LeRouxIsPHat wrote:artaneboy wrote:
Truly the level of cultish denial on Luke McGrath's flaws and the claims of his entitlement to be first choice scrum half, is at Trumpian levels here.
I tried to bite my tongue but this is genuinely deluded. I'm one of Luke's biggest fans and constantly defend him because I think he gets a rough time of it because I have a genuine belief that when he makes a mistake it multiplies in people's heads by two or three times that number due to the impression that people built up of him. Plus I think people criticise him for things that they then ignore with JGP, case in point being you not seeing JGP's poor kicks on Saturday.
On Saturday I said he was poor...and most other people have detailed his errors...so the "cultish denial on Luke's flaws" is honestly one of the most baffling comments I've seen on this site. It's as if your brain tippexes out the comments you don't want to see. What's also very very strange is that you've been windmilling about this for a couple of days now. You're not offering any decent analysis of his performance, you're just gloating about your opinion on Luke being correct due largely to a massive emphasis being placed on this performance because it suits you. I don't really remember many comments from you last week when he was excellent against Munster.
To be crowing about the poor performance of one of our players to such an extent is a bit pathetic really.
Oh dear- what drivel. I was going to stop posting on this theme for now, but you dragged me back in... I won't bother addressing your paranoia or your peevish tone. You're condemned by your own sanctimoniousness on most of that.
But just a few brief points; Luke does not by any analysis get a hard time here for his consistent mistakes. Rather than being highlighted, Luke gets far too much of a free pass on his errors- and its not helping anyone- not him and not the team.
On analysis? There's no great analysis needed here other than Luke kicked and passed poorly throughout his time on the pitch. Not every kick was too long/ inaccurate and and not every pass was slow, high/ low, short/ behind, but a lot of both actions were. I'm not sure what you require there from a mere poster- technical tips to Luke on passing and kicking?
Just as I would never gloat at a player poor performance (that's really insulting- as of course you intended), I also see no great reason to heap praise on Luke for- as an example you raise, playing competently against Munster. He was far from being our best player- and nowhere near our worst on the day. His performance doesn't obsess me, like he may others. I also failed to mention several players who to my reading played better than him too- do we have to do a roll call now?!
You are obviously in the vanguard of his supporters and any criticism is sure to have you seeking to play the man not the ball in response. For the record, I do like McGrath's attitude, I hope he improves to be the top class player your imagine he already is, but I won't be blinded by faux analysis or cowed by vitriol into ignoring his still present flaws.
By the (very bleeden' obvious) way- I am not promoting JGP, McCarthy or anyone else as the SH savior we need- it just happens that the Kiwi is the player in the club in competition for the place with Luke. On your claim on my ignoring posts that don't suit; well- that's really 'Praise from Caesar'! Inconveniently for your argument, Jamie managed to kick quite effectively in his limited time on the pitch on Saturday- I've also gone through that previously- and JGP was certainly better than Luke on the day. Of the three kicks that were significant, there was one beauty gathered by Daly over his head (I'm sure you remember that one?), one successful distance finder from well within the 22, and one clear error which was run back by their try scorer. Not enough data to make any sort of real case, but indications that he's on the right track.
I was irked that its an assumption by many that Luke is the first choice for the Glasgow game- hence the original post. But if I have a real regret on our SH selection policy, it isn't that McGrath is ahead in the pecking order of JGP, it's that neither of them are currently good enough for a club of our ambitions. I look wistfully at John Cooney on Friday night and I see a Leinster alumni who is playing better than our two incumbents and effectively filing the void left by a world-class player in Ruan Pienaar. I sincerely want one of our SHs to reach the standard we need to win a forth Champions Cup. None of them are there yet- but imitating two of the three monkeys with hands over our eyes and ears won't help that to happen.
And this time- this really is my last comment on SH selection until after Saturday when I hope whoever is selected- and I expect it may be Luke, he plays so well, and is replaced after 60 minutes by an equally effective JPG, that we have a VdF/ Leavy embarrassment of riches. Good luck...
Suffice to state your 'memory doesn't serve you correct'- and you're so generally all over the place, there's almost nothing there that warrants any reply beyond that. I imagine we are boring people now- so let's keep it to PM, if there's any need for more on this. Keep carrying that torch though....
