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Guinness Six Nations 2026

Round 4

Friday, March 6, 2026

Aviva Stadium

KO 8:10pm

Live on : RTÉ2

Referee: Karl Dickson (RFU)

AR1: Nika Amashukeli (GRU)

AR2: Damian Schneider (UAR)

TMO: Andrew Jackson (RFU)

FPRO: Tual Trainini (FFR)

Niall Duffy

Shocking performance. Weather aside, it was just dire. Very tough run in to the season now with Glasgow, Ulster and Benetton away to come. In years gone by its been these games during international breaks that have defined the depth and success of the squad. Sad to see how poor that was.

Dave Murray

Even taking into the account the rain, we looked very sluggish and our style of play has noticeably regressed the last year or so. We haven’t played great at all this season but have picked up wins to get us in a decent position, can’t say I’m too confident of getting silverware but here’s hoping 🤞🤞🤞

Stuart Maher

Awful conditions. Torrential rain is hard enough to play in, but it becomes a slow grinding game as the mud slows everything down. Slows the ball, slows the players. Turns it into a forward crunch fest. There is no mud on a 4g pitch so the game stays fast, except the ball, now wet, instead of having mud to give a little grip, has greasy residue coming from the surface. Meaning a fast game with the slimiest of balls. Neither team could bring their normal play so I felt, from the start, it was going to be a coin flip game.

A few positives. Tector looks so good ball in hand. Really looks like someone who wants the extra few metres and will fight for it. Moloney looked very handy, and I thought, for his second game, Spicer did OK.

Chris McDonnell

We have 3 coaches stealing a living.

At least we didn’t pay to watch this. Really need to get Noel McNamara in right now before these coaches do any more damage.

Craig Grehan

Shite

Ok, maybe that’s harsh. But there was a lot of take aways. We looked sluggish (can’t be blaming lions fatigue for this). A fair bit of silly sloppy play that isn’t upto the standard we’ve come to expect.

Rudderless in attack in terms of how to exploit the opposition as if the game plan was “ah sure ya know yourself”.

Very few sparks of next gen players stepping up.

Hywel Davies

Didn’t look like they wanted to be there

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “COACHING BY REFEREES”

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN 

🏉 Attack on show

🏉 Pro-Tector

🏉 Pace on the wings

🏉 Ill discipline

🏉 Taking advantage

Cormac Mannion

Huge improvement over previous performances but still quite worrying how we switched off for about 25mins in the first half and allowed Connacht to go 17-14 ahead. Sam really mixed the good with the awful.

The good – some great kicks, passes and tries

The awful – two dreadful turnovers where he got turned over and the poor attempt at a tackle in the second half. Also – the sliced penalty that went dead.

Gotta feel for Connacht, the squad is paper-thin and while they showed flashes of Lancaster at times, they ran out of steam

Damien Mullen

Premier League v Pub League

Chris McDonnell

Good to see passing rugby again. Deeny’s best game by a mile. If Aki is not dropped from the 6 nations squad then Farrell is not watching games.

Darran Kearney

Great overall performance and we did well to steady the ship after a ropey 15 mins. Leo said it post match and opposition will target it to get scoreboard pressure on us and back that we’ll wilter. The tough tight games we are winning now hopefully stand later in the season. Concern is every team looks good attacking against Connacht at the moment. Just can’t see given form this season to date how we’d beat serious contenders for silverware, we all thought the same in 2008/9 though!!. Plenty of road left to go for things to come together. Got to have Harry for the big matches.. Agree with Luke Fitzgerald, no amount of skill can offset the D weakness in Sams game, another 3 or 4 horrors this evening again unfortunately. Still young and will get better but tackling is 99% mindset, the risk is he’ll be another in a long line of extremely talented 10’s who don’t achieve what their talent deserves as coaches can’t risk them.

Cormac Mannion

Can anyone explain why Brace went all the way back from our tryline to the halfway line to blow for the penalty from Connacht’s scrum when he had been playing advantage all that time? I’ve never seen advantage called back to that degree before. Personally I thought it was ridiculous. Connacht made approx 45m with advantage, got turned over on our tryline yet he goes.back for the penalty to them???

Richard Kennedy

Finally, some adventurous rugby. Admittedly it’s easier when the pack is completely on top but we haven’t seen it at all this season so it was refreshing to see it actually happen.

John Curran

Worried for Ireland, both Bundy and Henshaw look well past it, yes I know Robbie wasn’t playing tonight but in recent performance

James Gill

The best flowing rugby leinster played all season and Sam’s passing was outrageous at times nobody can spin it as good as him

Valerie Tumulty

I just want to say, as a Roscommon woman, I love Andrew Porter❤️❤️

Eamon Saunders

Good performance and some great individual performances from the younger lads great win

Lorcán Murphy

More flow in the 2nd half but very worried for Connacht at the same time

Michael Canavan

I would like to say congratulations to the connacht fans , I haven’t seen one negative comment on the game , leinster getting lucky, its the refs fault, and all the usual shit likewise get from another club i won’t mention, so I just like to say i admire connacht for that , thank you connacht and supporters

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “LEINSTER’S CHAMPIONS CUP POOL”

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN 

LEINSTER :15. Ciarán Frawley 14. Tommy O’Brien 13. Rieko Ioane  12. Robbie Henshaw  11. James Lowe  10. Harry Byrne  9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Andrew Porter 2. Rónan Kelleher  3. Thomas Clarkson  4. Joe McCarthy  5. James Ryan  6. Max Deegan  7. Josh van der Flier  8. Caelan Doris (c)

16. John McKee 17. Paddy McCarthy 18. Tadhg Furlong 19. Diarmuid Mangan 20. Scott Penny 21. Fintan Gunne 22. Charlie Tector 23. Andrew Osborne

Munster: 15. Shane Daly; 14. Calvin Nash, 13. Tom Farrell, 12. Alex Nankivell, 11. Thaakir Abrahams; 10. Jack Crowley, 9. Craig Casey; 1. Michael Milne, 2. Lee Barron, 3. Michael Ala’alatoa; 4. Edwin Edogbo, 5. Tom Ahern; 6. Tadhg Beirne (C), 7. Jack O’Donoghue, 8. Gavin Coombes.

​Replacements: 16. Diarmuid Barron, 17. Jeremy Loughman, 18. John Ryan, 19. Jean Kleyn, 20. Fineen Wycherley, 21. Paddy Patterson, 22. Dan Kelly, 23. John Hodnett

BKT United Rugby Championship 25/26 – Round 8

Friday, December 26, 2025

Thomond Park

KO 7:45pm

Live on : Premier Sports 1 & URC.tv

Referee: Peter Martin (IRFU)

AR 1: Keane Davison (IRFU)

AR 2: Andrew Fogarty (IRFU)

TMO: Mark Patton (IRFU)

🏉 Attack consistency

🏉 Quins successes

🏉 Day of Reiko-ning*

🏉 Defence & discipline

🏉 First half end game

* = hat-tip Ciarán Duffy

Christy O’Connor

Positives first, some great individual performances from Lamour, Frawley and O’Brien I thought their work both on and off the ball was brilliant, they showed a real hunger in their game. Tommy’s quick thinking to chip the ball through when he had no space and Prendergasts cross field kicks for Lamours try was great to watch.

Negatives (I’ll try keep it short) discipline again was very poor, Quinn’s 2nd 3rd and 4th try came from our poor discipline. Ringrose made some great ground and Paddy Mc gives a penalty away for a needless croc roll which leads to their try. The deliberate knock was brain dead as well, it was always going to be a yellow for it.

The rushed defence is not as great a tactic as it’s made out to be, we left gaps everywhere and could’ve been exposed more than we were. Over all another poor team performance, scoreline doesn’t tell the real story.

If Leinster played the Racing team that Ulster played last night, I can guarantee that we wouldn’t have put the same score on them that Ulster did. Ulster are playing like the old Leinster and Leinster look like a team that are unsure of what they want to do at times.

Greg Kelly

It was a weird sort of game. Everyone and his dog knew Leinster would win it. Even when Quins were within 3 you never felt that would actually win the game. That led to a looseness from Leinster. In the end the flood gates opened a bit.

I’d expect a lot more focus away from home next week.

Jackie McEachern

Glad for the BP win. But as other have said, too many errors. It feels like a team looking for their identity and not sure of themselves?

The defence is a definite problem and I think that’s going to be so costly against better teams.

There were some good performances for sure. Both McCarthy brothers were good. TOB, Larmour and Byrne were also bright spots for me.

Cormac Mannion

Do they not use a ball in training at all? So many poor passes, dropped passes, passes not going to hand, knock-ons in the tackle etc etc.

Just as well we can rely on our teak-tough defence to win matches… eh… oh…

Kevin Kelehan

Scrappy game, the absence of Keenan was really felt in organising the defence out wide, Quins did their homework and scored 5 tries by exploiting flaws. Thankfully the work at the breakdown was incessant and the penalty conveyer put Leinster in a position to score 7 tries. Larmour definitely back in serious form again and will push Lowe and Tommy O’Brien all the way for the starting shirts if he stays this sharp. You’d be expecting a sterner test from Tigers next week and a lot more cohesion from Ireland and visiting stars to ensure another win on the road. Frawley also seriously impressive taking the ball into contact and tackling.

Chris McDonnell

5 points are all you can get so fair play. Set piece was excellent. Of the 2 outhalves we have on the pitch neither were great thankfully frawley stepped up.

Gavin Hegarty

Last April we beat their firsts 62-0.

Today their reserves got a BP against us.

Nothing else to say.

Tom Clarke

Very sloppy performance. So many mistakes in attack and poor in defense. Early days but if that continues we won’t be winning a 5th star any time soon.

Andrew Tynan

Jaysus you lot are happy after us winning aren’t ye? 🤣🤣🤣🙄

ROUND 1

Sale Sharks 21–26 Glasgow

Bayonne 17–26 Stormers

Saracens 47–10 Clermont

Bulls 33–46 Bordeaux

La Rochelle 39–20 Leicester Tigers

Leinster 45–28 Harlequins

Scarlets 16–17 Bristol Bears

Bath 40–14 Munster

Pau 27–35 Northampton Saints

Toulouse 28–12 Sharks

Gloucester 14–14 Castres

Edinburgh 33–20 Toulon

ROUND 2

Friday, 12 December 2025
Leicester Tigers v Leinster — 20:00

Saturday, 13 December 2025
Stormers v La Rochelle — 13:00

Clermont v Sale Sharks — 15:15

Sharks v Saracens — 15:15

Munster v Gloucester — 17:30

Bordeaux-Bègles v Scarlets — 17:30

Glasgow Warriors v Toulouse — 20:00

Sunday, 14 December 2025
Castres v Edinburgh — 13:00

Harlequins v Bayonne — 15:15

Northampton Saints v Bulls — 15:15

Toulon v Bath — 17:30

Bristol Bears v Pau — 17:30

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “LEINSTER’S SEASON SO FAR”

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN 

🏉 Penny for our thoughts

🏉 Rainy night in Newport

🏉 Attack plans

🏉 JJ & RG

🏉 Dodgy discipline

Jackie McEachern

Glad for the bonus point win but am genuinely concerned about the discipline issues. I really worry about the European matches to come.

Christy O’Connor

That was a hard watch. The discipline was terrible, a lot of unforced errors and 3 yellow cards.

There was some scattered good passages of play but overall that was a terrible performance. We could’ve lost that game and not have had any complaints that Dragons didn’t deserve it.

I’ve said it many times now, I’m not a fan of Nienabar and it’s getting harder and harder to enjoy watching Leinster under his style of play

Kevin Kelehan

Better second half, Luke McGrath added an urgency and Snyman’s offloading came off perfectly. Against better sides the penalty count would have been fatal, they really need to stop giving away penalties at the breakdown.

Pádraig Turley

A curate’s egg of a performance, but bonus point very welcome.

Cormac Mannion

South African refs – a great bunch of lads

Eamon Saunders

Need to be better but getting loads of game time for the second choice players we will need them going forward

Gavin Delves

Ulster Munster and Connacht have ireland players playing this week and leinster had snyman in the second have why no one else becacause leo does what hes told by the IRFU things have to change

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “CHAMPIONS CUP CONTENDERS”

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN 

🏉 The cards

🏉 The chaos

🏉 The Carley factor

🏉 The carnage

🏉 The character

Greg Kelly

Thoughts..

Sasha gets the YC he should have then it changes the opening 20 mins.

Ryan may have ended his stint as a front liner with his stupidity there.

Interested to know how the SA LHP can hinge down 3 times in a row and they Paddy Mc gets a YC 😵‍💫

Mathew Carley lost control and composure and he lost buy in from the Irish players.

Christy O’Connor

I can’t disagree with any of our cards, except that Ryan’s could’ve been a straight red. Sacha should’ve been carded though. We were panicky when on the ball, took us for ever to get out of our own half in the 2nd half.

The better team won in the end, but other than their scrum, I don’t think SA were all that great.

David Harold

SA didn’t go out to win the match. They went out to “beat” Ireland. But the ended up winning the match. And deservedly so.

Gavin Hegarty

My problem is at what rugby has become.

A ref, two touch judges and a tmo review sfms no wrap shoulder to the head of Tob and deem it only a penalty by not applying the correct laws.

The same laws they apply to Ryan’s moment of madness.

Can’t help but feel this was influenced by the same outcry over reds this week. Carley and his team copped out.

That early in the game it could have made a huge difference.

After this Ireland did themselves no favours but honestly did well to stay in the game.

RGs card being rescinded soon after was a new one to me! If it was red would it have been! No.

World rugby need to halt where rugby is going. You now have tmos that want the spotlight and we are spending far too long reviewing footage. For this to happen and still have the wrong outcome is pathetic.

John O Halloran

What did I just watch? A mental game, a bizarre reffing performance, a bizarre Irish performance of indisipline, and more subs than the battle of the Atlantic.

Cormac Mannion

The lack of a card for Feinberg set the tone for the rest of the match. I hate Carley or Dickson reffing either a Leinster or Ireland match and he didn’t fail to disappoint once again tonight

I don’t know if it’s hilarious or pathetic how the Saffa trolls are out in force once again tonight. Some are even still bleating about ROG’s try in 2004.

Oh well, they can press their grubby noses to the window in February when the 6N starts once again as they whimper to be allowed to compete in it.

Kevin Kelehan

Worst refereeing performance of 2025, destroyed the contest by letting Rassie get inside his head. Boks ruthless scrummagers, Ireland died with their boots on, Could have been a 40 point defeat when down to 12 men

Bert McLoughlin

Carley should do us a favour and retire. Boks could have beaten us by way more if they actually played a bit of rugby instead of being 🔔🔚’s and trying to pummel our pack (anti rugby if you will) they along with Carley killed the game as a spectacle

GIFsRugbyNStuff (‪@gifsrugbynstuff.bsky.social‬)

Ireland’s finishing XV

Paddy Mc Kelleher Bealham

Beirne Prendergast

Doris Conan one armed vdF

Casey Sam

JGP bundee Farrell ringrose 

Crowley

Justin Deegan‬ ‪(@justindeegan.bsky.social‬)

Having 15 on the field is always a help. I had the head bitten off me before when I said Ireland’s discipline not as foremost as it was a couple of years ago. Well, I hope today was the culmination rather than the next step down. Piss poor.

Early subs from Sth Africa also took their foot off their pedal.

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “NOVEMBER TAKEA”

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN