Sunday, June 12, 2022

Online comments after Leinster v Bulls

A selection of the “keyboard warrior” reactions after the full-time whistle of our featured matches of the weekend.

If you’d like to contribute stay tuned to our Facebook page for our “Feel free to leave your thoughts…” posts which show up around full time after Leinster & Ireland matches.

Conor Cronin Tonight was tough to watch. It hurts when we've had so many seasons with silverware to come away with nothing this year.

We weren't good enough today. There's not a whole lot else to say. And it feels like 2 weeks ago. But I have faith that the management, coaching staff and players can take a step up, can look at this, learn from it, and be better next year. If we don't want to be seen as a weak side we need to be better next year. They need to be.

Well done to the bulls, best of luck next week.
Cormac Mannion Some awfully basic errors throughout the match. Couple of times, particularly towards the end of the first half we were given simple three pointers but turned them down.

Lack of composure with poor passing and some braindead stuff at the breakdown
Paul Smith Poor performance, we never looked like winning, handling poor most of the game , losing so many line outs 5 metres out, simple knock ons, referee out of his depth, bad decisions I could go on but what's the point ? Just a bitterly dissapointing end to a season that promised so much. Let's hope we can treat it like 2017 and go out and rectify it next season.
Russ Rafter In both of our 2 recent losses, we were beaten by 2 of the best Coaching Brains in the game ... ROG & Jake White. We lost both matches by having our strengths demolished & our weaknesses attacked.
Andrew Potts A very disappointing season that promised so much.

Playing a fantastic brand of rugby but coming up short and some how feeling we have been dragged down a level and losing to teams that are well prepared but willing to give 3 pointers away continually and not being punished for it.

As with LR a few weeks ago and Bulls tonight every thing went right for them and they executed their game plan well.

Leinster left frustrated with three turn over lineout and bobbles and bounces that went away from us.

Need to come up with something in the red zone when the predictable obstruction of the ball comes because we are not getting yellows.

The Bulls ran a tap penalty move and scored while we kicked from under the posts to the touch line and gave them three chances to compete for our ball.

It's like they knew they could force the line out or escape with 3 and did their line out video work.
They ran a short penalty with a variation. Meanwhile we gave up filied position under the sticks and they struck gold with three steals.

You feel Leinster might be cooked for a season or two. A summer in NZ and WC is going to be tough on the squad
Noel Hewson In the long run this might be a good thing. As a die hard fan last month has been tough. However win lose draw you continue to support the team. They have given us many good days so we can endure the rest.
Sean Michaels Unfortunately we picked the wrong game for so many individual players to have an “Off day”. Line out was a complete shambles, yes Bulls closed the gap illegally IMO but we should still be better than that. Should Bulls have got a yellow for cynical infringements, did the ref get a lot of calls wrong in Bulls favour probably, is that the reason we lost, no it wasn’t. Is Ross Byrne a successor to JS, on that performance? A definite no. This is a massive wake-up for both Leinster & Ireland and I think it’ll have a massive rethink about who gets on the plane to NZ
James Griffin Hard luck Leinster Folks. Over to Ulster now. (Seems to me that all the provinces need some big, hairy, nasty, grumpy, powerful forwards to counteract the big men of other sides.)
Kevin OCeallaigh Tough result. Lots to question about the refereeing decisions, but clearly Bulls did their homework on what was acceptable and played to it. More concerning for us was that the Bulls did what La Rochelle did successfully, and Leinster didn’t have a Plan B when it was clear that their Plan A wasn’t working. A lot of work for Cullen and Lancaster over the Summer. Two losses doesn’t make a good team bad, but we will need a new approach to these big SA sides, because simply crashing into them over and over doesn’t work.
Paul McSweeney (reply to Kevin OCeallaigh) Agreed Kevin. We were over powered and didn’t have the on-field ability to adapt. I think other teams now have us figured out and we need an alternative approach for when we get shut down. In the long run we will learn from this and be the most effective and ruthless team on the planet.

One last point. I feel so sad and disappointed. I shouldn’t be as it’s only sport but I can only imagine how the team, squad and Organization is feeling. We were on for the double and end the season with nothing. Bitter. We’ll come back stronger, angrier, single minded and ruthless. Leinster ‘til I die.
Conor O'Shea Forced and unforced errors. Missed Lowe, Keenan and Sexton. Sheehan did well though line outs were poor. Hope Ulster can do it
Ger Ecki (reply to Conor O'Shea) yeah that trio were amazing against La Rochelle....we missed SOB Kearney and Heaslip - players who always delivered in big matches!
Tony Kelly Fix when times up it’s up. Blow the whistle.SA have a home final which is good for Tickets & TV where the the money is & pays the bills. 🤷‍♂️. Soccer in Paris v handball comes to mind. 45 million viewers v 2 million for🇮🇪🤫 €€€€€ makes the World go round. Just Sayin.😎
Pieter Smit Bulls brought a pressure game and did not allow Leinster the space and freedom to play there natural game.
Gerald Williamson The Bulls learned from the La Rochelle v Leinster game. Leinster lacked cohesion in counteracting the Bulls up front. Lineouts were woeful at time. Personally, I was not to impressed with the referee. On the general run of play , the Bulls just about deserved the win.
Louis Hoffman Johnny on the bench was arrogance or stupidity. Management have to take the blame.
Chris McDonnell Ross Byrne is not good enough he's not even the best outhalf in his own family. . The call by cullen to start him cost us the season. If sexton is fit he starts in a semi final. Frawley is far more likely to bring the game to the opposition. At least he'd have a go.
Neil "Keego" Keegan My thoughts are that people shouldn’t post without rewatching the game and being sober 😉
Claire O'Connell Hugely disappointed for the team on tonight’s result, knew it would be a tough one but still thought we’d get it over the line. There’s been a few like this over last couple of years where we’ve just been fairly beaten on the day, overall let’s leave the refs out of it. Easier in other years to put it down to an “off day”…not anymore…too many “off days” in last couple of years in the biggest matches…if Leinster have been “off” in games in past years we always blamed it on a bad day, never crediting the opposition for that for the most part. Now it seems clear that Leinster are for the last three years being faced at the final hurdles by bigger and better teams that find a way to unsettle and destabilise their game. On the plus side I think tonight has shown that the involvement of the SA teams really strengthens the tournament…so much more beneficial than the farcical “contest” with Glasgow last week. Playing against the likes of the Bulls week in week out can only benefit the development of all the provincial teams in the long run
Peter Byrne Surprised we don’t use our bench more, depth is only an asset if you use it.
Many thanks to all who offered opinions.

Look out Monday for our match writeup JLP
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Taken by JLP from RDS press box on Nov 16, 2019