Category: URC

340 : Lions v Leinster wrap & URC run-in overview

20 April 2024; Charlie Ngatai of Leinster, supported by teammate Scott Penny, is tackled by PJ Botha of Emirates Lions during the United Rugby Championship match between Emirates Lions and Leinster at Emirates Airline Park in Johannesburg, South Africa. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

🏉 Lions cohesion

🏉 No way back

🏉 Fast news week

🏉 Race for the top 8

🏉 May squad management

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

CONOR CRONIN & RICH MIFSUD

FULL TIME TAKES

Odran John OBrien

A game I’ve already forgotten 😉😂

Alastair McDermott

That was embarrassing. Performance was naive and inaccurate. Some of that is on the young lads not performing individually, but I think a major part is some of the older lads we’d hope to step up and lead in those circumstances failed to do so.

Greg Kelly

We were playing touch rugby in defence. If you are one of the teams fighting for 4th-8th you’d be excused for asking why Leinster don’t serve up 5 points away to you too?🤷‍♂️ We started dreadfully and then when we found a rythem we were woefully inaccurate.

Getting beaten like that is acceptable if we can walk away with silverware at the end. If not then questions need to be asked.

Éamonn Rogers

Honestly it was a game with little at stake played at 1700m (for context nearly 700m higher than Carrountoohil) I’d see it as nothing more than a blooding exercise/fixture we are obliged to fulfil. The stats show that there were a lot of positive elements. We (thankfully) don’t have the luxury of sending our primary team down like our southern cousins. Overall I’d say we could have done better but not the end of the world

Kevin Kelehan

A lot of players will be very disappointed with their performance, got the chance to shine and made unforced errors, hopefully a big improvement next week.

William Andrew

Looked like an unfocused Leinster. Distracted by the hype of this last week, etc etc. Everyone who has ever played knows you have to be dialed in 100% or you will struggle.

Lions were very sharp and handled the blitz defence with pace and good passing. Northampton are going to be all over this video.

A wake up call, last season we were great and not great for about the last three minutes in two games. 😢

Get in the conversation yourself by leaving 

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URC WRAP

ROUND 14

ULSTER 19-17 CARDIFF

GLASGOW 21-10 SHARKS

LIONS 44-12 LEINSTER

BENETTON 36-19 DRAGONS

BULLS 22-27 MUNSTER

STORMERS 21-27 OSPREYS

CONNACHT 54-16 ZEBRE

EDINBURGH 43-18 SCARLETS

ROUND 15

FRI APR 26

SCARLETS V SHARKS

ULSTER V BENETTON

SAT APR 27

ZEBRE V GLASGOW

BULLS V OSPREYS

CARDIFF V EDINBURGH

LIONS V MUNSTER

STORMERS V LEINSTER

DRAGONS V CONNACHT

HARPIN MATCH WRAPS

ARE BROUGHT TO YOU BY

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AT ELVERYS

339 : Lions v Leinster preview

also available as podcast

Our guest : NEIL ‘KEEGO’ KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

LEINSTER : 15: Ciarán Frawley 14: Rob Russell 13: Liam Turner 12: Charlie Ngatai 11: Andrew Osborne 10: Harry Byrne 9: Luke McGrath

1: Cian Healy 2: Lee Barron 3: Thomas Clarkson 4: Brian Deeny 5: Jason Jenkins 6: Diarmuid Mangan 7: Scott Penny (c) 8: Max Deegan

16: John McKee 17: Michael Milne 18: Michael Ala’alatoa 19: Ross Molony 20: Rhys Ruddock 21: Cormac Foley 22: San Prendergast 23: Ben Brownlee

LIONS : 15. Quan Horn 14. Richard Kriel 13. Erich Cronje 12. Marius Louw (c) 11. Edwill van der Merwe 10. Sanele Nohamba 9. Morne van den Berg

1. Morgan Naude 2. PJ Botha 3. Ruan Dreyer 4. Willem Alberts 5. Ruan Delport 6. JC Pretorius 7. Emmanuel Tshituka 8. Francke Horn
16. Jaco Visagie 17. JP Smith 18. Asenathi Ntlabakanye 19. Reinhard Nothnagel 20. Sibusiso Sangweni 21. Nico Steyn 22. Jordan Hendrikse 23. Henco van Wyk

BKT United Rugby Championship 2023/24 Round 14

Saturday, April 20, 2024

KO 2pm  Emirates Airlines Park

Live on: RTÉ2, URC.tv

Referee: Gianluca Gnecchi (Italy)

AR1: Morne Ferreira (South Africa)

AR2: Christopher Allison (South Africa)

TMO: Andrea Piardi (Italy)

332 : Leinster v Bulls preview

also available as podcast

LEINSTER :  15. Jordan Larmour 14. Rob Russell 13. Robbie Henshaw 12. Jamie Osborne 11. James Lowe 10. Harry Byrne 9. Luke McGrath (c)

1. Cian Healy 2. Rónan Kelleher 3. Michael Ala’alatoa 4. Ross Molony 5. Joe McCarthy 6. Ryan Baird 7. Josh van der Flier 8. Jack Conan

16. Dan Sheehan 17. Michael Milne 18. Tadhg Furlong 19. Jason Jenkins 20. Caelan Doris 21. Jamison Gibson-Park 22. Ross Byrne 23. Liam Turner

VODACOM BULLS :  15. Willie Le Roux 14. Kurt-Lee Arendse 13. Canan Moodie 12. David Kriel 11. Devon Williams 10. Johan Goosen 9. Embrose Papier

1. Gerhard Steenekamp, 2. Akker van der Merwe, 3. Wilco Louw, 4. Ruan Vermaak, 5. Ruan Nortje (c), 6. Marco van Staden, 7. Elrigh Louw, 8. Marcell Coetzee (c)

16. Johan Grobbelaar, 17. Simphiwe Matanzima, 18. Mornay Smith, 19. Reinhardt Ludwig, 20. Mpilo Gumede, 21. Zak Burger, 22. Chris Smith, 23. Harold Vorster

BKT United Rugby Championship 2023/24 Round 13

Friday, March 29, 2024

KO 7:35pm  RDS

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

Referee: Craig Evans (Wales)

AR1: Chris Busby (Ireland)

AR2: Andy Fogarty (Ireland)

TMO: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)

331 : Zebre v Leinster wrap

23 March 2024; Rob Russell of Leinster evades the tackle of Simone Gesi of Zebre on his way to scoring his side’s first try during the United Rugby Championship match between Zebre Parma and Leinster at Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi in Parma, Italy. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

🏉 Rocket Rob

🏉 The Osbournes

🏉 Max Exposure

🏉 Les Femmes En France

🏉 Running With The Bulls

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

TOM COLEMAN & CIARÁN DUFFY

Check our Ciarán’s own pod Post To Post Sport here

FULL TIME TAKES

Kevin Kelehan

Score flattered Leinster who finished ruthlessly and tackled and tackled, great squad depth

Shane Gallagher

We need to talk about Liam Turner. I know we can all see Jamie stepping up to a possible first choice centre position but Turner is so fast and powerful…love to watch him both in defence and attack!

Karen Mooney

As always leinster come out in the second half.. and put the match to bed…

Get in the conversation yourself by leaving 

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in Leinster & Ireland matches on our Facebook page

URC WRAP

ROUND 12

GLASGOW 17-13 CARDIFF

OSPREYS 17-27 MUNSTER

SHARKS 22-12 ULSTER

SCARLETS 16-13 BENETTON

STORMERS 43-21 EDINBURGH

CONNACHT 14-38 LIONS

DRAGONS 10-31 BULLS

ZEBRE 7-31 LEINSTER

ROUND 13

FRI MAR 29

LEINSTER V BULLS

DRAGONS V ZEBRE

SAT MAR 30

BENETTON V CONNACHT

SHARKS V EDINBURGH

OSPREYS V LIONS

STORMERS V ULSTER

SCARLETS V GLASGOW

MUNSTER V CARDIFF

HARPIN MATCH WRAPS

ARE BROUGHT TO YOU BY

THE IRISH RUGBY SHOP

AT ELVERYS

330 : Zebre v Leinster preview

Our guest : NEIL “KEEGO” KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

LEINSTER : 15. Ciarán Frawley 14. Rob Russell 13. Liam Turner 12. Jamie Osborne 11. Andrew Osborne 10. Ross Byrne 9. Luke McGrath

1. Ed Byrne 2. Lee Barron 3. Thomas Clarkson 4. Ross Molony 5. Jason Jenkins 6. Will Connors 7. Scott Penny (c) 8. Max Deegan

16. John McKee 17. Michael Milne 18. Michael Ala’alatoa 19. Brian Deeny 20. Diarmuid Mangan 21. Fintan Gunne 22. Sam Prendergast 23. Henry McErlean

 ZEBRE PARMA : 15. Jacopo Trulla 14. Scott Gregory 13. Luca Morisi 12. Fetuli Paea 11. Simone Gesi 10. Geronimo Prisciantelli 9. Gonzalo Garcia

1. Muhamed Hasa 2. Giampietro Ribaldi 3. Juan Pitinari 4. David Sisi 5. Leonard Krumov 6. Davide Ruggeri 7. Iacopo Bianchi 8. Giovanni Licata (c) 

16. Tommaso Di Bartolomeo 17. Luca Rizzoli 18. Riccardo Genovese 19. Matteo Canali 20. Josh Kaifa 21. Alessandro Fusco 22. Damiano Mazza 23. Pierre Bruno 

BKT United Rugby Championship 2023/24 Round 12

Saturday, March 23, 2024

KO 7:35pm  Sergio Lanfranchi Stadium

Live on: RTÉ2, Premier Sports 2, URC.tv

Referee: Morne Ferreira (South Africa)

AR1: Andrea Piardi (Italy)

AR2: Dante D’Elia (Italy)

TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa)

325 : Cardiff v Leinster wrap

2 March 2024; John McKee of Leinster celebrates as Michael Milne of Leinster, obscured, scores his side’s fourth try during the United Rugby Championship match between Cardiff and Leinster at Cardiff Arms Park in Cardiff, Wales. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

🏉 Pack mentality
🏉 Offloadin’ Will
🏉 Carré-d away
🏉 Doin’ sh*t well
🏉 10 outta 10

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

CONOR CRONIN & CIARÁN DUFFY

Also check out Ciarán’s pod Post To Post sport here

FULL TIME TAKES

Kevin Kelehan

Scoring when down to 14 was indicative of a team that knows how to win, the hunger in the squad is superb.

Eamon Saunders

Good win again ,great to have so much talent in the set up 👍

Get in the conversation yourself by leaving 

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in Leinster & Ireland matches on our Facebook page

URC WRAP

ROUND 11

EDINBURGH 19-15 OSPREYS

MUNSTER 45-29 ZEBRE

LIONS 40-10 SHARKS

BENETTON 9-19 GLASGOW WARRIORS

BULLS 40-22 STORMERS

CONNACHT 26-10 SCARLETS

CARDIFF 20-33 LEINSTER

ULSTER 49-26 DRAGONS

ROUND 12

FRI MAR 22

GLASGOW V CARDIFF

OSPREYS V MUNSTER

SAT MAR 23

SHARKS V ULSTER

SCARLETS V BENETTON

STORMERS V EDINBURGH

CONNACHT V LIONS

DRAGONS V BULLS

ZEBRE V LEINSTER

HARPIN MATCH WRAPS

ARE BROUGHT TO YOU BY

THE IRISH RUGBY SHOP

AT ELVERYS

324 : Cardiff v Leinster preview

Our guest : NEIL “KEEGO” KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

LEINSTER : 15. Jordan Larmour 14. Liam Turner 13. Jamie Osborne  12. Harry Byrne 11. Rob Russell 10. Ross Byrne 9. Luke McGrath

1. Jack Boyle 2. Lee Barron 3. Thomas Clarkson 4. Ross Molony 5. Jason Jenkins 6. Will Connors 7. Scott Penny > CAPTAIN 8. Max Deegan

16. John McKee 17. Michael Milne 18. Michael Ala’alatoa 19. Brian Deeny 20. Rhys Ruddock 21. Ben Murphy 22. Sam Prendergast 23. Ben Brownlee

CARDIFF : 15 Jacob Beetham 14 Owen Lane 13 Max Clark 12 Ben Thomas 11 Aled Summerhill 10 Tinus de Beer 9 Ellis Bevan

1 Rhys Carré 2 Liam Belcher 3 Will Davies-King 4 Shane Lewis-Hughes 5 Josh Turnbull (c) 6 Ellis Jenkins 7 Thomas Young 8 Lopeti Timani

16 Dafydd Hughes 17 Rhys Barratt 18 Ciaran Parker 19 Ben Donnell 20 Alun Lawrence 21 Lucas de la Rua 22 Matthew Aubrey 23 Willis Halaholo

BKT United Rugby Championship 2023/24

Saturday, March 2, 2024

KO 7:35pm  Cardiff Arms Park

Live on: RTÉ2, Premier Sports 1, URC.tv

Referee: Mike Adamson (SRU)

AR1: Ben Whitehouse (WRU)

AR2: Ben Breakspear (WRU)

TMO: Dave Sutherland (SRU)

320 : Leinster v Benetton wrap

17 February 2024; Liam Turner of Leinster evades the tackle of Ignacio Mendy of Benetton, right, on his way to scoring his side’s third try during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Benetton at the RDS Arena in Dublin. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile

🏉 Get #IrelandWeek trending

🏉 Death by 1,000 scrums

🏉 The Osbourne Supremacy

🏉 Pesky Leprechauns

🏉 Sam’s Glam Cameo

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

CONOR CRONIN & RICH MIFSUD

FULL TIME TAKES

Brian Corr

Great result considering how well Benetton are doing this season and all the missing internationals.

Love Prendergast’s cool under pressure ability, he took a wrong option and was immediately swamped by the defence but had the ability to keep calm and place the ball back so well.

Lots of rusty performances and mistakes due to weather and no recent games.

Delighted to see Byrne get a chance to rinse the spiderwebs off his game and McErlean get a solid game behind him, again pity the weather was so naff for his first tog out.

Greg Kelly

Leinster sticking 47 points on the 2nd placed team tells you all you need to know about the URC

Craig Grehan

Good to see that mixture of players running well. Few fumbles here & there. But very good

Eamon Saunders

Good win nice to see a Wexford man get a try #Brian Deeny

Christy O’Connor

Very scrappy at times from both sides. Have to hand it to Benetton, they fought really well and I don’t think the scoreline does them justice

Dave Murray

Not a spectacular performance but good 5 points.

Get in the conversation yourself by leaving 

your own thoughts each week after the full time whistle 

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URC WRAP

ROUND 10

SCARLETS 7-42 MUNSTER

ZEBRE 19-24 EDINBURGH

LIONS 10-25 BULLS

LEINSTER 47-18 BENETTON

SHARKS 21-25 STORMERS

CARDIFF 12-16 CONNACHT

GLASGOW WARRIORS 40-7 DRAGONS

OSPREYS 19-17 ULSTER

ROUND 11

FRI MAR 1

EDINBURGH V OSPREYS

MUNSTER V ZEBRE

SAT MAR 2

LIONS V SHARKS

BENETTON V GLASGOW WARRIORS

BULLS V STORMERS

CONNACHT V SCARLETS

CARDIFF V LEINSTER

ULSTER V DRAGONS

HARPIN MATCH WRAPS

ARE BROUGHT TO YOU BY

THE IRISH RUGBY SHOP

AT ELVERYS

319 : Leinster v Benetton preview

LEINSTER : 15. Henry McErlean 14. Tommy O’Brien 13. Liam Turner 12. Jamie Osborne 11. Rob Russell 10. Ross Byrne 9. Luke McGrath

1. Jack Boyle 2. Lee Barron 3. Thomas Clarkson 4. Ross Molony 5. Jason Jenkins 6. Will Connors 7. Scott Penny (c) 8. Max Deegan 

16. John McKee 17. Ed Byrne 18. Michael Ala’alatoa 19. Brian Deeny 20. Rhys Ruddock 21. Ben Murphy 22. Sam Prendergast 23. Ben Brownlee

BENETTON : 15 Jacob Umaga 14 Ignacio Mendy 13 Malakai Fekitoa 12 Marco Zanon 11 Onisi Ratave 10 Tomas Albornoz 9 Andy Uren

1 Thomas Gallo 2 Siua Maile 3 Tiziano Pasquali 4 Gideon Koegelenberg 5 Eli Snyman (C) 6 Giovanni Pettinelli 7 Toa Halafihi 8 Henry Time-Stowers 

16 Giacomo Nicotera 17 Federico Zani 18 Filippo Alongi 19 Riccardo Favretto 20 Alessandro Izekor 21 Alessandro Garbisi 22 Leonardo Marin 23 Filippo Drago

BKT United Rugby Championship 2023/24 Round 10

Saturday, February 17, 2024

KO 3pm RDS Arena

Live on: RTÉ2, Premier Sports 2, URC.tv

Referee: Hollie Davidson (SRU)

AR1: Eoghan Cross (IRFU)

AR2: Tomas O’Sullivan (IRFU)

TMO: Colin Brett (SRU)

308 : Leinster v Ulster wrap

1 January 2024 – Jason Jenkins of Leinster in a maul during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Ulster at RDS Arena in Dublin. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
@harpinonrugby

Our Leinster v Ulster wrap pod is now available on Apple, Spotify and most major platforms

♬ original sound – Harpinonrugby.com – Harpinonrugby.com

🏉 Homework done

🏉 Quick reply

🏉 Another “Nicked” try

🏉 Missed chances

🏉 Hanging on

THIS WEEK’S GUEST

NEIL ‘KEEGO’ KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

photo by Ramsey Cardy

FULL TIME TAKES

Conor Cronin

Ulster exploited our D in the first 20 and that was very significant.

A game like this shouldn’t be decided by an interpretation of the laws, or lack thereof, but I really feel it was today, players on or off their feet, when use it is called or not, whether or not a tackler is held, they are big moments and weren’t decided by the players.

That said, the wrong pass at the wrong time at the end, not looking for the drop goal, there are problems to be fixed

Rich Mifsud

Well can’t say we didn’t deserve that tbh and the stupid fucking ending simply drew a line under that performance. Fair fucks to Ulster putting in a huge shift on D but our game management and decision making left a lot to be desired.

All the right decision making and game management in similar conditions at LAR went to rat shit (admittedly with different personnel)

To be honest I actually expected more of these types of performances given the changes in systems brought in by Nienaber. Not to have seen more is to our credit

Kevin Kelehan

Fair play to Ulster closing it out, they took the squad rotation handicap perfectly, James Ryan’s absence once again fatal for Leinster in a tight game

Sean Michaels

Ulster showed greater desire in awful conditions. Thought some of our decision making on field was questionable. We seemed intent on giving possession away with some poor box kicking, and kicking out of hand, when it seemed more logical to keep it tight and build momentum. Unfortunately, whilst Mr Murphy was not too kind to Leinster he was not the reason we lost. Apart from the LR game I think we have been generally poor and have had a couple of fortunate results which has tended to paper over the cracks

Cian Ormond

Beaten by the better team, no complaints there. The chances to win were available and they were missed. Still top of the table though, the clash with Benetton is more interesting now.

Colin McConaghie (Ulster fan)

Brilliant! Loved every minute 😁 we really exploited the space out wide and Billy Burns was absolutely superb

Get in the conversation yourself by leaving 

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URC WRAP

ROUND 9

BENETTON 36-14 ZEBRE

EDINBURGH 19-14 GLASGOW WARRIORS

STORMERS 16-15 SHARKS

CONNACHT 22-9 MUNSTER

OSPREYS 27-21 CARDIFF

DRAGONS 13-12 SCARLETS

LEINSTER 21-22 ULSTER

ROUND 8

SAT JAN 6

SHARKS V LIONS

ROUND 9

SAT JAN 27

BULLS V LIONS

ROUND 10

FRI FEB 16

SCARLETS V MUNSTER

ZEBRE V EDINBURGH

SAT FEB 17

LIONS V BULLS

LEINSTER V BENETTON

SHARKS V STORMERS

CARDIFF V CONNACHT

GLASGOW WARRIORS V DRAGONS

SUN FEB 18

OSPREYS V ULSTER

HARPIN MATCH WRAPS

ARE BROUGHT TO YOU BY

THE IRISH RUGBY SHOP

AT ELVERYS