Sam Larner

When we're in your half, there's no point in us kicking because we're already close to the line, so we should carry.

Now, both approaches are valid, but I think what we're seeing with Leinster is just a shift off the axis.

And as you say, the fact is they're very good.

It's a very good team.

So they end up in situations where there's less value in kicking anyway.

So for example, let's say they have a lineup inside their own 22.

they maul it, they get a penalty from the maul.

They kick the penalty, they have another line out, they maybe go two phases, they get another penalty, they kick again to the corner, they score the try off that maul.

There's been very few carers there, but they've just marched their way up the pitch.

Compare that to a team who don't have that kind of set piece dominance or don't have that dominance in the carries.

Now they might have to go through four or five, six phases to get the same outcome.

And so naturally their carries will kind of balloon like that.

So I think a short answer, I'm sorry, the too long didn't read version of that is that I think it's a sign of them perhaps getting a little bit weaker that they've had to make more carries to implement themselves or to force themselves onto the match that they may have done in the last couple of seasons.

I think that's definitely true.

We've seen this, I mean, to go back to the Bristol Bears again.

So, you know, you have a certain amount of hours in a week that you can put into your, into making your team better, which I think is often something, it sounds fairly simple, but often something that's forgotten is that you can spend, let's say 90% of your time working on passing and you will get a lot better at passing, but other stuff will fall by the wayside.

I believe, so this is one of the things I purged, and I'm sure the same for you, is that when Nyingiba first came in, the focus on the defence was perhaps at the expense of the attack, and that they were putting so much time and effort into defence.

And of course, that defensive system we've seen with blitzing out the line is exhausting.

So when you do get the ball back...

you know you don't have the energy to to then go on the attack you compare that to a team which is quite passive in defense and what they would do is they would they would stall up their bullets for the moment that they get the ball back so they might be defending for longer but they would hope that their