Bath v Leinster Sat 3.15 BT Sports

[Blueberry]

Dear oh dear, imagine if we had lost yesterday....you'd swear from reading this thread we threw it away...

Delighted we won an old arm wrestle in nasty conditions on a poor pitch.....classic get the job done and get out. We will not gain much from endless analysis of this one.

For what it's worth felt the second half showed why we are champs, just like that dogfight of a final in Bilbao last year, it says alot about our temperament as a team to come out of these types of games on the right side.

Onwards and upwards

[wixfjord]

Dear oh dear, imagine if we had lost yesterday....you'd swear from reading this thread we threw it away...

Would you?

Where do you get that impression from?

Because what I've seen is that everyone is happy with the result given the circumstances.

[FLIP]

Any sign of this health and safety report from Bath yet?

[Blueberry]

Dear oh dear, imagine if we had lost yesterday....you'd swear from reading this thread we threw it away...

Would you?

Where do you get that impression from?

Because what I've seen is that everyone is happy with the result given the circumstances.

Plenty of negative comments about the 'performance', genuinely proud of the lads and the way they handled that game, in the conditions it had banana skin written all over it. Result all that matters in those conditions, get in and get out.

[wixfjord]

Dear oh dear, imagine if we had lost yesterday....you'd swear from reading this thread we threw it away...

Would you?

Where do you get that impression from?

Because what I've seen is that everyone is happy with the result given the circumstances.

Plenty of negative comments about the 'performance', genuinely proud of the lads and the way they handled that game, in the conditions it had banana skin written all over it. Result all that matters in those conditions, get in and get out.

Yep it wasn't a good performance.

And it was a good result.

Surely you can see the difference between the two?

[artaneboy]

Would you?

Where do you get that impression from?

Because what I've seen is that everyone is happy with the result given the circumstances.

Plenty of negative comments about the 'performance', genuinely proud of the lads and the way they handled that game, in the conditions it had banana skin written all over it. Result all that matters in those conditions, get in and get out.

Yep it wasn't a good performance.

And it was a good result.

Surely you can see the difference between the two?

FFS! Are you going to keep this going for the next week???

Anyway- what is the prognosis on Sexton and the rest of the walking wounded?


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[Blueberry]

Okay Wixfjord enough !!

For me a good performance especially considering the conditions !!

Was it perfect no, but it never is, at kickoff with those conditions would have bitten your hand off for a 7 PT win. That comes from a good performance. Felt especially in the second half we were in total control and that is impressive. A little more glass half full please all round.

[Dundalk 1]

The reffing was a joke yesterday
He allowed continuous offside and worst of all allowed the tackler to lie all over the tackler player allowing the poacher a cheap penalty
We got a few from Healy in the same way that Underhill and Low got them
As a result all attacking momentum was taken out of the game

Gauzere is a totally different ref who we have a good record with as he generally favors the attacking team in close calls

[wixfjord]

Okay Wixfjord enough !!

Ah right, so you were happy enough to make snide little comments, but not happy for to me to respond to it? I see!

[Blueberry]

Look Wixfjord, don't see any snide little comments from anyone just some folks talking about rugby so would appreciate if you just stick to talking about Leinster and stop stirring up trouble. You are perfectly entitled to think that the performance by Leinster was not good v Bath and I am perfectly entitled to think it was a good performance. Let's just agree to disagree and forget about it.

Onto round 2 in the Aviva and let's see if we can get 5 !!

[wixfjord]

Look Wixfjord, don't see any snide little comments from anyone just some folks talking about rugby so would appreciate if you just stick to talking about Leinster and stop stirring up trouble.

Nah, I'm not at all dude.

In fact the opposite. I was happy enough to have a pure rugby discussion but when I’ve asked for proper back up of comments from yourself and artaneboy I’ve been met with stuff like the below.

What are you- a teacher?! Stop giving homework- and do your own quote harvesting, if you actually need more.

you mention the weather, etc. but still think looking for 5 points is reasonable- or even somehow admirable, in being... what- aspirational? Aren’t you all the purists!

Dear oh dear, imagine if we had lost yesterday....you'd swear from reading this thread we threw it away...

As I've said already, we're Euro champions playing a mid tier English side with 7-8 guys missing.
We should've been aiming for a TBP during the week based on that alone. That's not arrogance, it's reality. It's where we should be at.
The weather and pitch made things much more difficult, so a win of any kind was a good result.
But our performance was not good, our intensity wasn't there and the error count was large. And the team have said this too.
Because that's the level we should be at.

I hope and expect a much more fluid, error ridden performance at the weekend and yes, I'd be aiming for a TBP again. We certainly need it.

[Blueberry]

Fair points, just felt we really performed well on the day and we handled a tricky situation really well.

Bath I felt performed really well, played to the conditions and did all the basics well and were obviously up for it. They clearly had watched the Racing v Leinster final in prep !! I think anyone playing Leinster gets a boost when they see poor weather and wind as it levels out the game and negates so much of our game which is fundamentally based on quick ball, pace and slick hands. All of which become much harder in the poor conditions. I wasn't at the game unfortunately but by all accounts and from the TV view it looked like atrocious conditions with a strong changing wind, very wet and a really boggy slow pitch. It's quite amazing some of the continuity of play that did actually happen and it didn't descend into a game of endless scrums. Testament to both sides.

While yes in good conditions we would hope to put a team like Bath to the sword and our pedigree would suggest this, Saturday was never going to pan out like that once Bath decided to turn up.

The ref didn't help hugely as the offside line was poorly officiated I felt too, further reducing space so that didn't help either.

I suppose where I'm coming from fundamentally, is that this is exactly the type of game we used to have a habit of losing but the maturity and mindset in the team now is not to panic, accept that mistakes will happen but plough on and get the job done. This for me is a huge positive and sometimes we have to win ugly and that for me isn't a poor performance, it's just pragmatic and I loved the game on Saturday for those reasons. It was a real old school classic, none of this fancy running rings around them and scoring 55 points !!

And yes let's hope for a 5 pointer and some dry weather on Saturday, that we can all agree on !!

[OTT]

I don't want to fuel the fire on either side here.

When I look at some of our best away performances in Europe you can pick the obvious ones like Northampton away in 2013, Toulouse away in 2006.

I would also include Exeter away last season where it was a low scoring game and all about grit and determination it was two absolute quality teams going hard at it. The match on Saturday was a team playing a lot above themselves and a team who to my mind were not absolutely on their top game. Both the Bath and Exeter games we came away with 4 points in a tight game but to my mind the quality of the games were vastly different. It was a god awful day, Bath were better then I have seen them in ages and to me we were a bit off our expected level but we got the win. That is how you win the competition. I would have taken a 1 point win before the game good conditions or not because that is what we need to stay in the competition. We played some brilliant stuff in Toulouse and fecked the game away I know which match I preferred.

We needed to get the win, we did and we are now in a good spot going into next week where I think we will improve. People have different views, that is a good thing.

[Oldschool]

I don't want to fuel the fire on either side here.

When I look at some of our best away performances in Europe you can pick the obvious ones like Northampton away in 2013, Toulouse away in 2006.

I would also include Exeter away last season where it was a low scoring game and all about grit and determination it was two absolute quality teams going hard at it. The match on Saturday was a team playing a lot above themselves and a team who to my mind were not absolutely on their top game. Both the Bath and Exeter games we came away with 4 points in a tight game but to my mind the quality of the games were vastly different. It was a god awful day, Bath were better then I have seen them in ages and to me we were a bit off our expected level but we got the win. That is how you win the competition. I would have taken a 1 point win before the game good conditions or not because that is what we need to stay in the competition. We played some brilliant stuff in Toulouse and fecked the game away I know which match I preferred.

We needed to get the win, we did and we are now in a good spot going into next week where I think we will improve. People have different views, that is a good thing.

I'd add that because we lost to Toulouse a win was a must.
So safety first, the four points were the target and if things went well a BP might happen.

[wixfjord]

I don't want to fuel the fire on either side here.

When I look at some of our best away performances in Europe you can pick the obvious ones like Northampton away in 2013, Toulouse away in 2006.

I would also include Exeter away last season where it was a low scoring game and all about grit and determination it was two absolute quality teams going hard at it. The match on Saturday was a team playing a lot above themselves and a team who to my mind were not absolutely on their top game. Both the Bath and Exeter games we came away with 4 points in a tight game but to my mind the quality of the games were vastly different. It was a god awful day, Bath were better then I have seen them in ages and to me we were a bit off our expected level but we got the win. That is how you win the competition. I would have taken a 1 point win before the game good conditions or not because that is what we need to stay in the competition. We played some brilliant stuff in Toulouse and fecked the game away I know which match I preferred.

We needed to get the win, we did and we are now in a good spot going into next week where I think we will improve. People have different views, that is a good thing.

Yes it is indeed.

I would class the way we played in Exeter last year (and indeed in Montpellier & Glasgow last year) as a much higher level of performance against better sides than Saturday where we were error ridden, lacked intensity and missed a lot of tackles.

But obviously the result was a good one.

But also, I don't think there was all this arrogant expectation of a TBP win during the week that we were told about post game.
Nor do I think it's wrong or being 'negative' to extrapolate how we played from the result and talk about how we need to improve. In fact that's exactly what the team will be doing. That's the level we are and should be at.

Onwards and upwards.

[Dexter]

The Bath supporters were telling us that was the best they've played in a long time, definitely this season. The weather was also really bad, worse than it looked on TV - apart from all the rain, the goalposts were swaying with the wind all through the game. Ross Byrne's penalty kick was actually pretty tricky, while it would have been fairly routine normally. All in all, a really good away win while not playing great, in terrible conditions, against a team putting in their best performance of the season. Job done.

[hugonaut]

But also, I don't think there was all this arrogant expectation of a TBP win during the week that we were told about post game.
Nor do I think it's wrong or being 'negative' to extrapolate how we played from the result and talk about how we need to improve. In fact that's exactly what the team will be doing. That's the level we are and should be at.

Onwards and upwards.

Away games in Europe tend to be very tricky and hard fought. There have often been pretty significant swings in terms of points between the home and away fixtures. I tend to think back to our 2011-12 season, when we went unbeaten through Europe and only lost 4 games of a 33 game season. We were at peak Schmidt, absolutely dominated both competitions and thrashed Ulster in the HEC final ... but had some scratchy wins [and a draw] away from home in the group stages. We didn't just waltz through the competition slaughtering everybody we faced.

Rnd 1: Montpellier 16-16 Leinster [+/-0]
Rnd 6: Leinster 25- 3 Montpellier [+22]

Rnd 2: Leinster 38-13 Glasgow [+25]
Rnd 5: Glasgow 16 - 23 Leinster [+7]

Rnd 3: Bath 13-18 Leinster [+5]
Rnd 4: Leinster 52 - 27 Bath [+25]

We can [and need to] improve from our performance against Bath in The Rec. To be fair, Bath gave us a stiff test and their players and coaching staff deserve credit for their performance. But I'd also give our players credit for getting a win on the road against a team who showed up and put in their best performance of the season. However, we've shown this season that we can perform at a higher standard than we displayed in The Rec, and players and coaches will be putting everything into hitting those standards at the weekend.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Josh was better than I remembered when I watched it back, and with his engine he really grew into the game, so I take back what I said about wanting Leavy to move across to 7 given that Leavy has been injured and may have faded. I had noticed this on Saturday but Josh has ridiculous acceleration when he really needs it. The way he caught one of the bath players from behind after he skipped past him in their 22 was freakish, and he did similar a couple of weeks ago when Barrett looked to be in for a try but somehow he stayed with him and clawed him back, don't think I've ever seen that happen to Barrett before.

Ringrose was even better than I remembered, brilliant performance.

[arsebiscuits1]

Josh was better than I remembered when I watched it back, and with his engine he really grew into the game, so I take back what I said about wanting Leavy to move across to 7 given that Leavy has been injured and may have faded. I had noticed this on Saturday but Josh has ridiculous acceleration when he really needs it. The way he caught one of the bath players from behind after he skipped past him in their 22 was freakish, and he did similar a couple of weeks ago when Barrett looked to be in for a try but somehow he stayed with him and clawed him back, don't think I've ever seen that happen to Barrett before.

Ringrose was even better than I remembered, brilliant performance.

Yeah I watched VDF back and he was good. He was credited for a missed tackle where he actually got your man on the second attempt in their 22. Was good work rate.

2 other misses were straight after Leinster coughed up cheap possession too. I know they need to switch from defence to attack and react quicker but it still wasn't too bad.

[Peg Leg]

Josh was better than I remembered when I watched it back, and with his engine he really grew into the game, so I take back what I said about wanting Leavy to move across to 7 given that Leavy has been injured and may have faded. I had noticed this on Saturday but Josh has ridiculous acceleration when he really needs it. The way he caught one of the bath players from behind after he skipped past him in their 22 was freakish, and he did similar a couple of weeks ago when Barrett looked to be in for a try but somehow he stayed with him and clawed him back, don't think I've ever seen that happen to Barrett before.

Ringrose was even better than I remembered, brilliant performance.

You mean FWPOTY Barret?