Leinster vs Zebre January 6th

[John23]

My God Kirchner was absolutely pants and played in a team that scored 10 tries. He was stink.

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[blockhead]

13 handling errors = not good.

Complete waste of time for everyone concerned. Might as well have just given us the 5pts and saved everyone the expense.

Northhampton Saints V Zebre could be a good game.
10 tries = verry good.
Ringrose, does he ever choose the wrong option?
Cronin, would be a big loss for Monty but he might just be OK.
Zane, I've defended you on here too long.

[Laighin Break]

So I guess this game has settled the argument that McGrath is our best scrumhalf He had a great game though.
ROL on the wing. He's actually a really good winger, and not just a centre playing out of position. He tracked Ringrose perfectly for his 2nd and 3rd tries.
Ruddock on for Triggs to give him game time in 2nd row and maybe see how he combines with Toner? It seems almost a waist to have Toner playing the full 80, building up his minutes even further, against Zebre.

Would love to see the stat on how many linebreaks we had tonight, even Jack McGrath got in on the action. And Rhys looked well going full pelt when he found himself in open space.

[nc6000]

Did the new tackle laws make any difference to the game? I was there and can't say I noticed.

[arsebiscuits1]

Did the new tackle laws make any difference to the game? I was there and can't say I noticed.

Only insofar as several obvious high tackles went unnoticed...

In the lead up to the first try, ROL got a shoulder to the face for his troubles and Garry got a good solid arm across the neck

[arsebiscuits1]

Would I be correct in saying that this is the highest score we have registered in the league?

[nc6000]

Did the new tackle laws make any difference to the game? I was there and can't say I noticed.

Only insofar as several obvious high tackles went unnoticed...

In the lead up to the first try, ROL got a shoulder to the face for his troubles and Garry got a good solid arm across the neck

I saw the ROL one alright but I was half expecting the whistle to go after every second or third tackle but it didn't.

[Xanthippe]

Would I be correct in saying that this is the highest score we have registered in the league?

Yep. Previous highest was 62-7 v Treviso in 2014.

Highest ever was 92-17 v Bourgoin in H-Cup in 2004

[Ruckedtobits]

So I guess this game has settled the argument that McGrath is our best scrumhalf He had a great game though.
ROL on the wing. He's actually a really good winger, and not just a centre playing out of position. He tracked Ringrose perfectly for his 2nd and 3rd tries.
Ruddock on for Triggs to give him game time in 2nd row and maybe see how he combines with Toner? It seems almost a waist to have Toner playing the full 80, building up his minutes even further, against Zebre.

Would love to see the stat on how many linebreaks we had tonight, even Jack McGrath got in on the action. And Rhys looked well going full pelt when he found himself in open space.

Judging relative performances of two players in a game like this is of little value. However, if you want a statistical analysis, we scored more points per minute when JGP was on the pitch than LMcG AND he had not got Sexton as partner. Go figure.

[Ruckedtobits]

Overall, a highly competent performance with a high error count as we continued to play a very high-tempo, offloading game. Sexton definitely gave us a great mid-field axis alongside Henshaw and Ringrose. Policy / tactic of counter attacking from kicks to our back three, was the only evident flaw in our game plan as Kitchner did not have a good game.

Maul looked marginally better than against Ulster, but still a long way from being convincing.

Ringrose and O'Loughlin were sensational in possession. Luke McGrath was just behind in open play, but still a little laboured in primary duty of passing.

Sean Cronin picked up a non-contact knee / upper-leg injury in last 10 minutes which looked serious the way he pulled up. Treacy was however, all action throughout.

[Cianostays]

Very difficult to judge a game like that. It was a professional job done against a pretty woeful opposition.

Hopefully Cronin is ok for next week but it doesn't look promising.

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[Laighin Break]

Did the new tackle laws make any difference to the game? I was there and can't say I noticed.

The Ulster game saw 2 yellows and a penalty try for high tackles. Apparently the card and penalty try against Ulster was a bit harsh

[cormac]

Overall, a highly competent performance with a high error count as we continued to play a very high-tempo, offloading game. Sexton definitely gave us a great mid-field axis alongside Henshaw and Ringrose. Policy / tactic of counter attacking from kicks to our back three, was the only evident flaw in our game plan as Kitchner did not have a good game.

Maul looked marginally better than against Ulster, but still a long way from being convincing.

Ringrose and O'Loughlin were sensational in possession. Luke McGrath was just behind in open play, but still a little laboured in primary duty of passing.

Sean Cronin picked up a non-contact knee / upper-leg injury in last 10 minutes which looked serious the way he pulled up. Treacy was however, all action throughout.

Looked like a hamstring injury for Cronin

[suisse]

Great game for improving the betting account balance. Paddy had over/under 49.5 points and over/under 7.5 tries. At one point before half time, the handicap was -42. Easiest money made all season.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Did the new tackle laws make any difference to the game? I was there and can't say I noticed.

The Ulster game saw 2 yellows and a penalty try for high tackles. Apparently the card and penalty try against Ulster was a bit harsh

Ulster were royally screwed by it. I was really worried it would happen to us, we were lucky to have Zebre first up, although I'm sure every team will suffer at some point. Thought the tackle on ROL on the touchline was quite bad even without the new directives, very surprised that was ignored. Thought the ref made some very bad calls actually, had the game been closer I'd have been annoyed. Healy complained about being taken off the ball before he entered from the side and he was right so have a lot of sympathy for him even if the call was technically correct in the end. The one against SOB for taking the space was pure nonsense.

I said last week that we weren't getting Ringrose into the game enough, well we certainly did last night! He was absolutely brilliant. We did the same with ROL and they seem to have a great understanding and are both on fire. Our individuals were just so much better that it was hard to stick to patterns at times. Luke looked embarrassed to make a break off the scrum in their 22 (not the one for ROL's try on HT).

Really like the way we can get our backrowers into the game regardless of who plays and what position they're in though.

Think people are being a bit harsh on Zane. The kick straight out was horrendous but is making his overall performance seem a lot worse than it really was. He linked well with Luke for his try too so it wasn't all bad. Wouldn't say he played well, but don't think he was terrible either.

Thought Luke was brilliant. Sensational pass for SOB early on, lovely pass and support line for his try, and great work/pace to put ROL away on HT. lovely break and pass out the back for Jack too. I thought he passed really well and he's just looking really sharp IMO. He's still not perfect but I really do think that he's improved hugely this season.

[mikey]

Dont suppose anyone has access to a download of the match ? We watched it live via the TG4 stream but it was dreadful quality and it kept jumping back so we missed at least 3 of the trys!

[simonokeeffe]

ROL as a winger ahead of Daly now?

Eh........ Yeah!

OK its obvious NOW

One thing that was good to see was the amount fo times forwards passed from halfback rather than waiting for the 9 to arrive (after he'd been tackled etc)

[Hippo]

Big improvement from Luke McG, he looked really lively. Ringrose looks ridiculously good. As everyone else has said, it's all in the context of an appalling Zebre, but still there was a lot of good stuff.

However, 13 handling errors was very poor, don't know what was going on there. I'm quite alarmed by the Cronin injury as I think Tracy has gone backwards at a rate of knots after looking so promising when he first appeared and his throwing hasn't improved at all. Even so we should have too much for Mont but Castres might be a different story.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Yeah I'm worried about Tracy's throwing and don't think he's looking as lively/powerful around the pitch as he had previously either. I think Leinster can just about cope if he's misfiring, not sure Ireland can though. I think Scannell should bench for Ireland if Cronin is out for long.

[mikey]

Too many handling errors and too many penalties. We have to step up several gears to compete with Montpellier next weekend. Mind you the ref was very poor, missing some high tackles and just generally not really in control.

There were some good moves, and Jonny 10 came through unscathed, along with his understudy, so at least we should be going into next week with 2 fit 10's. Hope Cronin is OK, as his throwing has been much better than Tracey and around the park he is much more mobile that Strauss. But if he's out I would have thought Strauss would start.