WITH THEIR FIRST assignment of the new URC season fast approaching, Leinster are already deep into the business of planning how to best manage their resources across the course of the campaign.
Leo Cullen’s men are in Scotland on Friday night for a season opener against Edinburgh, before games against the Dragons (home) and Benetton (away) which all lead up to a massive round four clash with Munster at Croke Park.
Across those games Leinster will dip into their squad depth while also easing back some of their internationals, a tricky balancing act given Cullen is conscious of picking up as many points as possible in a bid to avoid any headaches further down the line.
The early rounds tend to be a good opportunity for the province’s rising talents to showcase their talents but as the weeks progress, those chances can become increasingly scare, particularly when the Champions Cup gets going and international windows usher in breaks in the URC season.
It’s a frustration the province’s coaches are fully aware of, admits scrum coach Robin McBryde, who overlooks the development of Leinster’s front row prospects.
Props Michael Milne, Jack Boyle, Paddy McCarthy and Thomas Clarkson will all hope to push on this season while Dan Sheehan’s ACL injury opens the door for hookers Lee Barron, John McKee and Gus McCarthy in the queue behind Ireland international Rónan Kelleher.
“We’ve discussed this as coaches here,” McBryde says. “I’m not sure if it happens in other provinces or what have you, but with a number of returning internationals, they’re going to need game time, you know what I mean? So you can’t play everybody week in, week out, so certain players then have to lose out.
“And it’s the same for anybody, any craftsman. If you build a regular sort of pattern up, you get better at what you do, then all of a sudden you don’t get those regular game times or there is maybe a break in the calendar because the November international or what have you, and without a doubt, I think it stunts their [young players] growth and their development, without having that regular competition at a certain standard.
“How we fill that void, I don’t know. I don’t know what the answer is. But definitely, it needs looking at from a point of view of yeah, we can have ‘A’ games or try and arrange friendlies against English opposition, like we did last year. And they serve a purpose. But it is tough. I feel for them sometimes because it does stunt their development. I don’t know what the answer is there.”
Leinster go into the season with 42 players on their senior squad, a number that will rise to 43 when Jordie Barrett arrives after the November internationals. Connacht, Munster and Ulster all have 44 senior players, but none provide as many internationals to Andy Farrell’s Ireland squad as Leinster.
“It’s very hard,” McBryde continues, “because you’re trying to service them and do them justice because they’re all working hard, they’re all chomping at the bit, but the reality is, if you’re involved in this region, then you’re not going to get that many opportunities.
So when you do get it, you’ve got to be able to fucking grasp it and hang on to it. So, yeah, it’s a tough place to be.”
At the other of the scale, the province have bolstered their front row options with the signature of former France international Rabah Slimani. The 34-year-old, capped 57 times at Test level, joined from Clermont and arrives with almost 300 Top 14 games under his belt. It’s the type of signing we’ll see less of in Irish rugby going forward, with the IRFU set to ban non-Irish-qualified front row signings from next season.
As Slimani settles into his new surroundings, much of his remit is to impart some of his scrum knowledge to his Leinster teammates.
“The mentality that they have; they pride themselves on certain aspects, the set-piece; definitely hoping some of that Top 14 mentality will rub off on the youngsters,” says McBryde.
“Leo did the majority of the communicating with him so I tried to brush up as well as I could on Duolingo, but he’s fit in very well. He’s come in with a little bit of a mentoring role, I’m led to believe he’s the first French player to represent Leinster and it’s great to have that mix.
“He’s been very open about everything. Having coached against him… he played in 2017 against Wales where we beat them, we’d some interesting conversations.
“He’s a good character, he’s surprised a few with how good his handling skills are and he was even kicking off out of hand for the kick-off pods the other day.
“He’s got a couple of strings to his bow, but we need to keep him grounded a little bit and focus on the scrum.”
McBryde added that both RG Snyman are Jamison Gibson-Park are close to returning from their respective injuries. Snyman joined up with his new club after injuring his foot on Rugby Championship duty with the Springboks, while Gibson-Park missed Ireland’s summer tour to South Africa with a hamstring issue.
“They’re close. RG took a full part in the forwards unit’s session today. Obviously his next progression will be building up to be able to take a full part in training. I’d say over the next couple of weeks, hopefully we’ll see him.
“Jamo, he took a full part in training today. It’s positive news on both of them.”
How to best manage resources? They should be trying to figure out how to win a competition. Leo is a master at keeping 50 player happy but in 8 seasons not very good at actually winning when it matters.
@chris mcdonnell: couldn’t agree more. Talking about players having to grasp opportunities. Shouldn’t management be doing the same to win trophies. 4 years without a league trophy and 7 without a European one is simply not good enough for an organisation of Leinsters stature and resources
@chris mcdonnell: Maybe we need some changes at the top if they’re empty again this year, BTW I said the same last year! We have great talent but…
@Con Cussed: at least before last season even though we lost finals and semi finals, we did play attacking exciting rugby, now it’s all about putting bodies into defence that when we do get the ball the players are either at the bottom of the ruck or just too exhausted to move the ball so we end up with one up runners or kicking the ball away. Leinster with our talent should be at Least 50% about attack. Last year our defence made Billy burns look like a cross between Carlos Spencer and dan carter
@chris mcdonnell: agree, one could even say that the squad is bloated and complacent. Too many players happy to be back up, not really pushing the first choice for their places. I’m surprised how patient their fans are really. I would have expected a lot more criticism.
@Michael Corkery: Did you even read the article? Leinster has the smallest squad in Ireland and they lose the most players to the national team. Should Leinster just keep 23 players and play them every week maybe?
@Petter Sellberg: Exactly. Some of the posters on here are quite badly misinformed. Trump-esque ignorance of facts and reason with some of them.
@chris mcdonnell: he has a unique challenge in that he is without his best 20 players for 1/3 of the season. I really think he just needs to solve the 10 question and they should win Europe
Too much talk and not enough trophies out of Leinster in recent years.
@Aidan Farrell: I agree
Granted no trophies for a while. You can thank IRFU for that, and Ireland can thank Leinster for the recent successes.
@Ben Breathnach: the IRFU didn’t make you lose a home final where you were 17-0 up after 20 minutes no matter how you try spin it
@Ben Breathnach: don’t agree. Ireland with Andy Farrell are getting the best or close to it out of the resources they have. Leinster under Cullen are not. There is nothing mutually exclusive about them both being successful.
@Ben Breathnach: leinster haven’t won a trophy in years simply down to the coaches making mistakes and not learning from them. Irelands recent successes are down to the coaches selecting the best player in their best positions and giving them the best systems to be as good as they can be.
Maybe Leinster aren’t as “big” a team as they were. The lack of trophies shows that when the South African teams entered the URC and then in Europe the French teams have been very strong – Leinster struggled. But hey – still getting to finals pretty much every year so can’t be too critical?
@Keno: Do you remember when the 2nd best team in the urc was Leinster 2nds? I agree with you completely, Leinster are still one of the top teams in Europe and I’m pretty sure they will crack the ERC again in the next year or so. I’m a Munster fan, but I was gutted for Ciaran Frawley when that drop goal went wide last season. No one has a right on any trophy, we found out that too in the urc last year. Leinster have the talent and the pedigree, but they are not the only team who have these qualities. If Leinster were winning it every year, it would get boring, even for the Leinster supporters.
Photo Caption – “Stripes! Stripes?? It was my 1 and only condition, I won’t wear stripes!!”
@Paul Ennis: looks like a aussie with that hat
Mighten be winning cups but sure as hell are up there every season good few new players should help them hope they win things this season as a munster fan can only be good for irish rugby
Big season for Leo and staff. They need to learn from their mistakes. They highest impact items they can change this year are
1. Take the URC more seriously, first team plays the key games and playoffs – they need to ensure home playoff ties as much as possible
2. Find a 10 that can win these tough matches consistently, its one from Frawley, Prendergast and R Byrne – they should offload Harry on loan or elsewhere, there is no value to him or the province in getting Leinster game time this year. He would flourish at Ulster IMO
3. Replace Healy with Boyle or Milne, they need to win the jersey off him. I love Healey but hes not the guy to start if Porter is injured, we need one the young bucks to take his jesery, to do that they need big games in Europe
4. Similar to above, need McKee or Barron to become clear 3rd choice hooker, Sheehan is out all season and Kelliher will be with Ireland, one of these guys needs to come through. If not they should sign a medical joker