Dragons were unsurprisingly full value for their win. They exploited Leinster's weaknesses out wide and did exactly what the had to do. It was a shocking first half for Leinster.
Positives:
1. Lots of debuts and players will learn from the experience.
2. McKinley controlled things behind a beaten pack. He struck a good drop goal (excellent decision making), tackled well and deserves a few more run outs this season but needs to improve his passing game. The centres didn't get into it with McKinley at 10.
3. Rhys Ruddock was the best Leinster backrow.
4. Dave Kearney made himself busy in attack and defence. Leinster will have a hard time holding onto him next season. Nicely taken try.
5. A few of the replacements made big impacts. Paul Ryan (I was very impressed) turned over some ball on the deck, Ian Madigan freed the centres to run a bit, Mike Ross added weight to the scrum and carried some ball while Paul O'Donohoe sped things up significantly. Michael Keating was willing to run with the ball.
6. They didn't give up after a poor first half.
Negatives:
1. Ronan McCormack isn't good enough for pro rugby
2. Chris Keane isn't good enough either. He was ponderous at the breakdown, his passes were below average and he was very easy to read.
3. The senior players didn't stand up. O'Kelly, Toner, Keane, McCormack, van der Linde and McFadden didn't stand up to be counted. Stephen Keogh, Simon Keogh and Bernard Jackman weren't good either but at least they showed more effort.
4. No bonus point.
5. 2/5 for McFadden from place kicks.
6. Morris' confidence was shot. He didn't catch anything, his positioning was all over the place, didn't offer an attacking threat and kicked poorly.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (feicarsinn @ Dec 6 2009, 05:03 PM)
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Yeah I saw that. Snoopy, what would you think of this Leinster side in comparison to a full strength Connacht side? The lads in the studio made some good points about the boys needong regular game time to advance their careers and I'm sure they would add greatly to the squad out west. Surely a more active loan system should be implimented by the IRFU?[/b]
A full strength Connacht would beat that Leinster team. Having said that, I think that Leinster team is very talented and a few years from now quite a lot of them will be regular starters at Magners League level. Players like Michael Keating, Niall Morris, Fergus McFadden, Paul Ryan and Devin Toner could go to Connacht and learn a lot through starting most weeks (or at least featuring in the 22). Others like Ian McKinley, Ian Madigan, Rhys Ruddock, Dominic Ryan and Eoin O'Malley are better served learning their trade at Leinster for another year at least since I think they'd getting better coaching if they stayed.
