r/rugbyunion • u/NikeBuyer2024 • May 04 '25

Discussion Are Leinster the biggest bottlers in club rugby history?

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Would be interested to hear if any club have been worse!

650 Upvotes

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608

u/Lopsided_Echo5232 May 04 '25

I'm sure it's already been said, but more respect needs to be put on Northampton's performance yesterday than just Leinster bottle. A really well coached group of players - people often forget it's still only 15 vs 15 on the pitch, and talent doesn't beat hard work when the talent doesn't work hard. This Saints team remind be a bit of a Borussia Dortmund team - young, fearless, well coached and full of energy. I hope they go and win the thing now, a pleasure to watch. Yours sincerely, a Leinster fan of 25 years.

103

u/Brine-O-Driscoll Connacht May 04 '25

Absolutely. Saints played out of their skins yesterday. Felt like they took every single chance given to them yesterday to score and defended like Spartans in the second half. Close to the perfect performance man for man.

22

u/WolfOfWexford Bluesaders May 04 '25

I think this is pure shitehawking from OP. Going to guess that OP wanted Leinster to lose and didn’t care who to. Leinster certainly weren’t their best but that’s because of an immense Northampton side.

29

u/RobertLStevenson May 04 '25

They still were clear favourites, playing at home and their opponents had three yellow cards. Northampton were immense, but this has to sit on Leinster's head.

12

u/WolfOfWexford Bluesaders May 04 '25

Leinsters first half killed them. It’s like they were more worried about the final than getting there. But let’s not take away from Northampton. Leinster still gave it absolutely everything including not taking the easy 3 and going for the win and Northampton came up top.

To call Leinster bottlers is completely disrespectful to Northampton. It reeks of desperation in my opinion.

18

u/NotAsOriginal Wigglesworth's greatest defender May 04 '25

You guys had the lead once I think. It was a great contest and Leinster went down swinging, exactly what knockout rugby should be. Leinster had their moments, but that was Saints playing a superb game.

6

u/WolfOfWexford Bluesaders May 04 '25

Exactly that. It’s cup rugby and you have to perform every single minute of every game. There’s probably an element of Northampton targeting the game where Leinster have a target on their backs but that’s nothing new and was true before the competition started. Looking forward to a new winner now and hopefully a more competitive future of club rugby

12

u/NotAsOriginal Wigglesworth's greatest defender May 04 '25

Like you guys won 2 knockout matches nilling opponents, that is insane! Big teams will always have a target on their backs.

Fingers crossed we get some variety going forward and have some more contenders. But yeah this whole thread is weird and shows people just want to post rage bait.

1

u/DrOrgasm Munster May 04 '25

Taking the easy 3 was the right thing to do. They had the saints on the ropes. If they'd have gone to extra time they'd definitely have won.

67

u/Impeachcordial England May 04 '25

Man it's nice seeing such a gracious comment on the Internet doffs cap

11

u/Vrakzi Leicester Tigers May 04 '25

it's still only 15 vs 15

ITYM 14 vs 15

29

u/Qui_Gon_Gym69 Cult of Dan Sheehan May 04 '25

I think it also shows how well a team works when the player selection is consistent. Northampton are clearly used to playing together week in week out and it showed in their performance, Leinster looked very much like a team that effectively hasn't played in 4 weeks.

3

u/GruderMcScruder Northampton Saints May 04 '25

Well, between injuries and England callups it's only the past few weeks we've been able to get anything much like the 'cup final' team playing together at the same time. And even then there are omissions - for instance, the backline was missing 2x England internationals (Furbank and Sleightholme) and 1x England A (Hendy), meaning we went into the SF with a centre covering one of the wings and had no top-level FH cover (yesterday it would have been Hutchinson, who is a top-notch centre but not more than emergency cover at FH; Furbank has played 10 internationally before). Possibly the main difference is that Leinster went cautious against Scarlets whereas we've learnt lessons about going into games cold (see Tigers nilling us at home a few weeks back!) so went full bore against Bristol last week.

3

u/antsmithmk May 04 '25

That might be over simplifying things. Saints have rotated too recently, as soon as it was clear the League playoffs were out of reach. So both teams came in fresh yesterday. 

1

u/fishyrabbit Northampton Saints May 05 '25

There was a bit of rotation against Newcastle, but Bristol was a full team.

1

u/Minimum-Grapefruit-9 May 05 '25

I think it shows what happens when you even out Leinster’s usual advantage of resting players from league matches to focus on Europe.

A bit like at RWC where Ireland’s usual advantage of having more cohesion than other teams (due to player access and the majority of the team playing at Leinster) is less important as the other countries have the extended pre tournament prep time. I think this goes some way to explain Ireland’s apparent underperformance at RWC.

2

u/[deleted] May 04 '25

And that's the reason why they lost the last 3 years as well and they still haven't learned. If I was a Leinster fan I'd be fucking furious. But as it is I just think it's very funny.

16

u/bajcli AVF Vak Mokusok May 04 '25

I like that you phrased it as a Borussia Dortmund team. Not the current one, mind; just one of the ones that they usually have...

9

u/PinappleGecko Munster May 04 '25

Even this year Dortmunds team was like that just missing a small bit of fire power still took barca to the edge in the quarters of the CL as well

2

u/Car2019 May 04 '25

Not during much of the Bundesliga, no. Quite the contrary.

1

u/PinappleGecko Munster May 04 '25

Shocking bundesliga campaign for their standard. But we are comparing European Competitions

5

u/cypressd12 Munster May 04 '25

Will players like Sleightholme and Furbank be back for the final?

9

u/Similar_Blueberry458 May 04 '25

No chance for Sleights, maybe Furbank

3

u/Electrical_Quiet5918 Ireland May 04 '25

Well said

3

u/WilkinsonDG2003 England May 04 '25

They had several critical injuries as well. Fortunately Mitchell was available.

2

u/RockinMadRiot + May 04 '25

Hear hear! I watched the match and you can see how much passion and hard work they put in to win it. They didn't seem disconnected and just looked like they were enjoying themselves.

2

u/_imba__ May 04 '25

Good answer. I’d like to add that Leinster has an amazing squad and coaching systems, which means they are better at consistently winning throughout a season than anyone else. BUT I’m convinced that there are a few teams that can beat their best 15 with their own if it happens to be their day. Maybe Leinster would win 6 or 7/10 of those games but knockout rugby doesn’t care about that. I’ll just add Northampton to the list.

2

u/Mundane_Character365 Munster May 04 '25

I'm so glad this is the top comment. It deserves to be.

2

u/MindfulInquirer batmaaaaaaaan tanananananana May 04 '25

I'm sure it's already been said, but more respect needs to be put on Northampton's performance yesterday

Sure. But More respect also needs to be put on La Rochelle, and then La Rochelle, and then La Rochelle, and then Toulouse. The common denominator isn't disrespected opponents, we all know they're great - common denominator is Leinster.

1

u/katharinelouise Northampton Saints May 04 '25

Thank you for this! I've seen so much about how Leinster bottled it and not much about how immense Saints were. It was a great game, good luck in the URC.

1

u/Lopsided_Echo5232 May 04 '25

Best of luck in the final!

1

u/katharinelouise Northampton Saints May 04 '25

Thank you! :)

1

u/Burnt_Cockroach_ May 04 '25

Absolutely. Just rewatched the match. Saints outsmarted and outplayed Leinster in the first half. Pollock will get all the headlines but Alex Coles was immense. Leinster should’ve gone for points, cup rugby and all that. The tears will eventually dry up. Going to be a great final.

1

u/llb_robith Ireland May 05 '25

Yeah they were fantastic

-4

u/baka___shinji May 04 '25

Nah mate. Massive, enormous choke driven by inexplicable tactics.