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Irish Times
3 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Tyler Bleyendaal hails Sam Prendergast as one of Leinster's game drivers
Sam Prendergast might have left his kicking boots at home last weekend against Glasgow in the United Rugby Championship semi-final, but Leinster are fully behind their young outhalf, who coach Tyler Bleyendaal called one of the game drivers within the squad. 'I actually thought Sam on the weekend played a good match,' said Bleyendaal. 'His goal-kicking maybe was one skill error but the way he led the team around, I thought, was great. The stats showed that we played well, and we applied a lot of pressure and I think a lot of that is from Sam's leadership on the field. 'He has been engaged and he's looking to get a plan in place along with the other game drivers.' The New Zealander was himself an outhalf and captained New Zealand Under-20 to victory in the 2010 IRB Junior World Championship before being forced out of playing with Munster due to a recurring neck injury. He subsequently qualified for Ireland in January 2018 under World Rugby's residence rules but didn't play. READ MORE There are some similarities including pressure management at a young age. 'Yeah, any of my own experiences is something I can draw on because I've been through them,' said Bleyendaal. 'Even some of the things that haven't gone well for me, you can share those experiences, but it doesn't mean that Sam operates in the same way. Sam Prendergast takes a kick during Leinster's semi-final victory over Glasgow Warriors at the Aviva Stadium. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho 'So, he's going to go about his business. It's getting his game and leadership style aligned with the plan we want to go forward with. On the most part, he's doing a pretty good job.' Prendergast will have played at least 25 games this season, which is higher than many of the international players. Still changing physically, his 6' 5'' frame has yet to fully fill and in many ways is still growing into the game. His critics though have been out, even after beating Glasgow in the URC semi-final last weekend. 'I don't think there's any ill effects. I think he's getting through the season fine. I don't look at him and think he's getting beaten up or he's slowing down,' said Bleyendaal. 'I feel like he turns up every week, he's got good energy and he's young, I think he recovers well. The pleasing thing to see is that he puts in the work during the week and he goes out and backs himself on the weekend. 'Jeez, being a kicker myself and sometimes you have a bad day. Sometimes you have a rubbish warm-up, a great game. Sometimes you have a great warm-up, a rubbish game. But he was back to work today kicking a lot of balls.' Prop Tadhg Furlong, centre Garry Ringrose and fullback Hugo Keenan will all be assessed for calf injuries this week and have not yet been ruled out of the URC final against the Bulls in Croke Park on Saturday. Irish flanker Josh van der Flier will also be assessed on his hamstring injury. Irish captain Caelan Doris and Robbie Henshaw are unavailable for the game. Ticket sales for the game were trending towards 30,000 after the first day.
Irish Times
13-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
‘We don't feel entitled': Leinster must work hard to get past Glasgow in URC, says Bleyendaal
After previously coming up short in the competition following difficult defeats in the Champions Cup , Leinster are hopeful the next few weeks will see them going a couple of steps further in the United Rugby Championship . While their European decider defeat to La Rochelle at the Aviva Stadium in May 2023 arrived seven days on from a URC semi-final exit to Munster, the province were still in contention for league honours in the wake of their Champions Cup showpiece reversals in 2022 and 2024. Although Leo Cullen 's men initially bounced back in the URC games that followed those losses, their league campaigns in both seasons were ultimately ended by the Bulls in the final four. Leinster responded to their recent Champions Cup semi-final defeat against Northampton Saints with a comprehensive win over Zebre last weekend that guarantees they will remain on home soil for the duration of their URC knock-out campaign. Tyler Bleyendaal joined the province as an assistant coach for the start of the current season, and while he senses a determination in the squad to make up for previous disappointments, he understands this is easier said than done. READ MORE 'The players have spoken of how they have had losses in Europe in the past and bounced back, but then not been able to carry on with that momentum. So that's where we're at, preparing for Glasgow after a decent performance at the weekend, and the challenge for us is to build on our own momentum through the things we can do well,' said Bleyendaal ahead of their round-18 clash at the Aviva Stadium this Saturday. 'The reality is there are many hungry teams trying to win the URC at the moment as well. We don't feel entitled or anything. We're going to have to work hard, we're going to have to be committed.' In between their surprise European loss to Northampton and a 76-5 hammering of a lowly Zebre in the URC, there was last Thursday's British & Irish Lions squad announcement that saw Andy Farrell selecting no fewer than 12 players from Leinster for the forthcoming tour of Australia. [ Lions Tour 2025: The winners and losers as Andy Farrell names squad Opens in new window ] Who is in the most Irish Lions squad of all time and why? Listen | 21:47 Bleyendaal believes it was only right that those who made the cut from the province were judged on their overall performances throughout the season. He also feels the Leinster players who have been selected for Lions duty will be able to place that upcoming trip to Australia at the back of their minds for the time being. 'It's a great achievement for the players who made the squad and everyone is excited and happy. The players will say themselves they don't want to take away from what Leinster are trying to do. They don't want that limelight. 'I still feel there is a real drive from those guys to perform for Leinster. I don't think their minds are working too far ahead, which is good for us. 'It is great for Leinster. I don't think one poor performance should define those players and the season they've had, because they have performed really well and deserved their spot. Everyone was really pumped for them.' James Ryan in training: the towering lock returned to competitive action as a 50th-minute replacement against Zebre and is in line for a starting berth against Glasgow. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho Meanwhile, Bleyendaal was thrilled that Leinster were able to welcome back a fit-again James Ryan against Zebre. Having previously been sidelined for several weeks after sustaining a calf injury in training at the beginning of April, the towering lock returned to competitive action as a 50th-minute replacement against the Italians and is in line for a starting berth against Glasgow. 'It was great to have JR back. He had been slowly tipping away and being diligent with his rehab. It's good to get him out for a run and he seemed to come off the field with no ill effects from the injury, which is great,' Bleyendaal added. 'I'd say he's pretty hungry to get out there and try and, maybe not run around the field, but run into bodies and tackle bodies. He enjoys that contact side of things.'
Irish Times
02-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Rugby analysis: Leinster attack looking more and more comfortable in chaos
Stop me if you've heard this before. Leinster bring in a new coach, changes to the style of play follow. No, we're not talking about Jacques Nienaber and the blitz. Been there, done that. Under new coach Tyler Bleyendaal, the province's work with ball in hand has come in for criticism. Yet post Six Nations , with the Ireland contingent back after a middling international campaign, Leinster's attack has clicked to its most impressive level since the former Munster outhalf moved into his UCD office. Across their two Champions Cup knock-outs this year, Leinster rocked up 114 unanswered points. That's close to 40 more than the 76 they scored against Leicester and La Rochelle last year. It's not just the number on the scoreboard. Leinster look more fluid, more instinctive. What, if anything, has changed tactically? Do the underlying numbers back up the un-analytic vibes check? READ MORE 'The opposition!' screams the cynic at the back in response to the first question. Yes, Harlequins and Glasgow don't match up in quality terms to Leicester and La Rochelle. Yet if the answer were so simple, this article would not have been written. Compare how Leinster and Northampton have scored their tries this season. According to Opta, this season the Irish province uses the set-piece as the cornerstone of 68 per cent of their scores. Turnover ball accounts for five per cent, kick return six per cent. Northampton, by contrast, are much more balanced. Forty-seven per cent of their scores come from set-piece, 20 per cent from turnover and 16 per cent from returning kicks. Leinster are a classic Irish team. Look at the national squad during the Six Nations; 88 per cent of their tries came from lineout or scrum. In this country, we don't have a culture of lethal transition attack. Nothing has changed, then. Leinster are still one dimensional. Over the course of the season, yes. In their two most recent European games, though, look again. Against 'Quins, Leinster crossed for 10 scores. Four came from set-piece, three from turnover and three from kick return. Of the eight tries recorded against Glasgow, six were from the dead ball and two came off turnover. You don't need to take the calculator out to see that these figures present a more balanced return compared to the season as a whole. Leinster's Jamie Osborne scores a try during the Champions Cup Round of 16 match against Harlequins at Croke Park. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho Ah, but this is merely a small sample against teams which lack top-end quality. Yes, but such caveats still don't render Leinster's more balanced attack uninteresting. In a way, it makes perfect sense that Leinster should be better at running back turnovers. They employ the world's most aggressive defensive system, underpinned by line speed and breakdown shenanigans. If they don't give away penalties, they'll win plenty of turnovers. Cue golden opportunities against defences which, just nanoseconds earlier, were set up to attack. 'It's providing us with opportunities to attack, off defensive sets, which is great,' said Bleyendaal recently. Curse these understated Kiwis. TRY GIVEN! Leinster in a commanding position as half-time approaches. They lead 23-6 📺LIVE RTÉ2 & RTÉPlayer 📱Updates 📻LISTEN RTÉ Radio 1 — RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) Leinster haven't been historically poor in their transition attack. Case in point: during the quarter-final win over La Rochelle last year, when Andrew Goodman ran the show, Leinster scored a superb try off kick return. James Lowe and Jamison Gibson-Park did the honours via a beautiful offload sequence. A year on, the addition of a third Kiwi has helped. Jordie Barrett's chip and chase as Leinster ran back a kick against Harlequins led to one particular score. Leinster 14-0 Glasgow: Adam Hasting slaps the ball down and referee Luke Pearce awards the penalty try and yellow card. 📺 Watch: 🖥️ Follow: — RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) Other non-Kiwis have also become more prominent, better able to identify space on transition. Sam Prendergast is desperate to immediately get his hands on the ball when it's won back. After Tommy O'Brien's turnover in Glasgow's 22, Prendergast stuck his head up and kicked wide to the waiting Rónan Kelleher. A penalty try followed. The pièce de résistance of Leinster's recent transition attack involved a host of non-Kiwis doing the instinctive heavy lifting. Jamie Osborne scored against 'Quins just shy of the half-hour mark in Croke Park. The play started from a kick landing inside Leinster's 22. Robbie Henshaw, Garry Ringrose, Osborne and Josh van der Flier all played a part, finding gaps, keeping the ball alive. It took Leinster just two rucks to get from one end of Jones' Road to the other. Leinster 19-0 Harlequins Osborne finishes another flowing move and the hosts have one foot in the quarters after less than half an hour 📱 Updates: 📺 — RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) For what it's worth, Leinster haven't neglected attacking off more structured ball. Their phase play off set-piece still looks good. Bleyendaal arrived in Dublin with a reputation as an innovative coach who asked unorthodox things of his pods. Nominally, Leinster play a similar 1-3-3-1 system to what he implemented with the Hurricanes. Josh van der Flier, Kelleher and Max Deegan have all had success of late as the '1' forward holding a wide position. The pods of three in the middle, though, are up to all sorts. 'How can the two pods of three be more connected and create more variation?' said Jayson Ross, Bleyendaal's analyst at the Hurricanes when speaking to this paper last year. With Leinster, that variation has come thick and fast. Backs join the forward pods. Barrett links with Joe McCarthy, RG Snyman with Lowe. Sometimes the three-man group turns into two, or even a solo expedition. Some passes go with the grain, others come back inside. Offloads are a dime a dozen – 45 so far in 2025 knock-out rugby compared to 11 at the same stage last year. The attack posts better, more rounded stats as the season progresses. Leinster stretch the bounds of their structure and avoid predictability. They look as comfortable in chaos since Stuart Lancaster coined that very phrase. The impressive return needs to hold up across the next two European fixtures. Leinster's attack deserted them against Toulouse last year. Is it better set up to avoid such a fate? We can make an educated guess. For now, guesswork is all we have.
Irish Daily Mirror
26-04-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
What time and TV channel is Scarlets v Leinster on in the URC today
With a six day turnaround from their visit to Llanelli to the visit of Northampton to the Aviva Stadium, the Blues boss has made nine changes from last week's defeat of Ulster as the province looks to maintain their dominant position at the top of the URC table. However the Leinster head coach will still back his side to beat the Scarlets - who, in ninth place, are hell-bent on picking up points as the regular season races to a conclusion. If Leinster do win they will secure a top two seeding and Cullen will be expecting that outcome after the second string's recent win over the Sharks in South Africa. "The performance is first and foremost," said attack coach Tyler Bleyendaal. "We're preparing for a really tough challenge. The Scarlets have proven to be tough fighters in the last few weeks, on the cusp of the play-offs. It's their last home match for the year so we're expecting a tough challenge. "We'd love to get a result and the table would take care of itself, but the performance is what we're focusing on. I just think this period after the Six Nations, a few things have clicked, and for whatever reason the big games we played had some good attack in them. It's pleasing." The match will be played at Parc y Scarlets, Llanelli Click this link or scan the QR code to receive the latest rugby news and top stories from the Irish Mirror. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. The match kicks off at 5.15pm on Saturday It will be shown live on RTÉ 2 and Premier Sports, and will be streamed live on Scarlets to win 7/2, Leinster to win 2/9, the draw is 20/1 Rónan Kelleher captains Leinster for the first time, winger Ruben Moloney (21) is poised to make his debut off the bench and Ciarán Frawley makes his 99th appearance for the province. Ryan Baird has returned from injury. Jamie Osborne switches from full-back to centre, where he will partner Liam Turner. Osborne's brother Andrew starts on the right wing. Ross Byrne is at No.10 while Fintan Gunne makes his third start, coming in for Luke McGrath at scrum-half. "I'm enjoying it big time, off the bench mainly, but it was good to get that first start in South Africa, hopefully get one or two more towards the end of the season and I'll be delighted with the season," said 21-year-old Gunne. "The intensity was up against Ulster, I was just throwing myself into a few tackles and was just looking to bring a bit of speed towards the end of the game there, try to get a couple of tries. "We're ready when called upon, it's a testimony to all the work the academy coaches are doing and each season there's more and more academy lads putting their hands up, which is great to see." Cian Healy returns at loosehead and is alongside Kelleher and Thomas Clarkson in the front row, while Baird is named with Brian Deeny in the second row. Will Connors makes his injury comeback with a start at No.7, with Alex Soroka and James Culhane continuing in the back row. Leinster: Ciarán Frawley; Andrew Osborne, Liam Turner, Jamie Osborne, Jimmy O'Brien; Ross Byrne, Fintan Gunne; Cian Healy, Rónan Kelleher (capt), Thomas Clarkson; Ryan Baird, Brien Deeny; Alex Soroka, Will Connors, James Culhane. Replacements: Gus McCarthy, Jack Boyle, Rabah Slimani, Diarmuid Mangan, Scott Penny, Cormac Foley, Charlie Tector, Ruben Moloney.
Irish Times
23-04-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Leinster excel when it comes to refining link between attack and defence
There is a formative link between attack and defence that makes the most successful rugby teams dangerous in and out of possession. Leinster are living proof of this assertion, especially in recent Champions Cup matches. Jacques Nienaber spoke effusively last week about Leinster's brilliant attacking patterns in European victories over Harlequins and Glasgow Warriors. Last Saturday, this time in the United Rugby Championship, Ulster bore the brunt of that fluency in possession. Leinster's attack coach Tyler Bleyendaal , smiled when reminded of Nienaber's words and then deflected neatly. 'He's just trying to divert attention. The defence is going well. It's providing us with opportunities to attack off defensive sets, which is great. The lads are starting to enjoy the opportunities and see them on both sides of the ball which can only be great for us.' The training ground is a hugely challenging environment when the two disparate sectors of the team square off against one another. Bleyendaal explained: 'We have good quality to experiment with but also to try to execute and perform. READ MORE 'It can also be challenging as well when you are starting to attack against your own style of defence. And maybe the challenge on a weekend is different and you need to adjust. Or sometimes I might have to get our defence to show me some different pictures. It works both ways. 'Sometimes you need blind hope [when it comes to strike moves]. It doesn't come off against your own defence, but you still think it might work. Sometimes you just have to trust what you see. It might not be a smooth preparation throughout the week, but you can instil confidence in the lads around that aspect of keep giving it a go.' Not everything works, plans are tweaked, others scrapped. Failure though doesn't preclude growth. Bleyendaal agreed. 'Definitely. I think it's one of the more exciting [things when] you've come off the field, you've just had a challenging run, you look at the film [and then] you have challenging conversations. Tyler Bleyendaal (left) and Sam Prendergast in conversation. Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho 'We're not too worried about 'this is a concrete plan, and we must stick to it'. If there are obvious things that need tweaking, we're happy to do adjustments on short notice. Growth is all about failing and trying again and reapplying with all your learnings.' Players adapting in real time during matches is encouraged, albeit that they are playing within a framework and shape. 'You always need guidelines about what we're trying to achieve but if I have something specific that I need done for a certain reason, I really push that. How to fix the Champions Cup? Listen | 23:30 'You can loosen off in other areas where you can let the players play with their skill sets. [It's about] just trying to get some consistency of what that looks like, so that the consistency and the skill sets can be trained well. 'Yeah, that's a constant conversation between myself and Jacques. We might attack differently [in training] to an opposition, we want to test our defence out in a different way. The good thing about it is that it almost grows your game again because you execute a skill set you don't always do and get a feel for it and understand it. It's never wasted time.' Bleyendaal is looking forward to the arrival of Rieko Ioane who will join Leinster next December, having previously coached against the All Black in Super Rugby. 'He [Ioane] is a challenging player to coach against. He has a good skill set, a pretty smooth runner. He is also quite a big build as well, a big, tall, strong athlete. It is exciting to have him. New Zealand's Rieko Ioane is on his way to Leinster. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho 'Top quality players want to grow all the time. You must have different experiences to do that. I think Leinster is a great place for that and I think that is why we have seen [players of] the quality of Jordie and Rieko committing to come here.' Leinster will wait until later in the week before deciding on the availability of Ryan Baird and RG Snyman in advance of Saturday's URC match against the Scarlets at Parc y Scarlets (5.15pm). The 25-year-old Baird last played when coming on as a replacement in a 22-minute cameo in the Champions Cup win over Harlequins. He subsequently picked up a calf injury which caused him to miss the quarter-final win over Glasgow Warriors in the same tournament. Snyman sustained what the province has described as a dead leg in Leinster's URC win over Ulster at the Aviva Stadium last Saturday night. Prop Paddy McCarthy and flanker Will Connors have recovered from injury and will be available for selection for the trip to west Wales. There is no further update on secondrow James Ryan and wingers Jordan Larmour and Rob Russell. Ryan hasn't played since the European game against Bath in January while Larmour has been an absentee from Leinster colours since a brief five-minute appearance as a replacement against Munster on December 27th.
