26 December 2022; Leinster players celebrate with teammate Dan Sheehan, hidden, after he scored their side’s second try during the United Rugby Championship match between Munster and Leinster at Thomond Park in Limerick. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile
Conor Cronin On the road, taking a win home with us without a lot of players who might have wanted the opportunity to play and might sometimes be considered higher up the pecking order, and having missed out on the chance to get a BP, there’s a lot to be positive about here.
Yes there were some things that we’ll use the video for to tidy up, and yes the referee was not at the top of his game, but you play the ref, you play what’s in front of you, and you take your chances.
I’m happy with that, munster threw their best available team at us, it wasn’t enough tonight
Andrew Potts A collection of random penalties until 50, then a game broke out
Martin Loughrey Scrappy to say the least. Great to get the win and our response to Deegan’s yellow was incredible, but the game didn’t really kick into gear until the 2nd half. I felt Munster had a slight edge on us for long periods but couldn’t capitalise. And of course Busby was poor. It seemed like he heeded the crowd’s reaction after Deegan flipped POM over, and made some strange calls after that. Very quick to ping Leinster after that, and of course there was his own obstruction of Leinster at the ruck that lead to a penalty for Munster. Still though, a win in Thomond is always great to get, so happy to take it!
TWITTER
That’s how you close out a game, keep the ball and don’t give the opposition a sniff of getting it back. That’s a top second half for me away at what Thomond should be, a bloody hard away game that should be tough to get a win from and gutting if you loose #MUNvLEI
Really top class game. Score fair for me. Leinster just upped it when they needed to. Munster will feel they should have done better in the first half when they bossed the game. #URCBestLeague
A win away at Thomond with a rotated side and not playing particularly well is not to be sniffed at. Great runouts from Dan (again) and Big Joe Mac. Luke McG and Ross M made a big impact from the bench. Happy with that and isn’t it brilliant to see a return of the St Stephen’s Day fixture? #MUNvLEI
Bernard McKeever @dregin
#MUNvLEI Would not want to be on the receiving end of Graham Rowntree’s anger after conceding those tries with us a man down.
If you think you can answer questions like the one in the graphic above in five seconds or less, then have a go at our quiz there’s 12 altogether, see if you can do better than three of our contributors.
10 December 2022; Josh van der Flier of Leinster makes a break on his way to scoring his side’s sixth try during the Heineken Champions Cup Pool A Round 1 match between Racing 92 and Leinster at Stade Océane in Le Havre, France. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
(also a report from France on the match conditions by Tom Coleman)
FULL TIME TAKES
FACEBOOK
Andrew Potts Very good performance by Leinster and adapting well to Racing flooding the ruck. As always Leinster very focused as 15 on the park, impressive by JVdF nuisance all day which is a compliment for a 7 and still gas at 79 for a solo!
Gerald Williamson Will not complain. A convincing win in the end. Even missing one or two key players, Leinster did the job for the bonus pt win. Stuart has a idea what awaits him next season.
Gavin Hegarty Job done, BP done. Racing should be embarrassed to lose by 32 at ‘home’. We need to do better but you can only play what’s in front of you.
Chris McDonnell Without Sexton Henshaw and Furlong and still almost flawless. A little too much kicking for my liking but hey
TWITTER
Utterly savage performance from Leinster in Le Havre. Bullying a Racing side who simply weren't at the races, they bested them in the scrum, lineout, breakdown and outplayed them defensively.
Taking 5-0 away against a SF team from last year is some marker to lay down. #R92vLEI
Leinster really laid down a marker today with an absolutely superb display, a total performance of excellence individually, as units, and as a team.#R92vLEI
RichardMifsud You don’t win anything in December, especially in the #championscup but you can lay down markers and #leinster did just that in Le Havre That was easily their best 80 of the season thus far Caelan Doris worthy POTM but big performances across the park Let’s see where we are in May in #dublin #R92vLEI
Jay Long You can only play what’s there but was really happy to see how hungry we were throughout. The lads chased everything. Sensational start. We’re on the road again!
Ross Carrick I wasn’t expecting this from Racing. Lack of sustained possession and phase building. Leinster aren’t at their best but are deserved three score leaders.
Robin Cafolla I remember when you feared going to France no matter who you were playing. Safe to say those days are over. Very dominant display from Leinster.
Brian Nisbet 10-42, what a wonderful victory in France! Perfect start to this year’s European campaign from a team that are playing very well together!
26 November 2022; Charlie Ngatai of Leinster offloads to teammate Rob Russell in the build up to his side’s second try during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Glasgow Warriors at RDS Arena in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Martin Loughrey Good result today with some good performances, but we’d have struggled against a better team. Far too many penalties, 15 in total really held us back. Russell obviously had a great game, I thought the back row were solid, and Osbourne impressed also. Ngatai’s offload for the 2nd try was some kind of witchcraft! Good to see Kelleher come through unscathed. All in all, not a vintage performance, but a solid result.
Andrew Potts Leinster played well and a number of solid performances by the next generation . Not sure about the penalty count, its unlike Leinster to be so spendthrift.
Chris McDonnell Harry made a big difference when he came on as did foley and Cosgrave.
TWITTER
Well Leinster for me are the benchmark in this league. And on the basis of today, we’re a long way behind them.
Brian Nisbet 40-5 in the RDS. Glasgow had so much possession but just couldn’t turn it into points. Leinster did, over and over
RichardMifsud Dominant display by #LeinsterRugby against Glasgow Warriors Great to see returns from key players after injury Poor discipline and inaccuracies will keep the coaches busy but overall a very welcome return to #URC action for the boys
What a game. Losing players to injury before and during would’ve knocked us hard 5 years ago, but players stepped up and did everything asked of them.
Great awareness by Josh for his try, great calm heads in making sure the second was scored, not one player shirked his duty. That’s a compete team performance against some massive guys who tackle hard but Sore bodies will feel a little nicer for that win
James Griffin
Brain beats brawn. Delighted with the performance and how they adapted throughout.
Andrew Potts
A player must not lift an opponent off the ground and drop or drive that player so that their head and/or upper body make contact with the ground.
The above is from the laws.
A history making double red, maybe a red and yellow if I was been nice.
The officials were disgracefully weak, and the players know the laws. Once again SA rugby displays the worst of their rugby culture. It’s a shame,as they are better players than that.
McBride had their cards marked a good punch in the head is all they understand.
Will World Rugby wait until we see a serious incident on the TV before they back Refs to the hilt to end this stupidity.
We can win against big teams. We can win when we lose multiple players to injury. We can grind it out. Subs all made positive contributions. #IREvRSA
What a game. A true test match. Kolbe’s tackle was a stone cold red card. He changed his grip and drove Hanson into the ground. However, in hindsight I’m glad he stayed on. At least the SA journos can’t use a red card as an excuse for Ireland’s win. The world champions were beaten fair and square; 15 v’s 15!
JGP really makes this team tick. When he's on form he makes Ireland so so good. #IREvRSA
It’s hard not to be happy with the win, but I think we’ve gotten so used to being in control that that one didn’t feel so good.
Murray and McCloskey were excellent until they were forced off.
Unlike A against NZ last night the senior team stayed in the fight and the scrum held up great as well. It was good to see SA front row walking away from penalties disgusted.
I know Porter is number 1 by a long shot but it was good to see Healy roll back the clock and get a good bullocking carry in.
I know it was surprising SA missed touch with that late penalty into the corner but thought Ireland should have dealt with it better.
Considering how much time Ireland were on the back foot in the first half 6-6 was a great half time score.
Can’t say the ref affected the outcome but I can say I didn’t like his performance and felt he was bad for the game rather than for one team.
Well done to Ireland.
That was a hell of test.
A tough one to take for the Boks.
So much wasn’t going right and still managed to come within a score. #IREvRSA
Great to see JGP back and so quick with ball bar one or two box kicks. O’Brien did well when he came on. McCloskey and Murray were doing well until too they had to go off. Bealham did well too and we need a good scrum when the front 3 go off. Kelleher to come back will be a big boast when he does. Still need to blood some more players. Rest Johnny until the 6 nations. Give some 10s a chance.
What I loved most was our belief early in second half going for the corner. Then it was physicality and defence. Shows we know we can win matches like this. Boks really came back at us but we struck first blow and did more than enough to stay ahead, despite changes. #IREvRSA
Conor Cronin Messy night, and Connacht would’ve been deserving of the BP. But to focus on leinster, the lineout needs some work quickly. I appreciate that 2 of our ex players were in there but it, some poor hands and some poor discipline meant no opportunity to use good field position and meant we allowed Connacht to be in the game at half time. Must be more clinical in any game, but particularly with how fired up Connacht are and were tonight
Credit to @connachtrugby really put it up to us It took some grunt to get over the line They deserved something from that match For us, poor discipline unforced errors disjointed play some individual brilliance LO awful Foley needs protection JvdF & Sheehan 👍🏻 rest meh #CONvLEI
— Richard Mifsud ( richardmifsud@mastodon.ie ) (@Once_in_the_job) October 14, 2022
Chris McDonnell There’s the reason that andy farrell has a restraining order keep ross byrne 10 miles from the irish squad.
Martin Loughrey Well that was an arm wrestle. I’m almost disappointed for Connacht. (I like Connacht and the way they play). Thought they did a lot really well and can feel a bit robbed to come away with nothing. Can’t remember a match with so many knock ons. 4gs pitches lie. A dirty night in Galway but hard to tell because the players were so clean. All in all, a win on the road is a win on the road. Luckily they sorted the lineout after the first 20 mins.
Craig Grehan The more I watch. The more I think that younger munster fella is looking like the next green 10.
Delighted to see JoeMcCarthy get a run.
Great up front “up the jumper” rugby match
Derek McGee To call it “one for the purists” is to overestimate the tolerance of the average purist. Both teams conspired to shoot themselves in both feet whenever it looked like they were gaining an advantage. Really silly errors by both teams. Yes, there was Weather with a capital W but it’s Galway, there’s always Weather. There was a real chance for Leinster to capitalise on the wind in the second half but they didn’t take the advantage offered. A game that further burnished Jason Jenkins’ reputation by dint of his absence. The lineout was a real worry all night & it’s something that needs work ahead of Munster next weekend. Not all doom & gloom, to be fair: Josh doing Josh things, Dan Sheehan good in the loose, Big Mike bringing a bit of power in the second half & I thought Liam Turner had a decent showing in an unfamiliar position. A win is a win is a win but the video session on Monday morning might have a 18 rating for excessive adult language…
Richard Collumb Always a tough battle with the boys from the west. Bit of rust from some of the returning players but still undefeated against an improving team and lots of ex Leinster players with points to prove.
Connacht 0 Leinster 10
I'm annoyed so so annoyed I'm annoyed we've lost I'm annoyed we have nothing to show for that effort I'm annoyed we scored nothing for all that territory
I am fed up watching us get into the 22 and mess up We have to unlock defences #CONvLEI#BKTURC
Gerald Williamson Not a great advertisement for rugby to watch.
Four points, get outta dodge. Mistakes and penalties aplenty, certainly wouldnt want them every week, but at least a well earned shut out. Cant add much more really.#CONvLEI#BKTURC
Welcome to my 80+ column, a new weekly post featuring my final thoughts from the week of rugby just gone.
Obviously, it was a good weekend to be a Leinster fan, no win in Belfast comes easily although we just about deserved the one we got on Friday. Had a great chat as always harpin’ on it with the lads on Sunday, check out the pod if you missed it, and while you’re at it maybe subscribe to the feed too if you don’t mind.
MUNSTER’S SEASON & LEINSTER’S LINEOUTS
I try to keep the pods to under an hour but often that means leaving out material I really want to keep in. That was definitely the case on Sunday night as during the “Front Five” section, where I try to keep things brief to get to the main topic quickly, Tom & Mark went off on an excellent riff about Munster’s season so far, so while I cut it from the main pod I thought I’d add it here as something of a bonus. There’s also a bit more to the audio as I put in a question I asked them about Leinster’s lineouts v Ulster as opposed to those against Benetton the week before.
BEST LEAGUE GETTING EVEN BETTER
I’ll harp on our contributors’ prediction league further down the column but apart from the banter it provides it also makes me focus even more on the full slate of matches every weekend and I have to say it has been a cracking competition so far, even just 23 matches in.
Normally I’m something of a “defensive purist” and multiple scorelines where the losing side has over 30pts isn’t always my idea of perfect, but it’s more about the sides that were towards the end of the table last season doing well, like Zebre and Dragons, both of which have already given top 8 opposition a serious run for their money.
Absolutely no match is a given and that’s as it should be. Who needs relegation eh?
RAININ’ HILL
I was obviously delighted with the Leinster win on Friday night but I always had soft spot for Ulster and I have said many a time over the years that they have had a continued run of shocking luck.
From losing key players for various reasons beyond the provincial branch’s control, to having controversial decisions go against them in big matches, to my personal favourite – in the one year they actually finish top of the Celtic League and earn a home final, that’s also the year they have to switch it to Dublin…and who do they happen to be playing???
And I know they deservedly did the double over us last season but in real terms that didn’t get them anything more than bragging rights as we ended up finishing first anyway, and even this weekend, the trademark Friday night downpour didn’t hit until after we had built a lead.
I was sure to bring that up when I was a guest on the Red Hand podcast on Saturday, check out the episode here.
EMERGING IRELAND
Not much I can add to Tom’s evaluation of the touring side’s opening fixture last Friday, only that perhaps the Griquas were playing as though they had been sampling some free Windhoek Draught courtesy of their sponsors. That’s not to take anything away from our lads of course, as the saying goes you can only play what’s in front of you, and it is true that as the game wore on they really started to gel nicely with Jack Crowley pulling the strings.
Obviously from a Leinster POV it was a shame that Ciarán Frawley was unavailable as he really does need some time in a 10 jersey so he can realise the potential we all know he has. Still, there’s always room for another quality 10 with the initials JC in a green jersey!!!
INJURY REPORT
Not a whole lot in the line of good news in this week’s report, would wish for the likes of Messrs Keenan and Lowe to be moving up the list soon. Also the withdrawals of Kelleher before kickoff in Belfast and Dave Kearney during halftime are both concerns, and with Sheehan getting so much game time the past couple of weekends I can’t imagine him also starting against the Sharks at the RDS on Saturday.
INJURY UPDATE – AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
James Ryan: came through the game at the weekend with no issues after recovering from a hamstring injury
Will Connors: came through the game at the weekend with no issues after recovering from a back injury
Liam Turner: has recovered from a toe injury and will return to full training this week
INJURY UPDATE – FURTHER ASSESSMENT REQUIRED:
Caelan Doris: was withdrawn for a Head Injury Assessment in the first half against Benetton Rugby and will continue to be assessed this week as he comes through the Graduated Return to Play Protocols
Rónan Kelleher: was a late withdrawal from the Leinster Rugby match day 23 with a hamstring injury and will be further assessed this week
Dave Kearney: was withdrawn at half time against Ulster Rugby with an adductor injury and will be further assessed this week
INJURY UPDATE – UNAVAILABLE FOR SELECTION:
Jamison Gibson-Park: picked up a hamstring injury in training last week and will be unavailable for selection this week
There are no further updates on:
Ciarán Frawley (shoulder), Hugo Keenan (abdominal & knee injury), James Lowe (calf), James Tracy (neck), Charlie Ryan (knee), Tommy O’Brien (knee)
ALL HAIL THE AIL
The Women’s All Ireland League kicked off a few weeks ago, with Old Belvedere leading the way, while the men returned to action the weekend just gone, with champions Clontarf beginning their defence of the title with a win over UCD. There were also wins for Trinity, Terenure, Ballynahinch & Cork Con.
I always say it – I would LOVE to be able to give the club game more coverage, we tried it a good few years ago with a series called “Roots & All” where we reached out to 5 different clubs throughout the season but it became too time consuming. What I’ll do instead is offer regular updates in this column, paying particular attention to players in the Leinster provincial system as I go.
For example, Charlie Tector was playing at 10 for Lansdowne as they were edged out by “The Hinch” on the Aviva back pitch, while the Terenure side that scored an impressive 39-3 win at Shannon included Marcus Hanan, as well as some familiar names from days gone by like Harrison Brewer, Jordan Coghlan & Cathal Marsh.
PREDICTION LEAGUE
So in Superbru whoever earned the most points in a week gets a “yellow cap” but despite the fact I have yet to earn one in the three rounds of the URC I am still somehow top of the Harpin League. I guess it’s a classic case of “slow and steady wins the race” or at least “leads the race after 1/6th of the race”…but like I’ve said before, this league is not about finishing first, it’s about not finishing last and having to wear The Jersey Of Doom and so far it’s Keego who sits in that position. He actually did really well on Friday, predicting the Ulster v Leinster margin on the button, but I think going for a Zebre win by 3 at Musgrave Park might have been a risk too far…
THE NEXT BATCH OF HARPIN’
Sharks are up next for Leinster, at the RDS on Saturday evening. I’ll be talking to AP Cronje about their squad during the week, then on Friday I’ll have Keego with me for The Preview Show, with the usual wrapup recorded on Sunday evening and of course all the regular features during the week, stay tuned to any or all of our social media platforms. In the meantime, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
Is it terrible of me to be disappointed at being out scored in the second half?
Away from home that’s a good win, particularly against a decent Ulster side. Strong first half, dirty conditions spoiled it a bit, but happy out at that result.
Gav Heg
(reply to Conor Cronin) indeed but that’s the standards we set. A win up north at this stage is good. They’ve a good squad. But I am a little disappointed how they came back and got a point.
Not pretty, hanging on a bit at the end, but 4 points on the road in an Interpro will do very nicely, thank you very much #ULSvLEI
Good win tonight in tough conditions. Jenkins was very good again & looks like a great acquisition (about time we got someone coming up from Limerick). Seemed to switch off in second half a bit but Ngatai covering tackle was significant in the overall score.
A good win for Leinster in those conditions but Ulster will rightfully be disappointed with themselves, especially poor Aaron Sexton. #ULSvLEI
McGrath was very poor with the ball. (he can defend in fairness) brace was ulsters best player and james ryan on that form is behind moloney, jenkins, baird and joe mccarthy. He needs to get his act together.
Andrew Potts
Did well to get out of Belfast with that one. A little loss of focus, the ref went a little off and a big slice of luck with the non try.
Choke tackle from Sexton to secure the points.
Some shift from both sets of players.
Martin Loughrey
A good win away to a tough opponent on a dirty night. Score gap possibly would have been bigger had Leinster not switched off in the 2nd half. That said, Ulster were well up for it though, and the conditions made it a bit of a lottery. Their maul has become quite the weapon. Ngatai’s tackle on Aaron Sexton was pure gold and probably saved us the match. All in all, happy to have that match done and dusted with 4 points in the bag.
Neil ‘Keego’ Keegan
Even in the storm
When you come at the kings, best not miss!
Hell of a second half from Ulster. Just came up short but Leinster are a hell of a side. O’Sullivan and Moore made a difference. Leinster made such a mess of the breakdown and scrum in the first half. Fair play to Ulster for coming back from that at all #BKTURC#ULSvLEI#SUFTUM
Literally a game of two halves with Leinster owning the first and Ulster the second, albeit with the assistance of some questionable decisions by the referee. From a Leinster perspective they will be disappointed in several aspects of their game particularly with how they dealt with the Ulster maul. Jenkins seems the real deal and a extremely good acquisition. All in all a very good win in atrocious conditions
I'll take those match points all day long. What an interpro. Needed every bit of that early lead, great fightback by Ulster. Also very much needed Ngatai's last gasp challenge. Jenkins a big factor for us in multiple areas. #ULSvLEI#BKTURC
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 