so the story goes.

[Peg Leg]

Once you're gone, you're gone. There's enough young talent coming through that we don't need to give a contract to a player who threw one and the investment in his development back in our face. Dangerous precedent making those players think there's a way back.

In Leocaster we trust.

Well there's half the problem, the day we let Leo back (not to mention Jenno) was the ruination of this organisation.

[matt]

Pretty disgusted we let that James Ryan back after his Munster career ended.

[Jonny tight lips]

Pretty disgusted we let that James Ryan back after his Munster career ended.

And of course that angry lad, back to Paris which him

[COYBIB]

I see the usual members of the brains trust are on patrol!

So a contracted player in the academy decides to jump ship to another province, is that a true or false equivalency to a player who retired and then came back when allowed to do so by the IRFU?

Is it a fact that the other provinces sniff around Leinster academy and sub-academy prospects?

So if a player in that position is approached by another province, if he feels leaving will mean he wont get a shot at making it at his home province again, will that make him more or less likely to leave?

Oh but to bite off my nose, brains trust! My beautiful, perfectly formed nose! To bite it off, we would miss out on Kelleher, so much biting on the nose, once in a generation talent, I'm sure we would have been waiting decades to see the likes of him again. I came up with a laughable concept of "leaving means exclusion", imagine that concept existed in our sport! Imagine it was in fact a written rule in some unions to prevent player pool depletion! Oh the horror brains trust!

The concept I raise is similar to its readers: Simple. It's an iteration of the national team concept, but is only applied to academy and sub academy players with a possible extension to senior squad fast tracked players who didn't go through the full academy program. Give me one example in the history of Leinster where a policy such as this would have robbed us of just so much nose biting talent! Fionn Carr? Chris Keane and Ronni McCormack! Oh Gawd brains trust you're so right!

Now imagine Carbery on the fence about going as the pressure mounted and mounted from the IRFU, maybe, just maybe, the lack of option to come back would have tipped the balance in our favor and we would have retained one of the hottest talents in Irish rugby. Maybe my idea in that one deal alone has more potential to benefit Leinster than a single example the geniuses commenting can give me of how it could possibly hurt Leinster.

The nose brain trust! Don't forget to tell me more about Isa and the nose!

[sunshiner1]

Noel Reid was being linked with Leicester who recently annouced they have signed Taute. I'd imagine that means Reid will stay with us now. Glad to have him during a World Cup season.

[artaneboy]

Noel Reid was being linked with Leicester who recently annouced they have signed Taute. I'd imagine that means Reid will stay with us now. Glad to have him during a World Cup season.

Well- really all it indicates is that Noel isn’t going to Leicester. He could well go elsewhere...

I’m NOT saying down south. But he’d be a valuable player for any squad. Playing very well this year.


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