Tigers v Leinster (A) - Champion Cup - Qtr Final - 07th April 2023 - KO 8:00pm

[Mayocaz]

Got a feeling we might go well here. Leinster are obviously a top side and lazily all the pundits will be bigging them up. I’ve just got this feeling that we are far more hungry for this than what the recently Grand Slam winning contingent of the Leinster side will be. Yes they’ll obviously be trying but do they really want it as much as we do. The hunger shown by us on Friday is something Leinster won’t be used to playing against. I remember how much England struggled after winning the 2003 WC. It was hard to reproduce the form of 2003 after the massive highs of winning the big one. With eyes on the World Cup as well I just think this Leinster side might be on the wrong end of a shock result. I think this is a great time to play them. As one or two people have already said though. Please give it a proper crack lads. Don’t be in awe of the opposition and let’s really get into them.

[westwinds31]

3 out of those 4 I think.

Head over heart is that the top one might not be correct but stranger things have happened

Indeed they have and I just have a feeling we might do it this time. I think the Edinburgh game was good for us...a tough, gritty win against good opponents. With no pressure on us and all the massive expectation on Leinster I think mindset will be key to who wins.

Nobody is giving us a prayer, so obviously I'd love us to win over there, but I suspect that Leinster would have to be off their game and we'd have to be 100% firing for the full 80, to get a result.

[TigerFeetSteve]

Got a feeling we might go well here. Leinster are obviously a top side and lazily all the pundits will be bigging them up. I’ve just got this feeling that we are far more hungry for this than what the recently Grand Slam winning contingent of the Leinster side will be. Yes they’ll obviously be trying but do they really want it as much as we do. The hunger shown by us on Friday is something Leinster won’t be used to playing against. I remember how much England struggled after winning the 2003 WC. It was hard to reproduce the form of 2003 after the massive highs of winning the big one. With eyes on the World Cup as well I just think this Leinster side might be on the wrong end of a shock result. I think this is a great time to play them. As one or two people have already said though. Please give it a proper crack lads. Don’t be in awe of the opposition and let’s really get into them.

I get what you're saying about the hunger, but I think the fact they haven't won this cup since 2018 may make the hunger for this be there...

[RagingBull]

Honestly last year Leinster didn't look that impressive with their win.
I still think our pack can take on theirs pretty nicely.
We have lost Genge but I think West + Cronin is massively more balanced than Genge + Whitcombe (If I remember Genge had dropped a lot of balls last year)
Montoya struggled with his first game back from injury.

Ulster pack is overrated, I think they are well drilled and coach but in terms of players the irish always over rated their pack, excellent backs though.

The big worry is our backs, and the 13 channel
Another potential backs option may well be to have to play Kelly in his U20's position as 13, I don't think he is quick enough but all the other options have flaws as well. At least he's a strong enough carrier and good enough distributor to offer as a threat.

Overall with good weather I think we might actually play some good rugby. Also last time we lost away in Europe was Toulon in 2020.


note I expect an Leinster win by more than 10.
I just live in hope

[RagingBull]

Got a feeling we might go well here. Leinster are obviously a top side and lazily all the pundits will be bigging them up. I’ve just got this feeling that we are far more hungry for this than what the recently Grand Slam winning contingent of the Leinster side will be. Yes they’ll obviously be trying but do they really want it as much as we do. The hunger shown by us on Friday is something Leinster won’t be used to playing against. I remember how much England struggled after winning the 2003 WC. It was hard to reproduce the form of 2003 after the massive highs of winning the big one. With eyes on the World Cup as well I just think this Leinster side might be on the wrong end of a shock result. I think this is a great time to play them. As one or two people have already said though. Please give it a proper crack lads. Don’t be in awe of the opposition and let’s really get into them.

I get what you're saying about the hunger, but I think the fact they haven't won this cup since 2018 may make the hunger for this be there...

Flip side to this is they haven't won the cup since 2018, and didn't win the URC last season for the first time in 4 years.
At what point does hunger turn into pressure?

[Mayocaz]

We seen in the final game of the six nations how the Irish struggled to get over the line against England with the pressure. Hunger after the grand slam with the World Cup coming and the pressure they are under are two reasons whilst I like this as a time to play them. Throw in we are in brilliant form as well. Come on lads.

[sk 88]

Tickers secured. Unclear if there is a block allocated or we're in the Leinster free for all.

[chris111]

Really excited about this - rational assumption is Leinster start as strong favourites, and if this match was played 10 times would probably expect them to win 8 or 9. The beauty of knockout games is that 10-20% chance of an upset is an enticing prospect!
Tigers probably need to make it ugly and scrappy, though. A shift in weather patterns might help; unfortunately current forecast for Dublin on Friday is for perfect rugby weather - dry, cold and sunny

[TigerXV]

As we saw from the Edinburgh game, sir does make a large difference to the game! Sir for the Leinster game has not been announced yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were Nika Amashukeli.

He was very good in the Sarries v Ospreys match

haven't watched the whole game but his decision to award the Mallins try when he crawled over the try line whilst being held was beyond woeful

[RunTigerRun]

Leinster’s injury update:

https://www.leinsterrugby.ie/cullen-iss ... ter-final/

Having Ringrose back is huge for them. Potentially Doris too, even if van der Flier is a small doubt.

Potential of:

Keenan, Larmour, Ringrose, Henshaw, Lowe, Byrne, Gibson-Park, Doris, Conan, Baird, Ryan, Jenkins, Furlong, Sheehan, Porter

All Ireland capped except Jenkins - who is not a bad Saffa!

[Rugbygramps]

As we saw from the Edinburgh game, sir does make a large difference to the game! Sir for the Leinster game has not been announced yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were Nika Amashukeli.

He was very good in the Sarries v Ospreys match

haven't watched the whole game but his decision to award the Mallins try when he crawled over the try line whilst being held was beyond woeful

Perfectly good decision in my book was never held and allowed to place the ball
Interesting that you haven’t watched the whole game and you describe 1 decision as woeful. I wonder if it was any other team other Sarries if you’d have that opinion

[Rugbygramps]

Leinster’s injury update:

https://www.leinsterrugby.ie/cullen-iss ... ter-final/

Having Ringrose back is huge for them. Potentially Doris too, even if van der Flier is a small doubt.

Potential of:

Keenan, Larmour, Ringrose, Henshaw, Lowe, Byrne, Gibson-Park, Doris, Conan, Baird, Ryan, Jenkins, Furlong, Sheehan, Porter

All Ireland capped except Jenkins - who is not a bad Saffa!

Ireland then basically

[TigerXV]

He was very good in the Sarries v Ospreys match

haven't watched the whole game but his decision to award the Mallins try when he crawled over the try line whilst being held was beyond woeful

Perfectly good decision in my book was never held and allowed to place the ball
Interesting that you haven’t watched the whole game and you describe 1 decision as woeful. I wonder if it was any other team other Sarries if you’d have that opinion

we're talking about the referee decision here not the teams involved - the video including the ref chat and slow mo popped up on twitter. To me (and I completely understand you may have a different opinion) he was held throughout from being taken to ground and him crawling on his elbows to the the try line.. One decision can be described as woeful - he may well have had a perfect game otherwise which is why I openly said I hadn't watched the whole game and criticised this one decision only

[Rugbygramps]

haven't watched the whole game but his decision to award the Mallins try when he crawled over the try line whilst being held was beyond woeful

Perfectly good decision in my book was never held and allowed to place the ball
Interesting that you haven’t watched the whole game and you describe 1 decision as woeful. I wonder if it was any other team other Sarries if you’d have that opinion

we're talking about the referee decision here not the teams involved - the video including the ref chat and slow mo popped up on twitter. To me (and I completely understand you may have a different opinion) he was held throughout from being taken to ground and him crawling on his elbows to the the try line.. One decision can be described as woeful - he may well have had a perfect game otherwise which is why I openly said I hadn't watched the whole game and criticised this one decision only

My point is that as you say it popped up on Twitter which won’t have shown other angles etc.My point is that you have made a very disparaging comment based on a clip on the most toxic of social media.
But as you say everyone is more than entitled to their own opinion.

[TigerXV]

Perfectly good decision in my book was never held and allowed to place the ball
Interesting that you haven’t watched the whole game and you describe 1 decision as woeful. I wonder if it was any other team other Sarries if you’d have that opinion

we're talking about the referee decision here not the teams involved - the video including the ref chat and slow mo popped up on twitter. To me (and I completely understand you may have a different opinion) he was held throughout from being taken to ground and him crawling on his elbows to the the try line.. One decision can be described as woeful - he may well have had a perfect game otherwise which is why I openly said I hadn't watched the whole game and criticised this one decision only

My point is that as you say it popped up on Twitter which won’t have shown other angles etc.My point is that you have made a very disparaging comment based on a clip on the most toxic of social media.
But as you say everyone is more than entitled to their own opinion.

it showed the whole video of the try from BTSport including (as I said) the ref looking at it including all the angles that he watched so I believe my view is valid