Pro 12 Semi-final vs Scarlets

[blaker]

Perpignan 03 levels of failing to perform frankly.

[Donny B.]

Sickening way to end the season. But our defence has been shite all season and it was eventually going to cost us. What's really disappointing was how our attacking play basically fell apart in the last two weeks of the season in a sea of knock-ons and brainless tactics.

Jonny had his worst game in a Leinster jersey. You need to be sharp at this stage of the season not playing for the first time in four weeks. Dev and Leavy should have started. Any progress we made this season has really been pissed away by the sheer ineptness of the performance and questions will be asked all summer again about the coaching ticket. Need a proper defensive coach to come in for a start.

Good luck to the Scarlets by the way, deserved winners who tore us to shreds in the first half and played smart, brave rugby to win the second half too with 14 men. Beirne, Shingler and James Davies were immense for them. I actually think the red card did us more harm than good as the players seemed to think it was just going to happen and lacked all urgency.

[wixfjord]

Where did I say that it lasted till out third last game? Henry's influence would have started to wane as soon as he left. It's only natural

Ah right, so Lancaster's influence got us to a Euro and Pro12 semi then? And it's his fault we got knocked out is it?

Or was it that the half life of Henry's influence has just run out and Lancaster's has taken over?

What are you saying here LF?

[leinsterforever]

The coaches set a team up who have consistently played brilliant all season long, it it their fault that on this one off game the players decided to drop balls, pass into touch and for a world class player like sexton playing himself off the lions, no I don't think it is, as isa said, it was down to the players

Rugby's a team game. When everyone's making similar mistakes from one match to the next, and issues aren't being fixed from one match to the next, then I look at the coaching.

The alignment in attack and lines run by players were very poor. There were poor, easily-readable passes being thrown. The attacking shape was off. I would put theses things down to the coaching

And one coach in particular it seems.

#LancasterOUT!

I'm more making observations about how the team plays than criticising. I think it's fairly reasonable to suggest that a coach of Lancaster's stature would have more of an influence than rookies Cullen and Dempsey. Also, the play has a lot of the same traits as Lancaster's England

[flanders09]

Ref was a bit out of his depth

Plenty of people were happy with Mitrea as ref before the game. We can't blame him because we played so poorly and lost.

Yep - no issues with the ref for me. At least 6 knock ons first half, a missed con & 2 kicks out on the full second half weren't on him

[curates_egg]

But Sexton was there and he was disgracefully bad. He was clearly hurt and either shouldn't have played or should have come off. I really hope his motivation in (a) playing and (b) staying on wasn't influenced by his desire to go and play for Britain. He didn't place kick and refused to take contact, instead choosing to pass the ball for his centres to get pummeled. A solid 2/10 performance, and he gets the two because of Northampton 2011.

This is both totally accurate and hilarious. Sexton was utter shite.
If we wanted to win the game, he needed to go at halftime. Almost everything he did was bad. It all totally smacked of being a training session for the Lions.

Not sure what Isa's excuse was though. He's fallen off a cliff since Christmas.

Two Leinster legends who the set up needs to start being honest about. Seanie too: he's still pretty good for the 120 minutes a season he plays for us at least.

What a terrible end to a hugely positive season.

[wixfjord]

I'm more making observations about how the team plays than criticising. I think it's fairly reasonable to suggest that a coach of Lancaster's stature would have more of an influence than rookies Cullen and Dempsey. Also, the play has a lot of the same traits as Lancaster's England

Is that it? Because it sounds very much like you've one man chosen to pin the blame on and you're making every effort to shape the info into that narrative. Right?

[leinsterforever]

Where did I say that it lasted till out third last game? Henry's influence would have started to wane as soon as he left. It's only natural

Ah right, so Lancaster's influence got us to a Euro and Pro12 semi then? And it's his fault we got knocked out is it?

Or was it that the half life of Henry's influence has just run out and Lancaster's has taken over?

What are you saying here LF?

Lancaster's teams are good, but not quite good enough to win competitions. That's my impression anyway. It is what it is

[rugby mad]

Got to give Scarlets some credit though, they were immense tonight and forced Leinster into mistakes.

[leinsterforever]

I'm more making observations about how the team plays than criticising. I think it's fairly reasonable to suggest that a coach of Lancaster's stature would have more of an influence than rookies Cullen and Dempsey. Also, the play has a lot of the same traits as Lancaster's England

Is that it? Because it sounds very much like you've one man chosen to pin the blame on and you're making every effort to shape the info into that narrative. Right?

I'm of the opinion that the head coach (which Laancaster effectively is imo) is the most important determinant of how a team plays. I'm just analysing the situation as I see it, looking at what went wrong in the game

[wixfjord]

I'm more making observations about how the team plays than criticising. I think it's fairly reasonable to suggest that a coach of Lancaster's stature would have more of an influence than rookies Cullen and Dempsey. Also, the play has a lot of the same traits as Lancaster's England

Is that it? Because it sounds very much like you've one man chosen to pin the blame on and you're making every effort to shape the info into that narrative. Right?

I'm of the opinion that the head coach (which Laancaster effectively is imo) is the most important determinant of how a team plays. I'm just analysing the situation as I see it, looking at what went wrong in the game

And you're interpreting that Lancaster is the root cause and Henry's influence (what was it, 2-3 weeks?) has been what's keeping us going this year?

[leinster10]

The coaches set a team up who have consistently played brilliant all season long, it it their fault that on this one off game the players decided to drop balls, pass into touch and for a world class player like sexton playing himself off the lions, no I don't think it is, as isa said, it was down to the players

Rugby's a team game. When everyone's making similar mistakes from one match to the next, and issues aren't being fixed from one match to the next, then I look at the coaching.

The alignment in attack and lines run by players were very poor. There were poor, easily-readable passes being thrown. The attacking shape was off. I would put theses things down to the coaching

You must not be reading my posts because I said it was a team sport, there was nothing wrong with our attacking alignment, case in point being ringroses try, execution was perfect, our execution for most of the game was below our regular high standard, players we know are really good players let us down, across the board, with 14 men down Davies only ever had one option but to shout but sexton kept calling moves that played into their hands but more importantly the rest of the back line poorly executed, leo can't walk onto the pitch and force a player catch a ball, i think it's reactionary and impulsive to blame the coaches when a crop of young players feel the heat of pressure at home for the first time, have some patience

[matt]

Perpignan 03 levels of failing to perform frankly.

So many things wrong tonight lack of communication & blockdown for 2 of the trys and tactically inept in 2nd half when we should have been patient & played a pick & go tight game until we earned the right to go wide. Our heads were not right tonight & Isa's missed conversion and kicks straight into touch an example of that.

Unlucky with both McGrath's going off in first half but Sexton never looked right & Gibson Park very poor also.

Our form has fallen off a cliff v Clermont, Ulster & tonight & takes a lot of the shine on what had been a good season until then.

[leinsterforever]

And you're interpreting that Lancaster is the root cause and Henry's influence (what was it, 2-3 weeks?) has been what's keeping us going this year?

Obviously not. Lancaster is a good coach. A lot of the good stuff this season was down to him, I'd imagine. Unfortunately, his methods also appear to have their failings

[enby]

where to start? Scarlets played really well throughout, doing the simple things (apart from the overthrow to Tracy) well, attacking with purpose and defending in a committed and organised way. Davies was outstanding and their back row played the ref superbly. They thoroughly deserved their win and they should win the final

Leinster, on the other hand, were absolutely atrocious. Some lazy looking knock-ons, shambolic kicking and absolutely awful defending led to the most depressing performance in years. JS10 has never played so badly. The last thing he needs now is the hellish tour to NZ. He must carry responsibility for the abject failure of the backs to exploit the extra man. Leo/Burt should have hooked him. JGP was very very poor and he just doesn't look the part.

The turnover numbers of 2-8 say it all as our back row and surprisingly VDF in particular being destroyed at the breakdown. Why it never occurred to the pack to try the odd maul in order to tie in their back row is a mystery. Scrum worked well even if it suffered some weird decisions. Lineout was shaky, way too shaky for liking.

God knows what was going on in defence in the first half and some painful video reviews await as Isa said.

Terrible way for Triggs to bow out. Hopefully the injuries are not too serious.

The ref wasn't great but there is no way that we can blame him for this abject defeat

[fourthirtythree]

I thought Scarlets' defence was magnificent and that contributed to our outrageously high error count.

I also thought the ref was spot on about the holding on, they selected their options well (when rucks weren't resourced) and went for it. At one I noticed both Barkley and Davies? could have won the penalty for them. Not so sure about some of the scrums but I wasn't as close.

A fair few injuries and players playing through them, Sexton should have been off after the bang to the head. Our half backs were poor, our centres porous, our handling shocking, and our passing lamentable. Add in our look through your fingers tackles... Worryingly, as my Da pointed out, we are now a team that struggles at knockout rugby.

Jonny had his worst game in a Leinster jersey.

What about Scarlets in the RDS about '08? Think he played that day.

[ribs]

Was going to post that it is nice not to blame the ref, but then I remembered the scrum penalty on our put in against Healy with 10 minutes left. It followed a reset where we looked totally dominant and put them 2 scores ahead and knocked the stuffing out of our revival. A real game changer. It was on the opposite side to the tv cameras - anybody know what happened? Sexton would probably have missed touch anyway considering how he was playing but it was a big call.

[nc6000]

Jonny had his worst game in a Leinster jersey.

What about Scarlets in the RDS about '08? Think he played that day.

I thought the last time Scarlets won in the RDS was in September 2007 during the Rugby World Cup.

[Dexter]

I thought Scarlets' defence was magnificent and that contributed to our outrageously high error count.

I also thought the ref was spot on about the holding on, they selected their options well (when rucks weren't resourced) and went for it. At one I noticed both Barkley and Davies? could have won the penalty for them. Not so sure about some of the scrums but I wasn't as close.

A fair few injuries and players playing through them, Sexton should have been off after the bang to the head. Our half backs were poor, our centres porous, our handling shocking, and our passing lamentable. Add in our look through your fingers tackles... Worryingly, as my Da pointed out, we are now a team that struggles at knockout rugby.

Jonny had his worst game in a Leinster jersey.

What about Scarlets in the RDS about '08? Think he played that day.

They didn't really have to defend against much quality in attack though, to be fair, except for our try - which we obviously scored from. We made it incredibly easy for Scarlets, which is the most annoying thing. Reminded me of the Osprey's finals in the RDS.

[Twist]

Jesus lads! Lancaster didn't drop a single ball or boot it out on the full or kick a restart dead!


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