Robb red card can't stop Connacht toppling Kings

I don’t follow enough football to really comment on who the best team is at present, but I think that over the 2022-2024 period Leinster were better than Toulouse and la Rochelle. If you think that trophies are the only thing that matters, then would you commit to saying that Leinster were a worse team (over that 3 year period) than Stormers, Glasgow, and Munster? If you want to talk football, would you commit to saying that Blackburn Rovers have had more success in the Premier League than Tottenham Hotspur have? Trophies matter. They matter a lot. But so does winning games. So does making finals.

You said that Leinster got knocked out in the CC because they met a team better than them (Northampton), and yet Northampton finished the year with zero trophies and Leinster finished with 1. Northampton finished 8th in the prem because they got beaten by multiple teams, including by Gloucester twice. Do you think that Gloucester are a better team than Leinster?

Hope he goes well.

Yes, I 100% disagree with your second point. Let me see if I understand what you’re saying though by comparing to another sport - football. Arsenal finished second in the league in the last two seasons. Does that mean they are better than Man City or Liverpool over the two seasons because those two didnt have the same consistency? Thats what your argument is saying to me.

Glad you cleared up the hate point. Thanks.

“In each of those seasons they did meet teams who were better than them, thats why they lost those matches.”

(1) I don’t really agree, as you can’t judge who is better than who purely on the basis of one match. I guess you’d say that Northampton are better than Leinster bc they beat them, but would you also say that Gloucester are better than Northampton, because they beat them twice and finished higher in the league? Who do you think is the better team, Leinster or Gloucester?

(2) fwiw I didn’t claim that Leinster were the best team in any one season (prior to this one). In 2022 and 2023 la Rochelle were better, but they were pretty poor in 2024 (definitely not top 5; probably not top 10), so I think over the period 2022-2024 Leinster were better overall. In 2024 Toulouse were better than Leinster, but they weren’t in 2023 or 2022, so I think over the period 2022-2024 Leinster were better overall. You’re welcome to disagree, but do you?

“I didn’t say I hated Leinster either so not sure why you felt the need to mention hate.”

I was using “hate” more as a synonym for “being negative about” rather than meaning the actual emotion of hatred. Sorry if that confused matters.

Could be a serious amount of line breaks and metres gained off these two workhorses.

So excited for this tour!

Wouldn’t it stand to reason that the province with the most clubs and the biggest clubs would get most funding?

Connacht currently have the smallest stadium of the 4 provinces and an operating budget of around 5 million euros. Again, the smallest.

They currently have 2 nailed on match-day 23 players for Ireland.

Do you see how this is all relative?

Hard to believe that big Jonah is almost ten years gone. Very sad.

Ulster are in the game they are just a good 10-15 years behind Leinster with their pathways. Every sport is driven by participation first and foremost.

The IRFU - for their own informed reasons - chose some time ago to invest heavily in Leinster and it’s schools pathways.

Rugby currently and historically has been, stronger in Leinster. That’s just how it is. There are more than 70 rugby clubs in Leinster. Plenty of the bigger ones will be stacked with a 1st, 2nd and 3rd senior men’s team, multiple age grade teams and usually boys and girls teams for each of them.

A player like Stephen Ferris, Ian Henderson, John Cooney, Jacob Stockdale etc will never slip through the system.

Even Paul O’Connell went straight through club to country having only picked up a rugby ball at 16.

Players won’t get missed by the system no matter how dominant one production line is.

Keeping a keen eye on that back row and the centre partnership. Back division does tick a lot of boxes with the dual playmaker axis and some real pace and power too.

This is the test of Tom Curry as a third lineout option as well I suppose.