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
30 May 2026; James Lowe of Leinster, centre, celebrates with teammates after scoring their side’s eighth try and becoming the new Leinster record try scorer during the United Rugby Championship quarter-final match between Leinster and Lions at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
Great to see lowe get the record but can see why he’s going.
Nice to see sam run the show and run it well.
On a side note we have Sheehan, kelleher and McCarthy at two. Three world class hookers. How long before Munster take one?
David Ryle
Sam was excellent. We need him firing with confidence, hopefully he blocks out the noise from the hateful.
David Ross
At last we have complimentary comments about Sam P. His game was not without mistakes but he is human and is certainly Ireland’s future. Good result it would be great to have a Leinster/Glasgow final!!
Craig Grehan
Great to see them bounce back from last week. But two very different teams. Do we know our best starting 15 yet ?
Vincent Duggan
Lions must have been on the beer for two weeks.
Eamon Saunders
Great result after last week ,and great to see Lowe get the record
Christy O’Connor
Obviously a great result, delighted for Lowe and hopefully he stays. Lions were very poor. I expect a much harder test next week
Did I see Neil (keego) Keenan celebrating the 4th try on TV?
Colin Mehigan
Great result. Great performance. Understandable reasons why crowd was so small but Leinster fans need to support our team when the team need it the most – and not only when we win trophies
Kevin Kelehan
Less than 10,000 supporters in the ground but real fans make a lot of noise. Leinster back to Leinstertainment after a harrowing ‘weather experience’ last week. Not saying Leinster would have beat UBB last week but playing a game in Spain mid afternoon in May in the era where climate change is advanced was reprehensible planning.
Pieter Bezuidenhout
We need to stop with the excuses. Connacht, Munster, Cardiff, and the Lions were clearly out of their depth this weekend. Watching a captain like Craig Casey hide behind an injury list rather than admitting they were outplayed is embarrassing. Real leaders show some humility. On top of that, the way Leinster carried on with those celebrations against the Lions was completely classless. It’s not a World Cup final, so stop acting like it is. It is time for everyone to stop the self-congratulations and get a grip.
I don’t make a secret of the fact that I do enjoy other sports apart from rugby, and if I lived elsewhere growing up, this content-creating passion project could have had a much different theme.
For example, had I stayed in the USA and not moved to Ireland as a boy, the chances are strong I would have taken to baseball, in which case I’d be harpin’ on the Oakland A’s, being the team based closest to where I was born. Had the sliding doors sent my life in that direction however, I’d be pretty annoyed now as the team are no longer based there so it’s probably just as well.
Then there’s football. When I did move to Ireland aged 8 and joined a new school I found myself under immediate pressure to pick a football team and for reasons that are too long for these pages, I chose Tottenham Hotspur. And their current plight isn’t a whole lot better than Oakland’s, and just a few hours before recording the already-difficult Champions Cup final wrap pod, they played a match which could have resulted in their relegation.
In the end the pod was a tough record anyway, but I can’t help but feel that had Spurs “gone down” my mood would have been much worse! And this of course is not to take anything away from my fellow podster Hugo Gordon, who despite enduring a difficult rewatch was able to deliver excellent, balanced analysis for the disappointing afternoon in Bilbao. Click here to check it out if you missed it.
DIVIDING BY 10
This year, he has not started at outhalf in any game.
In different circumstances you might think the headline was “clickbait”, but to be fair to Nathan the article does exactly what it says on the tin.
Apparently Tuesday was officially “World Redhead Day” so I’m not sure if this was a factor in the timing of this article but it’s true his leaving Leinster for Connacht has been much discussed since last Saturday when his introduction at first receiver seemed to make a difference to Leinster’s attack.
For my part I am torn on the Frawley debate. Of course I don’t want to see him go, but I also think it’s very naive to assume that Leinster could have easily kept him.
The formal announcement of his departure was just before Christmas, which means the decision was made prior to then. At this time, Sam Prendergast, rightly or wrongly, was the presumptive starter for both Leinster and Ireland, and Harry Byrne was pushing him strongly for the reserve role, in fact for many the argument was that it was he who should be starting, which he did in Bilbao.
Plus do we really think that we have full autonomy in such things? Was it purely that “Leinster let him go”? That is not how the Irish pro rugby model works. What annoys me about a lot of the opinion is that it seems to assume our provinces are clubs like they are in the 🔝🐱🐴. For me, this is the deepest issue. Unless we revert to an exact replica of what the French do and let sugar-daddies own and operate the teams, we will always have limitations and priority has to be given to the national team.
If Ciarán is guaranteed gametime at 10 in Galway, it should improve his Ireland chances. Working under Stu certainly won’t hurt either. It will be very interesting to see how they get on next season with Champions Cup rugby also on the menu.
Going back to Sam, I really hope we’re not writing him off altogether. I can totally see a redemption arc for him, but to my mind FWIW I believe it is crucial that, barring injuries, he does not start at 10 for Leinster again this season, nor does he start on the South African tour to kick off next season. For me that sends the message that he is to fight for the jersey, and with Joey Carbery seemingly on the way in, we should have options. There is of course also Caspar Gabriel on the conveyor belt, though I hear there may be plans for a short stint away from Leinster, nothing concrete just yet.
Sometimes I wonder if we are subconsciously holding our prospects up against the memory of Johnny Sexton, when he was clearly the definition of a once-in-a-generation talent. The superstar of your team does not have to be the 10. But it does help to know who is your preferred option so you can develop an overall attack strategy so hopefully now that all the moves are done Leinster can at least have a handle on this going into 2026/27.
23 May 2026; Joe McCarthy of Leinster and teammates during the Investec Champions Cup final match between Leinster and Union Bordeaux Bégles at San Mamés Stadium in Bilbao, Spain. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
THE BILBAO 23 (BONUS CHAT MEETS LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE)
TROLL PATROL
COMPETITION UPDATES (incl 🔝🐱🐴)
NEXT HARPIN’
WRAP OF A WRAP
Ten Leinster tries in one match are always exciting to watch especially live, but when you add the context of our season, namely that only the win was of actual use to us plus we’ve a slightly bigger match the following weekend, you end up with a match that will be very quickly forgotten. As the saying goes, “the show must go on” so we did produce a wrap pod for Leinster v Ospreys, with Ciarán Duffy from Post To Post Sport joining me for a chat on Sunday evening, but we decided to cover the whole match in just the opening portion and use the rest of the time to go back over Leinster’s URC regular season. ICYMI click here to check it out.
HAIL TO THE KING
“…we’ve got new caps, we’ve got people adding into the on-pitch stuff. We’re growing our wave. I leave here with a sense that there’s only more to come.”
Like I said last week, Sunday’s Six Nations finale at the Aviva Stadium had to be about more than just the crowd, there was a match to be played and a solid third place finish to be earned. And what a performance it was. Although we did finish 3rd last year, that included a defeat to the Scots so there were scores to be settled and, well, I think you can safely say that was done and then some. This back row of Hogan, King and Wafer is a world class trio to build the team around and under Scott Bemand they have looking like a well coached group who enjoy working together and we have seen plenty to back up Erin’s claim in the quote.
And yes, the crowd was great too. But if they continue on this path as looks likely, there’s more big numbers to come there too.
Next up is the new incarnation of the WXV, known as “The Global Series” – it seems to be a women’s version of the Nations Championship although thankfully they have not just simply replicated the men’s version (they probably could do something similar with the Six Nations too).
“The top 12 teams (Australia, Canada, England, France, Italy, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, USA, Wales) will compete in a home-and-away, cross-regional touring model within a newly aligned September – October international window. Significantly, unions will retain domestic commercial rights to their home fixtures, recognising the importance of growing the value of the women’s game in each country, and supporting reinvestment in player pathways and national programmes.”
HARPIN' ON RUGBY 