The 'new model' athletes fresh off Leinster's academy production line set to stalk the PRO14
Here it is, the time of season when reigning European Cup holders Leinster stand out from the crowd for very different reasons.
The Irish province is globally admired for its near annual consistency in competing for cup and league trophies at the business end of a campaign.
However, they have also developed a canny knack under Leo Cullen for best managing their resources in the PRO14 when Ireland’s Six Nations commitments take precedence.
It’s no mean feat. Leinster accounted for 17 of Joe Schmidt’s original Irish squad of 35 players in 2016 (48.5%), 15 of the 40 in 2017 (37.5%), 18 of the 36 in 2018 (50%) and last week they had 16 in the 38 announced for 2019’s tournament (42.1%).
No matter the heaviness of this national demand, however, they have yearly been able to cope during the traditional four rounds of league fixtures – rounds 14 through to 17 – played during the spring Test rugby window.
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Before Friday night’s latest round 14 win over Scarlets, they had only lost one of a dozen games played under Cullen at this time of year over the last three seasons.
Fifty-one out of a possible 60 points bagged. A strike rate that left next-best rivals – the Irish trio of Connacht on 46 points, Ulster and Munster with 35 points each – trailing in their wake, never mind mention of Welsh, Scottish and Italian adversaries. Impressive.
Leinster’s bottom line is winning European Cups, but performing well in low-key league games during the Test window is non-negotiable for Cullen.
When Leinster’s impeccably high standards last dropped in spring 2015, the province shockingly lost to struggling Dragons and then needed an 80th minute try for a win bonus against minnows Zebre at the RDS. This uncharacteristically shoddy home form wasn’t helped by a loss at Scarlets and a draw at Ospreys.
Just six tries were scored in 320 minutes, their eight-points-from-20 haul ranking them joint-eighth best in that spring’s four-match block. It didn’t go down well in the boardroom and ultimately cost Matt O’Connor his job even though Leinster took eventual champions Toulon to extra-time in a European semi-final in Marseille.
O’Connor blamed the level of Ireland call-ups for the slump, an accusation that led to a heated row with Schmidt and IRFU boss David Nucifora. His defence was undermined by the fact Leinster had won all four matches the previous spring when Ireland captured the 2014 Six Nations title with 19 from Leinster in their 36-strong squad (55.8%).
Having been part of the Irish system as a player, Cullen is more in tune with the national-team-comes-first ethos of the IRFU. Stacks of provincial guys away? No problem is his constant response, his perspective being that a Six Nations window minus his stars instead provides ample opportunity to glimpse the next taxi off the rank in the province’s fast-producing talent conveyor belt.
Jack Conan, Tadhg Furlong, Ross Molony, Ed Byrne, Will Connors, Max Deegan and Ciaran Frawley are just some names of recent vintage that have made first starts or debuted off the bench in league rounds 14 to 17.
Some home performances have been richly entertaining, too. Eight tries against Zebre in 2016. Seven versus Scarlets in 2017. Ten against Kings last February. Fifty-eight tries in total in their dozen games under Cullen, who has now successfully resumed this spring show with Friday’s night success over Scarlets. Next up is a trip to Zebre before South African duo Kings and Cheetahs come to the RDS. Four wins from four? It’s a very achievable target.
Cullen likes rolling the dice. Ten of the 19 players in Leinster’s academy have already played with the senior team, a half-dozen (Oisin Dowling, Jack Kelly, Jimmy O’Brien, Hugh O’Sullivan, Paddy Paterson and Scott Penny) making the breakthrough this term from the laboratory manned by Peter Smyth, Cullen’s old pal from Blackrock.
This spring is already no different in this blood-them-young approach. Seven academy apprentices were in the 23 that faced Scarlets, but the starting back row – Deegan, Penny and Caelan Doris – is the unit to watch evolve in the coming weeks. They are the type of hulking personnel who underline the powerful next wave coming through the ranks.
They haven’t hung about breaking onto the scene. A Leinster academy apprenticeship is designed to last three years, but Deegan, 22 since October, and Doris, 21 next April, each only needed one year’s tuition before earning full professional contracts.
Penny, a year-one academy member who only turns 20 next September, can potentially be similarly fast-tracked to full status given his good impression since making a November debut against Ospreys.
They’re a trio who pack a punch, too. Their vital statistics – Deegan: 1.93m/109kgs, Penny: 1.82m/100kgs, Doris: 1.94m/106kgs – are more than a match for seasoned pros at the club like Conan: 1.93m/111kgs, Sean O’Brien: 1.88m/108kgs, Rhys Ruddock: 1.91m/111kgs and Josh van der Flier: 1.85m/98kgs, who have been away this week in Portugal with Ireland. Dan Leavy: 1.91m/106kgs would also have been in the Algarve but for his need to dust off injury cobwebs following his stellar 2018.
The worrying thing for Leinster’s rivals is this stable of rising new thoroughbreds doesn’t end with Deegan, Penny or Doris. Connors: 1.94m/102kgs, who needed just a two-year apprenticeship, turned pro last summer as did Josh Murphy: 1.96m/107kgs, who is a slightly more late developer as he needed the full three years before earning his stripes.
Age is now very much on the side of these five back row newcomers spoiling for Cullen’s attention. With O’Brien 32 in February, Ruddock 29 next November and Conan 27 next July, these youngsters are sleek, newer models whose talents have enhanced a Leinster roster that lost Jamie Heaslip through retirement at the age of 34 and saw Jordi Murphy, 28 in April, decide last summer his future was best served north up the Irish M1 in Ulster.
Deegan is the current pick of the breakthrough crop, already on 35 appearances and involved in the Champions Cup. But with spring in the air, other rookies are grasping their chance to also impress.
Doris was the best ball-carrying forward on Friday night, claiming 40 meters from eight carries, while Penny topped the game’s tackling charts with 20. They are more than decent figures, numbers that underline how the province’s second string pedigree has Leinster yet again poised to stand out from the PRO14 crowd during a Six Nations window.
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ROUNDS 14, 15, 16 & 17 PRO14 TABLE
(2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18)
W D L BP PTS
Leinster 10 1 1 9 51
Connacht 10 0 2 6 46
*Ulster 7 0 4 7 35
Munster 7 0 5 6 35
Scarlets 7 1 4 4 34
Cardiff 7 0 5 6 34
*Ospreys 7 0 4 5 33
Edinburgh 5 0 7 7 28
*Glasgow 5 1 5 4 26
Treviso 4 0 8 3 19
Dragons 0 1 11 5 7
*Zebre 1 0 2 10 6
*Glasgow, Ulster, Ospreys and Zebre’s round 17 games in 2018 were postponed due to bad weather and played in mid-April long after the Six Nations had finished.
Comments on RugbyPass
Etzebeth went on to say: “I would never dream of saying that systems stay in place following a change in captain. To say that would be deeply, deeply, disrespectful of Siya. A while back an Irish person told me they would be fine without Sexton, so I’m just responding to that.”
3 Go to commentsClose games are what we want to see…. What a match it was…. I am sure that everyone was drained by the end of it. The reality of it all there has to be a winner and a loser. The fact that we still talking about it is almost 6 months to the day Rugby is the winner.. Asante sana… Here is to 2027 and what it will bring out.
182 Go to commentsIt’s going to be a good game. COYQ
1 Go to comments“Shock”, the guy was casually saying he was just slightly surprised. Nowadays if you say anything it gets taken completely out of context. Calm down everyone.
156 Go to commentsAll I can say after reading this bitter, sour, sad piece is… Thank you very much! This will be read in the change room just before kick off on 31 August…
182 Go to commentsLook, we know contradicting opinions and wacky comments bring readers and clicks, so well done to RP for allowing always-wrong-Ben to say something here. However RP needs to put a disclaimer next to his comments for their own credibility. NZ was and is incapable of acknowledging their opp beating them. They refused so with Ire and with Arg in 2022 and also the Boks in 2023 x 2. Nothing Ben says here holds water, NZ attacked backwards, except when Kolisi and Kolbe was off And cyncialy took out Bongi, we played without lineouts for 75mins. Kolisi and Kurt-Lee almost scored twice. Thats 3 vs 2 for Boks, but the Boks opportunities was legal. Boks should have been 16-3 up by half time. Tacticaly the Boks attacked better defended better scrummed better (without a hooker) kicked better and crossed the whitewash more times. Boks beat Fr Eng Nz to win in 23, comeon give some credit at least. Even Federer Verstappen NY Mets, Mamoa, was able to see a great human sport achievement by the Boks and their DNA Boks #RWC27 !🏉
182 Go to commentsForget the 85kg bit, that can become something else. However I do like the one off test on ANZAC day idea. SR plays Fri/ Sat, test players travel Sunday and the squads have the full week together before playing Saturday. Rest of SR has a week off. Either involve women's teams in same location or in the other country and rotate annually. Herbert is right in that change is needed.
3 Go to commentsI’ve read loads of nonsense before but this article takes the cake. Or perhaps someone changed the date for April Fool's Day.
3 Go to commentsReally Rugbypass? Ben Smith I think you forgot what the Springboks did to the All Blacks at Twickenham 8 weeks earlier? Springboks 35 All Blacks 7. There is alot of ifs and buts in your article. The All Blacks threw the sink at the Springboks and unfortunately they were not good enough regardless if they played with 14 men or not. It was the Springboks who forced the All Blacks to make mistakes! Sorry but not Sorry the Springboks is the best ever Rugby World Cup Nation in the world. 4 Cups baby!
182 Go to commentsYou just backed the Boks with that fantastic review! Well done! Have some cake!
182 Go to commentsBen Smith please write up something better than this. The Springboks would have won the world cup if you were 15 men on the field. They would have found a way, they always find a way to beat the All Blacks.
182 Go to commentsWow, there is a lot of “could have” and “ should have” in this waist of time dribble. I love the desperation in this story to search for a glimpse at a silver lining. Here are the facts, NZ was a badly coached and undisciplined shadow of their former glory. They never took the lead in a game they were never going to win.
182 Go to commentsGOTTA MAKE ‘THE GEORGE’ HAPPEN!!!! That’s a great idea! A trans Tasman midget battle on ANZAC Day. I don’t think the ABs Wallabies game should be a one off winner takes all though, just the first match with the other two later in the year with the RC. Reason being, no one will ever shut up about how aussies couldn’t win it when it was a 3 match series.
3 Go to comments@Ben smith. Thats knock out rugby. So honeslty who cares?
182 Go to commentsIt will interesting to know which Irish players said that…
2 Go to commentsNaaaww boys will be boys! Now run along ya wee scamp! Don’t let us catch you at again😏
1 Go to commentsGreat to have Ethan Blackadder back in the Crusaders in the last few weeks. One of the best all round loose forwards around. He played so well last week against the Rebels. Fantastic attitude Ethan has and his comments are spot on.
2 Go to commentsThe author is 100% right. The Springboks know that they don't have near the natural attraction, mana, skill and mystic the All Blacks have. So, Chasing the sun 1 & 2 was concocted to overblow the Boks image on the back of a corruptly obtained “win". It's marketing ploy to force the Boks delusion as the World's Best. I guess World Rugby is also not to be believed when it came out with an apology about how the final was officiated. And if the 2023 final such a superb game by the Boks, then the Boks crying about Referee Bryce Lawrence for decades is also deserves a laugh. Chase the sun and get burned like a moth. A very well written literary piece that tore the Boks and Chasing the sun farce to shreds. 🖤All Blacks🏉
182 Go to commentsI’d say France was far more hard done by in the 2011 final than the All Blacks in this game. Joubert simply refused to call a penalty against the All Blacks in the last quarter even directing an All Black to drop a ball he picked up in an offside position rather than penalizing him. This article also totally discounts the efforts of PSTD. Ask Jordie how well he played. Or the backup flank who played hooker for the entire game. Siya was also a brilliant tackle by Richie from scoring a blinder. Pollard was also fantastic. Look I don’t like the boks style but the only thing more questionable than the content of this article is the timing of it. Get over it already
182 Go to commentsDad Marty was also a handy rugby player for Linwood back in the day. Great bloke. Sensational softball career.
2 Go to comments