ON THIS WEEK’S COLUMN…
- WRAP OF A WRAP
- THE IMPORT-ANCE OF BEING REIKO
- PROJECT HAIL MARY’S
- JACK OF ONE CLUB
- BEN AND GONE
- ACCUSED
- WOMEN’S 6N PREVIEW
- [EXTRA STORY]
- LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE
- TROLL PATROL
- COMPETITION UPDATES (incl Super Rugby)
- NEXT HARPIN’
WRAP OF A WRAP
It’s always a pleaseure to have Cian “RugbyKino” O’Muilleoir on the pod, since he was doing his own show MudderRucker that follows women’s rugby along with also-friend-of-the-pod Ailbhe O’Nolan his opportunities to appear have been limited to say the least. Obviously it was a shame that his appearance had to be for a bad Leinster loss, of course, but still there was a job to be done picking apart what went wrong and he did an excellent job as ever. If you missed it, click here to check it out.
THE IMPORT-ANCE OF BEING REIKO
“…he hasn’t added any clear and obvious lift in quality to ‘the big show’ the east coast province are so used to delivering.”
Why Rieko Ioane is struggling to match Barrett’s X-factor impact for Leinster
Nick Bishop – Rugbypass.com
We touched on this for the wrap pod and clearly we’re not the only ones who noticed.
Two factors to consider before continuing…first, I’m wary of accusations of “import blaming”, something that has been known to happen at clubs not doing well throughout all team sports. We also have to acknowledge that it was highly unlikely that Reiko’s career cameo at Leinster was never going to come close to that of Jordie Barrett’s – although the similarities between them are plentiful, there are also plenty of differences so to expect the same output would have been crazy.
All that said, he has hardly set the world alight for us. It’s true, his intercept and pass on the run to JJ Kenny for our opening try in Scotstoun was quality, but when you wear that blue 13 jumper in particular you are expected to fulfil defensive duties as well and he was found wanting for more than one of the tries Glasgow made look all too easy.
To be perfectly honest, were I to pick an elite matchday squad for Leinster right now, even leaving out those injured, I can’t find a place for Reiko, which surely calls into question the value for money we’re getting for him.
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 