515 : Leinster v Sale Sharks wrap



🏉 1st half heavy weather

🏉 Props – handle with Cahir

🏉 Lineouts

🏉 Dan & Hugo

🏉 Sale of goods


HUGO GORDON


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)

304 : Leinster v Sale Sharks wrap

16 December 2023; Cian Healy of Leinster dives over to score his side’s fifth try despite the tackle of Ethan Caine of Sale Sharks during the Investec Champions Cup Pool 4 Round 2 match between Leinster and Sale Sharks at the RDS Arena in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

🏉 MUN, ULS & CON reviews

🏉 Sharp Sharks

🏉 Championship minutes

🏉 Bench impress

🏉 Log Toppers


TOM COLEMAN & CIAN O’MUILLEOIR


FULL TIME TAKES

Rich Mifsud

My biggest annoyance from this match (and I’m seriously fucking pissed off) was our complacency. Much as I was elated with our attitude last week, today was the complete opposite. That said I believe our expectations as supporters are not taking account of the huge vacuum created by the departures of Johnny and Stu. It will take time for the new coaching set up and 10 to settle and thrive

Alan Murphy
Awful game. A game dominated by pedantic adjudication. Every phase seemed to end with a blow of the whistle. Stop, start. Happy with 5 points but dreadful to watch.

Kevin Kelehan
Sloppy start and lax finish but a lot of grit for the middle half of the game either side of half time. Biggest news from the pool was La Rochelle losing again yesterday

SeanieH
·Terrible for Charlie. He’s had some lovely touches lately. Looking classy

Get in the conversation yourself by leaving 

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CHAMPIONS CUP WRAP

ROUND 2

NORTHAMPTON 22-19 TOULON

BAYONNE 11-12 GLASGOW WARRIORS

SARACENS 55-36 CONNACHT

STORMERS 21-20 LA ROCHELLE

BORDEAUX 36-17 BRISTOL BEARS

LYON 29-28 BULLS

LEINSTER 37-27 SALE SHARKS

CARDIFF 32-39 BATH

ULSTER 31-15 RACING 92

EXETER CHIEFS 32-24 MUNSTER

HARLEQUINS 19-47 TOULOUSE

STADE FRANCAIS 24-27 LEICESTER TIGERS


courtesy Cian O’Muilleoir

ROUND 3

FRI JAN 12

NORTHAMPTON V BAYONNE

SAT JAN 13

LYON V CONNACHT

EXETER CHIEFS V GLASGOW WARRIORS

TOULON V MUNSTER

BRISTOL BEARS V BULLS

LEINSTER V STADE FRANCAIS

STORMERS V SALE SHARKS

CARDIFF V HARLEQUINS

ULSTER V TOULOUSE

SUN JAN 14

BATH V RACING 92

LA ROCHELLE V LEICESTER

BORDEAUX V SARACENS



303 : #LEIvSAL preview

also available as podcast


Leinster : 15. Hugo Keenan 14. Jordan Larmour 13. Garry Ringrose (cc) 12. Robbie Henshaw 11. Jimmy O’Brien 10. Ciarán Frawley 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Andrew Porter 2. Dan Sheehan 3. Thomas Clarkson 4. Jason Jenkins 5. James Ryan (cc) 6. Ryan Baird 7. Josh van der Flier 8. Caelan Doris

16. Rónan Kelleher 17. Cian Healy 18. Michael Ala’alatoa 19. Joe McCarthy 20. Jack Conan 21. Ben Murphy 22. Sam Prendergast 23. Charlie Ngatai


Sale Sharks : 15. Telusa Veainu , 14. Tom Roebuck, 13. Connor Doherty, 12. Sam Bedlow, 11. Arron Reed, 10. Rob du Preez, 9. Raffi Quirke

1. Ross Harrison, 2. Tommy Taylor, 3. James Harper, 4. Ben Bamber, 5. Josh Beaumont, 6. Ernst van Rhyn, 7. Sam Dugdale, 8. Rouban Birch.   

16. Ethan Caine, 17. Tumy Onasanya, 18. Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 19. Jonny Hill, 20. JL du Preez, 21. Nye Thomas, 22. Tom Curtis, 23. Joe Carpenter. 


Investec Champions Cup 23/24 Round 2

Saturday, December 16, 2023

KO 5:30pm RDS Arena

TV : TNT Sports 1


Referee: Pierre Brousset (Fra)

AR 1: Pierre Baptiste Nuchy (Fra)

AR 2: Kevin Bralley (Fra)

TMO: Denis Grenouillet (Fra)