Leinster v Cardiff Blues (2-12-11, 20:05 GMT)

[TRF_Cymro]

Royal Dublin Society, Dublin (2-12-11, 20:05 GMT)

Ref: Andrew Macpherson (SRU, 40th competition game)

Live on TG4 and BBCW
​

 

[Bluemoon]

Not able to watch the game this evening but I am sure Leinster should win quite convincingly.

Cardiff pack is far to weak against that Leinster pack. Plus Burnell and Baber insist in playing Gavin Evans over Dafydd or Casey every week.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Aye, Leinster are looking fairly dominant so far
Cardiff making a fight of it though

 

[big ginger 8]

I think the Leinster guy in a black scrum cap will get through a lot of work.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

That turned into a right tanking of Cardiff!

 

[Bluemoon]

In fairness Olly a lot of those boys haven't played for Cardiff before or haven't played in weeks and weeks. Fitness was always going to be an issue and I imagine the defence was a shambles.

Leinster could only play what's was in front of them and clearly took their chances.

With 12 players missing and no strength in depth at all it's not a surprising result at all.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Aye, Blues definitely missed their Wales contingent - heads dropped at the end and they leaked some easy tries (last two, one was quick tap from a scrum 5 penalty, one was pretty much from the restart with some VERY lacklustre tackling)

At one point Blues looked like they were going to get a penalty try as they had several scrums on the 5m line, but then they got turned over and Leinster got a free kick and went right down the pitch.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Yes, the Blues were missing a lot of players but Horgan, O'Driscoll, D'arcy, Fitzgerald, Toner, Heaslip and McLaughlin isn't exactly an insignificant number of players for Leinster to do without!

Very good win for Leinster but Cardiff should be ashamed of that performance, Josh Navidi excepted. The away team just fell to pieces and didn't want to know in the second half.

On a really positive note for Leinster, Ian Madigan looks a player transformed since last season. If he can round out his kicking game, he'll be a seriously good player. His passing game is outstanding and he has a great eye for a gap. Four tries so far this season makes him Leinster's top try scorer.

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Yes, the Blues were missing a lot of players but Horgan, O'Driscoll, D'arcy, Fitzgerald, Toner, Heaslip and McLaughlin isn't exactly an insignificant number of players for Leinster to do without!

Very good win for Leinster but Cardiff should be ashamed of that performance, Josh Navidi excepted. The away team just fell to pieces and didn't want to know in the second half.

On a really positive note for Leinster, Ian Madigan looks a player transformed since last season. If he can round out his kicking game, he'll be a seriously good player. His passing game is outstanding and he has a great eye for a gap. Four tries so far this season makes him Leinster's top try scorer.

Leinster still had a better side out ... fact.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Does that excuse virtually the entire Blues team bending over and letting Leinster do as they wished? There's no shame in defeat, there is shame in showing a lack of effort. The visitors were guilty of the latter.

 

[King_D'Arcy]

Madigan was a bit of a freak in that game. Some of his passes were no less than perfect. McFadden was also class. McFadden/OMalley centre partnership for the 6 nations please.

 

[coonor]

Really pleased with that, it was a great team performance. Madigan has greatly improved and really gives us another option even when Berquist returns. I was again impressed by our back three and both EOM and McFadden linked up very well. I thought Ruddock had a good game and got through alot of work aswell.

We also have a real competition for hooker. Strauss was superb last year and has done nothing wrong this season but Cronin is playing brilliantly he is so dynamic and real attacking threat.

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Does that excuse virtually the entire Blues team bending over and letting Leinster do as they wished? There's no shame in defeat, there is shame in showing a lack of effort. The visitors were guilty of the latter.

Whatever ... you can argue what you want with the wall but the game showed what lack of depth the Blues have once they have quite a few players missing ... Leinster had some but not enough to send a second rate team to face one of the strongest. I would have been questioning Leinster had they not put that kind of score on that team.

 

[Jockstap]

Whatever ... you can argue what you want with the wall but the game showed what lack of depth the Blues have once they have quite a few players missing ... Leinster had some but not enough to send a second rate team to face one of the strongest. I would have been questioning Leinster had they not put that kind of score on that team.

Why, this was a second rate Leinster team, the score was 52-9, very poor from the blues.

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Why, this was a second rate Leinster team, the score was 52-9, very poor from the blues.

Second rate ... don't kid yourself. There was enough quality there to dismantle a poor looking Blues on paper ... Fact.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Second rate ... don't kid yourself. There was enough quality there to dismantle a poor looking Blues on paper ... Fact.

Opinion.

I expected Leinster to win but was surprised at the visitors lack of bottle. After the third try was run in they couldn't care less. No pride in their performance. How do you think the Blues coaching staff reacted in the changing room? Do you think they were happy with the effort put in or do you think they read the riot act?

 

[dullonien]

I agree with snoop here. The Blues were missing alot of players, but on paper there was still more than a half decent team put out. They really were appalling, attitude and all. If we look at the team, many should be capable at this level, in the same way the Scarlets and Ospreys could put up serious challenges despite missing an equal amount of players.

01 John Yapp. Has been involved with Wales up untill recently. Should be up to Pro12 level at least.
02 Tyrrell. Ok, very inexperienced. Where was Rhys Thomas?
03 Felise. First choice.
04 Hill. Again, youngster here. Why wasn't Cook starting?
05 ***o. Again, first choice most of the time.
06 Molitika. Another first choice player alot of the time, although I think he's over the hill.
07 Navidi. Warburton and Williams are big losses, but Navidi was one of the few to put his hand up.
08 Rush. First choice, but has been rubbish since they bought him out of his Ulster contract, should have let him go in hindsight.
09 Rees. Was first choice last season. Debatable whether Lloyd Williams or him is first choice this season.
10 Sweeney. Not really up to scratch, but probably better than Parks anyway.
11 James. First choice.
12 Evans. Not sure why he's being played ahead of Hewitt so often, but that's the coaches decision. Nowhere neer Roberts' level, either of them.
13 Laulala. First choice, but not playing all that consistently at the moment.
14 Mustoe. Doesn't get that much gametime, but usually puts in good shifts, and is perfectly capable at this level.
15 Fish. Young, but promising. Again, should be capable at this level.

The bench was very inexperienced, with the likes of Trevett, Cook, Allen and Davies not played much before at regional level.

Overall, there should have been enough quality and experience in that team to keep the scored respectable. I didn't expect them to win, but I expected them to keep it within 20 tbh. The way they fell apart towards the end was terrible, and shouldn't happen no matter what team they put out. We know that the Blues strength in depth isn't what it should be, and this game highlights that. Untill they can sort that issue, they're not gonna be serious contenders for the HC despite their excellent start to this years competition.

 

[Feicarsinn]

Must say that I'm delighted with our strength in the back line. Even without Shaggy and The chosen one we seem to be incredibly dangerous looking. O'Malley has been very impressive at 13 while Dave Kearney must be banging on the door for the Bath game. Ian Madigan has been a bit of a revelation this season. He's got a great pass, but his game seems to be a bit more rounded this year. Perhaps we got lucky that Berquist pulled up injured early on.

It's gonna be tough for Joe to justify breaking up his new midfield pairing by the reintroduction of D'arce. They do look very good at the moment while it's been a while since Gordon has been genuinely dangerous with ball in hand. Cronin has also been pretty good recently on a completely unrelated note.

Here's what I'd go with for the Bath game:

15) Rob Kearney
14) Isa Nacewa
13) Eoin O'Malley
12) Fegus McFadden
11) Luke Fitzgerald
10) Johnny Sexton
9) Eoin Reddan

8) Jamie Heaslip
7) Shane Jennings
6) Sean O'Brien
5) Leo Cullen
4) Devin Toner
3) Mike Ross
2) Richardt Strauss
1) Cian Healy

16) Nathan White, 17) Heinke Van Der Merwe, 18) Sean Cronin, 19) Kevin McLoughlin, 20) Rhys Ruddock, 21) Isaac Boss, 22) Ian Madigan, 23) Dave Kearney

Sorry Darce

 

[coonor]

D'arcy may not be playing as he use to but I wouldn't drop him. We are already missing BOD and although EOM and McFadden look superb the H-Cup is a higher level and we need some experience especially in away games. Darce and EOM looked very good in the games against Glasgow and Treviso so I would pick them.