Castres Vs Leinster Fri 20th Jan 19:45 (Sky Sports)

[arsebiscuits1]

A real stinker of a game. Tracy threw 2 really poor lineouts in promising positions and we lost the ball. From a sense perspective, both those balls should have gone to the front. The first one was Tracy's very first involvement. Keep it simple. The second was on their 5m. Why throw long? Insanity.

Ringrose was uncharacteristically poor tonight I thought. Really poor missed tackle for their try in the corner.

47 tackles made 17 missed in the first half. That's 36%. 1 in 3 tackles missed. Crazy stuff.

The kicking out of hand was total cr@p too.

[neiliog93]

A real stinker of a game. Tracy threw 2 really poor lineouts in promising positions and we lost the ball. From a sense perspective, both those balls should have gone to the front. The first one was Tracy's very first involvement. Keep it simple. The second was on their 5m. Why throw long? Insanity.

Ringrose was uncharacteristically poor tonight I thought. Really poor missed tackle for their try in the corner.

47 tackles made 17 missed in the first half. That's 36%. 1 in 3 tackles missed. Crazy stuff.

The kicking out of hand was total cr@p too.

In fairness Toner would have been the one making the calls but I don't disagree with you. Tracy has let himself down a couple of times now, unfortunately for him.

[arsebiscuits1]

A real stinker of a game. Tracy threw 2 really poor lineouts in promising positions and we lost the ball. From a sense perspective, both those balls should have gone to the front. The first one was Tracy's very first involvement. Keep it simple. The second was on their 5m. Why throw long? Insanity.

Ringrose was uncharacteristically poor tonight I thought. Really poor missed tackle for their try in the corner.

47 tackles made 17 missed in the first half. That's 36%. 1 in 3 tackles missed. Crazy stuff.

The kicking out of hand was total cr@p too.

In fairness Toner would have been the one making the calls but I don't disagree with you. Tracy has let himself down a couple of times now, unfortunately for him.

Yeah that's what I was getting at. Obviously Tracy should have hit his man. But I think a bit more sense from the lineout caller would have helped us too

[CiaranIrl]

Were we set out to go for the bonus point win I wonder? We went for the corner a couple of times when the three points looked fairly straightforward.

[brenno]

Happy with the home QF (bar a miracle by Connacht), but if we play like that against Wasps (even in Lansdowne) we'll be shredded. And if we do get to a SF and play like that well be shredded by Munster, Clermont, Saracens.

Big wake up call and Ringrose despite all his great footwork isn't going to like looking at the video of his attempt of a tackle for their second try. Was a stat earlier on that we missed 17 tackles in the first half, if that's the case then that's a real worry. Was a time under McQuilkin when we had the meanest defence around - well that title has shifted down to Munster,.

SH is a real weakness, and fir all the snipes he does, McGraths passing especially off his weaker hand is the pits. Somehow don't think Marmion needs to worry about who's no. 2 to Murray in the Irish team.

[Oldschoolsocks]

It won't be minus five for the 1/4 final v wasps


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[Hippo]

This is my thing with Luke. He's capable of amazing things but as a result he's a bit overconfident and takes his eyes off the basics. Last week's performance maybe went to his head a bit.

100%. I remember deep in the mists of time Colin Patterson playing at 9 for Ireland, and some journo noting that his great strength was that he didn't let his mistakes affect his performance. Unfortunately there were quite a few mistakes, and I always wished they would affect his performance (in a positive way)! Luke strikes me as having a similar mindset.

In other news, WTF was the story with our tackling in the first half?

[OTT]

A real stinker of a game. Tracy threw 2 really poor lineouts in promising positions and we lost the ball. From a sense perspective, both those balls should have gone to the front. The first one was Tracy's very first involvement. Keep it simple. The second was on their 5m. Why throw long? Insanity.

Tracy had just before that (in the same position on the pitch) thrown to the front of the line out and we struggled to get it (think Molony? won it in the end) strangely the way the line out had gone I thought it was the right thing to do at the next one to go to the tail. Our lineout was in such trouble that the usual secure front of line ball was not secure and they were putting huge pressure on it. They were expecting us to go to the front which opened up the chance at the tail. Now we fupped it up dreadfully by not actually having anyone up for it (if I remember correctly) the Castres player caught it on the ground but if we got someone up for it it was likely gonna lead to a try. I like that we backed ourselves in this position it is how the team is evolving in philosophy, we play brave rugby it is what has got us a lot of scores lately. We executed poorly but next time maybe we will have that experience in the bank, we don't play low risk rugby anymore so sometimes things will go against us but the rewards have been huge in the last few months when things work.

I am only saying this because when watching I thought at the time go to the tail, then when we fupped up I thought we should have went to the front...classic fan. Hindsight is wonderful!

[Raydollard]

Poor performance but now out of the way. Hope Carbery is back as we depend on him as outhalf. We will win any quarter final and will be hard to beat in the semis. We are in a good place and the soft chances we misssed last night can be put behind us. Could not see that happening again.

[All Blacks nil]

A real stinker of a game. Tracy threw 2 really poor lineouts in promising positions and we lost the ball. From a sense perspective, both those balls should have gone to the front. The first one was Tracy's very first involvement. Keep it simple. The second was on their 5m. Why throw long? Insanity.

Ringrose was uncharacteristically poor tonight I thought. Really poor missed tackle for their try in the corner.

47 tackles made 17 missed in the first half. That's 36%. 1 in 3 tackles missed. Crazy stuff.

The kicking out of hand was total cr@p too.

And then I remember the ridicule suffered by Chris Robshaw for calling a 5m line out to the front in RWC15 and being driven over the sideline and out of the World Cup. Insanity!!!!!
Best ball for a line out drive is middle of the lineout. Usually a simple throw.....poor execution makes every call the wrong call.

[wise7]

watching Ross Byrne's improvement game over game in recent weeks - calm, composed, solid in defence, more prominent in directing plays, slick passing, executing precision kicks and pretty dammed good off the tee. He is on a progressive upwards trajectory.

[wixfjord]

watching Ross Byrne's improvement game over game in recent weeks - calm, composed, solid in defence, more prominent in directing plays, slick passing, executing precision kicks and pretty dammed good off the tee. He is on a progressive upwards trajectory.

Do I detect a certain 'trend' in your posts?

[Oldschool]

watching Ross Byrne's improvement game over game in recent weeks - calm, composed, solid in defence, more prominent in directing plays, slick passing, executing precision kicks and pretty dammed good off the tee. He is on a progressive upwards trajectory.

Yes Ross, yawn!

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I find it really strange that Byrne stayed so deep at times. Usually that's when things are going badly for the ten/the team. But that wasn't the case last night. He looked pretty good on the ball and had some lovely moments like the is late pass to Conan right on the gainline. So don't know what he was worried about. At times we had great front foot ball and momentum but he stayed miles back, just don't get it.

Worst example I've ever seen of it was Jackson against Italy in 2013, but you could understand that in the circumstances. Don't understand this though. But he did a lot of good things too, thought he did well overall.

[leinsterforever]

For me, the two biggest failings were the defence and the broken field team attack. There was way to much looseness and lack of technical precision in both. Castres were able to stress the defence quite easily. Instead of the defence pressuring the Castres attack, it was the Leinster defence that seemed to constantly be under pressure.

Four or five times there were good attacking opportunities which were ruined by poor play. I think the coaches need a refresher course from Graham Henry already because all the backs were running cross-field, just wasting the space. What happened to staying square to conserve the space for those outside?

I suppose the positive is that that it was good experience for Byrnex2, Molony and O'Loughlin

Have to say I thought the O'Loughlin thing was a try. It looked to me as if his left hand didn't leave the ball until he got downward pressure.

[wixfjord]

For me, the two biggest failings were the defence and the broken field team attack. There was way to much looseness and lack of technical precision in both. Castres were able to stress the defence quite easily. Instead of the defence pressuring the Castres attack, it was the Leinster defence that seemed to constantly be under pressure.

Four or five times there were good attacking opportunities which were ruined by poor play. I think the coaches need a refresher course from Graham Henry already because all the backs were running cross-field, just wasting the space. What happened to staying square to conserve the space for those outside?

I suppose the positive is that that it was good experience for Byrnex2, Molony and O'Loughlin

Have to say I thought the O'Loughlin thing was a try. It looked to me as if his left hand didn't leave the ball until he got downward pressure.

Ringrose did this twice, surprised by him.

[Fan with smartphone]

For me, the two biggest failings were the defence and the broken field team attack. There was way to much looseness and lack of technical precision in both. Castres were able to stress the defence quite easily. Instead of the defence pressuring the Castres attack, it was the Leinster defence that seemed to constantly be under pressure.

Four or five times there were good attacking opportunities which were ruined by poor play. I think the coaches need a refresher course from Graham Henry already because all the backs were running cross-field, just wasting the space. What happened to staying square to conserve the space for those outside?

I suppose the positive is that that it was good experience for Byrnex2, Molony and O'Loughlin

Have to say I thought the O'Loughlin thing was a try. It looked to me as if his left hand didn't leave the ball until he got downward pressure.

Didn't think it was a try, but have no idea what was wrong with his chip n chase in the second half. Am I missing something? He was in under the sticks.

[cormac]

For me, the two biggest failings were the defence and the broken field team attack. There was way to much looseness and lack of technical precision in both. Castres were able to stress the defence quite easily. Instead of the defence pressuring the Castres attack, it was the Leinster defence that seemed to constantly be under pressure.

Four or five times there were good attacking opportunities which were ruined by poor play. I think the coaches need a refresher course from Graham Henry already because all the backs were running cross-field, just wasting the space. What happened to staying square to conserve the space for those outside?

I suppose the positive is that that it was good experience for Byrnex2, Molony and O'Loughlin

Have to say I thought the O'Loughlin thing was a try. It looked to me as if his left hand didn't leave the ball until he got downward pressure.

Didn't think it was a try, but have no idea what was wrong with his chip n chase in the second half. Am I missing something? He was in under the sticks.

ref ruled it as a knock-on, don't think they showed a replay. Thought he'd kicked it before it hit the ground

[Ruckedtobits]

For me, the two biggest failings were the defence and the broken field team attack. There was way to much looseness and lack of technical precision in both. Castres were able to stress the defence quite easily. Instead of the defence pressuring the Castres attack, it was the Leinster defence that seemed to constantly be under pressure.

Four or five times there were good attacking opportunities which were ruined by poor play. I think the coaches need a refresher course from Graham Henry already because all the backs were running cross-field, just wasting the space. What happened to staying square to conserve the space for those outside?

I suppose the positive is that that it was good experience for Byrnex2, Molony and O'Loughlin

Have to say I thought the O'Loughlin thing was a try. It looked to me as if his left hand didn't leave the ball until he got downward pressure.

Having re-watched this morning, having been at game, RO'L clearly knocked ball on to his boot before regathering to "score" under the sticks.

Overall, Leinster fans were very disappointed at missed opportunities. But Castres home record has to be respected (one loss in 26 games). Their scrum-half and right winger were immense in attack and their pack were very dominant in maintaining possession. Certainly, they deserved to be more highly rated than many Irish journos and posters allowed.

From where we started in our Pool games, if we been offered a home q/f qualification (playing our last 60 mins without Isa, J10, SOB, Cronin, Carberry or Marsh, Kirchner, McFadden, Dave K, or Rhys Ruddock), we would have been delighted. That our "kids" who are still improving, and experiencing the reality that better skills do not 'entitle' you to be ahead on the scoreboard, is a major plus. Stuart Lancaster, and Leo &Girv are experiencing the pressures of trying to stay in the play-off places of two competitions and learning each week. J10 is "managing" his uncertain body, but probably for the priority of Ireland and the Lions.

Thus far, we are competitive in both competitions at our worst. At our best, we are almost impossible for any opponent to contain. We are broadening the depth and experience week by week and that is providing a degree of internal competition we've rarely experienced in Leinster. This scribe is a happy STH and looking forward to phase 3 of the season with anticipation.

[Oldschool]

For me, the two biggest failings were the defence and the broken field team attack. There was way to much looseness and lack of technical precision in both. Castres were able to stress the defence quite easily. Instead of the defence pressuring the Castres attack, it was the Leinster defence that seemed to constantly be under pressure.

Four or five times there were good attacking opportunities which were ruined by poor play. I think the coaches need a refresher course from Graham Henry already because all the backs were running cross-field, just wasting the space. What happened to staying square to conserve the space for those outside?

I suppose the positive is that that it was good experience for Byrnex2, Molony and O'Loughlin

Have to say I thought the O'Loughlin thing was a try. It looked to me as if his left hand didn't leave the ball until he got downward pressure.

Having re-watched this morning, having been at game, RO'L clearly knocked ball on to his boot before regathering to "score" under the sticks.

Overall, Leinster fans were very disappointed at missed opportunities. But Castres home record has to be respected (one loss in 26 games). Their scrum-half and right winger were immense in attack and their pack were very dominant in maintaining possession. Certainly, they deserved to be more highly rated than many Irish journos and posters allowed.

From where we started in our Pool games, if we been offered a home q/f qualification (playing our last 60 mins without Isa, J10, SOB, Cronin, Carberry or Marsh, Kirchner, McFadden, Dave K, or Rhys Ruddock), we would have been delighted. That our "kids" who are still improving, and experiencing the reality that better skills do not 'entitle' you to be ahead on the scoreboard, is a major plus. Stuart Lancaster, and Leo &Girv are experiencing the pressures of trying to stay in the play-off places of two competitions and learning each week. J10 is "managing" his uncertain body, but probably for the priority of Ireland and the Lions.

Thus far, we are competitive in both competitions at our worst. At our best, we are almost impossible for any opponent to contain. We are broadening the depth and experience week by week and that is providing a degree of internal competition we've rarely experienced in Leinster. This scribe is a happy STH and looking forward to phase 3 of the season with anticipation.

Scribe? Is that a Freudian slip?