Scrappy game from Ireland v Japan, but a win for Ireland 36 -20
Craig Grehan
A win is a win
Joe Lyons
Casey is just not at the standard needed Doak needs to be in asap
Frawley showed what Leo Stu and Faz have said for past 8 years he’s NOT A 10 he’s a good utility player
Jansen looks like a good option at 6/8
Illo was impressive both in open play and set piece
Gavin Little
Post World Cup I can see a big shake up in Farrells assistant coaches. Scrum, Lineout and Attack all going backwards.
Jackie McEachern
Great to get the BP win but lots and lots and lots to work on.
David Keyes
If WC was on now and we had to use that team versus the minnos we are due to play we’d struggle and as no 3 in the world its not good enough. We produced so many schoolboy errors today I lost count.
Christy O’Connor
The coaching staff have had 3 years to get the set pieces sorted out and it’s only gotten worse. Something drastic needs to change. We have so many Irish coaches that are plying their trade with top teams in Europe and SA, but yet we have a bunch of lads that have never coached ever at any level and are now coaching the Irish team. It’s bonkers
Richard Farrell
Line out has gone from stable to a mess
Greg Kelly
Casey doesn’t have the pass selection, quality or variety for this level and it hurt our attack. Never a game you felt we would lose and Japan actually brought very little to the table.
A serious worry going forward is our reputation at the scrum. All the 50/50s go against us now and it’s hurting us.
Any away win in the Southern hemisphere is a great result. We stood up to a very physical Wallaby side and beat them while missing several players that would have made the 23. Sam P had a very solid game. His kicking was superb and kept us in contention as the game wore on. Defence was fine for most part with improved commitment. It will continue to improve. Lineout looked like they knew our calls and scrum badly needs Porter back! Overall a gritty performance to grind out a win – very Leinster like this season!
Andy Blount
It was a great win away from home after a long old season. Australia aren’t mugs at home and our set piece was all over the place. Any win in those circumstances is a right result.
James Gill
A bit rusty but great to get the win. Years ago we would of played great and lost the game rather today’s outcome. Ref was lenient with aussies yellow should of came a lot earlier. Hugo is priceless
Audrey Eager
Ireland were great!
Cormac Mannion
Let’s never ever see Osborne at 11 please. Nobody can criticise Sam’s defending at 10 and turn a blind eye to Jamie at 11.
Also, O’Keefe waited a disgracefully long time before threatening a card. Australia flopped over the ruck all night but that’s what we have to expect with a SH ref in charge of a match down there.
Lineout was crap and some of our defensive reads were very poor but I’d hope they will improve by next week.
Robert Cashell
Having watched the game before, they were playing at a different level!
Chris McDonnell
Same old problems, scrum and lineout are both poor and we defend with 14 to hide Sam. Saying that he did mix the very good with the FFS. The Osbourne and o’Brien on the wings stuff doesn’t work. The wing is a specialist position and we need to select specialists.
Ronan Haughey
Sam is a defensive liability, on average 2 tries a game handicap, today it was 3 tries and an intercept. Obviously highlighted and targeted by Joe, Sua’ali’i cut through his channel like butter at will all day. He might look fine against Japan but will be demolished by NZ
Ruairi Niall Eiméid
Despite being carved up defensively (which we know Faz is gonna be ruthless about come Monday morning) I will take win all day and the rest of the week. Only Ireland’s third win down under since 1979
John Cahalane
The win was wonderful honestly some of the decisions went against us but improvement vs Japan is needed Australia are better than their sum parts let us measure them and us against how well they play against France. Well done anyway
Hi there welcome to the latest 80+ column. No Leinster/Ireland men’s game last weekend so there’s no wrap to wrap but I do have something of an announcement FWIW.
You can probably tell I love doing this rugby content-producing lark, especially because I get to do it at my own pace instead of falling over myself to satisfy algorithms and what-not. So while I will continue to do things that way going forward, my “real-life” circumstances have changed to an extent where I’ll have to cut down my output considerably.
Over the pas year or so it has become increasingly more difficult to stick to the schedule I am used to, so from next season our regular content is likely to be limited to this 80+ column, which will probably now go out on Thursdays, and one podcast, which instead of focusing on just the one match from the weekend, will likely post on Tuesday morning taking a more general look at what went on. The Preview Show as we know it will probably have to go unfortunately.
Obviously with social media and stuff I will continue to get my thoughts out there regularly, but I think this level output will suit me better for next season. I’ll keep things the way they are for the next few weeks and fine tune the new way of doing things during the off season.
Anyway, on with this week’s column, starting with of course the Front Five…
FINALLY GETTING THE POINT
The purpose of this change is to reward teams who continue to play attacking rugby AND who remain resolute in defence once victory appears certain
Anyone who has regularly read these pages will know I’m delighted with this news from the EPCR. I have been harping for years on the need to revert from what I call a “quantitative” try bonus point (awarded simply for scoring 4 tries) to a “differential” one (awarded for scoring 3 more tries than your opposition) and now we’re going to see it in the Champions & Challenge Cups.
Basically what it means is that you can’t wrap up the bonus point before half time and take your foot off the pedal. That way even if your opposition mounts a comeback in the second half and you still win, you are guaranteed the full five points. Now in that scenario there is jeopardy in that the BP can actually be taken off you so you’ll have to play the full 80 minutes.
It also mostly eliminates what I always considered to be the nonsense of a losing team coming away with two bonus points. One is enough for a defeat, thank you very much.
Sure, there are quirky exceptions which is why I used the word “mostly” above. Say a team wins 18-17 thanks to 6 penalties against 3 tries, 1 converted. Yes, that gets a bit clunky, but it is very much an exception, and the system has worked well in the 🔝🐱🐴 for years now and they have also been using it in Super Rugby. I would have it employed throughout the game and I hope the URC and World Cups join the cause sooner rather than later, but this is definitely a good start.
And that’s not the only change. They have also tweaked the way in which the 16 clubs qualify for the knockout rounds. Now instead of the top 4 in each pool making it, we have 3, with the remaining 12 clubs ranked against each other and the four best records making it.
Personally I like the thinking behind this, but maybe they have fallen between two stools with this? I know I usually say rugby doesn’t always need to do what soccer does, but in this case I’d say just go whole hog and adopt the “Swiss model” that has been used in the Champions League in recent seasons? If everyone must have just the four matches, then have one big table and let the 16 best records into the knockouts. This would reduce the possibility that still exists hereby a team wins all four of their matches yet still falls outside the top 4 seeds behind teams which didn’t.
I also like wins as the first tie-breaker and I also think this should be adopted everywhere, however especially for domestic competitions with a large amount of matches I believe it’s important to add a stipulation that draws be the second tie-breaker, otherwise a team which has lost more matches can get a higher ranking which seems to go against what the change is trying to do. Shouldn’t be an issue in the four-match EPCR schedule, though.
Still, I do like the direction in which the changes are going and we’ll see how they play out. For now I just like being reminded in articles like this that Leinster are still the reigning URC Champions….
Needless to say I was gutted when I realised that I wouldn’t mke it from work to Croke Park in time for kickoff on Friday, but it’s also needless to say watching such a comprehensive victorious display from the boys in blue did much to make me feel better!
And when it came to the wrap pod recording, although we normally aim to be finished by 9pm, myself and Conor had no qualms with going over until about quarter past as he did an excellent job not only harping on the final itself, but also paying tribute to all the lads leaving the province for the bonus chat.
If you missed the pod recording be sure to check it out you’ll find it here.
SUCCEEDING LEO
…as club jobs go, there are few anywhere near as attractive
While it was of course a very satisfying weekend for Leinster fans, spare a thought for the legions of rugby followers for whom the success was literally the last thing they wanted to see. No doubt the news bothered them so much that they would follow anything else in the news cycle, possibly even including the round ball World Cup.
Given how the week following defeats in finals are always followed by days of articles telling us all “what’s wrong with Leinster” (see flow chart below), it’s only natural to assume that after a victory the focus might change to eyeing the province through a more positive lens (cue JK Simmons GIF) but I guess we’ll never know since on Monday the news of Leo Cullen’s impending departure dropped, also offering a perfect distraction for the vast “ABL” community.
Well, I say impending…it is to be a long goodbye of an entire rugby season but that certainly won’t stop us all speculating over who will eventually replace him.
I suppose the first question has to be this – will they necessarily appoint a direct replacement or his position? It always has been something of a unique role. He had only been coaching a year when he assumed it and the remit was slightly different to that we know for a “head coach”, while the buck did stop with him he was also of a public face of a coaching ticket where the unit coaches appeared to have more responsibility, as demonstrated by the appointment first of Stu Lancaster and then Jacques Nienaber as “Senior Coach”.
Eventually I will wade into the debate over who is to fill his shoes, or indeed over what he himself is to do next, but to be honest with him to be there for another full season I just don’t see the point in doing so right now. All the proposed candidates seem fine, yes, even ROG. I know a lot of people assume Leinster fans would pull their hair out at the thought of him taking the reins, but my own reservations would be less about what province he played for in the past and more about how he continuously got into trouble with the 🔝🐱🐴 for bad mouthing the officials.
Anyway, this article is one of several looking at the various possible candidates, all a decent read, but personally I’d rather bask in Leo and Leinster’s back-to-back title glory for a little longer.
19 June 2026; Leinster captain Caelan Doris lifts the cup alongside teammates after the United Rugby Championship grand final match between Leinster and Vodacom Bulls at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile
Job done. Excellent performance. Max deegan has had a fantastic season. Well done to Sam, he had one of his better games hopefully it’s the step he needed.
Gavin Hegarty
I honestly thought we’d get nothing out of the season @xmas but to reach two finals and win one is epic.
The abuse online Leinster got after a few games and lying at the bottom of the table was shocking.
Sam showed the player he can be yday and is now in the driving seat again.
Can’t say anything about Keenan that hadn’t be said before, simply immense.
All the talk of Frawley leaving, what about jerry???? Epic season for him.
Christy O’Connor
Credit were credit is due, Sam played great as did Keenan and big Joe. The Bulls never showed up and played a kicking game that just didn’t work for them. One of Leinster’s best attacking displays in a long time and hopefully we see more of it
Lorcán Murphy
Coaches and players showed how capable and utterly ruthless we are against strong opposition. Makes it more frustrating what was left behind during the year and how the selection policy is applied. Absolutely delighted for Sam. I really hope he carries his self belief for the fight into the future. His potential is still huge
Ruairi Niall Eiméid
A badly needed tonic after the severe disappointment of yet another European Final loss. Immense win and performance by the Boys in Blue
Slightly different 80+ column this week, with no Leinster match next weekend, we’re posting a day early to take a wee break from content creating and will be back with the next column on Wednesday June 17.
Our URC semifinal wrap this week feature Cian “RugbyKino” O’Muilleoir, a long time contributor to the pod who of course now has his own excellent pod MudderRucker that focuses on Irish women’s rugby.
To be clear, when I ask a contributor to help me out with a wrap pod, I could say that “I honestly don’t expect them to waste time with preparation, sure just hop on the Zoom and have an aul chat” but that wouldn’t be strictly true. I am hoping that at least they rewatch the match in question although I do appreciate that it’s not always easy to find the time. And to a man I have to say they are all more than ready to go when it comes to our regular recording time of 8pm on a Sunday.
But a distinction needs to be made. There’s “prepared”, and there’s “Kino prepared”. He has allowed me to share his notes for the Stormers show, and below you see just the portion that covers the opening section that features in our YouTube clip. Full respect. I almost feel guilty asking him to come on now since I feel I’m imposing this much work on him! Although in my defence, we have been operating a “volunteer system” this season which has been working well. I honestly do wish I had the discipline to be this prepared for pods, it would certainly help take away all my stutters and humming and hawing!!!
We all heard the rumours but most of us hoped there was still a chance of an extension until an official announcement was made, and it eventually happened on Monday, with an official announcement due to drop Tuesday.
I have said before on these pages that I am of course sad to see him go, he is a proven match winner, a Leinster record-breaker and also a mainstay for Ireland since he qualified. In fact it’s hard to believe he has actually been here as long as he has – I remember following him in his last season at the Tasman Makos for the final NPC season before he moved north and completed three full years in blue before donning the green.
I have also said that I can see the IRFUs POV a little bit in that a line needed to be drawn and that it could not be a case whereby there was no offer from foreign shores we wouldn’t match. He was considered a “PONI – Player of National Interest” but clearly not enough interest to force the issue based on age profiles and World Cup cycles. I absolutely don’t like the outcome, but I can have a level of respect (albeit a low one) for the decisions made FWIW. I just hope he has the same levels of understanding because we certainly don’t want to think he is leaving on bad terms.
But I will say this…Lowe’s departure take’s a lot of air out of the tires on the “Leinster get everything they want from the IRFU” bus. Next time you hear someone toeing that particular line (and it won’t be long, trust me), be sure to set them straight.
Obviously we wish James all the best at Sungoliath, who finished 4th in this season’s League One with 9 wins and 9 defeats and went out in the semifinals to the eventual winners the Kobe Steelers.
6 June 2026; Jamison Gibson-Park of Leinster, centre, celebrates with teammates after scoring their side’s second try during the United Rugby Championship semi-final match between Leinster and DHL Stormers at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
Scoreline flattered us. Stormers were full of brute force but the lack of discipline did for them
Christy O’Connor
Started off bright, but as the game went on we were struggling. Wasted a number of decent chances when in their 22.
The stormers also wasted a number of chances to punish us. I don’t think the bulls will waste as many chances
Joe Shep
Tbh, a lot of “Muscle Memory” rugby from the likes of JGP (well deserved POTM) but Stormers had our card well marked with strong elements of UBB….. We were lucky they let themselves down with indiscipline and they lacked the game changing flair of Sascha F-M…..A final beckons but more required
Overall we’ve got the individuals but we are NOT a cohesive unit…… I genuinely don’t understand why AF can get the best as a cohesive team having players for only a few weeks yet Leinster don’t 🤔🤷
Kevin Kelehan
Delighted with the game, knew Stormers would be formidable but their hits were massive, they made us work for every yard.
That they won their first card period 3-0 showed how streetwise they are, wasted 3 minutes on one passage of legitimate scrum resets.
The bench was the catalyst, even before the loss of 2 players you could feel the momentum shifting our way. Whilst Conan s brute force and Ringers deftness were probably the main catalysts, you have to mention Usanov, Gus and Mangan all of whom really made an impact against world class opponents.
Finally Sam being a speed bump for massive Stormers loose head in his first tackle situation of today is displaying the fight we need from him to be our 10
Chris McDonnell
A semi final win is a win. Can’t play rugby without a 10 and simply Leo first 2 choices are not good enough.
Jo Kerr
Would have been interesting if the Stormers had Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Cobus Reinach
Tricia Cormac Timothy
Need a decent 10
Odran John OBrien
Sorry to say it’s time for Cullen and Nienaber to go bring in Scott Robertson and Owen Farrell at Five Eighth
Niall O’Higgins
Win is a win but i feel stormers coaching was better – they knew what to do, excellent ruck speed , made leinster appear chaotic by comparison – game plan seems limited compared to skill set of players and wasteful. Scrum is dire. It beggers belief that these players are lions yet are asked to be donkeys – one up runs without support, kick chase – all low percentage plays
Eamon Saunders
Trying to beat the South Africans by playing their game not working but another final to try win
Caroline Wynne
👌💪🤘
Dave Murray
Another final and possibly another URC (which isn’t to be sniffed at) but our tactics and style is not great at all, in my opinion anyway. Nienaber opened the door on an early exit and that is fine by me.
Ruairi Niall Eiméid
Not vintage by Leinster, very stuttering and bland attack but ground out another win to get to the URC Final. Feel a little Déjà vu playing Bulls again in Croker but on Friday Night Lights
