Leinster v Wasps Aviva Stadium 1st April KO 3.15 BT

[Peg Leg]

squeeky bum for a while there - especially with the possession we had.....still we move on - with more confidence going to France than we might have had
in recent years....SOB & Robbie awesome....am i alone in thinking id like a little more urgency at times from Joey....seemed positively lethargic at times....

The best players always look like they have time on the ball.

[artaneboy]

squeeky bum for a while there - especially with the possession we had.....still we move on - with more confidence going to France than we might have had
in recent years....SOB & Robbie awesome....am i alone in thinking id like a little more urgency at times from Joey....seemed positively lethargic at times....

No you're correct on Carberry. Some great stuff overall, but be Jaysus he looked a bit lackadaisical running back there a couple of times. Particularly as their flier arrived in on him and the ball.

Ringrose was my MoM; that's if you discount the constant crucial contribution of one J Sexton. Seanie was immense too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CiaranIrl]

Adam Byrne's hamstring went, so I'm told.

Henshaw was immense I thought.

[fourthirtythree]

Looked like it might be a hamstring at the ground alright. Thought Carberry was actually quite mixed, he got isolated and lost the ball to great effect for Wasps. Wasps fans I was talking to had Henshaw as man of the match - I guess they are used to exciting players make solo runs so were less impressed with Carberry than Irish people are.

All week Wasps were talking about how Leinster were going to slow their ball. We didn't. We didn't commit to the ruck and fanned out making sure they never had overlaps. They over committed to them and lacked numbers. I was amazed they didn't change it up at half time. Did we poach one one the floor all match?

I thought they looked a little confused in defence at times and only the extreme pace of their scramble covered up for poor options/not knowing who their man was. They also didn't have an attack structure, just breakaways when the defence wasn't set.

So for all Marty in awe of the amazing Cardiff alumnus Dai Young I think that Wasps need better coaching: that backline deserves more.

We were also profligate in attack and knocked on and turned over when we had their line at our mercy.

Oh, and that was fantastic.

[Ruckedtobits]

All I can find about Matmut Stadium in Lyon tells me capacity is only 11,800. Can anybody tell me different?

Do we get 50% allocation?

[Ruckedtobits]

Allianz Stadium in Nice is 35,000 capacity. Room for everyone, but very close to Toulon.

[wixfjord]

All I can find about Matmut Stadium in Lyon tells me capacity is only 11,800. Can anybody tell me different?

Do we get 50% allocation?

It's the Parc Olympique I think, 60k odd. Tickets shouldn't be a major issue.

[RoboProp]

Looked like it might be a hamstring at the ground alright. Thought Carberry was actually quite mixed, he got isolated and lost the ball to great effect for Wasps. Wasps fans I was talking to had Henshaw as man of the match - I guess they are used to exciting players make solo runs so were less impressed with Carberry than Irish people are.

All week Wasps were talking about how Leinster were going to slow their ball. We didn't. We didn't commit to the ruck and fanned out making sure they never had overlaps. They over committed to them and lacked numbers. I was amazed they didn't change it up at half time. Did we poach one one the floor all match?

I thought they looked a little confused in defence at times and only the extreme pace of their scramble covered up for poor options/not knowing who their man was. They also didn't have an attack structure, just breakaways when the defence wasn't set.

So for all Marty in awe of the amazing Cardiff alumnus Dai Young I think that Wasps need better coaching: that backline deserves more.

We were also profligate in attack and knocked on and turned over when we had their line at our mercy.

Oh, and that was fantastic.

Yeah, my mates and I all thought Henshae was MOTM with Seanie pushing him. We all thought Carberry had a howler. Shows what we know!

[fourthirtythree]

You should have heard my Da's string of expletives when he heard Carberry got it

[Hippo]

I thought Carbery was brilliant, apart from that one error. He has so much time on the ball that he can look lethargic but he's actually really quick and rarely makes a bad decision. He's ridiculously good for his age.

I thought McGrath made a few iffy decisions, sometimes going to the blindside when the numbers weren't there. SOB put in his best performance in ages and Leavy and Conan were very impressive. Cipriani badly exposed on the day, and Le Roux's mistake was unbelievable and the game-changing moment.

[wixfjord]

I would absolutely love Toulon to win tomorrow. Reckon we'd take them.

[Gearzbox2]

Some smashing performances and team desire across the board was immense
Thought Henshaw and Ringer were incredible with the latter my MOM...Seanie had his game of the season for leinster, and the rest of the back row followed him...front row a bit quiet but delivered at scrum time
Dev and Trigger were a bit over powered at times but got stuck into their maul...

Like a bit more from our bench in terms of controlled impact especially with bigger tests ahead in semi

It was comical the chat before even taking about Sexton and Cipriani as a match up for lions!!!
Interesting watching tomorrow to see where we go

[FLIP]

https://streamable.com/fy9oz

The Le Roux splash fail. Always love seeing a showboater eat some humble pie.

[Ruckedtobits]

Great result from a very aggressive tactical approach in difficult conditions.

Agree with comments about our mistakes in attack and with two or three of Joey's counter-attack executions. But you could forgive him almost anything for the way in which he spotted and executed his part in Jack Conan's try with a wonderful participation by Ferg.

Hate the concept of MOTM in team sports and certainly in a game like today. However, was not in the slightest bit surprised by the nomination, when I knew that BT/ BOD were the nominators. The biggest Leinster contributors, beyond reasonable expectations, were Furlong, Triggs, Dev, SO'B, Leavy, Conan, J10, HENSHAW, Ringrose, Carbery, Healy and McFadden.

Tactically, this was an excellent game plan, well executed despite the wet ball and fairly blustery conditions. Luke McGrath made some great defensive reads and tackles but had a couple of poor decisions in attack.

Great result and very supportive crowd at right moments, but now it gets hard in France.

[desperado]

Adam Byrne's hamstring went, so I'm told.

Henshaw was immense I thought.

but AB ran off to be substituted; can't be much of a hamstring injury - or at least running off is not the best way to improve recovery time.

[Cianostays]

Thought Triggs was very, very good. Nailing Cipriani behind the gameline was a fantastic read. Henshaw and Ringrose probably had their best game as a partnership. Leavy really looks to have some lovely handling skills that I hadn't appreciated. SO'B was back to his old self and it was great to see him used in wider channels.

Honestly think we could beat either Toulon or Clermont in France after today.

[sunshiner1]

As someone who watched this on TV I had a very different perspective than a lot of you guys watching this live. On TV Carberry was sublime, some of the stuff you could see him doing in close-up was amazing. Yes he made one mistake but overall the amount of go forward ball he gave us was unbelievable. Apart from Straus at the line-out who made some bad mistakes I thought everyone played superbly. Really loved Leavy at 6 and SOB at 7. I think they compliment each other nicely. Conan was awesome as well. Delighted at the win.

[paddyor]

No, Jamie will likely be waterboy. Freed from the burden of having to play, he'll be leadershipping the sh*t out of this game. You wait and see, Kinsella will have an article about it next weekend.

More seriously yes. Rob is also a loss in that regard. But I'm excited at the opportunity for some of the younger players like McGrath, Henshaw, Ringrose, Byrne, Carberry, Furlong, Conan and Leavy. Here's how I think they'll do.

Big game
Henshaw & Furlong: Both have test experience, so maybe they shouldn't be there, but this is there first euro knock out game. Both nailed on Lions IMO, they're likely to skittle a few people. Totems for the other rookies.

Solid:
McGrath & Ringrose: Ringrose grew into the 6N IMO, is up against one of the best 13s going at the moment in Daly, he'll be doing well to keep him quiet. It is a LIONS showdown IMO. Despite the flack he gets McGraths passing and kicking have come on a good bit over the season (think 2 seasons ago). Don't think he'll get the game breaking chances he's gotten in the pro12 or earlier rounds of the HEC.

Struggling:
Leavy & Conan: Not much test experience here and up against a pack including Johnson, Launchbury, Haskell and Hughes. This is a different kettle of fish than Scarlets or Edinburgh in the test Window or a 14 man Montpellier. I expect a big shift from both but I think they could struggle to impose themselves on the game they way they have before. I think we'll learn a lot about them from this game.

The good the bad and the ugly:
Carberry & Byrne: Wouldn't have a problem with Carberry at 10, just not sure of him at 15. I've a lot of time for Byrne but at times he's such a hesitant defenderI don't see any middle ground for them (unless the pack gives them an armchair ride in a grinding victory). Either they play well or their inexperience is shown up with some bad mistakes.

So to recap:
Big game:
Henshaw, Ringrose, Conan & Furlong
Henshaw was brilliant again. Probably the best player we've signed since Isa. Thought Ringrose looked dangerous throughout, comfortably better than his opposite number (easy enough when you've so much ball). Conan took his try and showed up well in supoort a few times, really liked him flattening Cipriani. Furlongs step on the wing in the first half was beautiful, showed up in the tight and the loose to good affect

Solid:
Leavy McGrath & Carberry. Leavys defensive breakdown talents weren't part of the game plan. Game interrupted by the blood sub but I thought he did what he had to do well. Carberry did well. Wasps aimed a lot of kicks at him and he dealt with it all. Wasn't all that happy with him coming into the line every time but that was the game plan IMO, and he was generally a threat.. Think he could make better decisions about what to do with the ball.

Injured
Adam Byrne

[wixfjord]

Thought our second and backrow was the winning of the game for us today. 4-8 completely outplayed their opposite numbers.
Carbery was good, but as above, made a few errors. Henshaw and Ringrose were excellent for me. Henshaw does some amount of work and is incredibly important to us getting go forward. Ringrose looks to have benefitted from the 6N experience, brilliant going forward and strong defending too.

It's sacrilege to say, but thought Isa was poor enough. Few nice kicks but looked a little one paced against Wade. Ferg was great when he came on. A strong hand in two tries and some great off the ball work.

Our 9/10 were mixed enough I thought. Sexton and McGrath's kicking was poor. McGrath particularly mixed the good (some nice breaks) with the bad (that attempt on Gopperth was a shocker). JGP when he came on looked his usual headless self.

Overall you'd have to be happy with such a clear win. Our defensive structure really was brilliant and suffocated them.

Top performers for me - Conan, Henshaw, Triggs, SOB, Carbery.

[LeinsterLeader]

My favorite moment of the day. Not often Leinster players show emotion like this. Was great to see how much it meant to him!