Are Leinster being set up tactically for success?
6/5/202632 min
A number of narratives have emerged in an attempt to explain Leinster’s European malaise under the current coaching staff.
Is Jacques Nienaber’s new system the problem or, rather, has he been given enough coaching power to truly take control?
Are Leinster still a well coached team or are they tactically behind the curve given the way the game is being played at the moment?
Analyst Sam Larner joins Nathan Johns to cut through all the headlines and figure out what is actually going on in Leinster HQ.
Produced by John Casey.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsNathan Johns· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to the CounterRock Rugby podcast, brought to you by The Irish Times in partnership with Oak Energy. But not because they're the only Irish province left standing, Leinster are the talk of the town at the minute within Irish rugby circles. Certainly not helped by a number of, let's call it, interesting media appearances by members of staff. Fiery quotes are good for people like me. They make for good copy. But generally speaking, if there's anger in the ranks, be it aimed at the press or aimed elsewhere, that tends to be a sign of a camp that is not exactly ecstatic at where things are. With good reason, after losing quite comfortably in a Champions Cup Final. But away from all the bluster, I decided let's get our good friend, analyst Sam Larner in, because he's gonna come on and he's gonna tell us all the various ideas and theories that you're hearing about Leinster's style of play, about the defense being the issue, about the attack being the issue, about Jacques Nienaber being the issue, about Leo Cullen, and confusion about what his role is. A lot of opinions, but Sam is gonna come on and show us what does the actual data tell us about what Leinster are doing tactically, and if they are still one of the better teams in the world at constructing a game plan. So here's Sam. Sam Larner, hello. Welcome back. Good to see you, uh, again. Um, as the ... Well, as ... It's, it's funny. We, uh, we s- we spoke off air before we started recording. I said