Pro14 Final Leinster v Scarlets Sat 6PM Aviva Stadium

[Peg Leg]

Cummiskey has Fardy on the bench.

1. Healy
2. Cronin
3. Furlong
4. Toner
5. Ryan
6. Ruddock
7. Leavy
8. Conan
9. McGrath
10. Sexton
11. Lowe
12. Nacewa
13. Ringrose
14. Larmour
15. Kearney
16. Tracy
17. McGrath
18. Porter
19. Fardy
20. Murphy
21. McCarthy
22. Carbery
23. ROL

LPG must be injured.

Run out of gas?

[Peg Leg]

Wow it’s hard today believe this will be the last time we see Isa in a Leinster jersey.
I don’t think coaches need to do a motivational speech, just let’s go out and do it for this man.
Can’t wait

Reported for being too upsetting.

This.
The stadium managers should insist that every attendee greet ISA with a Dan Leavy salute as he takes to the field

[Laighin Break]

1/2P at 15 for Scarlets. Gotta say I'd be more worried if McNicholl was there. He will be dangerous on that wing though.

In the backline, this is a better Scarlets side than the semi. Hopefully Henshaw and MCF being out won't significantly weaken our ability to overpower them.

Barclay a big loss though. Their second row is fairly weak too.

And I'm sure Jack Conan will be interested in testing out Beirne at 8 from the back of a scrum...

15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Johnny Mcnicholl, 13 Scott Williams, 12 Hadleigh Parkes, 11 Steff Evans, 10 Rhys Patchell, 9 Gareth Davies,
1 Rob Evans, 2 Ken Owens ©, 3 Samson Lee, 4 Lewis Rawlins, 5 Steve Cummins, 6 Aaron Shingler, 7 James Davies, 8 Tadhg Beirne

Replacements; Ryan Elias, Wyn Jones, Werner Kruger, David Bulbring, Will Boyde, Jonathan Evans, Dan Jones, Tom Prydie

Agree on 1/2P. Excellent kicker but that's really the job of the 10. But does he really offer much else?

[curates_egg]

Why would you not start Fardy? Really don't get that decision.
Has been our best player this season, is an 80 minute player and had only 30 minutes last Saturday (edits out season).
Ruddock, who is one of my favourites, looked understandably out of sorts: why start him in a final.

[LeinsterLeader]

Why would you not start Fardy? Really don't get that decision.
Has been our best player this season, is an 80 minute player and had only 30 minutes last season.
Ruddock, who is one of my favourites, looked understandably out of sorts: why start him in a final.

I'd agree with that CE but in fairness I think the management have got most of their calls right up to now and they deserve to be given faith in this I think.

Whilst I would feel better if he was starting he will give the team some lift when he comes on too (hopefully not too late though )

[hugonaut]

They'll be a lot better with Patchell at No10 than they were with Dan Jones there. That was a terrible selection call from Pivac for the semi-final.

[mildlyinterested]

fardy on the bench suggests to me that they know they won't blow scarlets away this time and will need his impact off the bench come 50 mins.

[wixfjord]

I think Ringrose is hugely important tomorrow. Will need his calmness in defence.

[A16]

They'll be a lot better with Patchell at No10 than they were with Dan Jones there. That was a terrible selection call from Pivac for the semi-final.

+1
I agree with you there, Patchell is an excellent outhalf, and far better at 10 than 15. Although I think the decision was made on the basis that they didn’t fancy sending Tom Varndell out on the wing because of their injury woes. Patchell and Beirne are the 2 players I think we have to target. For Beirne, we need to do what we did in the semi final, and not give him half of a chance to get a turnover. As for Patchell, we just have to put pressure on him in defence, and not allow him to bring their back line into play. England did a good job of it in the Six Nations, as did Bath earlier in the season.

[olaf the fat]

The nerves are really starting to build for this one now...

This is a chance to make some history by doing a double, plus it's been a while since we won the league. Massive hurdle of Scarlet's in the way though.

[limecat]

Match Preview

Leinster can make history in their final match of the season.

They can become the first team outside of France and England to win a European Cup/League double. It was a nervy finish last week against Munster and in truth they rode their luck at times. Both teams got good and bad decisions off a referee who was utterly out of his depth and who mystifyingly has been awarded this week's final too. But the real luck was that their dodgy defending out wide wasn't exposed more mainly due to Munster's dreadful passing. Passes were flung high, forward and wide and poor defensive reads were glossed over but the Scarlets backline would have been licking their lips.

Read more...

[nc6000]

And a bunch of €20 tickets are released, nice of them to wait until everyone has bought their tickets already.

Why not do this earlier in the week?

https://twitter.com/OLSCRugby/status/10 ... 1531473920

[Hippo]

Wow it’s hard today believe this will be the last time we see Isa in a Leinster jersey.
I don’t think coaches need to do a motivational speech, just let’s go out and do it for this man.
Can’t wait

Reported for being too upsetting.

[mildlyinterested]

probably carberys last time in blue too

[Peg Leg]

Why would you not start Fardy? Really don't get that decision.
Has been our best player this season, is an 80 minute player and had only 30 minutes last Saturday (edits out season).
Ruddock, who is one of my favourites, looked understandably out of sorts: why start him in a final.

Because sometimes its about the players drive to win a medal/who wants it more etc. Its a hard thing to quantify but Steo has proven a proper alchemist in this regard.

[Peg Leg]

probably carberys last time in blue too

Have you ever considered a career in motivational speaking?

[Fireworks]

I think that might be our strongest bench of the season. I agree that it is funny to see Fardy on the bench but now that we have more backrow options available to can revert to the secondrow and is one hell of an impact player to spring from the bench.

[Peg Leg]

How many season mins has Toner? Some engine for someone so consistently brilliant.

[cormac]

How many season mins has Toner? Some engine for someone so consistently brilliant.

Just over 1,800 mins.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

probably carberys last time in blue too

Have you ever considered a career in motivational speaking?

I genuinely just snorted