Category: URC

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

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🏉 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.

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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

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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
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🏉 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

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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

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307 : #LEIvULS preview

also available as podcast

our guest : CONOR CRONIN

Leinster : 15. Jimmy O’Brien 14. Tommy O’Brien 13. Liam Turner 12. Robbie Henshaw 11. Rob Russell 10. Sam Prendergast 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Cian Healy 2. Dan Sheehan 3. Thomas Clarkson 4. Jason Jenkins 5. James Ryan (c) 6. Ryan Baird 7. Will Connors 8. Caelan Doris

16. Lee Barron 17. Jack Boyle 18. Michael Ala’alatoa 19. Joe McCarthy 20. Jack Conan 21. Luke McGrath 22. Harry Byrne 23. Josh van der Flier 

Ulster : 15 Will Addison 14 Rob Baloucoune 13 Luke Marshall 12 Stuart McCloskey 11 Jacob Stockdale 10 Billy Burns 9John Cooney

1 Steven Kitshoff 2 Rob Herring 3 Tom O’Toole 4 Kieran Treadwell 5 Iain Henderson 6 Matty Rea 7 Sean Reffell 8 Nick Timoney.

16 Tom Stewart 17 Andy Warwick 18 Scott Wilson 19 Alan O’Connor 20 Dave Ewers 21 Nathan Doak 22 Mike Lowry 23 Jude Postlethwaite

BKT United Rugby Championship 23/24 Round 9

Monday, January 1, 2024

KO 5:15pm RDS Arena

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

Referee: Frank Murphy (IRFU)

AR 1: Eoghan Cross (IRFU)

AR 2: Tomas O’Sullivan (IRFU)

TMO: Joy Neville (IRFU)

306 : Munster v Leinster wrap

26 December 2023; Ryan Baird of Leinster wins a lineout during the United Rugby Championship match between Munster and Leinster at Thomond Park in Limerick. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
@harpinonrugby

Our Munster v Leinster wrap pod is now on Apple, Spotify and most major platforms #rugbytiktoks🏉 #Leinster

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🏉 Porter v Jager

🏉 “more of a roll”????

🏉 Missed kicks

🏉 Territory dominance

🏉 Match talk > RGS talk

THIS WEEK’S GUEST

Neil “KEEGO” Keegan

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

FULL TIME TAKES

Paul Smith

Leinster did what they needed to do and were deserving winners. On a side note I lost a lot of respect for O’Callaghan after his rant about Snyman coming to Leinster. His point about holding Irish players back might have carried more weight if he saad the same thing when he signed for Munster. I’m sorry but he sounded petty and bitter and I would expect more from him. He’s usually one of the best pundits to be fair but he did himself no favours this evening. I’m still going to enjoy celebrating another Leinster win in Thomond mind you.

Dave Murray

Ugly win with the conditions but a good win all the same. A kind of game a certain Jacques Nienabar might like with a forward dominated game with the conditions but great effort by the players. Joe McCarthy deserved POTM

Kevin Kelehan

Terrible conditions, very strong Munster defence but Leinster just made fewer mistakes.

Eamon Saunders

Not pretty to watch but a win nonetheless,move on to the next 👏👏

Chris McDonnell

We need to stop this harry byrne sillyness. Oh and mcgrath was just awful too. Thankfully We just dominated their pack

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URC WRAP

ROUND 8

GLASGOW WARRIORS 22-10 EDINBURGH

ULSTER 20-19 CONNACHT

ZEBRE 24-31 BENETTON

STORMERS 26-20 BULLS

CARDIFF 55-21 DRAGONS

SCARLETS 11-25 OSPREYS

MUNSTER 3-9 LEINSTER

ROUND 9

SAT DEC 30

BENETTON V ZEBRE

EDINBURGH V GLASGOW WARRIORS

STORMERS V SHARKS

MON JAN 1

CONNACHT V MUNSTER

OSPREYS V CARDIFF

DRAGONS V SCARLETS

LEINSTER V ULSTER

HARPIN MATCH WRAPS

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305 : #MUNvLEI preview

also available as podcast

Our guest : JAY LONG

Leinster : 15. Hugo Keenan 14. Jordan Larmour 13. Garry Ringrose (CAPTAIN) 12. Ciarán Frawley 11. Rob Russell 10. Harry Byrne 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Andrew Porter 2. Rónan Kelleher 3. Michael Ala’alatoa 4. Ross Molony 5. Joe McCarthy 6. Max Deegan 7. Scott Penny 8. Jack Conan

16. Dan Sheehan 17. Ed Byrne 18. Thomas Clarkson 19. Jason Jenkins 20. Ryan Baird 21. Luke McGrath 22. Liam Turner 23. Will Connors

Munster : 15 Simon Zebo; 14 Calvin Nash, 13 Antoine Frisch, 12 Alex Nankivell, 11 Shane Daly; 10 Jack Crowley, 9 Craig Casey

1 Dave Kilcoyne, 2 Diarmuid Barron (C), 3 Oli Jager; 4 Edwin Edogbo, 5 Gavin Coombes; 6 Tom Ahern, 7 John Hodnett, 8 Jack O’Donoghue.

16 Eoghan Clarke, 17 Jeremy Loughman, 18 Stephen Archer, 19 Brian Gleeson, 20 Alex Kendellen, 21 Paddy Patterson, 22 Tony Butler, 23 Seán O’Brien.

BKT United Rugby Championship 23/24 Round 8

Tuesday, December 26, 2023

KO 7:35pm Thomond Park

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

Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU)

AR 1: Peter Martin (IRFU)

AR 2: Andrew Cole (IRFU)

TMO: Brian McNeice (IRFU)

300 : Connacht v Leinster wrap

2 December 2023; Harry Byrne of Leinster kicks a conversion during the United Rugby Championship match between Connacht and Leinster at the Sportsground in Galway. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
@harpinonrugby

Our 300th pod featuring a wrap of Connacht v Leinster is now available on Apple, Spotify and most major platforms #rugbytiktoks🏉 #irishtiktok #irelandtiktok

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🏉 MUN, ULS & 7s reviews

🏉 Set pieces in pieces

🏉 Cutting Blade

🏉 Unforced Error Tennis

🏉 That Frawley Step

THIS WEEK’S GUEST

CONOR CRONIN

FULL TIME TAKES

Andrew Byrne
A last minute try can’t paper over those cracks. We were far below where we should be. Is our squad just too big, all this rotation seems to be causing a lack of cohesion in our playing combinations. I only hope we have a better performance in the bank for next week.

Chris McDonnell
Seriously not good enough. This rotating the whole team had to stop. Too many players just not good enough to play for Leinster.

Darran Kearney
Kinda liking that we are playing so poorly early season, instead of beating everyone out the door and learning nothing. Coaches have 6 months to work with the team for the business end of the season. Hoping we can end this season better than we have in the more recent seasons

Christy O’Connor
Way too much rotation, players playing out of position. Lots of schoolboy errors. Have we not learned anything from the last 2 seasons. We rested players that only played 1 or 2 games. This is now getting ridiculous. Stop giving lads time just for the sake of it. We need to give the core players more time and the others should possibly look to move abroad.

Conor O’Shea
Poor performance, but a wins a win. No major injuries for next week from tonight

Eamon Saunders
A lot of mistakes from both sides but good to get the win 👏👏

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URC ROUND 7 WRAP

ROUND 7

MUNSTER 40-29 GLASGOW

BULLS 44-10 SHARKS

CARDIFF 23-29 SCARLETS

LIONS 49-24 DRAGONS

ULSTER 24-27 EDINBURGH

STORMERS 31-7 ZEBRE

CONNACHT 22-24 LEINSTER

BENETTON18-13 OSPREYS

ROUND 8

FRI DEC 22

GLASGOW WARRIORS V EDINBURGH

ULSTER V CONNACHT

SAT DEC 23

ZEBRE V BENETTON

STORMERS V BULLS

TUE DEC 26

CARDIFF V DRAGONS

SCARLETS V OSPREYS

MUNSTER V LEINSTER

HARPIN MATCH WRAPS

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299 : #CONvLEI preview

also available as a podcast

our guest : NEIL ‘KEEGO’ KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

Leinster : 15. Ciarán Frawley 14. Rob Russell 13. Robbie Henshaw 12. Charlie Ngatai 11. Jamie Osborne 10. Harry Byrne 9. Ben Murphy

1. Ed Byrne 2. Rónan Kelleher 3. Michael Ala’alatoa 4. Ryan Baird 5. Jason Jenkins 6. Max Deegan 7. Scott Penny 8. James Culhane

16. Lee Barron 17. Cian Healy 18. Tadhg Furlong 19. Ross Molony 20. Jack Conan 21. Cormac Foley 22. Liam Turner 23. Will Connors 

Connacht : 15. Tiernan O’Halloran 14. Mack Hansen 13. Byron Ralston 12. Cathal Forde 11. Diarmuid Kilgallen 10. JJ Hanrahan 9. Caolin Blade

1. Peter Dooley 2. Dave Heffernan 3. Jack Aungier 4. Darragh Murray 5. Oisin Dowling 6. Cian Prendergast 7. Shamus Hurley-Langton 8. Seán Jansen

16. Dylan Tierney-Martin 17. Denis Buckley 18. Finlay Bealham 19. Niall Murray 20. Paul Boyle 21. Michael McDonald 22. David Hawkshaw 23. Conor Oliver

United Rugby Championship 23/24 Round 7

Saturday, November 25, 2023

KO 7:35pm Aviva Stadium

TV : RTÉ2, Premier Sports 1, URC.tv

Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU)

AR 1: Peter Martin (IRFU)

AR 2: Keane Davison (IRFU)

TMO: Olly Hodges (IRFU)

297 : Leinster v Munster wrap

25 November 2023; Dan Sheehan of Leinster dives over to score his side’s second try despite the efforts of Gavin Coombes and Jack Crowley of Munster during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Munster at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
@harpinonrugby

Our Leinster v Munster wrap is now available on Apple Spotify and most major platforms #rugbytiktoks🏉 #irishtiktok #irelandtiktok

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🏉 ULS & CON reviews

🏉 Early Munster pressure

🏉 JGP opportunism

🏉 First Receiver Frawley

🏉 Leinster D 2.0

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS

TOM COLEMAN & NATHAN JOHNS

FULL TIME TAKES

Conor Cronin

Leinster were not at their best tonight, and indeed far from it. A few players that might be considered world class might need a break ad they haven’t been at their best for a while and (a la Richie McCaw) might benefit from the rest

On the plus side, far from our best we ground out a win, Jordan Larmour back scoring tries, and Frawley proving he’s the real deal at 10 are my personal biggest positives for tonight, I only hope these are consistent positives, not one off.

The scrappy start probably suited us to need to fight back, the errors and lack of clinical finishing did not suit us and weren’t the Leinstertainment we would expect, give me more in the red zone please!

Gavin Hegarty

Leinster were far from their best but still ground out a win. Some very uncharacteristic errors from seasoned internationals.

A few bad missed tackles from Ringer, dropped balls from Jimmy, Doris is left wanting and Furlong just ambling along.

Nice for Frawley to get proper time at ten and show what he can do.

Take a bow Jack Conan, great game.

Ronan McManus

It was a bit scrappy (maybe partially Ireland hangover) but a decent win against a team whose only other loss was Ulster away.

6. Jack Conan should be delighted with his performance. The option of keeping him and Doris on the pitch together more often gives a bit more depth (Nienaber influence, presumably)

Jimmy OBrien looked sharp, but missed a few opportunities to weave gold from shit, that the great wingers would have seized.

Very disappointing for Ross Byrne, who looked good. This could have been an important one as far as Ireland is concerned.

Great finish by Larmour for his try. Hopefully the sign of things to come.

Christy O’Connor

Hard to take positives from that display except for Frawley stepping up. School boy errors the whole game.

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FRONT FIVE ARTICLES

1  Kitshoff’s Ulster debut ends in defeat | Rugby365 [via URC]

2  Burly Bulls bully Connacht (sarugbymag.co.za)

3  Peter O’Mahony steps down as Munster captain (irishexaminer.com) [Cian Locke]

4  Blair Kinghorn: Scotland & Edinburgh full-back to join Toulouse in December – BBC Sport

5  Is Jacques Nienaber impacting Leinster sooner than anticipated? – The Irish Times [Nathan Johns]

URC WRAP

ROUND 6

CARDIFF 31-24 STORMERS

EDINBURGH 22-24 BENETTON

LIONS 61-19 ZEBRE

BULLS 53-27 CONNACHT

SHARKS 69-14 DRAGONS

LEINSTER 21-16 MUNSTER

GLASGOW 33-20 ULSTER

OSPREYS 31-9 SCARLETS

ROUND 7

FRI DEC 1

MUNSTER V GLASGOW

SAT DEC 2

BULLS V SHARKS

CARDIFF V SCARLETS

LIONS V DRAGONS

ULSTER V EDINBURGH

STORMERS V ZEBRE

CONNACHT V LEINSTER

BENETTON V OSPREYS

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