EDINBURGH V LEINSTER

[bert1945]

Fridays game will prove if we have improved since last year. Leinster will give Edinburgh their hardest game so far. They will be up for it as I am sure they will not want to loose two games to Scottish teams in a row. They will not make as many mistakes as Scarlets did and wont give away so many penalties. Edinburgh will have to up their game from last Friday if they are going to win.Hopefully we will have near enough the same team out. Back row might need to fit a fit Du Preez or Manu in somewhere. I would keep the same back line the same.

[The Party Line]

We will match them for the first 20 - 30 minutes and I will begin to hope. Then they will try a little passing interplay right up the LawrenceBryce middle and proceed to cut us to shreds. Waltzing through the heart of our defence at will.

[gowrie]

Leinster looked fairly canny against Glasgow for the first 50, though Glasgow definitely outlasted them and pulled away at the end, I really don't think our fitness levels are up to that.

Hard to see how we'll win this one. Our attack shape's pretty simple and an easy target for their rush defence, and we've been exposed in defence in the centre of the line, what really should be the basics, and that's where Leinster did a lot of damage to Glasgow.

1. Sutherland, 2. McInally, 3. Nel, 4. Gilchrist, 5. Toolis, 6. Bradbury, 7. Hardie, 8. CdP
9. Fowles, 10. Weir, 11. Brown, 12. Burleigh, 13. Dean, 14. Allen, 15. Bryce

16. Ford, 17. Dell, 18. Berghan/Bryce, 19. McKenzie, 20. Watson, 21. SHC, 22. Kinghorn, 23. Tofilau

On paper, a competitive side, but hard to see a win.

[Tichtheid]

I'd stick with Fordy to start this game, his performance last week more than merited it.

[dolf_lundgren]

Hardie had a head knock so doubt we will see him this week.

The time to play McInally is when we were short of muscle in the back row to carry i.e last week. If we have CDP or Many playing alongside Bradbury then the need is lessened and we can utilise Ford closer in.

Cant see Dean getting a game either, Tofu and Rasolea are ahead of him now. They have both looked decent (not so much in defence) so we need to give them a go.

[gowrie]

Leinster ripped Glasgow's defence apart for a fair while in their game, we need to shore up the midfield if we want to have a chance in the game, or we'll be three tries down by HT and out of it.

[Tichtheid]

Leinster ripped Glasgow's defence apart for a fair while in their game, we need to shore up the midfield if we want to have a chance in the game, or we'll be three tries down by HT and out of it.

They have a lot of good moves straight off the training pitch, guys running excellent lines coming in from the wings that are difficult to defend against. They did us over towards the end of the 14/15 season at Murrayfield with that. Trouble is, if you crowd the midfield you leave gaps out wide.

I'm no great analyst, but it seems to me the best way to defend against it is to stop it at source, make sure they never get good front-foot ball, our pack need to really do them over, turn it into a muscle match up front and execute every scoring chance we get.

[dolf_lundgren]

Agree, dry up the possession,might not be pretty but it is the strength we have.

To be honest, if Sexton, Henshaw etc cut through us with well worked moves at good angles I wont be happy but it is iunderstandable. What we need to cut out is the tries and ywardage we give away without the need for anything good. This game is a bit of a free hit, we are not expected to do anything so we might as well have a go. Cardiff and Scarlets were different in that respect. The conditions should be different too, although I still think our strength is our pack and we should not apologies for using it (although the occasional sighting of the ball beyond IC would be nice!)

[biffer]

Agree, dry up the possession,might not be pretty but it is the strength we have.

To be honest, if Sexton, Henshaw etc cut through us with well worked moves at good angles I wont be happy but it is iunderstandable. What we need to cut out is the tries and ywardage we give away without the need for anything good. This game is a bit of a free hit, we are not expected to do anything so we might as well have a go. Cardiff and Scarlets were different in that respect. The conditions should be different too, although I still think our strength is our pack and we should not apologies for using it (although the occasional sighting of the ball beyond IC would be nice!)

Yep. If its a pretty game we'll get comfortably beaten. If its all about knocking teams backward, disrupted ball and scraps of possession, we might have a chance.

[biffer]

Bill Fihaki in at eight. Be interesting to see him. CDP on the bench.

[The Feral Goat]

100 appearance for WP

15. Glenn Bryce

14. Michael Allen

13. Sasa Tofilau

12. Phil Burleigh

11. Tom Brown



10. Duncan Weir

9. Nathan Fowles



1. Rory Sutherland

2. Ross Ford

3. WP Nel

4. Ben Toolis

5. Grant Gilchrist CAPTAIN

6. Magnus Bradbury

7. Hamish Watson

8. Viliami Fihaki



Substitutes:

16. Stuart McInally

17. Allan Dell

18. Kevin Bryce

19. Fraser McKenzie

20. Cornell Du Preez

21. Sam Hidalgo-Clyne

22. Solomoni Rasolea

23. Blair Kinghorn

[The Feral Goat]

Leinster: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 Isa Nacewa (c), 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Noel Reid, 11 Dave Kearney, 10 Joey Carbery, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Dan Leavy, 6 Jordi Murphy, 5 Mike McCarthy, 4 Devin Toner , 3 Mike Ross, 2 Sean Cronin, 1 Jack McGrath

Replacements: 16 Bryan Byrne, 17 Cian Healy, 18 Tadhg Furlong, 19 Ross Molony, 20 Josh van der Flier, 21 Luke McGrath, 22 Cathal Marsh, 23 Rory O'Loughlin

[dolf_lundgren]

Having said we should take them on up front, thats quite a pack they are putting out, with plenty more to come off the bench.

Could be a long night. No issues with our team, probably somewhere near full stength given the injuries. How long is Hoyland out for?

Also is Bryce ahead of Berghan or is Berghan injured?

[The Feral Goat]

Not sure how long Hoyland is out for, Berghan is listed as injured.

I think Bryce (K) could make a real impact in the loose guess we just need to make sure his scrummaging at TH is sorted once it is I think we may see a fair bit of him.

Think we have a pretty strong set of forwards on the bench as well could be a good battle up front.

David Wilkinson ref (IRFU)

[Tichtheid]

Bryce is listed as 120kg - same as Nel.

Is that likely?