Category: Leinster Opposition

224 : Leinster v Dragons wrap

18 February 2023; Rhys Ruddock of Leinster celebrates with teammate Dave Kearney after scoring his side’s third try during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Dragons at RDS Arena in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

🏉 Welsh mess

🏉 Rhys Ruddock

🏉 Dragons fronting up

🏉 Harry Byrne

🏉 G**** S***

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

TOM COLEMAN & CIARÁN DUFFY

click here for Ciarán’s fundraising page

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Greg Kelly

Not a great performance. Probably the worst or amongst the worst of the season. Quite disjointed and not as controlled as Leinster teams usually are.

Performance aside its yet another routine win that was never really in doubt. The URC is great for blooding players but week by week it becomes worse for challenging them.

Andrew Bailey

First up you have to play a referee who’s agenda from the start is to favour the home team. But you can’t do that with poor lineouts , Ruck protection snd an awful kicking game. A big win but worst performance of the season. Why not trust the outside backs more ??

TWITTER

MASTODON

RichardMifsud Had a bit of everything that one. Always love watching the young kids getting a run out. Second 40 saw a dip in intensity that let Dragons back into the game and gave the boys good practice on D. A bit of a flourish at the end with two well worked tries. Invaluable experience for the kids and Rhys a worthy POTM although Lukey pushed for that too Liam Turner had a good outing and it was great to see Jason J and Will on the pitch

INSTAGRAM

John Shine  I’m jumping aboard the Jack Boyle hype train!!! In all seriousness it was a nice little 20 mins for him.  Held up his end of the scrum. Couple of good carries and a great jackal turnover.  Bigger tests await but he’s an exciting prospect.

FRONT FIVE ARTICLES

  1. Welsh rugby’s almighty mess, the immoral treatment of players and the uncomfortable truths – Wales Online [Steffan Thomas]
  2. Blow for Ireland & Munster as full extent of Tadhg Beirne injury revealed | SportsJOE.ie [Jason Hennessy]
  3. Gavin Coombes stars as nine-try Munster rout Ospreys at Thomond (irishexaminer.com) [John Fallon]
  4. URC: Connacht score nine tries in comfortable victory over Zebre – The Irish Times [Linley MacKenzie]
  5. Glasgow v Ulster: bench impact helps Warriors extend unbeaten run (theoffsideline.com) [David Barnes]

URC ROUND 14 WRAP

ROUND 14

GLA 17-11 ULS

MUN 58-3 OSP

LIO 7-29 SHA

ZEB 37-57 CON

BUL 19-23 STO

CAR 30-13 BEN

SCA 42-14 EDI

LEI 43-14 DRA

REARRANGED MATCHES

ROUND 6

SHA V ULS

LIO V GLA

ROUND 15

MAR 3

GLA V ZEB

MUN V SCA

MAR 4

STO V SHA

BUL V LIO

EDI V LEI

OSP V BEN

DRA V CON

CAR V ULS

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223 : Harpin Preview Show – #LEIvDRA

Our guest : CONOR CRONIN

Leinster : 15. Jimmy O’Brien 14. Jordan Larmour 13. Liam Turner 12. Jamie Osborne 11. Dave Kearney 10. Harry Byrne 9. Luke McGrath

1. Michael Milne 2. John McKee 3. Michael Ala’alatoa 4. Ross Molony 5. Brian Deeny 6. Rhys Ruddock > CAPTAIN 7. Scott Penny 8. Max Deegan

16. Lee Barron 17. Jack Boyle 18. Thomas Clarkson 19. Jason Jenkins 20. Will Connors 21. Nick McCarthy 22. Charlie Tector 23. Rob Russell

Dragons RFC: 15 A O’Brien 14  Tomkinson 13 S Hughes 12 J Dixon 11 A Hewitt 10 W Reed 9 R Williams (c)

1 R Jones 2 B Coghlan 3 L Fairbrother 4 M Screech 5 B Carter 6 B Fry 7 T Basham 8 R Moriarty

16 J Benjamin 17 A Seiuli 18 C Coleman 19 S Lonsdale 20 R Woodman 21 L Jones 22 JJ Hanrahan 23 J Williams

BKT United Rugby Championship 2022/23

Round 14

Sat Feb 18  KO 7:35pm

RDS Arena

Referee: Mike Adamson (SRU)

AR 1: Oisin Quinn (IRFU) 

AR 2:  Sam Holt (IRFU)

TMO:  Dave Sutherland (SRU)

Live on: RTÉ, S4C, Viaplay, Premier Sports, SuperSport, Discovery + & URC.tv

215 : Leinster v Cardiff wrap

28 January 2023; A general view of a scrum during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Cardiff at RDS Arena in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4wHHMVqQAnSwAXNs11HCm4?si=abdd7adf387842e3

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SIX NATIONS GUINNESS PINT PREDICTOR LEAGUE

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

CONOR CRONIN & CIAN O’MUILLEOIR

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Gavin Hegarty

We beat a Cardiff team with our thirds. We had the bp quick enough and took the foot off the gas in the second half to allow them two tries back.

Delight to have chopper Connors back and to see him doing what he does best.

Great to see the debutants, Leinster are going to be a force for years to come.

Brian Corr

Feel Cardiff came thinking they were going to have an easy game with so many Leinster players on Ireland duty, they realised their mistake too late.

It’s great to see Deegan playing so well and even better to see Connors back.

It’s a great testament to Cullen and his coaches that they have the back up squad so tuned in and able to step up when needed, even if Cardiff were not really at the races.

Tector getting his first points, Turner with another great try.

Great outcome for Leinster, especially racking up the points for home games in the knockouts.

Karen Brennan

Well done to new young players getting their first cap,a great occasion for them,especially Balbriggan rugby clubs Aitzol King👍🏻

TWITTER

MASTODON

RichardMifsud I always love watching @leinsterrugby play but I particularly love it when the young guns get a run out. TBH I was expecting a tougher game but Cardiff disappointed Deegs very worthy POTM Good outings from Milne Brownlee Turner as well as our starting back row and halfbacks Disappointing 10 minutes in the final quarter but that’s great learning for the kids 

Andrew Byrne Harry Byrne’s kicking out of hand was very good, amazing the difference a bit of game time makes. We got a bit sloppy in the final quarter but to be expected with so many changes. Cardiff’s coaches must be pulling their hair out, their team was outclassed by an inexperienced Leinster team.

FRONT FIVE ARTICLES

  1. RFU Apologise After Severe Criticism Over Controversial New Tackle Laws | Balls.ie [Colman Stanley]
  2. Bernard Laporte resigns from FFR president role after corruption conviction (talkingrugbyunion.co.uk)
  3. Ulster sink Stormers with home success | Belfast News Letter [Ciaran Donaghy]
  4. Six-try Munster bank bonus in Treviso thriller (irishexaminer.com) [Kevin Fallon]
  5. Jack Carty becomes Connacht’s all-time top points scorer as Lions tamed at Sportsground – The Irish Times [Linley MacKenzie]

URC ROUND 13 WRAP

ROUND 13

ULS 35-5 STO

SCA 37-28 BUL

BEN 30-40 MUN

DRA 28-42 GLA

LEI 38-14 CAR

EDI 19-22 SHA

CON 43-24 LIO

ZEB 24-28 OSP

Feb 4 (Round 1)

SHA v STO

Round 14

Feb 17

MUN V OSP

GLA V ULS

Feb 18

LIO V SHA

BUL V STO

ZEB V CON

SCA V EDI

CAR V BEN

LEI V DRA

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214 : Harpin Preview Show #LEIvCAR

OUR GUEST : MARK JACKSON

Leinster: 15. Chris Cosgrave 14. Max O’Reilly 13. Liam Turner 12. Ben Brownlee 11. Dave Kearney 10. Harry Byrne 9. Luke McGrath

1. Michael Milne 2. John McKee 3. Michael Ala’alatoa 4. Ross Molony 5. Brian Deeny 6. Rhys Ruddock  CAPTAIN 7. Scott Penny 8. Max Deegan

16. Tadgh McElroy 17. Marcus Hanan 18. Thomas Clarkson 19. James Culhane 20. Will Connors 21. Nick McCarthy 22. Charlie Tector 23. Aitzol King

Cardiff: 15 R Priestland 14 O Lane 13 R Lee-Lo 12 B Thomas 11 J Harries 10 J Evans 9 L Williams

1 B Thyer 2 K Myhill 3 Keiron Assiratti 4 L Timani 5 S Davies 6 J Turnbull (capt.) 7 J Botham 8 J Ratti

16 K Dacey 17 C Domachowski 18 W Davies-King 19 R Thornton 20 S Lewis-Hughes 21 E Bevan 22 A Summerhill 23 M Morgan

BKT United Rugby Championship 22/23

Round 13

Sat Jan 28  KO 5pm

RDS Arena

Referee: Jaco Peyper (SARU)

AR 1: Joy Neville (IRFU) 

AR 2: Andrew Fogarty (IRFU)

TMO: Marius Jonker (SARU)

Live on: RTÉ, S4C, Viaplay, Premier Sports, SuperSport, Discovery + & URC.tv

213 : Opposition view – Cardiff & Wales

For our first Opposition View pod of 2023 I was delighted to speak to Lee & Rhys from the excellent WRRAP pod about the regions’ season so far plus the Welsh Six Nations squad.

Our guests…

LEE GRIFFITH &

RHYS JOHN

Their pod on the Welsh 6N squad > https://anchor.fm/wrrap/episodes/Bonus-pod—The-Wales-squad-e1tl9ph/a-a8qnq0j

212 : Leinster v Racing 92 wrap

21 January 2023; Garry Ringrose of Leinster scores his side’s sixth try despite the attentions of Christian Wade and Kitione Kamikamica of Racing 92 during the Heineken Champions Cup Pool A Round 4 match between Leinster and Racing 92 at Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

TOM COLEMAN

NATHAN JOHNS

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Conor Cronin The number of penalties is a concern. A strong win, and some great individual performances weren’t. We’d a strong first and last 20, needed to be more conscious of the ruck in the middle 40, that’s where we lost our most to Racing. I found a group of Racing fans after the game and brought them to the pub, great group, great fans who really love the game and are very passionate about good rugby, I’m really glad we could meet up expectation, particular the O’Brien try

Gavin Hegarty I actually enjoyed how they challenged us. They clearly did their homework. But still, the good will out. Yes we were not at the level we were last week, but class is permanent. Highlight was ringer flick, sublime.

Richard Collumb Racing slowing the game right down caused us problems. Scrum, some sloppy passing & silly penalties will be punished in later rounds, but last 20 minutes was great. Ringrose just gets better & better.

John Hyland (reply to Richard Collumb) don’t agree re scrum. Other teams are cheating and getting away with it. Our scrum is collapsing on the loosehead side because opposition tightheads are boring in, leaving Porter / Milne nothing to push against. Refs have been clueless.

TWITTER

MASTODON


Richard Mifsud We weren’t at our best for long periods and credit R92 for parts of that but it’s an 80 minute game and when we clicked it was sublime. We need these tests to keep us honest and sharp it’s about finding a way and thus far this season we’ve been pretty good at that this season. Very satisfying BPW


Koochulainn The numbers do not lie LEINSTER 4 games 20 points (and did not concede a single losing BP) 28 tries +150 points difference #PerfectRecord


RugbyNerd Too good again! But good game for around 60 minutes and good refereeing. Very clear communication.

FRONT FIVE ARTICLES

  1. Ireland squad for Six Nations announced with Joey Carbery the major omission – Pundit Arena [James Fenton]
  2. Munster retain Women’s Interprovincial Championship title after win over Connacht – The Irish Times 
  3. Bealham hat-trick not enough to stop Connacht losing away to Newcastle (the42.ie) [John Fallon]
  4. Ulster v Sale Sharks LIVE: Rob Lyttle try the difference at half-time as province edge towards European knockouts – BelfastTelegraph.co.uk [Jonathan Bradley]
  5. Frustrated Munster face away day in Champions Cup Round of 16 (irishexaminer.com) [Simon Lewis]

HCC ROUND 4 WRAP

ROUND 4

LYN 31-7 BUL

LEIC 26-27 OSP

HAR 39-29 SHA

NOR 13-31 LAR

BOR 17-26 GLO

LEIN 36-10 R92

STO 30-16 CLE

EXE 40-3 CAS

ULS 22-11 SAL

MON 21-21 LIR

TLS 20-16 MUN

EDI 20-14 SAR

LAST 16 (weekend of Mar 31/Apr 1,2)

LEIN V ULS

LEIC V EDI

TLS V BUL

SHA V MUN

EXE V MON

STO V HAR

LAR V GLO

SAR V OSP

HARPIN’ MATCH WRAPS

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211 : Harpin Preview Show #LEIvR92

OUR GUEST : NEIL “KEEGO” KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

Leinster: 15. Hugo Keenan 14. Jordan Larmour 13. Garry Ringrose > CAPTAIN 12. Jamie Osborne 11. Jimmy O’Brien 10. Ross Byrne 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Andrew Porter 2. Rónan Kelleher 3. Michael Ala’alatoa 4. Joe McCarthy 5. James Ryan 6. Caelan Doris 7. Josh van der Flier 8. Jack Conan

16. Dan Sheehan 17. Michael Milne 18. Cian Healy 19. Ross Molony 20. Ryan Baird 21. Luke McGrath 22. Harry Byrne 23. Scott Penny

Racing 92: 15 W Gelant 14 C Wade 13 O Klemenczak 12 G Fickou (c) 11 L Dupichot 10 F Russell 9 N Le Garrec 1 E Ben Arous 2 J Tarrit 3.T Nyakane 4 B Chouzenoux 5 B Palu 6 W Lauret 7 M Coulibaly 8 K Kamikamica

16 P Narisia 17 G Gogichashvili 18 G Kharaishvili 19 A Hemery 20 M Baudonne 21 A Gibert 22 F Saili 23 M Spring

Heineken Champions Cup 22/23

Round 4

Sat Jan 21  KO 3:15pm

Aviva Stadium

Ref: Matthew Carley (ENG) 

AR1: Craig Maxwell-Keys (ENG) 

AR2: Gareth Holsgrove (ENG) 

TMO: Ian Tempest (ENG)

Live on: RTÉ 2, BT Sport 2

210 : Gloucester v Leinster wrap

14 January 2023; Michael Ala’alatoa of Leinster makes a break during the Heineken Champions Cup Pool A Round 3 match between Gloucester and Leinster at Kingsholm Stadium in Gloucester, England. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

210 : Gloucester v Leinster wrap – Harpin' On Rugby

🏉 MUN, ULS & CON 🏉 Jamie Osborne 🏉 Clinical finishing 🏉 Cian Healy’s career 🏉 Leinster’s scrum Harpin’ On Rugby match wraps are brought to you by The Irish Rugby Store Our guests… MARK JACKSON https://twitter.com/hoomanbear CONOR CRONIN https://twitter.com/ccbooms FRONT FIVE ARTICLES RFU intervenes to let Borthwick pick Farrell in England Six Nations squad | Owen Farrell | The Guardian [Gerard Meagher] Women’s interprovincials: Munster claim bonus-point win over Leinster to move closer to title – The Irish Times Fourteen-man Munster hold off Northampton in Champions Cup thriller | Rugby365 ‘Heartbroken’ Dan McFarland bemoans decision not to award Ulster penalty try in late La Rochelle defeat – BelfastTelegraph.co.uk [Jonathan Bradley] Clinical Connacht put 61 points on Brive to progress to Challenge Cup knockouts (the42.ie) [Daragh Small] Where to find Harpin’ On Rugby Website > https://harpinonrugby.com/ Mastodon > @HarpinOnRugby@mastodon.ie Twitter > https://twitter.com/HarpinOnRugby Facebook > https://www.facebook.com/HarpinOnRugby Instagram > https://www.instagram.com/harpinonrugby/ TikTok > https://www.tiktok.com/@harpinonrugby YouTube > https://youtube.com/@HarpinPreviewShow

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

MARK JACKSON & CONOR CRONIN

FULL TIME TAKES

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Andrew Potts The scrum is a concern, probably just needs a little collective focus. Nice to see them using short penalty moves in the red zone, it’s a good variation then going to a line out, plus suits Leinster tempo.
Some of the Leinster play was excellent and Ross has developed into quite the facilitator

Richard Collumb Says it all about current European competition when URC is providing more challenges.
Great to see Osborne step up & some game time to replacements.

Chris McDonnell Too good just too good.

TWITTER

MASTODON

Brian Nisbet @natural20 14-49 A match with a couple of lessons for Leinster (discipline, line-outs), but ultimately another emphatic victory in Europe and the match goes on.


Colin Mehigan @colinmehigan@mas.to @vnvobit @HarpinOnRugby @rugby Lots of impressive performances in Kingsholm today – Jamie Osborne really standing out

Adam Ashby (Gloucester fan) @adamashby@mas.to Well. That was worse than I expected.

FRONT FIVE ARTICLES

  1. RFU intervenes to let Borthwick pick Farrell in England Six Nations squad | Owen Farrell | The Guardian [Gerard Meagher]
  2. Women’s interprovincials: Munster claim bonus-point win over Leinster to move closer to title – The Irish Times 
  3. Fourteen-man Munster hold off Northampton in Champions Cup thriller | Rugby365
  4. ‘Heartbroken’ Dan McFarland bemoans decision not to award Ulster penalty try in late La Rochelle defeat – BelfastTelegraph.co.uk [Jonathan Bradley]
  5. Clinical Connacht put 61 points on Brive to progress to Challenge Cup knockouts (the42.ie) [Daragh Small]

HCC ROUND 3 WRAP

ROUND 3

CLE 29-44 LEIC

SAL 5-27 TLS

GLO 14-49 LEIN

MUN 27-23 NOR

SHA 32-3 BOR

LAR 7-3 ULS

BUL 39-28 EXE

OSP 35-29 MON

SAR 48-28 LYN

CAS 21-34 EDI

LIR 14-28 STO

R92 30-29 HAR

ROUND 4

FRI JAN 20

LYN V BUL

LEI V OSP

SAT JAN 21

HAR V SHA

NOR V LAR

BOR V GLO

LEI V R92

STO V CLE

EXE V CAS

ULS V SAL

SUN JAN 22

MON V LIR

TLS V MUN

EDI V SAR

HARPIN’ MATCH WRAPS

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209 : Harpin’ Preview Show #GLOvLEI

Leinster: 15. Hugo Keenan 14. Jordan Larmour 13. Garry Ringrose > CAPTAIN 12. Jamie Osborne 11. Jimmy O’Brien 10. Ross Byrne 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Andrew Porter 2. Dan Sheehan 3. Michael Ala’alatoa 4. Ross Molony 5. James Ryan 6. Ryan Baird 7. Josh van der Flier 8. Caelan Doris

16. Rónan Kelleher 17. Michael Milne 18. Cian Healy 19. Brian Deeny 20. Jack Conan 21. Nick McCarthy 22. Harry Byrne 23. Liam Turner 

Gloucester: 15 G Barton 14 J May 13 C Harris 12 S Atkinson 11 O Thorley 10 S Carreras 9 B Meehan

1 V Rapava-Ruskin 2 G McGuigan 3 K Gotovtsev 4 F Clark 5 M Alemanno 6 R Ackermann 7 L Ludlow (c) 8 B Morgan

16 S Blake 17 H Elrington 18 C Knight 19 C Jordan 20 J Clement 21 S Varney 22 B Twelvetrees 23 T Seabrook

Heineken Champions Cup 22/23

Round 3

Sat Jan 14  KO 1pm

Kingsholm Stadium

Ref: Pierre Brousset (France) 

AR1: Vincent Blasco Baqué (France) 

AR2: Flavien Hourquet (France) 

TMO: Denis Grenouillet (France)

Live on: ITV1, BT Sport 2

OUR GUEST : NEIL “KEEGO” KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

WOMEN’S RUGBY TWITTER ACCOUNTS MENTIONED

@IrishWomens @JC200022

208 : Ospreys v Leinster wrap

7 January 2023; Jimmy O’Brien of Leinster celebrates after scoring his side’s third try during the United Rugby Championship between Ospreys and Leinster at the Swansea.com Stadium in Swansea, Wales. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

NEIL “KEEGO” KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

RICHARD MIFSUD

[plus a special report from CONOR CRONIN]

FULL TIME TAKES

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Conor Cronin A few key things from this game that concern me.

The pack were bullied in the first half, and let themselves be.

Harry Byrne struggled behind the pack, but they’re not entirely to blame for his struggles. He needs a lot more time and needs to build confidence behind a dominant pack.

The scrum was awful. We have suffered as a province since Fogarty went to the Ireland set up, that needs to be dealt with.

Grinding out the win is great, and you learn much more from a game like that. But we need to learn fast, especially if the injury Ross Byrne picked up last night is bad.

Paul Smith Probably the poorest we’ve played in a good while, but the sign of a good team is to still manage to win while playing poorly so we’ll the gladly take the points and move on.

TWITTER

https://twitter.com/nigeljames2003/status/1611836796983463943?s=20&t=7MEWdDbd5jQ4LH84nkAxuA

MASTODON

WRRAP podcast @WRRAP@toot.wales It is not often you see a Leinster pack hit reverse but deserved the win

Brian Nisbet @natural20 19-24 in Swansea. Come back was quite late, but a win is a win and well done to the lads for doing what needed to be done.

Jay Long @Jay_Long_626 Seriously good win on the road and Ospreys were proper up for it. Turned it on when it counted, I think Nick McCarthy won us that game imo. Just slipped us into a flow. Never in doubt 

FRONT FIVE ARTICLES

  1. Munster secure vital bonus point win against the Lions (irishexaminer.com) [Simon Lewis]
  2. Benetton 31-29 Ulster: Struggling Irish province suffer late URC defeat in Italy – BBC Sport
  3. Conor Cronin report on Leinster v Connacht in Women’s Interpro
  4. Connacht outclass second-string Sharks (sarugbymag.co.za)
  5. Does Irish rugby have enough space for the talent it’s producing? (the42.ie) [Murray Kinsella] > bonus clip from the chat on this article available on our YouTube channel

URC ROUND 12 WRAP

ROUND 12

DRA 14-29 BUL

MUN 33-3 LIO

BEN 31-29 ULS

EDI 24-17 ZEB

CAR 22-28 SCA

CON 24-12 SHA

OSP 19-24 LEI

GLA 24-17 STO

ROUND 13

JAN 27

SCA V BUL

ULS V STO

JAN 7

BEN V MUN

DRA V GLA

LEI V CAR

EDI V SHA

CON V LIO

JAN 8

ZEB V OSP

HARPIN’ MATCH WRAPS

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