Mixed news on the injury front for Leinster as squad reassemble for trip to Montpellier

There is a fad on rugby social media to try and find arrogance. People have been doing it with Ireland and Irish teams since Ireland beat NZ in the 2022 series. You won’t find it. Give it up. If you want to take about arrogance and you have a year to spare we can start discussing NZ and SA.

Which is why they run off to Japan - which is probably still tougher than Super Rugby.

Super Rugby hasn’t been relevant for two decades and rightly so. No wonder not even Kiwis show up and buy match tickets. Well that and they’re cheap

The Leinster defense were not seriously tested this year in a big match.

NH showed that there were holes to be exploited if the rush defence could be minimized. It looked like NH got through every hole they planned to…and more.

They still needed Leinster to compound errors. That happenned with Northamptons quick fire double try in the first half which Leinster never recovered from. Leinster were passive uncertain after that and Northampton kicked back from the restart and scored directly from a handling error. That was a key try.

If Barrett was eligible to play he should have started. There is value to bringing a highly intelligent player on after halftime, but no value if the match has been almost lost in the first half and it has turned into a slug fest where individuals can’t affect it as much.

Leinster had to level with the three pointer. They would have won extra time if it came to that. And thats with full respect to Northampton but they would not have prevailed in the last twenty. The entire second half was damage limitation to win.

I remember Leinster were 12 points ahead of Connaught in the URC. They refused a 3 pointer, Connaught turned them over went down and scored. Then they had another penalty only 5 points ahead. Leinster were considering a kick to corner and Barrett grabbed the ball and pointed to the sticks.

Leinster and Ireland do not have the onfield nous. And that was another reason why a general like Barrett was needed for this battle.

The decision not to play him feels like it ha sundermined his brilliant stint with Leinster. The man deserved a chance to help Leinster win. He has gone above the call to help Leinster and teach players. He is one of the outstanding centres in the world and he doesnt play? Henshaw has been passed it for two years, and I’m Irish.

Leinster don’t have that much quality matches. So they need to do their own targetted stress testing in training. They didn’t do that. Otherwise how could Northampton uncover such a treasure trove by analysing Leinsters weaknesses?

I am gutted for Leinster. Any talk of choking is nonsense. They kept coming back in that match and almost won at the death. Coaching and on field decision making. I don’t blame Nienaber.

Trust me I watch alot of the prem and the cash strapped Bath team are great but the rest make up the numbers

Don’t get me wrong the Saints played fantastically well yesterday

Leinster were well off and beaten