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u/IrishLad1002 7d ago edited 7d ago
Two things that weren’t “unlucky” that completely altered the course of the match was Byrnes atrocious restart and his intercept killed any hope of a comeback.
His restarts in general were awful, his attack play is so limited and he’s not that good in defence. Clearly from evidence provided in the semi and final he doesn’t have the mentality for big game pressure either. He should be the one going to Connacht or anywhere that’s not Leinster. I don’t think any coach that’s not Cullen would’ve stuck by him for so long now.
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7d ago
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u/ultantheonion 7d ago
i think it must be stressed that harry bryne does not select the team, he is clearly rated but i think it would be fair to say he definitely has a clear ceiling and he is not a champions cup winning 10. But scapegoating him exclusively is silly, plenty of other guys went missing on the day.
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u/Irishthrasher23 7d ago
While I agree he is not up to this level the context needs to be considered in these conversations. He has not had a lot of top level game time but he is what we have. His brother got a lot of this hate too with H Byrne and Sam the next 10s inline being called for.
We have our 3 squad 10s with Byrne, Sam and cover with Carbery coming in next year. Also academy guys in the pipeline but people need to accept they will not come in and take over.
Cullen was wrong to select Sam last year, wrong for Byrne this year. Wrong for not playing Frawley only at 10 for the last 6 years. Wrong for having Ross Byrne as Sextons backup. At some point you have to accept all these players have faults but it's who we have.
This constant bashing of players and coaches is getting beyond annoying
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u/Life_Corgi_7950 7d ago
When you're the worse team, you need things to go right for you. They obvs didn't.
Lots of that was Leinster's fault, but there's also some parts which could have really changed this. UBB stopped the Leinster counter ruck by attacking rucks that could be interpreted sealing off - if the ref sees it this way UBB's attack is a lot less unstoppable. Likewise UBB really didn't care about keeping their feet in defence. TOB counter ruck and every one of their jackals ended with players on the deck on the ball. All of a sudden we're more level in both attack and defence.
Seriously think that Leinster should be grabbing control of the narrative and putting refs directly under pressure for some horrendous "interpretations". (As well as getting a 10 and sacking Leo + Nienebar)