Match Reaction #1: Leinster 25 – 3 Montpellier

Posted on January 22, 2012 by dementedmole

Leinster eased into a home quarter-final fixture in an odd sort of game against last year’s Top 14 runners-up, Montpellier. Saturday lunchtime at the RDS is better than Sunday brunch at Firhill, but not by much; Leinster have kicked off four of their six group games before 2pm, which doesn’t do much for the atmosphere. Coupled with the lack of big-name opposition – and to speak frankly, outright quality – in the group, it has been a relatively undistinguished qualification campaign compared to last season’s block-busting efforts against the best that the English and French could muster. Continue reading →

Match Reaction: Glasgow 16 – 23 Leinster

Posted on January 15, 2012 by dementedmole

Leinster must be very, very glad to get away with four points from Firhill on a day that the machine did not function all that well. Sean Lineen’s men showed ferocious hunger, picked up all the scraps from the champions’ table, and feasted on them. Continue reading →

He’d Give You An Indian Burn That’d Land You In Hospital

Posted on January 7, 2012 by dementedmole

Clint Newland having the last laugh

Poor old Clint Newland has recently been repeatedly brought up as a byword for the sort of useless NIQ players that the selfish old provinces foist on the IRFU. Continue reading →

An Antidote to the January Blues

Posted on December 19, 2011 by dementedmole

Harlequins’ away win in Toulouse proves yet again what a great tournament the HEC is and puts in place some interesting pool arithmetic, with one of the Irish provinces centrally involved in the unfolding tale in Pool 6. Continue reading →

The Laws Of Probability

Posted on December 15, 2011 by dementedmole

Lady Luck! She wears green! She hates Connacht! The irony.

Almost with a sense of perversity, it must be pointed out that the Irish run cannot continue forever. Perhaps Ulster have not yet had the proverbial “rub of the green” in the Heineken Cup this season – and Connacht certainly haven’t – but neither Munster nor Leinster can claim that to be the case. Continue reading →

Match Report: Bath 13 – 18 Leinster

Posted on December 12, 2011 by dementedmole

Ryan Caldwell tries to find the 'Off' button on Jonny Sexton

Over the last three seasons since Leinster have established themselves as European big hitters, their trips to England have always been tight games. There was the 25-23 victory over Saracens in Wembley last year, the 11-11 draw with London Irish in Twickenham at the end of January 2010, the 6-5 win over Harlequins [the infamous ‘Bloodgate’ game] in the 2008-09 quarter final in The Stoop, and a 12-19 loss to London Wasps in January 2009 in Twickenham. Games against English teams have long been tight affairs, and Sunday’s 18-13 win over Bath continued the trend. Continue reading →

Match Preview: Bath vs Leinster

Posted on December 9, 2011 by dementedmole

Come for the victory, stay for the John Wood the Younger showpiece of Georgian architecture that is the Royal Crescent

Leinster travel to the beautiful Somerset town of Bath in the first leg of their Heineken Cup double-header. Travelling fans are hoping for a smooth crossing in light of the recent hurricane force winds that have strafed the Irish Sea, and the team will be hoping to leave with the vital away victory which would put them in a commanding position at the top of the group. Continue reading →

Joe Schmidt’s Away Team

Posted on December 9, 2011 by dementedmole

During Matt Williams’ time in charge of Leinster, the Women’s Auxiliary Balloon Corps revolted. If memory serves correctly it was in the lead up to a Heineken Cup semi-final against Perpignan and was one of the reasons that Leinster and Williams parted company. The WABC was composed of squad players who held tackle bags for the Galacticos but never got selected ahead of the established stars. Continue reading →

Leinster vs Cardiff Preview

Posted on December 2, 2011 by dementedmole

John Smit's savoir faire ruffled for the first and only time in his career

On what promises to be a fairly grisly evening weather-wise, much has been made of the fact that the Cardiff Blues team visiting the RDS tonight is denuded of eight Welsh internationals. Wales, you see, are playing the Australians in a coffer-filling exercise tomorrow. Fortunately for them, the base avarice of the WRU has been allowed skulk through the mists of sentimentality that have followed Shane Williams’ announcement of his retirement from international rugby. This match isn’t actually a testimonial to the former IRB International Player of the Year, as much as he deserves one, and as much as it is being portrayed as such by the Welsh media. No, this is just the WRU in full money-grabbing mode, flogging its players in a bid to capitalise on their reasonably successful RWC11 efforts. Continue reading →

Munster, Leinster And Their Experimental Teams

Posted on November 25, 2011 by dementedmole

And then you chop-block the defensive end, Moose

Munster and Leinster have named ‘experimental’ teams for their upcoming fixtures in the Pro 12. Joe Schmidt has gone for a 5-5-5 formation, picking two scrum-halves and three out halves in midfield to try and control possession in a move that owes much to the influence of Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona. Tony McGahan has named only 11 players in his starting line-up, and will spring the remaining four one-by-one at five minute intervals from the fifteenth minute onwards. Continue reading →

Digging Like a Demented Mole

"They'll be dancing in the streets of ______ tonight…"

Tag Archives: Leinster