Byrne and McGrath to finish it out in Perpignan?

Joe McCarthy, Sheehan, Tommy O’Brien, Kelleher, Ringrose, Furlong and Larmour all to be "assessed" this week (aka out)

No updates on Baird, Tector or Paddy McCarthy

Hi I am just wondering does anyone know if the second tier of the aviva will be opened and available to buy tickets and if so when will it be possible to buy tickets for those seats

I’m struggling to understand the thinking behind moving him to fullback and Harry playing 10 despite Sam’s giving the best 65ish mins from a Leinster 10 all season?

Was it about showing him that being moved to full-back isn’t dependant on his performance at 10, or was it about giving Harry a boost after what was a tough day at the office and poor performance last week?

TICKETS GONE

4x tickets for today's Leinster match available as a few of us are sick.

Cost was €27 each but will let them go for free or donate a few quid to a charity.

You'll need to send me the email address used for your ticketmaster account so I can send them to you.

GONE: PM Ticketmaster account and I'll transfer

BLK135 (bath avenue - red route), two of our mates pulled out late.

Edit - sorted now, apologies to others!

Jack Conan - because when he retires he's gonna be Leo 2.0. His post-match interviews are always so on point, after he's played 80min in the back row.

he has the actual top level playing, the knowledge and feel of the game and is a great communicator that lads would follow.

what are your predictions?

Noticing a lot of new accounts getting fairly abusive in comments and posts or accounts that focus on one specific issue across bunches of subs.

Just a suggestion to make sure people are actually trying to contribute to a debate vs stir 💩

Ignore if it’s a non runner.

Saw this headline on the Irish independent pop up. There didnt seem to be anything else in it when I clicked it though.

Shows a lack of accountability and self reflection. Not taking any "learnings" in.

Element of what are they doing here with this.

Dropped out of the 23 .....

Honestly did he flirt with Cullens wife or something.

Doesn't add up!

Plenty of these Land’s End rugby jumpers on eBay / Depop etc. for anybody else looking for a traditional jersey in Leinster colours. Just got one in near new condition for $40USD

(Land’s End made rugby jerseys for LL Bean and Polo Ralph Lauren before they both started getting theirs made in China, Land’s end also supplied jerseys to several professional and amateur rugby clubs in the 80s and 90s in the USA)

I know it's not a jersey they ever wore, but a mate of mine gave it to me a few years ago, when I swore of the Castore shite, and I always wondered.

It's a bit too well stitched, with all the proper Canterbury telltales, for it to be a knock-off.

A lot of reactionary stuff being stated repeatedly in the last couple of days in relation to the coaches and what Leinster should now do without delay. A lot of it focussed on who they should bring in, who they should get rid of, who they used to have and why these players can’t deliver with Leinster when they have done elsewhere.

Before I get into the below, I think Cullen’s time is done. He probably should have moved further upstairs at the end of the 2023 season when Lancaster moved on. It was a natural break. The JN signing hasn’t really worked out. It hasn’t been an unmitigated disaster despite some being eager to paint that picture but it hasn’t delivered what he is ultimately judged on which is the European title.

Regardless, some of the wants/repeated demands from fans on here and elsewhere over the last 2 days are just based on reactionary guff and pointless. I realise a lot of people don't want to listen to it at this point and just want to vent but I think some aspects need to be highlighted because it's becoming silly.

Sack the coaches.

The current coaches have contracts in place until the RWC. Calls for them to be removed are pointless. It’s not happening. They would need to be paid out. They also, I assume, have the standard 6-month notice period clause in there so they could not be moved on (or at least would have to be fully paid) for the remainder of 2026. It’s not realistic. Nor I suspect, would the IRFU/Farrell want Leinster looking to the market now and significant upheaval in Leinster 1 year out from the RWC.

But what if they did get rid?

Then there’s money made available that certainly wasn’t known about previously given the cuts that are happening in all provinces in terms of squad size and even redundancies in Munster. It would be a bad look, and I can’t see it being hugely well received by some within the game for that reason. But who can they get in? Firstly, pre-season for next year starts in 8 weeks approximately. There are coaches available but the vast majority of anyone worth engaging with is already spoken for. I’ve seen Scott Robertson’s name thrown out. He is, to my knowledge, available next season. But he has also signed on this summer to coach the Barbarians so wouldn’t be available until August probably at the earliest. Joe Schmidt is potentially the other guy who could be available that has a serious track record. He’s not getting any younger however and has been clear about the struggle of balancing family commitments. It’s a pretty small market and potentially non-existent at short notice for the quality of coach Leinster would ideally want.

Why didn’t they just get Lancaster?

Leinster have a problem of getting over the line. Lancaster has a brilliant track record of attention to detail and development. He has a very poor track record of getting over the line. He had 7 years at Leinster. Go back and look at each of those seasons. I think that Leinster had three exceptional chances at landing the European title since their last one: 2020, 2023 and 2025. Regardless of reaching finals, those are the years where everything was aligned for them, and handy draws had them in a strong place as well as the locations of the finals/knock out games. In two of those, Lancaster was the senior coach overseeing the team. In 2020, they were top seed and lost in a home QF to a Saracens team that was extremely vulnerable having been told they were relegated. Saracens lost to Munster and Racing in the pools and Leinster were big favourites in Dublin. Saracens took Leinster apart. It was 22-3 at halftime before Leinster woke up but were always at arm’s length. Then the home final against La Rochelle where they collapsed after being top seeds all throughout the knock outs. They also lost their two home URC semi-finals in 2022 and 2023 after the bigger SA teams joined. Leinster had a deeper and stronger squad during those years with massive experience and test players in behind the starters so were very well set up for the URC but still had mental collapses in those knock outs. So, whilst the time under Lancaster was great, there’s absolutely zero evidence that Leinster would have been any more successful with him in place. He oversaw the 2018 win but take a look at the opposition. Racing were down to their third choice outhalf on the day with Carter pulling out that week and Lambie getting injured in the 3rd minute. And Racing still nearly won with Leinster looking extremely nervous on the day.

Why have these guys been performing with Ireland but not Leinster?

Have they? Ireland lost to France in near identical circumstances in February. Ireland handed France repeated opportunities early on and they game was dead by halftime at 22-0 and 29-0 straight after the break. They started brightly against a patchy NZ in November and fell away badly then too. I’ll give them a pass for the South Africa game as there was a gulf due to the set piece and the mad number of cards…..but there’s absolutely a pattern of similar performances in the last couple of years and being blitzed by the teams who can stand up to Ireland. Maybe we’re not as good as we like to make out?

I’m not sure where Leinster go from here. I do think the team might now be at the end of the road. They aren’t going to make big changes this side of the RWC either on or off the field but I also reckon Europe isn’t an option at all for next season in terms of winning. The final is in France and Leinster are highly unlikely to win there. We’re in the golden age of French rugby and it’s going to be difficult to compete with them since they’ve managed to get their house in order in recent seasons. The most likely situation is they take next year to regroup and work on pushing through some younger players with an eye to a much more buoyant coaching market after the 2027 RWC

Anyone know if we'll get to see the post match press interview from Saturday? I've been looking on YouTube and so far nothing, the rugby girl usually sticks them up. Apologies if this was asked before!

Yesterday wasn’t as bad as the other final losses cause we were never really in that game but waking up this morning it still hurts.

I personally think that’s it for Leo & this group of players. There is too much scar tissue to come back from & yesterday was the final in the coffin. They’ve went to champions cup well so many times & came up dry. 5 losses in 7 years is just devastating 💙💔