13 January 2024; James Lowe of Leinster dives over to score his side’s first try during the Investec Champions Cup Pool 4 Round 3 match between Leinster and Stade Francais at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Wasn’t the strongest display V poorish opposition tbh. The pure world class of each individual player was clear but as a collective it lacked overall. I’m forever impressed by the strength, skill and athleticism of Baird, McCarthy and especially Doris…… Next week away V Tigers SHOULD be a proper test of where we are currently.
Jamie Bermingham
Looks like the team are still adjusting to a new play style, seeing flashes of great plays but also a lot of silly mistakes and errors. I’m going to hold judgement till later in the season, that being said we may just be holding back till the business end.
Gav Heg
Quite disappointed that we didn’t nil them. We should easily have topped 60 here but we’re let down by stupid and unforced mistakes. It could be put down to an adjustment period but we lacked the ability to just finish moves off.
Ringrose should have been motm but Doris also deserving. I felt sorry for Baird that he didn’t go over after that colossal run.
Can’t help but feel that a decent would have picked is apart. For Leicester we need a far better performance.
Johnny McGovern
Frawley in Leinster is jinxed …Is he robust enough for professional rugby ? I could say unlucky but he just isn’t …happening too often – he actually took two knocks during the game tonight and seemed to have effected his vision. The physios checked one eye and the second issue was the heavy tackle he took . I didn’t see the end of the tackle but he was in bits . Leo said he got a knee in the back which then spasmed but the tackler must have connected with his kidneys . Not a great Leinster performance given a very poor SF team .
Andrew Bailey
Let’s not get carried away. Given the selections – the result was a formality ((When is the last time there has been a decent contest in the Aviva group game). Sloppy game punctuated by mistakes and aimless kicking. The return of Lowe a huge positive. Lineout improvement once Ryan on the pitch marked. Just worry about sluggish performances by so many
Was really pulling for a zero there because the D deserved it but while far from perfect against a second string Stade that was a decent enough job done. Still much to work on but biggest concern Frawley's injury. Doris rightful PotM, congrats to Luke on 200. #LEIvSTF
16 December 2023; Cian Healy of Leinster dives over to score his side’s fifth try despite the tackle of Ethan Caine of Sale Sharks during the Investec Champions Cup Pool 4 Round 2 match between Leinster and Sale Sharks at the RDS Arena in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
My biggest annoyance from this match (and I’m seriously fucking pissed off) was our complacency. Much as I was elated with our attitude last week, today was the complete opposite. That said I believe our expectations as supporters are not taking account of the huge vacuum created by the departures of Johnny and Stu. It will take time for the new coaching set up and 10 to settle and thrive
Alan Murphy Awful game. A game dominated by pedantic adjudication. Every phase seemed to end with a blow of the whistle. Stop, start. Happy with 5 points but dreadful to watch.
Kevin Kelehan Sloppy start and lax finish but a lot of grit for the middle half of the game either side of half time. Biggest news from the pool was La Rochelle losing again yesterday
SeanieH ·Terrible for Charlie. He’s had some lovely touches lately. Looking classy
No doubt Sale deserved those late scores but Leinster came out strong after the break and took control of both match & pool. Josh clearly has been working on his awesomeness. Charlie a big loss at the end and some work ons for sure but overall a good start to comp. #LEIvSAL
10 December 2023; Ciarán Frawley of Leinster kicks a penalty during the Investec Champions Cup match between La Rochelle and Leinster at Stade Marcel Deflandre in La Rochelle, France. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Away in France to the reigning champs and we finally get it right! I couldn’t be happier to see the team finally figure out how to get the better of them. Delighted to see the only try scored is Larmour, he’s had a tough couple of years.
No trick plays, no bounce off the ball stuff, and no situation where the ref was clearly biased towards us. We beat them fair and square.
The future is bright at 10, the squad will take a lot from this and fingers crossed no major injury concerns as we prepare for Saturday
Chris McDonnell
Fantastic result, can’t fault anything on the pitch. Onwards and upwards.
Greg Kelly
Really well fought win. I seem to remember LAR struggling in similar conditions last year against Ulster. Byrne was pretty solid in what he did and Frawley fronted up well on a difficult night. Certainly a big weekend in the post Johnny period in blue and green.
Bert McLoughlin
What was best about today’s performance was the hunger to make dominant tackles and be physical in poor conditions. That hunger will make us strong contenders this season. No signs of a wc hangover
Gavin Hegarty
To me Byrne stood up when asked and frawley did the same. We’re good @10 for a few years!
Hats off to connors, he delivered and then some. Epic performance.
We had some unleinster mistakes but we’ll learn as the game evolves. Porter was constantly talking to the ref, this I like.
I did not like the ref telling ringer he won’t talk to Ryan but fear this is a result of ‘co’ captains. We need to sort thst.
William Andrew
Appalling display by the Ref, looked like he was been coached by LR. Said it twice to them but still did nothing to shut them up.
Honestly Refs need to realise a big scrum can actually bring a scrum down and play the odds like they play the red zone odds.
Jamie Donohoe
Very proud of that very courageous performance in those conditions. And i thought the Ref handled the game well too
Not ready for analysis yet except for THAT. WAS. AWESOME!!!!#LARvLEI
The draw for the pool stages of the 2023/24 Champions Cup was made at lunchtime on Wednesday, June 21st which is the longest day of the year and given all the confusion surrounding the format being used for next year’s competition, if I try to explain it here I might end up making it seem even longer.
But I still think it’s important to do a video to try and put this whole format debate into the proper context since there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding surrounding the reasons for doing it this way, and possibly, in my opinion anyway, maybe also a misunderstanding as to the merits of the way things used to work.
First a quick look at the history of the competition format. After the first few Heineken Cups saw varying numbers of teams and thus varying formats, the six pools of four everyone wants the competition to return to was first used in the 1999-2000 season, when Northampton Saints went on to beat Munster in the final.
This method was used all the way through to the 2013/14 season, when the whole governance of the competition was restructured mainly due to complaints coming from the Premiership clubs about meritocracy. But although the number of participants was reduced from 24 clubs to 20, the format was pretty much the same only now three runners-up made the quarterfinals instead of two. This remained in place up to and including the 2019/2020 competition, which as we all know got disrupted by COVID meaning the knockouts couldn’t take place until the autumn.
For the next Champions Cup, they went back to 24 teams, and this was the official reason given by the governing body European Professional Club Rugby :
I take that to mean that more clubs were given the chance to avail of Champions Cup money in an attempt to make up for what was lost during COVID, but this way also allowed for an equal allocation of clubs across the three main domestic competitions. Now here is where all the confusion was to begin, since the tournament now seemed to be adopting a version of what is known in soccer as “The Swiss model”. For this method we now had two pools of 12 clubs, with the top 8 in each pool qualifying for the knockout rounds.
But for me the critical change here is not in the number of clubs. it’s not in the number of pools. and it’s not even in the number of teams that qualify from those pools. It’s in the number of weekends available to the competition for the pool phase. All of a sudden this was reduced from six weekends to four.
Why was this? I can only assume it partly had to do with demands from the unions for test rugby windows during November, but more importantly from the domestic leagues, the newly-formed URC being one but I reckon the bulk of the pressure came from the more established Premiership and Top 14, with of course companies who have heavily invested in the game like CVC also having a big say.
For me, the significance of this switch from six weekends to four cannot be ignored, and those who think the EPCR can just snap their fingers and switch back to the old pool method aren’t fully aware of who is actually doing the decision making.
Anyway, this format got something of a free pass the first season because there were so many matches cancelled due to COVID that we didn’t really get a chance to see how the pools played out in real time. But the next two seasons were nothing short of a PR-disaster. You know something is wrong when there seems to be more online comment about a tournament format than about the actual rugby happening out on the pitch.
And so the EPCR decided to listen and make a change for 2023/24. But again it has to be pointed out that they still only had four weekends to work with, plus they seem determined to make sure teams from the same league won’t face each other in the pool phase, which to be fair does make some sense as it avoids teams facing each other as many as four times over the course of a season.
Which leaves us with the new format. Four pools of six clubs, with two from each league in each pool and everyone playing each other within the pool apart from that team from the same league. And they added one extra twist to the draw – while the four major trophy winners from the season just gone were kept apart, the remaining 20 were left unseeded which has resulted in a classic Pool of death involving both of last year’s Champions Cup finalists La Rochelle and Leinster as well as Leicester Tigers and the Stormers who won their domestic tiles the previous season.
Here’s my take on the whole thing – yes I agree this new way creates as many problems as it solves, especially what with the unfortunate financial demise of three Premiership clubs meaning a team finishing 3rd from the bottom qualifies for something known as a Champions Cup. There is no disputing that of all the formats this competition has used over the years, the six pools of four was definitely the best, especially with the back-to-back matches in December which was always an exciting spell on the calendar just before Christmas.
But as far as I’m concerned, even that was far from perfect. Like I’ve already said, it’s not ideal to be in a pool with a team you’re already up against in the domestic league, but another thing I didn’t like about the six pool format was that it was possible to face a team in the quarterfinals that you already met in the pool phase.
Still, those are just superficial things, and my biggest problem with the old way wasn’t actually the format rather how it played out on the European calendar. Imagine being coach of any team, knowing that once you’ve gotten your squad out of the pool phase of a major competition, the bulk of your best players would be taken from you to play for a completely different team in one of the most attritional tournaments the sport has to offer and, well, you’re just going to have to hope and pray that you’ll get them all back fit in time for the knockout phase.
No matter what way we slice the format of what is meant to be Europe’s elite club competition, the fact that the more important Six Nations takes place slap bang in the middle of the season is always going to have an effect whether we talk about it or not, and given things have been this way ever since the game went pro frankly I’m surprised that we’re only complaining about nonsensical formats now.
Anyway…that’s my two cents…this weekend sees the Irish Men’s 7s looking to qualify for the Olympics, the Irish Under 20’s kicking off their World Championship campaign and there’s also the Super Rugby final and we’ll be covering all of that in our pod recording this Sunday evening so please like, share, and subscribe to all our social media channels and in the meantime, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are, stay safe everyone, slán.
Earlier this week it was reported that Ireland skipper Johnny Sexton has been accused of three disciplinary breaches on the day of the Champions Cup final at the Aviva Stadium, and that an independent panel was going to convene to discuss the possibility of a sanction.
With online reporting being what it is these days, naturally the story was originally broken using this heading : “Exclusive: Sexton could be forced into early retirement with 24-week ban”. Obviously it’s the most basic formula being used there, namely choosing a headline that mentions the most extreme possible outcome to attract the most clicks and reaction. And I have to give extra points to the City AM team for including a perfectly teed up photo with the article, we can only assume Johnny here is saying something like “fine display of refereeing there Jaco!!!”.
Anyway if a reaction is what they wanted, then that’s definitely what they got. Well, first, let me give you mine.
I know there are many who will assume since I’m a Leinster supporter then I’ll somehow choose to defend these allegations, but assuming they’re true and he did say those things at different times, well, I can’t defend them. Of course there’s no excuse for saying anything to officials on the day of a match unless you are the nominated captain on the pitch while play is still going on, and even then it needs to be done respectfully.
We all understand the disappointment of any kind of a loss and that goes double when it’s a major final and possibly triple when a match goes the way that one did. But it should go without saying that we expect more from our leaders and all the way down to school children we want them to show respect to both opposition and officials especially in defeat.
But when it comes to the discussion over what kind of ban he’s going to receive, maybe we should all just back up a little. For one thing, reports of this incident started breaking within hours of it happening and before we had any actual details, in several corners of the internet he was proclaimed guilty from the get go. And I don’t just mean corners of the internet from countries outside of Ireland like the ones we’re due to face in the World Cup either.
Look, Johnny Sexton has always been a polarising force within the Irish bubble. And even when he’s wearing the green jersey, a lot of supporters find it very difficult to acknowledge his contribution to Ireland’s success over the years and only seem to speak up when he makes the wrong kind of headlines. And that’s fine, like I’ve said many times before, different people follow rugby for different reasons.
So while the online media have their own motives for suggesting this ban could rule him out of the World Cup, many seem to think there’s no chance he’ll get a ban simply because he is who he is and that the World Cup couldn’t do without him.
OK, well all of that speculation is fine, I guess, but I wonder if there’s any other method we can use to help us work out what kind of ban he could get for doing something like this? How about precedent? Have rulings been issued before for not respecting officials? And is there any way we can link those involved in previous rulings to this particular case?
Why am I bringing that up here? Well first of all, I have to point out that I don’t argue with that sentiment at all – I think ROG has done extremely well as a coach and definitely should be on the IRFU’s radar, if just a long-term one for now, only a fool would argue otherwise.
In November 2021, O’Gara was banned for two weeks for “showing disrespect to the authority of an official” during a match against Toulon.
He was then suspended for two weeks in April 2022 for “indiscipline” and “challenging the decisions of officials” in a game against Racing 92
Then in September 2022 it was six weeks for “lack of respect” and “action against an official” at Lyon.
Finally this fourth ban in November 2022 was for 10 weeks for “harming the best interests of rugby”
Am I comparing his four offences over the space of a year to Sexton’s three in one day? Maybe a bit, and maybe they are different circumstances in their own right, but while the incidents may not have happened in the same actual ball-park, they are definitely in the same topical one.
So I have to say I’m baffled as to why neither the online entity that originally broke the Sexton story, nor the Irish supporters that are so happy to point out the possible consequences, are able to at least offer the O’Gara situation up as a comparison, I mean even without the fact that they were on opposite sides that day at the Aviva Stadium, you could say their career paths have crossed a few more times over the years.
If it took four hearings for O’Gara to be banned for 10 weeks, then the case against Sexton will need to be really, really bad for his first to get him anything close to that. I’m not saying it’s impossible, and I’m not saying I’m at all happy about these reports and I wish he hadn’t done it, I just want to be sure that when we’re talking about it we’re using all the relevant information, and I’d say this was pretty relevant.
One thing I’m sure all Irish supporters agree on is that we hope that whatever the outcome of this matter, the effect on our World Cup chances is minimal. We’ll just have to wait and see.
We’re planning to go back to our Sunday night pod recording times this coming weekend, for now we’re going to look at the Irish Under 20s as they prepare for the Junior Rugby World Championships down in South Africa so don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe to all our social media channels and in the meantime, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are, stay safe everyone, slán. JLP
The true impact of James Ryan on this team is now fully understood. Better team over 80 minutes won, without Ryan we had no answer to Skelton, ref had a good game. This was the 2011 final won for a second star by a team dead and buried after the first quarter. Jack Conan was again superb.
Hugely disappointing. 17 points up and we stoped playing. Signs of panic Kicked so much ball away. Hard to see how this team progresses .Winning by 40 points each week is no preparation
Sometimes teams need to win ugly and grind a result, Leinster need to learn how to do this. No point taking a big lead and not knowing how to defend it
Hard luck Leinster folks. That was some start but LaR ground their way back in and then strangled Leinster with their power. I think they were helped in that by James Ryan’s absence (physicality and leadership), kicks out on the full, a blocked attempted clearance, some needless penalties / cards, and some wayward long kicking back to them. The slowdown in tempo from Q2 onwards helped LaR but hindered Leinster. Can’t understand why there wasn’t a drop goal attempt at the end; a try wasn’t needed at that stage.
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 