Enough about the rankings, time to don provincial colours again, writes Keego…
So here we are. The November games are over; it’s back to the blue jersey for me. I thought I would put forward my thoughts on the recent games.
Caution is advised as there is an old man rant coming…
There was this big thing about the new players stepping up. They did against Argentina (I do not count Fiji) which was great to watch. But we have to remember that a long line of luck lead us to this team. With the change in personnel the way we play the game was always going to change, luckily it changed for the better. Gilroy, who was magic, would not be on the pitch if Kidney had his first choice. Same for Zebo. Both of these players excelled, but will they be picked when the 6nations starts?
The media and all of us on twitter made picking Gilroy unavoidable. There was no way that team was going to take the field against Argentina without him starting. Kidney would not have picked him otherwise. Kidney is a great manager, but quite conservative. Taking into account the different level between the Pumas and the ‘Boks, we played a Kidney style against the second best team in the world. Quite conservative and seemed to be wary about using our backline. I think we had 2 line breaks in the whole game against South Africa.
The Fiji game was exactly what we needed, we were always going to win, it was just a matter of by how much. I think there was a lot of criticism on Kidney for picking Ross to start, rumors abounded in the twitter-verse ranging from he was annoyed with Ross for his ‘Boks performance to Michael Bent cant scrum. We found out the Ross is our number one prop forward. Gilroy, McFadden and a few other lads played blinders against Fiji which may have given some complacent players a kick in the arse. This was the best thing to take from the Fiji match.
Then we got to the Pumas. The pressure was on, the selection was right, considering the injuries and the team played a belter. It was great to see. I think it was our best first half in 12 years (excluding the wallabies in the rwc). It was great to see, everyone was firing at 100%, the bounce of the ball went our way and the Pumas where tired after a long season. Captain Heaslip was immense again and is another leader we will have on the pitch for the 6 nations, a huge positive. Sexto was also a man mountain …… of a man. Another leader on the pitch for the 6 nations. With all this luck leading us to this team, we will have a squad full of leaders going forward.
I would put huge importance on this game, it was a seeded team, a big tough team and a team that rarely lies down. The reason they lay down was because we put them down. After the opening kickoff going into touch we owned the game. We didn’t lose one collision on the pitch. We where brave, daring, confident and lethal in finishing. We did the simple things right, the lineout worked perfectly, the scrum was like a tank.A great way to finish and finally we can STOP TALKING ABOUT WORLD RANKINGS!
The last thing I will say on this is that I feel the talk about the rankings has costs us. There was time left thinking about these instead of just concentrating on playing our game and winning. When we win, the rankings take care of themselves.
The winner of the November games is without doubt Craig Gilroy. It was all luck that he ended up on the pitch, but he took advantage of it and has written his name on a starting jersey. The person I feel sorry for is Andrew Trimble, he had a bad game against the ‘Boks, but has not started enough games to be the starting winger. This affects him at Ulster too; Gilroy will have to be starting now.
I promise there will be no more giving out about Kidney…..at least not for a few months ;)
Back to the blue of Leinster.
We played Glasgow. Jaysus it was awful! We won 6-0 (I think, I had bouts of sleep during the game). Glasgow had too many kicks which would have had them winning the game. The worrying thing for me appears to be the lack of top backup/academy players coming through. I understand the injuries are piling up for Leinster, and the players that are injured this year guided the younger players last year. But even saying that, they should be playing better. We usually have a slow start to the season but this year has been alarmingly slow.
One option to fix this is making the AIL relax the rules on the amount of contracted players that can play in a match so that the academy players are getting regular game time in varying conditions. This is something that would help Leinster hugely, it may not suit the AIL though.
We have not had ideal preparation coming up to Clermont. If we show up with the same mentality we had against Glasgow they will eat us for breakfast both home and away.
Lastly, this week I got a bit of flack for giving out about the Glasgow performance and the Leinster season so far. People saying that I am not a ‘real fan’ by questioning how the Leinster season is going. If you want to keep your head under the pillow and pretend everything is ok then by all means please do. Blindly follow if you want to. I will continue to question what is happening this year. It is just not clicking as it should be at this stage of the season. Our slow starts usually end around the time of the first Munster match of the season. We have been getting worse. Me saying this doesn’t mean I am less of a Blue than you, this doesn’t mean that I am more of a blue than you, it means that I see a problem and you don’t.
Can you honestly say that the season so far has been what we would expect? Even taking into account the injuries. The academy is supposed to be providing top level players ready to slot in when the first team are away or injured. They have not been doing that.
I really should end my rant there. As usual I offer myself up on the firing line for you to debate/abuse on twitter @nkeegan. We had some great debates during the week; I look forward to another week of the same.
It is getting so cold I have been wearing my base layer for 4 days.
Until next week…..
Keego (@nkeegan): Newbie blogger, former professional wrestler, sometime attempted rugby player (@TheThirsty3rds), professional procrastinator and attempted musician with a fondness for long walks on the bar, tea and the couch. Opinionated Leinster fan and constant gardener.
