Category: Leinster

352 : Leinster v Connacht wrap

31 May 2024; Jimmy O’Brien of Leinster scores his side’s fifth try during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Connacht at the RDS Arena in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
pod also available on Apple & most major platforms

🏉 Early scores
🏉 Sam composure
🏉 TYVM RR,RM,EB,RDS
🏉 BP eventually
🏉 Tricky path ahead

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

RICHARD MIFSUD

DAVID CORDIAL

@harpinonrugby

Pod is now available on Apple, Spotify and most major platforms. rugbytiktok LeinsterRugby #URC

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com

FULL TIME TAKES

Brian Corr

Connacht seemed way off the pace, it was clear early on so much was going wrong for them.

Ruddock was immense he put everything into that game it was brilliant. Maloney and Byrne were also brilliant and gave excellent performances for their last games. I thought Ala’alatoa was unlucky for his card, yes he was high and he did hit Blades head, I’m not sure he hit it as hard as Blades reaction but that’s my bias(probably?). You could see though he wanted to out in a good shift.

Anyone doubting Leinster’s strength in depth can see in this game why it’s often quoted as being brilliant, no other club could make 14 changes and have a performance as strong as that. Keeping so many players involved and happy at the club is mind blowingly difficult, yet Leo does it year after year.

There was lots of things to like about that game even though 4 of the stalwarts are moving on & one of our backline was pretty jittery it was a pretty excellent performance from the other 19.

Chris McDonnell

Great performance from lots of the lads. Showed how awful last week’s selection was. Jenkins ahead of Molony, no Jimmy o brien , frawley just a lovely attacking player.foley I’d just miles better than mcgrath. Anyways hopefully ruddock and Molony gets to play again for us.

Cuan Mulligan

Felt Sam P had a great game, offered more options than other 10s in the squad. Was integral to a few of the tries; tried things, mixed it up. Should be where we invest and give him as much game time as possible. Might need some extra protein over the summer to bulk up

William Andrew

It was a good indicator of how valuable players like Ross, Max Ed and Ruddock are to Leinster. They provide the steel through a season.

Form was also on display, in some of the younger players

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URC WRAP

ROUND 18 [final round]

LEINSTER 33-7 CONNACHT

GLASGOW 38-26 ZEBRE

STORMERS 29-24 LIONS

BENETTON 31-6 EDINBURGH

SCARLETS 32-15 DRAGONS

SHARKS 14-26 BULLS

MUNSTER 29-24 ULSTER

CARDIFF 29-33 OSPREYS

QUARTERFINALS

FRI JUNE 7

MUNSTER V OSPREYS

SAT JUNE 8

BULLS V BENETTON

LEINSTER V ULSTER

GLASGOW WARRIORS V STORMERS

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348 : Ulster v Leinster wrap

18 May 2024; Charlie Ngatai of Leinster evades the tackle of Rob Herring of Ulster on his way to scoring his side’s first try during the United Rugby Championship match between Ulster and Leinster at Kingspan Stadium in Belfast. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

🏉 Disjointed

🏉 Somehow ahead

🏉 Much butchering

🏉 Take the three

🏉 Cool Cooney

@harpinonrugby

CHeck out our latest wrap pod on Apple, Spotify and other major platforms rugbytiktok LeinsterRugby URC

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THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

MARK JACKSON

JAY LONG

FULL TIME TAKES

Paul Smith

Whoever made the call to kick to the line when we are 1 point ahead with 10 minutes to go and straight in front of the posts probably cost us the chance to top the table. A win and we were top and had it totally in our own hands but for sone reason I still can’t fathom we decided to completely f**k it up. Totally sickened right now. Not to take anything away from Ulster who completely deserved the victory tonight but its very rarely you can be so outplayed and still have the chance to come away with a win. We need to see a completely different mindset from Leinster next weekend if we are finally going to get our hands on star number 5.

William Andrew

A dreadful lack of nous to lose that game. Continually kicking the ball away with 5 mins on the clock hoping to make ten meters is not great. A 30 meter through kick to force a Ulster line out in their 22 would have burned a min at least. Plus they are now in danger of conceding a penalty.

Several generations of former Leinster 10s and 9s must be shaking their heads.

Berchmans Gannon

From the sideline the box kicking is not the way to go.

Chasing a bonus point ahead of a win is questionable.

Shit happens! I will still support Leinster without the need for a slaughter of Managment.

Kevin Kelehan

Decent game that could have gone either way, the losing bonus point will get Leinster at least a home QF, the win will guarantee Ulster top tier cup rugby next season.

Colin Mehigan

Another uninspiring performance if I’m honest….our high profile coaching ticket need to rethink strategy

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URC WRAP

ROUND 17

ZEBRE 18-32 SCARLETS

EDINBURGH 26-29 MUNSTER

BULLS 56-35 BENETTON

OSPREYS 26-13 DRAGONS

LIONS 44-21 GLASGOW

CONNACHT 12-16 STORMERS

SHARKS 14-36 CARDIFF

ULSTER 23-21 LEINSTER

ROUND 18 [final round]

FRI MAY 31

LEINSTER V CONNACHT

GLASGOW V ZEBRE

SAT JUNE 1

STORMERS V LIONS

BENETTON V EDINBURGH

SCARLETS V DRAGONS

SHARKS V BULLS

MUNSTER V ULSTER

CARDIFF V OSPREYS

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347 : Ulster v Leinster preview

also available as a podcast

Our guest : NEIL “KEEGO” KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

LEINSTER : 15. Hugo Keenan 14. Tommy O’Brien 13. Jimmy O’Brien 12. Charlie Ngatai 11. Rob Russell 10. Harry Byrne 9. Cormac Foley

1. Cian Healy 2. Rónan Kelleher 3. Michael Ala’alatoa 4. James Ryan (c) 5. Brian Deeny 6. Max Deegan 7. Will Connors 8. Jack Conan

16. John McKee 17. Michael Milne 18. Thomas Clarkson 19. Ross Molony 20. Scott Penny 21. Luke McGrath 22. Sam Prendergast 23. Ben Brownlee

ULSTER :  15 Ethan McIlroy, 14 Mike Lowry, 13 Will Addison, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 10 Billy Burns, 9 John Cooney;

1 Eric O’Sullivan, 2 Rob Herring, 3 Tom O’Toole, 4 Kieran Treadwell, 5 Alan O’Connor (C), 6 Cormac Izuchukwu, 7 David McCann, 8 Nick Timoney.

16 Tom Stewart, 17 Andy Warwick, 18 Scott Wilson, 19 Harry Sheridan, 20 Matty Rea, 21 Nathan Doak, 22 Stewart Moore, 23 Jude Postlethwaite.

BKT United Rugby Championship 2023/24 Round 17

Saturday, May 18, 2024

KO 7:35pm Kingspan Stadium 

Live on: TG4, Premier Sports 1, URC.tv

Referee: Andrea Piardi (Italy)

AR1: Robbie Jenkinson (Ireland) 

AR2: Keane Davison (Ireland)

TMO: Leo Colgan (Ireland)

346 : Leinster v Ospreys wrap

11 May 2024; Jordan Larmour of Leinster scores his side’s third try during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Ospreys at the RDS Arena in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
also available on Apple podcasts and most major platforms

🏉 3 up 2 down

🏉 Just the JOB

🏉 Another JL hat-trick

🏉 🍔

🏉 A perfect 10?

@harpinonrugby

Check out our full Leinster v Ospreys wrap pod on Apple, Spotify etc #rugbytiktok #irelandtiktok #LeinsterRugby

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THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

CONOR CRONIN

CIARÁN DUFFY

FULL TIME TAKES

Hubert Gallagher

Frawley looked very comfortable when he went to 10. Another very accomplished game for him. Just wished he got more game time there! Lots still to work on.

Peter Tracey

O’Brien looked sharp and has some serious pace. JGP and Frawley really sped the game up when they played together.

Frankie Taylor

Buzzing. Jimmy was incredible

David White

The spies from Toulouse in the stands leant nothing coz Ospreys were so poor

Tony Doyle

Good win and a great second half by Leinster

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URC WRAP

ROUND 16

DRAGONS 21-44 STORMERS

EDINBURGH 40-14 ZEBRE

BULLS 40-34 GLASGOW

SCARLETS 20-31 ULSTER

SHARKS 24-25 BENETTON

MUNSTER 47-12 CONNACHT

LIONS 34-13 CARDIFF

LEINSTER 61-14 OSPREYS

ROUND 17

FRI MAY 17

ZEBRE V SCARLETS

EDINBURGH V MUNSTER

SAT MAY 18

BULLS V BENETTON

OSPREYS V DRAGONS

LIONS V GLASGOW

CONNACHT V STORMERS

SHARKS V CARDIFF

ULSTER V LEINSTER

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345 : Leinster v Ospreys preview

also available as podcast

Our guest : NEIL ‘ KEEGO’ KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

LEINSTER : 15. Ciarán Frawley 14. Jordan Larmour 13. Jamie Osborne 12. Robbie Henshaw 11. Jimmy O’Brien 10. Ross Byrne 9. Luke McGrath

 1. Andrew Porter 2. Rónan Kelleher 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. Ross Molony 5. Jason Jenkins 6. Ryan Baird 7. Will Connors 8. Caelan Doris (c)

16. Dan Sheehan 17. Michael Milne 18. Thomas Clarkson 19. Jack Conan 20. Josh van der Flier 21. Jamison Gibson-Park 22. Charlie Ngatai 23. Tommy O’Brien

OSPREYS :  15. Max Nagy 14. Luke Morgan 13. Owen Watkin 12. Keiran Williams 11. Keelan Giles 10. Dan Edwards 9. Reuben Morgan-Williams

1. Nicky Smith 2. Dewi Lake 3. Rhys Henry 4. James Ratti 5. Huw Sutton 6. Harri Deaves 7. Justin Tipuric (c) 8. Morgan Morris

16. Sam Parry 17. Gareth Thomas 18. Tom Botha 19. Victor Sekekete 20. Jac Morgan 21. Luke Davies 22. Jack Walsh 23. Evardi Boshoff

BKT United Rugby Championship 2023/24 Round 16

Saturday, May 11, 2024

KO 7:35pm RDS Arena 

Live on: TG4, Premier Sports 1, URC.tv

Referee: Sam Grove-White (Scotland)

AR1: Keane Davison (Ireland)

AR2: Oisin Quinn (Ireland)

TMO: Andrew McMenemy (Ireland)

344 : Leinster v Northampton wrap

4 May 2024; James Lowe of Leinster celebrates after scoring his side’s second try during the Investec Champions Cup semi-final match between Leinster and Northampton Saints at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

🏉 Jamie & James
🏉 Chronic knockonitis
🏉 First score after break
🏉 Saints go marching
🏉 Captain Caelan

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

TOM COLEMAN

MARK JACKSON

FULL TIME TAKES

Ronan McManus

After the high of La Rochelle, there was always the risk of a down day.

That being said, we were great in bursts, and were in control for most of the game. The third try had as many “moments” in the buildup phases as any I can remember (I haven’t rewatched it, so I may be misremembering). Furlong’s reverse offload out of the tackle Bairds gallop, Henshaw somehow staying in field to keep the ball alive.

John Hyland

They did well kicking behind us, and using their wingers’ speed in the chase. Our back three look short of pace. Keenan is needed and I reckon Rob Russell might come in for Larmour.

Kevin Kelehan

Great stadium, great crowd, never say die opponents who were an absolute credit to themselves when down and out but dragged themselves back into make it very tight game. Leinster played well for 50 minutes but some very aimless kicking will doubtless be lacerated in the debrief, the pack who gave better than they got must have been super frustrated at times. Doris as always a terrier on the gainline

Gavin Hegarty

A great place to be in to say that we weren’t good but we still won a semi. If we play against Toulouse like that they will take us apart. At halftime we should have been further ahead but my god in the second half we fell asleep. The most unleinsterlike performance in a longtime.

Byrne left a few points out there from the tee but other than that was epic first half.

I was at it and feel as a club we let ourselves down. Atmosphere was lacking anything. Was dead quiet at times. Yes the stadium was blue but we failed to create the cauldron we needed.

I’ll watch it again but from the davin lower it looked like reynal was a bit indecisive. Not checking Frawley being taken out in the air again? I think peno and yellow

Pat Curran

Leinster will have to include Gary Ringrose, Hugo Keenan and James Ryan for the final. It could be what’s required for a European final.

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343 : Leinster v Northampton Saints preview

also available as a podcast

Our guest :

CIAN ‘RUGBY KINO’ O’MUILLEOIR

LEINSTER : 15 C Frawley 14 J Larmour 13 R Henshaw 12 J Osborne 11 J Lowe 10 R Byrne 9 J Gibson-Park

1 A Porter 2 D Sheehan 3 T Furlong 4 R Molony 5 J McCarthy 6 R Baird 7 J van der Flier 8 C Doris (c)

16 R Kelleher 17 C Healy 18 M Ala’alatoa 19 J Jenkins 20 J Conan 21 L McGrath 22 H Byrne 23 J O’Brien

NORTHAMPTON : 15 George Furbank 14 James Ramm 13 Tommy Freeman 12 Fraser Dingwall 11 George Hendy 10 Fin Smith 9 Alex Mitchell

1 Alex Waller 2 Curtis Langdon 3 Trevor Davison 4 Alex Moon 5 Alex Coles 6 Courtney Lawes (c) 7 Sam Graham 8 Juarno Augustus

16 Sam Matavesi 17 Emmanuel Iyogun 18 Elliot Millar Mills 19 Temo Mayanavanua 20 Angus Scott-Young 21 Tom James 22 Tom Litchfield 23 Tom Seabrook

Investec Champions Cup 2023/24 Semifinal

Saturday, May 4, 2024

KO 5:30pm  Croke Park

Live on: RTÉ2, TNT Sports 2

Referee: Mathieu Raynal (Fra)

AR1: Pierre Brousset (Fra)

AR2: Luc Ramos (Fra)

TMO: Thomas Charabas (Fra)

342 : Stormers v Leinster/Ireland v Scotland wrap

2024 Guinness Women’s Six Nations Championship Round 5, Kingspan Stadium, Belfast 27/4/2024Ireland vs ScotlandIreland’s Katie Corrigan scores her sides first try despite Mairi McDonald and Alex Stewart of Scotland Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Ben Brady

🏉 Fastest wrap ever
🏉 Four provinces in top 8
🏉 Women’s heroics
🏉 Northampton’s threat
🏉 Roll on Croker

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

CIARÁN DUFFY

JAY LONG

TOM COLEMAN

FULL TIME TAKES

William Andrew

We know why, but it still hurts.

Kevin Kelehan

Great to see Gus McCarthy step up, a steep learning curve for the emerging squad members, far from ideal to have back to back away games in South Africa when squad rotation is at its peak. The lads showed decent fight in the third quarter but the errors in the first half were mostly preventable.

Greg Kelly

*Copy and Paste last week’s comments*

On the bright side our young lads dominated the 3rd quarter but the inexperience and inaccuracies were evident. They’ll get better and they’ll learn from this. However if we end up trophyless again this season I’m not sure these “kids school trips” to SA will not cut the mustard.

In a wider sense I don’t like where the URC is going. Some of the fixure scheduling is…suspicious. I think the SA franchises are gaining more than they add to it and teams being forced by pragmatism, timing or necessity to give up 2 games and 10 points undermines true competition.

Richard Kennedy

A big rethink needed on sending our 2nd/3rd string down to get pummelled in by hardened pros in SA. Some of those young players simply aren’t ready for that level yet

Warren Doyle

Much as expected. Training ground stuff didn’t work in the heat of battle. Very little inivotive thinking once that failed. Experience – yes. Knowledge – ?. Could be critical but players don’t need that.

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URC WRAP

ROUND 15

SCARLETS 27-32 SHARKS

ULSTER 38-34 BENETTON

ZEBRE 9-40 GLASGOW

BULLS 61-24 OSPREYS

CARDIFF 7-24 EDINBURGH

LIONS 13-33 MUNSTER

STORMERS 42-12 LEINSTER

DRAGONS 27-34 CONNACHT

ROUND 15

FRI MAY 10

DRAGONS V STORMERS

EDINBURGH V ZEBRE

SAT MAY 11

BULLS V GLASGOW

SCARLETS V ULSTER

SHARKS V BENETTON

MUNSTER V CONNACHT

LIONS V CARDIFF

LEINSTER V OSPREYS

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341 : Stormers v Leinster preview

also available as a podcast

Our guest : NEIL ‘KEEGO’ KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

LEINSTER : 15. Henry McErlean 14. Liam Turner 13. Ben Brownlee 12. Charlie Ngatai 11. Rob Russell 10. Sam Prendergast 9. Cormac Foley

1. Michael Milne 2. John McKee 3. Michael Ala’alatoa 4. Brian Deeny 5. Jason Jenkins 6. Rhys Ruddock 7. Scott Penny (c) 8. Max Deegan

16. Gus McCarthy 17. Ed Byrne 18. Thomas Clarkson 19. Conor O’Tighearnaigh 20. Diarmuid Mangan 21. Fintan Gunne 22. Charlie Tector 23. Martin Moloney

STORMERS: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Dan du Plessis, 12 Damian Willemse, 11 Ben Loader, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Herschel Jantjies

1 Brok Harris, 2 Joseph Dweba, 3 Neethling Fouche, 4 Salmaan Moerat (c), 5 Ruben van Heerden, 6 Marcel Theunissen, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 8 Evan Roos 

16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Kwenzo Blose, 18 Frans Malherbe, 19 Connor Evans, 20 Willie Engelbrecht, 21 Hacjivah Dayimani, 22 Stefan Ungerer, 23 Wandisile Simelane

BKT United Rugby Championship 2023/24 Round 15

Saturday, April 27, 2024

KO 6:05pm  DHL Stadium

Live on: TG4, Premier Sports 2, URC.tv

Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR)

AR1: Marius vd Westhuizen (SARU)

AR2: Christopher Allison (SARU)

TMO: Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR)

337 : Leinster v La Rochelle wrap

13 April 2024; Dan Sheehan of Leinster dives over to score his side’s fourth try despite the tackle of Jonathan Danty of La Rochelle during the Investec Champions Cup quarter-final match between Leinster and La Rochelle at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

🏉 Nienaber D

🏉 Frustrating restarts

🏉 Excellent exit

🏉 Ross the Boss

🏉 Monkey gone

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

TOM COLEMAN & MARK JACKSON

FULL TIME TAKES

Neil ‘Keego’ Keegan

That was massive for between the ears

Rewatched highlights. There was only 1 horse in it

I’m trying to figure out the La Rochelle game plan 

Also trying to figure out why Leinster-jitzu didn’t work in the years previous

Today is a (nother) day my aul lad and others didn’t have. France were unbeatable and we were close to thinking the same about La Rochelle. 

Today we showed what the story is. It’s actually unreal because it dismantled a he entire O’Gara La Rochelle gameplan

Paul McSweeney

I went to the game thinking that Leinster at their best might just squeeze a win in. How wrong can I be? That was an emphatic performance. Leinster needed this win way more than LR and it showed.

Now I’m just hoping that Croke Park is fully open and that tickets will be reasonably priced. I have my tickets for the final already…

Kevin Kelehan

Been watching Leinster since 1986 when they beat Munster in that years inter-pro, without hesitation that is by some distance the best Leinster performance I’ve ever seen, no Hugo Kennan, no Gary Ringrose and no James Ryan, yet they completely and utterly destroyed and humiliated the reigning champions in some style. Looking forward to the final in Tottenham and the cinquieme etoile!!!!

Greg Kelly

Usual story. Another 5 year French dynasty falls. The Leinster dynasty and brand continues. A few 50/50 calls saved LAR some extra pain but it feels like a sort of redemption. LARs false economy was built on Leinsters back and it falls to Leinsters sword.

LAR went to Cork looking to harness the local energy and they certainly harnessed some Munster European Energy 😉

William Andrew

Very well thought out performance by the players and coaches. Expected a slug fest with the selection but Leinster were moving LR around the park mercilessly.

I have had my reservations about Neinabar, but my goodness he delivered a class performance today.

Great to see secondary players delivering an emphatic game when it matters so much.

Chris McDonnell

I am not a Ross fan but he was excellent today. Credit where its due. Leo gambled with some calls today and got them right. Well done to them all.

Alan Murphy

A Test quality performance. Professional and tactical perfection. Delighted with the lads today. High pressure game with a lot of nonsense coming out of Cork during the week. Onwards and upwards.

Martin Lynch

Just So Lucky To Be A Leinster Fan. The Relief In The Stadium Was Palpable. Roll On Croker .

John O Halloran

Best performance in a long time, they stepped up . Well done.

Josephine Boyd

A fantastic performance from our boys in blue.💙👕🏈👍👏👏💪☘️

@harpinonrugby

Have wait for the traffic to clear so might as well do an aul TikTok as ya do… #LEIvLAR #InvestecChampionsCup #rugbytiktok

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com

Get in the conversation yourself by leaving 

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CHAMPIONS CUP WRAP

QUARTERFINALS

BORDEAUX 41-42 HARLEQUINS

LEINSTER 40-13 LA ROCHELLE

NORTHAMPTON 59-22 BULLS

TOULOUSE 64-26 EXETER

SEMIFINALS

SAT MAY 4

LEINSTER V NORTHAMPTON

SUN MAY 5

TOULOUSE V HARLEQUINS

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