Rumour Mill

[curates_egg]

Ah propos Ferg being on his last legs:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BsKvqx_nxwm ... t1g3g6fl4g

It seems Mr Leinster isn't buying that just yet.

[wixfjord]

Actually this move would make very little sense for Kelleher. He'd be retreating to his comfort zone and would find himself in a similar position to when he left. Lowe, Larmour, RK, Ferg, Byrne, Daly would all probably be ahead of him for a back three spot, and then you've got DK, Keenan and guys coming through like Kelly, along with ROL who can play wing to a high level. Can't see how this makes sense for him. For us it'd be a good squad player who can play in two positions and score tries. Or maybe this means someone is leaving.

[mildlyinterested]

two of the players you listed are 33 this year and futures at leinster are somewhat unclear.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Actually this move would make very little sense for Kelleher. He'd be retreating to his comfort zone and would find himself in a similar position to when he left. Lowe, Larmour, RK, Ferg, Byrne, Daly would all probably be ahead of him for a back three spot, and then you've got DK, Keenan and guys coming through like Kelly, along with ROL who can play wing to a high level. Can't see how this makes sense for him. For us it'd be a good squad player who can play in two positions and score tries. Or maybe this means someone is leaving.

I expect at least one player to leave but I do agree with you, maybe he'd be the best option for covering all the back three positions though? That could see him get a lot of games.

Has lots to improve on but could do really well in our backline.

[wixfjord]

two of the players you listed are 33 this year and futures at leinster are somewhat unclear.

Oh I'm well aware GG, that's why I put in the last line!

[OTT]

Seems a bit of a Fionn Carr move without him ever really having nailed it at Connacht unlike Carr.

If I remember when he left it was because he wasn’t willing to wait around on an academy contract. There also seemed to be little digs thrown at the Leinster setup at the time and the usual he always wanted to play for a team coached by Dai Young/insert other name here, which was a pop at Leo and the other Leinster coaches imo. Would be strange for him to come back with his tail between his legs after not really proving himself at Connacht but maybe Leinster are willing to gamble on his undoubted ability/potential. When he doesn’t fumble the ball he can look unplayable, he fumbles it a fair bit though.

[wixfjord]

Seems a bit of a Fionn Carr move without him ever really having nailed it at Connacht unlike Carr.

If I remember when he left it was because he wasn’t willing to wait around on an academy contract. There also seemed to be little digs thrown at the Leinster setup at the time and the usual he always wanted to play for a team coached by Dai Young/insert other name here, which was a pop at Leo and the other Leinster coaches imo. Would be strange for him to come back with his tail between his legs after not really proving himself at Connacht but maybe Leinster are willing to gamble on his undoubted ability/potential. When he doesn’t fumble the ball he can look unplayable, he fumbles it a fair bit though.

Ah in fairness he has done pretty well at Connacht. 13 tries despite being fairly injury hit.

He had good things to say about Leinster during the summer too: https://www.the42.ie/cian-kelleher-conn ... 8-Aug2018/

“I had two years in Leinster, as well as the year in the sub-academy, and I had stalled my progress a bit in that last season.

“It was nothing to do with Leinster, I loved my time there and some of the lads are still my best friends but I probably needed a change personally, just because I felt I had a good first few seasons there and stalled.

I'd much prefer Farrell back albeit!

[betty swallocks]

Could be just a Keith Earls-esque ploy by Kelleher to speed up his contract renewal at Connacht. Nothing corrobrative in this other than an unattributed Indo kite being flown.

[Oldschool]

Cian Kelleher is “likely” to rejoin Leinster on a two year deal according to the independent. Anyone hear anything?

That would be an open invitation to the other provinces to make another raid, no thanks.

[Oldschool]

Seems a bit of a Fionn Carr move without him ever really having nailed it at Connacht unlike Carr.

If I remember when he left it was because he wasn’t willing to wait around on an academy contract. There also seemed to be little digs thrown at the Leinster setup at the time and the usual he always wanted to play for a team coached by Dai Young/insert other name here, which was a pop at Leo and the other Leinster coaches imo. Would be strange for him to come back with his tail between his legs after not really proving himself at Connacht but maybe Leinster are willing to gamble on his undoubted ability/potential. When he doesn’t fumble the ball he can look unplayable, he fumbles it a fair bit though.

Stuart Lancaster would sort out most of his technical issues.

[Ruckedtobits]

Could be just a Keith Earls-esque ploy by Kelleher to speed up his contract renewal at Connacht. Nothing corrobrative in this other than an unattributed Indo kite being flown.

Kelleher considers himself a potential replacement No. 15 for RK and rumours are his Agent has floated this past an Indo journalist as TO'H and Leader are ranked ahead of him at 15 out West.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I know Rob isn't exactly Willie Le Roux when it comes to passing but I can't see how Kelleher fancies himself as a fullback. His passing and decision making is poor, he's not great under a high ball, and he's a fairly average kicker. He's a strong runner and his offloading has come on a lot at Connacht, to my mind his positive attributes make him a winger. I don't mind him covering fullback, but wouldn't entertain the idea of him establishing himself there.

[ronk]

Could be just a Keith Earls-esque ploy by Kelleher to speed up his contract renewal at Connacht. Nothing corrobrative in this other than an unattributed Indo kite being flown.

Kelleher considers himself a potential replacement No. 15 for RK and rumours are his Agent has floated this past an Indo journalist as TO'H and Leader are ranked ahead of him at 15 out West.

Signing Nagle was one of the reasons we let Beirne go.

Developing young players is a winning formula, returning players don't have the same track record.

Ignoring the history for the moment, how would we normally view a Connacht winger who is not standing out if we have no specific need?

[hugonaut]

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.

[curates_egg]

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.

Great synopsis.
Like Conway, I was sad to lose his talent but very annoyed with his approach in leaving.
Like Conway, I couldn't understand the move for him.
Like Conway, it stalled his career.
Like Conway, I'd have mixed feelings about him coming back.
I'd say this is agent kite flying though.

[nelly the elephant]

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.

Great, informative post Hugo.

[Peg Leg]

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.

Great, informative post Hugo.

Yep, I remember all of those things in isolation. But when presented like that it really makes a mockery of his decision to leave.
Does anyone know if he remains with the same agent?

[ronk]

Connacht are improving and he's getting his game.

Moving to a squad player position (initially). Moving would be a mistake again for him. I dont think the IRFU should sanction a move between provinces if the player is making a mistake. It weakens the available squad depth.

[mildlyinterested]

Connacht are improving and he's getting his game.

Moving to a squad player position (initially). Moving would be a mistake again for him. I dont think the IRFU should sanction a move between provinces if the player is making a mistake. It weakens the available squad depth.

that isnt workable.

[ronk]

Connacht are improving and he's getting his game.

Moving to a squad player position (initially). Moving would be a mistake again for him. I dont think the IRFU should sanction a move between provinces if the player is making a mistake. It weakens the available squad depth.

that isnt workable.

If they're willing to call the players bluff on going overseas it is.