Lot of turnovers from Conor O'Brien alright, but a lot of forceful running and travel over the gainline too – the Scrum.com stats have him at 12 carries for 50m+, 1 clean break and 4 defenders beaten. Like you say, I think it's fair to give him a free pass on his debut.neiliog93 wrote:Considering we dominated possession and territory in the second half, it is very disappointing to take nothing from the game. We'd have the deserved the 2 losing bonus points a 31-28 loss would have brought. We made our characteristic mistakes in defence and the line out and they were costly. Glasgow spoiled everything at the breakdown, the referee gave the yellow cards that this merited but we weren't good enough to take advantage.
Positives: a) Barnstorming carrying display from Deegan
b) Fardy's best game for Leinster
c) Young backs: In the little game time they had, Marsh and Keenan looked comfortable. Larmour continues to prove that he's a serious attacking threat. Adam Byrne played very well, especially in attack.
d) Dominant scrum. Porter is really stepping up.
Negatives: a) JGP had a couple of good moments but overall continues to struggle.
b) Line out.
c) Defence (at times).
d) Conor O'Brien didn't look comfortable at all at this level but first game so he obviously gets a free pass.
There's also the fact that he's our fifth choice No12 on the depth chart, behind Henshaw, Nacewa, Reid and Tom Daly. That's no exaggeration for the sake of argument, he's genuinely fifth choice. We've three injuries and an international missing in one position.
Don't think that Dan Leavy has performed well or looked right in the last couple of matches since returning from injury. Looks a little tentative and, like Jeb Bush, 'low-energy'.
