How can the back three be improved in the short/long term?

goreyguy · Post by **goreyguy** » July 6th, 2016, 3:57 pm

Leinster are stuck with what we have this season in terms of player resources and unless a youngster takes a huge step forward this season they will be stuck a group of back three players who are very one paced and almost all of them on the downsides of their career. They have experience but not much else going for them right now, most are struggling for form, others for health, some both.

What moves in the short term or long term do you think Leinster could make to prevent the back three being such an obvious weakness?

Letting Kirchner leave seems obvious, but we will be allowed sign a top level international to replace him?
Nacewa seems unlikely to play on beyond this season, how will he be replaced?
Can any IQ'd players elsewhere be targetted?
Can any players move positions to improve the back three?

Dave Cahill · Post by **Dave Cahill** » July 6th, 2016, 4:18 pm

I know, we can f%~king whinge on and on and on about it for the next 12 months and bring it up at every opportunity boring the hole off everyone who has to listen to us.

erskinechilders · Post by **erskinechilders** » July 6th, 2016, 7:06 pm

Long term I think we'll be ok. Next season both Kirchner ( gone from the province ) and Nacewa ( coaching position I would imagine ) will be gone. Along with Triggs leaving that will leave 3 NIQ slots available. Then its up to both Easterby and the PGB to put the finances in place to afford top, top quality players. Considering Reddan, Fitzgerald, Kirchner and Nacewa are all gone, all of whom would have been on relatively high salaries, we should have a bit of money in the kitty to go out buy someone world class who hopefully won't have any international commitments.

Added to that Power, Byrne, Keenan all coming through, and fingers crossed Nash, we will have some youth and pace in the backline for the 2017/18 season!!

leinsterforever · Post by **leinsterforever** » July 6th, 2016, 8:25 pm

Stick a creative player (Kirchner or Nacewa) at fullback, and have creative players in the centre (Ringrose, Henshaw, Daly, Reid) so McFadden and D. Kearney can be teed up, instead of being asked to magic something up out of nothing.

I can't see us being allowed to replace both Kirchner and Nacewa with NIQs, so I think we should either bring through Carbery as a creative 15 or have a look at Peter Nelson at Ulster. Hopefully one quality NIQ can then be signed - someone like Luke Morahan or James Lowe

Ruckedtobits · Post by **Ruckedtobits** » July 6th, 2016, 8:38 pm

Ever the optimist, I sense that Kirchner will this season take his opportunity and give us a great season from full-back. He will be given licence to counter-attack from full-back by initiating movement with his wingers, rather than straight up the middle. He's not Willie Le Roux but he has pace and acceleration.

Rob K seems to have lost his No 1 slot at 15 to Payne and will lose his National Contract with that demotion. Isa, as captain and master competitor will chip in with 7-9 tries and Adam Byrne will get the opportunity to stretch his legs and finish some of the opportunities created by Henshaw, Ringrose, Kirchner and Sexton.

Dave K, Ferg and maybe even Hugo Keenan, will get a couple of runs each, but unless they put tries on the scoreboard, they'll be counting down their contracts.

Expect Leo, Girv and Kurt to be more ruthless this season. The clock is ticking for them also and they don't have a lot in the bank. Nucifora has created a pocket of sympathy locally for the three lads, but that will be dissipated in a matter of weeks unless we get tries and wins.

Logorrhea · Post by **Logorrhea** » July 6th, 2016, 9:43 pm

Christ there is some nonsense speculation going on in this thread.

wixfjord · Post by **wixfjord** » July 6th, 2016, 9:55 pm

The reference to James Lowe and Luke Morahan as 'quality NIQs'

leinsterforever · Post by **leinsterforever** » July 6th, 2016, 10:13 pm

Ruckedtobits wrote:Ever the optimist, I sense that Kirchner will this season take his opportunity and give us a great season from full-back. He will be given licence to counter-attack from full-back by initiating movement with his wingers, rather than straight up the middle. He's not Willie Le Roux but he has pace and acceleration.

Rob K seems to have lost his No 1 slot at 15 to Payne and will lose his National Contract with that demotion. Isa, as captain and master competitor will chip in with 7-9 tries and Adam Byrne will get the opportunity to stretch his legs and finish some of the opportunities created by Henshaw, Ringrose, Kirchner and Sexton.

Dave K, Ferg and maybe even Hugo Keenan, will get a couple of runs each, but unless they put tries on the scoreboard, they'll be counting down their contracts.

Expect Leo, Girv and Kurt to be more ruthless this season. The clock is ticking for them also and they don't have a lot in the bank. Nucifora has created a pocket of sympathy locally for the three lads, but that will be dissipated in a matter of weeks unless we get tries and wins.

You want rid of Kearney, McFadden and Keenan? I find that a strange position to hold, considering what a loss in experience that would be, Luke, Nacewa and Kirchner will likely all be gone soon, and that Keenan is a new academy member

rookie · Post by **rookie** » July 6th, 2016, 10:25 pm

Ruckedtobits wrote:Ever the optimist, I sense that Kirchner will this season take his opportunity and give us a great season from full-back. He will be given licence to counter-attack from full-back by initiating movement with his wingers, rather than straight up the middle. He's not Willie Le Roux but he has pace and acceleration.

Rob K seems to have lost his No 1 slot at 15 to Payne and will lose his National Contract with that demotion. Isa, as captain and master competitor will chip in with 7-9 tries and Adam Byrne will get the opportunity to stretch his legs and finish some of the opportunities created by Henshaw, Ringrose, Kirchner and Sexton.

Dave K, Ferg and maybe even Hugo Keenan, will get a couple of runs each, but unless they put tries on the scoreboard, they'll be counting down their contracts.

Expect Leo, Girv and Kurt to be more ruthless this season. The clock is ticking for them also and they don't have a lot in the bank. Nucifora has created a pocket of sympathy locally for the three lads, but that will be dissipated in a matter of weeks unless we get tries and wins.

Are you on drugs? You are sensing how the season will go in detail? FFS man get a grip of yourself! You may want to contact Leo Cullen and inform him, as to how the season is going to pan out. I'm sure he'll be delighted, because you just can't buy this type of knowledge. Be nice and give him the heads up!

neilinboston · Post by **neilinboston** » July 6th, 2016, 10:36 pm

Dave Cahill wrote:I know, we can f%~king whinge on and on and on about it for the next 12 months and bring it up at every opportunity boring the hole off everyone who has to listen to us.

We could start new threads about it after the topic has fizzled out in every single other thread on the board already too.

Peg Leg · Post by **Peg Leg** » July 7th, 2016, 9:02 am

Logorrhea wrote:Christ there is some nonsense speculation going on in this thread.

Cian Healy to the wing, sorted.

Oldschoolsocks · Post by **Oldschoolsocks** » July 7th, 2016, 9:12 am

Reid to full back, Byrne on the wing (sink or Swim time for the big lad, Isa on the other wing.

Sorted, Reids vision and ability to pick a line in a position where we expect no tackles to be made anyway, big fast talented lump on one wing and Isa

goreyguy · Post by **goreyguy** » July 7th, 2016, 9:14 am

leinsterforever wrote:
Ruckedtobits wrote:Ever the optimist, I sense that Kirchner will this season take his opportunity and give us a great season from full-back. He will be given licence to counter-attack from full-back by initiating movement with his wingers, rather than straight up the middle. He's not Willie Le Roux but he has pace and acceleration.

Rob K seems to have lost his No 1 slot at 15 to Payne and will lose his National Contract with that demotion. Isa, as captain and master competitor will chip in with 7-9 tries and Adam Byrne will get the opportunity to stretch his legs and finish some of the opportunities created by Henshaw, Ringrose, Kirchner and Sexton.

Dave K, Ferg and maybe even Hugo Keenan, will get a couple of runs each, but unless they put tries on the scoreboard, they'll be counting down their contracts.

Expect Leo, Girv and Kurt to be more ruthless this season. The clock is ticking for them also and they don't have a lot in the bank. Nucifora has created a pocket of sympathy locally for the three lads, but that will be dissipated in a matter of weeks unless we get tries and wins.
You want rid of Kearney, McFadden and Keenan? I find that a strange position to hold, considering what a loss in experience that would be, Luke, Nacewa and Kirchner will likely all be gone soon, and that Keenan is a new academy member

sadly Luke is gone and along with him any threat our back three really offers.

Kearney & McFadden are almost guarenteed new contracts at Leinster, as Leinster are limited to IQ'd players and havent developed many decent back three players in recent years let alone very good ones.

Ideally we'd be allowed sign two NIQ players to replace Kirchner & Nacewa and they become 1st choice players who offer a real threat going forward and inject some pace..but I doubt that will happen, maybe one..

LeinsterLeader · Post by **LeinsterLeader** » July 7th, 2016, 9:50 am

Oh sweet Jesus, not this again!

It's been at least 10 years since Leinster produced a decent back ya know!

goreyguy · Post by **goreyguy** » July 7th, 2016, 9:58 am

LeinsterLeader wrote:Oh sweet Jesus, not this again!

It's been at least 10 years since Leinster produced a decent back ya know!

if you aren't going to add to the discussion why post?

And no it hasn't been 10 years since they produced a decent back, as I've stated previously. They have however struggled to produce very good backs over the course of the last 5 years. Which is reflected in the current squad.

Logorrhea · Post by **Logorrhea** » July 7th, 2016, 10:21 am

goreyguy wrote:if you aren't going to add to the discussion why post?

He is adding to the discussion, just not in the way you want.

You should probably start a new thread.

simonokeeffe · Post by **simonokeeffe** » July 7th, 2016, 11:06 am

Logorrhea wrote:
goreyguy wrote:if you aren't going to add to the discussion why post?
He is adding to the discussion, just not in the way you want.

You should probably start a new thread.

we have a poor record at developing discussions in the last few years

FLIP · Post by **FLIP** » July 7th, 2016, 11:11 am

simonokeeffe wrote:
Logorrhea wrote:
goreyguy wrote:if you aren't going to add to the discussion why post?
He is adding to the discussion, just not in the way you want.

You should probably start a new thread.
we have a poor record at developing discussions in the last few years

It's been 10 years since we've had a good discussion.

LeinsterLeader · Post by **LeinsterLeader** » July 7th, 2016, 11:42 am

simonokeeffe wrote:
Logorrhea wrote:
goreyguy wrote:if you aren't going to add to the discussion why post?
He is adding to the discussion, just not in the way you want.

You should probably start a new thread.
we have a poor record at developing discussions in the last few years

We're doing enough to produce good discussion at school level, so what do you expect?

A cousin of mine moved to Connacht and his Son started to go to school there. Apparently the discussions down there are a different class

artaneboy · Post by **artaneboy** » July 7th, 2016, 11:51 am

Nucifora won't let us transfer any new thread discussions (NTD) either. So let's give the young threads a chance...

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