Leinster vs Exeter Sat 16-12-17@3.15PM - BT Sport

[fourthirtythree]

Leinster had a catastrophic and disorganised first half hour. Then Exeter didn't score and frankly rarely looked like it.

Ross Byrne was subdued shall we say. I don't know if he would have coped at 100% but I'd count on Sexton to deal with their offside midfield much better. Very hard to play through them when the receiver is tackled by someone metres offside.

Exeter will be pleased with their scrum and maul improvement on last week but disappointing they forgot to score for 50 minutes. I don't think they knew what to do with so much ball. I think their coaching for the week was on getting it and it stopped there.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Thought the ref was dreadful but we benefited from his biggest mistake in not sending Healy off IMO. I really don't understand how people could think that it wasn't even a yellow. Sure there were lots of other decisions that went against us but we got away with stuff too, I just thought that one was so blatant that it was on another level to the other calls.

Fardy was great but I thought yesterday showed that we lack a bulky carrier in the row for games like that. Dev was great last week but Exeter were much better defensively yesterday and we just didn't have a second row who we could shift slow ball to and get us rumbling forward. People have said that we were better in the second half but I'd disagree slightly with that, thought we were only better from about 55/60 minutes on and that the subs made a huge difference. Ryan was able to get us an extra yard or two when he came on and and that gave us a much better platform to work off. I really don't mean that as a criticism of Fardy, he was excellent and I thought his yellow card was ridiculous. Dev did some good things but he's the guy that I would be critical of, and think it might be worth starting Ryan and Fardy in Montpellier against their monster pack, especially if we beat Glasgow and the result isn't as important.

I still think we need more from Isa on the wing but what a leader and player he is. The way he stood in at ten and then kept us in the game with his brilliant kicking was amazing. It would have been easy for him/us to panic and start going for the corner, or for the pressure on those kicks to get to him but with every kick that went over I felt things were looking ominous for Exeter and I'd say they felt it too.

I thought Ross Byrne was fairly poor but I'd give him a pass because of the hit he took, just can't imagine he was anything like 100%. Luke's kicking was very mixed. He hit some poor ones and the some of the good ones tended to be taken by Woodburn, which made it quite frustrating when we kept kicking to him. But it's hard not to kick when you're not making any ground with ball in hand. We were caught between a rock and a hard place and to grind our way through it and come up with the win was just brilliant.

I think we can play much better than we did over the two games, but we've really been tested and come out on top. I'd say the confidence in the squad is sky high, nothing should faze them now. An away win against the English champions and then a win in really difficult circumstances are genuine milestones in the evolution of a winning team.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Just remembered another bizarre decision from the ref. How long was the advantage after Ross Byrne's high tackle???

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Ringrose was mixed again, particularly defensively, albeit they're hard to defend against.

Thought that too. He made a lot of errors in defence in the first half, thought he grew into it then and was always dangerous with the ball even though we weren't creating any space for him.

[cormac]

Not one of his better performances yesterday, but Luke McGrath now has 24 tries in 85 appearances for Leinster.

[johng]

Any word on Johnny? Ok. Just found some online. He's supposedly fine

[mildlyinterested]

Not one of his better performances yesterday, but Luke McGrath now has 24 tries in 85 appearances for Leinster.

Considering he was the senior halfback I was pretty happy..

[Ruckedtobits]

Just remembered another bizarre decision from the ref. How long was the advantage after Ross Byrne's high tackle???

There's no limit on advantage for foul play. If they had scored Ross might have got a card. As it was ref should have offered them the option of the penalty he signalled on the far side of the pitch which was a kickable distance.

Re the collection of offsides. No doubt he missed a lot of them but having reviewed today, McGrath's passing was at fault about 50% of the time. He must move the pass as soon as he picks it up. He doesn't. Too often the sequence is lift, look, pass. Sometimes he even puts in a step between 'look' and 'pass'.

[Xanthippe]

Surely some statto could find at least 3 in the likes of Toulon or Racing over the last 5 years

In our 2015 semi final Toulon had the following players in their starting 15

• Carl Hayman
  Ali Williams
  Chris Masoe
  Matt Giteau

and also Drew Mitchell on the bench.

[johng]

Surely some statto could find at least 3 in the likes of Toulon or Racing over the last 5 years

In our 2015 semi final Toulon had the following players in their starting 15

• Carl Hayman
  Ali Williams
  Chris Masoe
  Matt Giteau

and also Drew Mitchell on the bench.

So we should have won and MOC should still be coach

[CiaranIrl]

Any word on Johnny? Ok. Just found some online. He's supposedly fine

Apparently he was in the changing room at half time giving lots of advice. I'd say he'll be grand after a couple of weeks off. No chance we'll see him on Stephen's Day against Munster I'd say, but maybe for New Year's against Connacht.

[Dave Cahill]

According to Joe Schmidt, he passed his HIA so you'd have to wonder why he didn't return

[Hippo]

According to Joe Schmidt, he passed his HIA so you'd have to wonder why he didn't return

And having seen his stagger after the collision, you'd have to wonder how he passed the HIA

[artaneboy]

Not one of his better performances yesterday, but Luke McGrath now has 24 tries in 85 appearances for Leinster.

Considering he was the senior halfback I was pretty happy..

That’s a bit counter-intuitive; when you graduate to senior hurling, you really need to up your game. But while I’ve famously criticised him in the past for the errors displayed yesterday, he did stick at it and showed the character we never doubted he had. Good line for the try too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[simonokeeffe]

Maybe its because HIAs are a sop

Also Johnny's history of declared and undeclared head injuries

[fourthirtythree]

HIAs rule in a concussion, they don't rule it out.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Just remembered another bizarre decision from the ref. How long was the advantage after Ross Byrne's high tackle???

There's no limit on advantage for foul play. If they had scored Ross might have got a card. As it was ref should have offered them the option of the penalty he signalled on the far side of the pitch which was a kickable distance.

Yes but why not blow it up earlier when they clearly weren't going anywhere? I also thought it was farcical to check that for a yellow card. I've no problem with the penalty but it wasn't bad at all. I mean, to ref that situation like that but not do more on the high tackle on Luke at the end of the first half? Just seemed totally inconsistent and stacked against us. But like I said earlier, I'd caveat every gripe with the fact that we were blessed that Healy wasn't sent off.

I've just been complaining about Geordan Murphy blaming refs in the Munster thread

[molloyjh]

How great was it to see us attacking them with the clock in the red at the end of the first half? Down a man, in our own half and so much going against us. You’d think “get into the changing rooms and regroup”. Nope, not this team. Having a go at them and coming away with 3 points was huge. The term championship minutes gets a bit of use these days but that really was a great example of it.

Also, I heart Scott Fardy.

[riocard911]

How great was it to see us attacking them with the clock in the red at the end of the first half? Down a man, in our own half and so much going against us. You’d think “get into the changing rooms and regroup”. Nope, not this team. Having a go at them and coming away with 3 points was huge. The term championship minutes gets a bit of use these days but that really was a great example of it.

Also, I heart Scott Fardy.

+1. That was some statement of intent with the peno to underline it!!!

[riocard911]

I noticed on the webcams at half time how uncluttered and orderly both dressing rooms were. Indicates well coached teams, IMO. In ours you could see a standing Lancaster imparting information and the whole squad sitting in their places soaking it all up.