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<blockquote data-quote="Leinster Fan" data-source="post: 932741" data-attributes="member: 76349">True but we&#039;ll struggle to challenge for trophies with him gone. We&#039;d manage most years but in a world cup year with our starting locks in Japan we&#039;ll really struggle. As you say he&#039;ll be 35 but he should have plenty left in the tank given how late he came to top level rugby. If Wasps go all out then we can&#039;t compete with that but I&#039;d be expecting decent signings next year if we don&#039;t keep him. Don&#039;t know how we can expect to compete for trophies of we lose 2-3 international standard players every year and don&#039;t replace them. Our vaunted backrow depth is more or less a myth at this point. Next season we&#039;ll have four decent internationals who&#039;ve had more than their fair share or injuries (Ruddock, Leavy, Van Der Flier and Conan) and of them Conan and Ruddock are never going to be dominant players at the top level. After that we&#039;ve got two brilliant prospects in Deegan and Doris but overall we&#039;re not really much stronger there than you&#039;d expect a team capable of challenging for the Heineken Cup to be.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Leinster Fan, post: 932741, member: 76349"] True but we'll struggle to challenge for trophies with him gone. We'd manage most years but in a world cup year with our starting locks in Japan we'll really struggle. As you say he'll be 35 but he should have plenty left in the tank given how late he came to top level rugby. If Wasps go all out then we can't compete with that but I'd be expecting decent signings next year if we don't keep him. Don't know how we can expect to compete for trophies of we lose 2-3 international standard players every year and don't replace them. Our vaunted backrow depth is more or less a myth at this point. Next season we'll have four decent internationals who've had more than their fair share or injuries (Ruddock, Leavy, Van Der Flier and Conan) and of them Conan and Ruddock are never going to be dominant players at the top level. After that we've got two brilliant prospects in Deegan and Doris but overall we're not really much stronger there than you'd expect a team capable of challenging for the Heineken Cup to be. [/QUOTE]

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