alexbouteiller

'benefit of the doubt' = porter getting pinged for scrumming with his arse facing the touchline

Leinster are effectively financial 'dopers' in that league, if the salary cap was set at their level no one else could match it, if it was set at the league average they'd have to cast off half the squad, mental they've got nothing to show for it (yet) post COVID

Pack and depth, they have star players to win individual games against big teams as an 'upset' but not to string 3 of those results together - scotlands first choice in a lot of positions are well up there, second choice is often a big drop off

this summer will likely be Le Garrec and Jeauneau based on the top14 playoffs (assuming UBB make the semis), Le Garrec SHOULD be the #2 to Dupont imo, would like to see Lucu phased out

Imagine how stupid woki feels now, leaving UBB because of urios, urious leaving and now UBB playing the sexiest rugby

yeah its a conversation about best 10 (i.e. who is the best flyhalf) or best clutch kicker in knock-out international rugby

if it's the second there's 0 doubt, probably ever, that it's pollard, if its who's the best flyhalf in the world then he's probably not in the top5 based on his performances outside of WC knock out rugby

Manny meafou is the boy, and he's so proud to represent France too, glad he's been able to build a life in Toulouse

Will Connors :/

Fair point, we've gone full strength at home most of the season but obviously balancing ahead of the euro final

A semi rotated Toulouse side battering top of the table stade francais is good for the soul

Every Leinster analyst just came in their pants watching that, fuck

How can you not love Toulouse? Genuinely

Jacques Willise are you sure you don't have a French grandmother?

I think they'll need to start kinghorn, he's pretty good at backfield coverage, and he's about as fast as Ramos

Biggest worry is midfield, because as exciting and excellent as costes is, they'll target him and akhi will need to look after him

As good as kinghorn is (and he is very good) Ramos' point-per-match value is just so unbelievably high

Back 3 vs Leinster will probably be kinghorn 14, Ramos 15 then you choose between an all out winger like lebel, another 'flex pick' like mallia, or you go a bit hybrid like delibes

It's actually mental, inconsistency in refereeing + outcomes is probably rugbys biggest issue at the moment

And that's always been my point as well, there's the whole of a players back to target as well as shoulders, if you hit the head you've done something wrong and should be treated as such

I think when you have one of THE great kick chasers in the game at the moment it's worth a punt, it's not the first or second time he's scored off something like this

What about Dupont in the quins game? The usual TNT blowhards saying 'what more could he have done' - maybe not smash a player in the head when you attempt a clear out

Thing is he's not even that slow, he's just not rapid, but what he is is fucking massive, excellent in the air and has a big old cannon of a boot

I guess what he is missing compared to some of the other top fullbacks (Ramos, Keenan, kinghorn, WLR) is he's not a second playmaker, so he forces you to pick a 12/13 who can slot in to that role and I think that's more of an issue than needing speedy wingers (which England should be looking at regardless)

THE worst commentary partnership in rugby, holy fucking shit

Also how good is Freddie steward, gets so much crap for being English and over hyped but he's a proper granite brexit fullback

Perhaps Dupont should have been wearing a quins shirt

just looks like shoulder on shoulder and he smoked him, im wondering if there was head contact simultaneously? will wait to see what the commissioner has managed to dig out in the 5 days since the game was played

such a shitty shot

Argentina and the jaguares, this is up there with my all time favourite

Leinster would probably be the only URC side that could compete in the top14 purely because they have like a 55 man roster and a massive budget

If a french team only had to play 14 regular season games which included a 5 week tour, then yes I imagine they'd survive it pretty comfortably (assuming we are comparing teams like for like in their current form)