🏉 The Leinster Listen podcast (Spotify link)
🏉 WXV : IRE 36-40 USA
🏉 “Roots & All” 2.0 (link to sample of our old Harpin’ feature)
🏉 Leinster’s prospects
🏉 Tullowgate (link mentioned on pod here)
Our guest :
Category: Champions Cup
526 : Champions Cup final preview
LEINSTER : 15 Hugo Keenan 14 Tommy O’Brien 13 Garry Ringrose 12 Robbie Henshaw 11 Rieko Ioane 10 Harry Byrne 9 Jamison Gibson‑Park
1 Andrew Porter 2 Dan Sheehan 3 Thomas Clarkson 4 Joe McCarthy 5 James Ryan 6 Jack Conan 7 Josh van der Flier 8 Caelan Doris (c)
16 Rónan Kelleher 17 Paddy McCarthy 18 Tadhg Furlong 19 Diarmuid Mangan 20 Max Deegan 21 Luke McGrath 22 Ciarán Frawley 23 Jamie Osborne
BORDEAUX : 15 Salesi Rayasi 14 Pablo Uberti 13 Damian Penaud 12 Yoram Moefana 11 Louis Bielle‑Biarrey 10 Matthieu Jalibert 9 Maxime Lucu (c)
1 Jefferson Poirot 2 Maxime Lamothe 3 Carlu Sadie 4 Boris Palu 5 Adam Coleman 6 Pierre Bochaton 7 Cameron Woki 8 Marko Gazzotti
16 Gaëtan Barlot 17 Ugo Boniface 18 Ben Tameifuna 19 Lachlan Swinton 20 Tevita Matiu 21 Boris Vergnes‑Taillefer 22 Arthur Retière 23 Hugo Reus
Investec Champions Cup
2025/26 FINAL
Saturday, May 23, 2026
San Mames Stadium
KO 2:45pm
Live on : Premier Sports 1
Referee : Karl Dickson (Eng)
AR1 : Christophe Ridley (Eng)
AR2 : Hollie Davidson (Sco)
TMO : Marius van der Westhuizen (SA)
521 : Leinster v Toulon wrap
🏉 Blitzing & carrying
🏉 The 13v15 restart
🏉 Andrew Porter
🏉 Que Serin Serin
🏉 Reiko & Sam
THIS WEEK’S GUEST
FULL TIME TAKES
Ken Tancred PT
Think those last two tries booked Frawleys ticket to the final
Jonathan Leonard
Soroka made a good impact. Bit worried how Josh and Conan limped off. Hope Henshaw is alright. Win is a win. Roll on Bilbao.
Gavin Hegarty
First half our mistakes kept them in it. Second half we pulled away but then took the foot off and let them back in.
I thought Clarkson really stood up, as did Cahir when he came in.
Not a good game but a final is a final regardless of how you get there.
The match started with the dreaded words that no Irish rugby fan wants to see
Match TMO Ian Tempest.
How can this keep on happening? Every time he clearly has an agenda against anyone Irish. He forced Pearce to review footage from 4-5 phases before jgps disallowed try. The rules state two phases is the max. This is the same guy who couldn’t find footage of a bite that was already circulating on WhatsApp.
Christy O’Connor
Not having Frawley in the squad almost cost us. Reiko showed up today and made two very important tackles.
Did nobody tell the TMO he was allowed to check things against Toulon, seemed only interested in finding Leinster mistakes
Karen Mooney
Brilliant I was on radio.. when they came out 13 down they really show how good they are…
Mike Whelan
We won – we are in the final. It’s the only outcome required. The rest is noise.
John Jones
Frawley on the bench for the final and hopefully Baird back would make a difference
Louis Hoffman
Phew
Harry Byrne was dreadful. Whole empty pitch to kick into and boots it out on the full 🙄
Bernie Cunningham
Gosh we nearly threw away a 18pt lead, Bordeaux or Bath wont give us a 18pt lead. But final again its a 50/50 chance of 5th star, Lenister need to really to be at full strength. 🤞
Oran Burns
Frawley has to get some game time at 10 and start in the final
Clive Young
Prendgast in for 10 mins , cost a try and nearly another , not up to it , Frawley on the bench
Colin Campbell
Bilbao nothing else 💙💙💙💙
Cuan Mulligan
having coached kids from u6 – u16, Pendergast looks like someone who has never been taught how to tackle, he is trying to tackle with his finger tips. I think he could do with some time out of the limelight in the AIL…let him play week in week out and focus on the fundamentals.
James Murphy
Wow, lucky
Pendergast is a real liability
Even more so on the wing.
We look wrecked with 10 to go
Chris McDonnell
Great to be in the final but the Pendergast debacle has to stop.
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CHAMPIONS CUP WRAP
NEXT HARPIN’
TUESDAY
BONUS CHAT : “BORDEAUX/BATH BREAKDOWN”
WEDNESDAY
80+ COLUMN
520 : Leinster v Toulon preview
LEINSTER : 15 Hugo Keenan 14 Tommy O’Brien 13 Garry Ringrose 12 Robbie Henshaw 11 Rieko Ioane 10 Harry Byrne 9 Jamison Gibson-Park
1 Andrew Porter 2 Dan Sheehan 3 Thomas Clarkson 4 Joe McCarthy 5 James Ryan 6 Jack Conan 7 Josh van der Flier 8 Caelan Doris (c)
16 Rónan Kelleher 17 Jerry Cahir 18 Rabah Slimani 19 Alex Soroka 20 Scott Penny 21 Luke McGrath 22 Sam Prendergast 23 Jamie Osborne
TOULON : 15 Melvyn Jaminet 14 Gael Dréan 13 Juan Ignacio Brex 12 Jeremy Sinzelle 11 Setariki Tuicuvu 10 Tomas Albornoz 9 Ben White
1 Jean‑Baptiste Gros 2 Teddy Baubigny 3 Kyle Sinckler 4 Corentin Mézou 5 David Ribbans (c) 6 Junior Kpoku 7 Charles Ollivon 8 Mikheili Shioshvili
16 Gianmarco Lucchesi 17 Daniel Brennan 18 Beka Gigashvili 19 Matthias Halagahu 20 Zach Mercer 21 Baptiste Serin 22 Esteban Abadie 23 Mathis Ferté
BKT United Rugby Championship
2025/26 Round 16
Saturday, April 25, 2026
Stadio di Monigo
KO 7:45pm
Live on : Premier Sports 1, URC.tv
Referee: Morne Ferreira (SARU)
AR1: Alberto Favaro (FIR)
AR2: Alex Frasson (FIR)
TMO: Christopher Allison (SARU)
515 : Leinster v Sale Sharks wrap
🏉 1st half heavy weather
🏉 Props – handle with Cahir
🏉 Lineouts
🏉 Dan & Hugo
🏉 Sale of goods
THIS WEEK’S GUEST
FULL TIME TAKES
Liz Power
First half was squeaky bum, cracking rugby but very low scoring, but Leinster stretched their legs in the second half. Tommy O’Brien is having an excellent season. We haven’t looked convincing all season with the exception of a couple of games. We railroaded teams in previous years and haven’t won much so maybe stuttering is the way to go 🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️
Eamon Saunders
Good win building nicely to be fair ,another semi final to look forward to 💙
Cormac Mannion
I was absolutely bulling at half time. Same crap as last week – awful handling skills and poor ball presentation at the ruck. Needless knock-ons, players taking their eye off the ball etc etc.
Much better second half and it finally clicked.
However, Sale were absolutely atrocious. They offered absolutely nothing in attack bar putting snow on the ball.
Worrying to see some of those potential injuries and we definitely must have been cursed by someone… another prop injury!!!
Dave Murray
Two different,but poor, first 40 minutes of of rugby this week and last. But too much for Sale in the second half, like last week also. Will it be good enough for Toulon at home in May? Let’s see. But good to have a home semi final, to look forward to.
Gavin Hegarty
If we played like that against Bordeaux or Toulouse we’d ship 50. Simply not good enough.
Sale had no lineout and two yellow cards yet were still within 6 of us.
Granted we did pull away but it was hugely frustrating.
Some little mistakes that Leinster of previous seasons wouldn’t make.
Chris McDonnell
What does robin Mcbride get paid for?
We got a bye to the semi final to be honest. The last 2 weeks neither side would make the top 6 in the URC
Just papering over the cracks. We have 3 coaches who clearly are out of their depth. McBride doesn’t know what a scrum looks like.
Kevin Scullion
We will get beaten by a good team, simple as…
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CHAMPIONS CUP WRAP
QUARTERFINALS
Bath 43–41 Northampton Saints
Leinster 43–13 Sale
Glasgow Warriors 19–22 Toulon
Bordeaux Bègles 30–15 Toulouse
NEXT HARPIN’
TUESDAY
BONUS CHAT : “URC RUN-IN”
WEDNESDAY
80+ COLUMN
514 : Leinster v Sale Sharks preview
LEINSTER : 15 Hugo Keenan 14 Tommy O’Brien 13 Garry Ringrose 12 Jamie Osborne 11 Rieko Ioane 10 Harry Byrne 9 Jamison Gibson-Park
1 Alex Usanov 2 Dan Sheehan (c) 3 Tadhg Furlong 4 Joe McCarthy 5 James Ryan 6 Ryan Baird 7 Josh van der Flier 8 Jack Conan
16 Rónan Kelleher 17 Jerry Cahir 18 Thomas Clarkson 19 Max Deegan 20 Scott Penny 21 Luke McGrath 22 Ciarán Frawley 23 Robbie Henshaw
SALE SHARKS : 15 Joe Carpenter 14 Tom Roebuck 13 Rob du Preez 12 Rekeiti Ma’asi-White 11 Tom O’Flaherty 10 George Ford 9 Gus Warr
1 Si McIntyre 2 Ethan Caine 3 Asher Opoku-Fordjour 4 Ernst van Rhyn (c) 5 Ben Bamber 6 Jacques Vermeulen 7 Sam Dugdale 8 Dan du Preez
16 Alfie Longstaff 17 Ralph McEachran 18 James Harper 19 Reuben Logan 20 Jos Gilmore 21 Dom Hanson 22 Marius Louw 23 Alex Wills
Investec Champions Cup
2025/26 Quarterfinal
Saturday, April 11, 2026
Aviva Stadium
KO 5:30pm
Live on : Premier Sports 1
Referee: Pierre Brousset (Fra)
AR1 : Gianluca Gnecchi (Ita)
AR2 : Filippo Russo (Ita)
TMO: Tual Trainini (Fra)
490 : Bayonne v Leinster wrap
🏉 The kicking game
🏉 Blunt attack
🏉 Rotating 15s
🏉 Lineouts
🏉 Playing catchup
THIS WEEK’S GUEST
FULL TIME TAKES
Kevin Kelehan
Bayonne are decent ballers, that stadium is as tough to go to as La Rochelle. Eked it out and like the Ulster game they were always going to.
David Ryle
Well done. Great resilience against a team who lose rarely at home. Great vision from Sam to follow the ball for his try.
Gavin Little
Basic skills have dropped way off. The defence isn’t working. Is there a plan of attack?
Coaches have a lot to answer for. Players too.
Ken Tancred
I think Bayonne deserve more credit than most people are giving them credit for
Peter Tracey
Worst European performance I’ve seen in a long long time. They don’t know how to attack anymore sadly. They’ve forgotten how to defend as well. Boyle was brilliant as was VDF. Don’t know what Ioane offers at the minute. Stopping the progress of Tector and Cooney. Not his fault that Leinster signed him though.
Chris McDonnell
This style is seriously attritional. Another 4 players injured again today. We need to start going around teams not through them.
Christy O’Connor
Another hard watch, another limp to victory. It’s not going to last much longer playing like this and getting wins.
Sandra Seery
A win is a win. Thrilled for Sam P. Great insights for passing and his try was super.
Craig Grehan
First thing, can we stop the over hype of Sam P’s inclusion 2 lucky bounces. One led to him falling to a try. The other to a bit of a run that nearly led to a try.
Overall, smelly performance. We won, but was smelly. Where has our attacking prowess gone ?
Why is Ioane even here ? Or is it us using him wrong?
Our defense looked a bit sloppy too. A win is a win, but we’re in need of actually playing rugby. Not playing a game plan..
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CHAMPIONS CUP WRAP
Round 4
Pau 24–26 Bulls
Bath 63–10 Edinburgh
Sharks 50–12 Clermont
Bayonne 13–22 Leinster
Stormers 39–26 Leicester
Toulouse 77–7 Sale
Munster 29–31 Castres
Gloucester 14–31 Toulon
Bristol 15–27 Bordeaux
Northampton 43-28 Scarlets
La Rochelle 17–27 Harlequins
Glasgow 28–3 Saracens
NEXT HARPIN’
TUESDAY
BONUS CHAT : “Jack B, Josh K & Max D”
WEDNESDAY
80+ COLUMN
488 : Leinster v La Rochelle wrap
🏉 That start & that finish
🏉 More injuries
🏉 More ill discipline
🏉 Breakdown decisions
🏉 Vintage visitors
THIS WEEK’S GUEST
FULL TIME TAKES
Sheena Crean
A super match to attend, havent witnessed that atmos in the aviva in quite some time, but left feeling Leinster’s attack is soulless. Defensively strong but lacking ideas elsewhere. Joshua Kenny is a very exciting prospect, would be super to see him start a 6N game- maybe v Wales so that he doesnt get the same level of pressure overload that appears to be destroying SP (or perhaps SP simply isnt good enough, time will tell)
Eamon Saunders
That was close but great performance from Leinster considering we had so many big names missing
Cormac Mannion
Yet again we score early and then fail to do so for a huge chunk of the match. Gotta admire the grit but our ball presentation going into contact, our breakdown work and our ruck defence are utter garbage at the moment.
Fair play to JJ, he’s really growing into the role and it’s brilliant to see him and TOB burning players with sheer speed.
The third and fourth tries were great to see, pure instinct and well worked through the hands.
Balls of steel for Harry to nail that final kick but quite telling that Sam handed the ball to him.
La Rochelle wil be kicking themselves though. They butchered two certain tries
Conor Cronin
I’ll be doing a rewatch tomorrow before I judge this game completely, but I will say that from my seat it seemed like the ref had more impact on this game than he should have, and our choice to not go for points at 12-0 could’ve returned to catch us out, it would’ve put us 3 scores ahead and had an impact on their attitude to the game. Game management and captain decisions need a little attention for tight games like this
Vincent Duggan
Leinster lucky to get away with this one. La Rochell butchered 3 try attempts. Carley is an international standard ref he pulled Leinster for all the stuff they get away with in the URC, killing the ball a the breakdown and offside in midfield. Prendergast was responsible for two tries because of his inability to defend. Leinster were cut apart in midfield.
Tom Clarke
Given the injuries and then the injuries in the game that was a great win. A lot to work on defensively but the lads showed great fight and resilience.
Andrew Byrne
Looks like our depth at prop is better than we all thought. Fair play to Jerry Cahir off the bench, did a great job when he came on.
Billy Glynn
Two men playing their first H Cup two tries from kenny and brilliant from jerry Cahir AIL to H Cup 👏 great win with a bonus point can’t complain really.
Keith Bruce
Great game, La Rochelle didn’t take their chances and should have overrun Ireland, not looking good for Leinster in the six nations.
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CHAMPIONS CUP WRAP
Round 3
Castres 20–43 Bath
Edinburgh 26–24 Gloucester
Bulls 49–61 Bristol Bears
Clermont 21–33 Glasgow Warriors
Leinster 25–24 Stade Rochelais
Sale Sharks 26–10 Hollywoodbets Sharks
Scarlets 38–47 Pau
Leicester Tigers 57–14 Bayonne
Harlequins 61–10 Stormers
Toulon 27–25 Munster
Bordeaux 50–28 Northampton Saints
Saracens 20-14 Toulouse
Round 4
Friday 16 January 2026
Pau v Bulls
Bath v Edinburgh
Saturday 17 January 2026
Sharks v Clermont
Bayonne v Leinster
Stormers v Leicester
Toulouse v Sale
Munster v Castres
Gloucester v Toulon
Sunday 18 January 2026
Bristol v Bordeaux
Northampton v Scarlets
La Rochelle v Harlequins
Glasgow v Saracens
NEXT HARPIN’
TUESDAY
BONUS CHAT : “Final round permutations” (YouTube)
WEDNESDAY
80+ COLUMN (Substack)
487: Leinster v La Rochelle preview
Our guest : MARK JACKSON
Leinster: 15. Ciaran Frawley, 14. Tommy O’Brien, 13. Rieko Ioane, 12. Robbie Henshaw, 11. Joshua Kenny, 10. Sam Prendergast, 9. Jamison Gibson-Park
1. Paddy McCarthy, 2. Dan Sheehan, 3. Tom Clarkson, 4. Joe McCarthy, 5. James Ryan, 6. Jack Conan, 7. Josh van der Flier, 8. Caelan Doris (c)
16. Ronan Kelleher, 17. Jerry Cahir, 18. Andrew Sparrow, 19. Diarmuid Mangan, 20. Max Deegan, 21. Luke McGrath, 22. Harry Byrne, 23. Andrew Osborne
La Rochelle: 15. Dillyn Leyds, 14. Jack Nowell, 13. Jules Favre, 12. Simeli Daunivucu, 11. Davit Niniashvili, 10. Ihaia West, 9. Nolann le Garrec
1. Reda Wardi, 2. Tolu Latu, 3. Uini Atonio, 4. Charles Kante Samba, 5. Will Skelton, 6. Oscar Jegou, 7. Levani Botia, 8. Grégory Alldritt (c)
16. Quentin Lespiaucq, 17. Louis Penverne, 18. Aleksandre Kuntelia, 19. Kane Douglas, 20. Kirill Fraindt, 21. Thomas Berjon, 22. Antoine Hastoy, 23. Nathan Bollengier
Investec Champions Cup 25/26 – Round 3
Saturday, January 10, 2026
Aviva Stadium
KO 5:30pm
Live on : Premier Sports 1
Referee: Matthew Carley (Eng)
AR1: Adam Leal (Eng)
AR2: John Meredith (Eng)
TMO: Ian Tempest (Eng)
480 : Leicester Tigers v Leinster wrap
🏉 Reiko’s 1st start
🏉 Joe McC
🏉 Defensive concerns
🏉 The road ahead
🏉 Paddy McC
THIS WEEK’S GUEST
FULL TIME TAKES
Cian O’Muilleoir (WhatsApp)
The more I think on that performance, the more I reckon the 1% is right.
The previous big obvious things (scrum, lineout, discipline) are more or less fixed, certainly improved.
Outside of that we’re getting into the right patterns and areas both sides of the ball, pretty much, but then… it falls apart. The reason differs. Sometimes it’s ruck resourcing. Sometimes it’s ball placement. Sometimes it’s offence or defence position or role confusion. Sometimes it’s accuracy/execution.
None of them feel like they’d be a massive issue to fix by themselves. But they’re all happening in every match like a random failure generator.
It needs fixing, and quick.
Darach Kennedy
An away win in Welford road. I’ll take that. Someone else can try and gather up some negatives.
Greg Kelly
Leinsters poor attack and sloppy execution continues. You wonder what’s really going on. We were the better team overall and they never really looked like scoring in the second half but our attack was woefully sloppy.
Irish rugby should be concerned overall with the loose head situation. Regardless of what happens referees seem to think we are weak there. There were some real garbage calls against McCarthy in the first half but as with Porter there is a perception.
Christy O’Connor
Another poor performance overall with some good individual performances. So many poor passes and spilled balls. At least our lineout was the best I’ve seen in a good while.
Doris needs to be careful moaning at the ref so much, the hit on Conan was a rugby incident and nothing more.
Our defense is not going to be good enough when we come up against better teams
Kevin Kelehan
Very happy that despite conceding two really well taken tries against the run of play the lads kept their belief and upped their work rate. The coming six weeks will make or break Leinster’s season, Ulster, Munster, Connacht, La Rochelle and Bayonne. Great to be heading into that run knowing that when the opportunity for players to go missing, they refused to take it.
Odran John OBrien
Brilliant win away from home but the Leinster attack is simply awful
anyone have Isa’s number? We could all do a whip around to persuade him to come back and coach
Chris McDonnell
If we could only put the straps Robbie henshaw has on his accordion on to a rugby ball, he might not drop the ball as much.
Craig Grehan
Win is a win. Grafted that one out
Tom Fingleton
Look at all the stats from tonight and the try return from the dominance . Tells you all really
Richard Collumb
4 points away, despite playing at times like they only met each other in the dressing room.
Eamon Saunders
Not a great team performance but again some very good individuals
Lorcán Murphy
The good news is they’re getting gritty away wins playing poorly with injury disruption. Can only get better
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CHAMPIONS CUP WRAP
ROUND 2
Leicester Tigers 15–23 Leinster
Stormers 42–21 La Rochelle
Clermont 14–35 Sale Sharks
Sharks 28-23 Saracens
Munster 31–3 Gloucester
Bordeaux-Bègles 50–21 Scarlets
Glasgow Warriors 28–21 Toulouse
Cardiff 29–26 Ulster
Castres 33–0 Edinburgh
Harlequins 68-14 Bayonne
Northampton Saints 50-5 Bulls
Toulon 45-34 Bath
Bristol Bears 61-12 Pau
Round 3
Friday, 9 January 2026
Castres v Bath
Edinburgh v Gloucester
Saturday, 10 January 2026
Bulls v Bristol
Clermont v Glasgow
Leinster v La Rochelle
Sale Sharks v Sharks
Scarlets v Pau
Leicester Tigers v Bayonne
Sunday, 11 January 2026
Harlequins v Stormers
Toulon v Munster
Bordeaux-Bègles v Northampton Saints
Saracens v Toulouse
NEXT HARPIN’
TUESDAY
BONUS CHAT : “THE RISE AND RISE OF PADDY McCARTHY” (YOUTUBE)
WEDNESDAY
80+ COLUMN (SUBSTACK)
