Tag: Investec Champions Cup

527 : Champions Cup Final wrap

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

🏉 Not showing up

🏉 A fine Bordeaux

🏉 Decisions, decisions 

🏉 “Making your own luck” 

🏉 The big boss

THIS WEEK’S GUEST

HUGO GORDON

FULL TIME TAKES

As discussed on the pod, we chose to leave it a few days before going over the comments this week, check them out for yourself here

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CHAMPIONS CUP WRAP

NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “RECOVERING FOR URC”

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN 

526 : Champions Cup final preview

Our guest : NEIL “KEEGO” KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

LEINSTER : 15 Hugo Keenan 14 Tommy O’Brien 13 Garry Ringrose 12 Robbie Henshaw 11 Rieko Ioane 10 Harry Byrne 9 Jamison Gibson‑Park

1 Andrew Porter 2 Dan Sheehan 3 Thomas Clarkson 4 Joe McCarthy 5 James Ryan 6 Jack Conan 7 Josh van der Flier 8 Caelan Doris (c)

16 Rónan Kelleher 17 Paddy McCarthy 18 Tadhg Furlong 19 Diarmuid Mangan 20 Max Deegan 21 Luke McGrath 22 Ciarán Frawley 23 Jamie Osborne

BORDEAUX : 15 Salesi Rayasi 14 Pablo Uberti 13 Damian Penaud 12 Yoram Moefana 11 Louis Bielle‑Biarrey 10 Matthieu Jalibert 9 Maxime Lucu (c)

1 Jefferson Poirot 2 Maxime Lamothe 3 Carlu Sadie 4 Boris Palu 5 Adam Coleman 6 Pierre Bochaton 7 Cameron Woki 8 Marko Gazzotti

16 Gaëtan Barlot 17 Ugo Boniface 18 Ben Tameifuna 19 Lachlan Swinton 20 Tevita Matiu 21 Boris Vergnes‑Taillefer 22 Arthur Retière 23 Hugo Reus

Investec Champions Cup

2025/26  FINAL

Saturday, May 23, 2026

San Mames Stadium

KO 2:45pm

Live on : Premier Sports 1

Referee : Karl Dickson (Eng)

AR1 : Christophe Ridley (Eng)

AR2 : Hollie Davidson (Sco)

TMO : Marius van der Westhuizen (SA)

521 : Leinster v Toulon wrap

2 May 2026; Josh van der Flier of Leinster dives over to score his side’s second try during the Investec Champions Cup semi-final match between Leinster and RC Toulon at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile

🏉 Blitzing & carrying

🏉 The 13v15 restart

🏉 Andrew Porter

🏉 Que Serin Serin

🏉 Reiko & Sam

THIS WEEK’S GUEST

TOM COLEMAN

FULL TIME TAKES

Ken Tancred PT
Think those last two tries booked Frawleys ticket to the final
Jonathan Leonard
Soroka made a good impact. Bit worried how Josh and Conan limped off. Hope Henshaw is alright. Win is a win. Roll on Bilbao.
Gavin Hegarty
First half our mistakes kept them in it. Second half we pulled away but then took the foot off and let them back in.
I thought Clarkson really stood up, as did Cahir when he came in.
Not a good game but a final is a final regardless of how you get there.
The match started with the dreaded words that no Irish rugby fan wants to see
Match TMO Ian Tempest.
How can this keep on happening? Every time he clearly has an agenda against anyone Irish. He forced Pearce to review footage from 4-5 phases before jgps disallowed try. The rules state two phases is the max. This is the same guy who couldn’t find footage of a bite that was already circulating on WhatsApp.
Christy O’Connor
Not having Frawley in the squad almost cost us. Reiko showed up today and made two very important tackles.
Did nobody tell the TMO he was allowed to check things against Toulon, seemed only interested in finding Leinster mistakes
Karen Mooney
Brilliant I was on radio.. when they came out 13 down they really show how good they are…
Mike Whelan
We won – we are in the final. It’s the only outcome required. The rest is noise.
John Jones
Frawley on the bench for the final and hopefully Baird back would make a difference
Louis Hoffman
Phew
Harry Byrne was dreadful. Whole empty pitch to kick into and boots it out on the full 🙄
Bernie Cunningham
Gosh we nearly threw away a 18pt lead, Bordeaux or Bath wont give us a 18pt lead. But final again its a 50/50 chance of 5th star, Lenister need to really to be at full strength. 🤞
Oran Burns
Frawley has to get some game time at 10 and start in the final
Clive Young
Prendgast in for 10 mins , cost a try and nearly another , not up to it , Frawley on the bench
Colin Campbell
Bilbao nothing else 💙💙💙💙
Cuan Mulligan
having coached kids from u6 – u16, Pendergast looks like someone who has never been taught how to tackle, he is trying to tackle with his finger tips. I think he could do with some time out of the limelight in the AIL…let him play week in week out and focus on the fundamentals.
James Murphy
Wow, lucky
Pendergast is a real liability
Even more so on the wing.
We look wrecked with 10 to go
Chris McDonnell
Great to be in the final but the Pendergast debacle has to stop.

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CHAMPIONS CUP WRAP

NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “BORDEAUX/BATH BREAKDOWN”

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN 

520 : Leinster v Toulon preview

Our guest : NEIL “KEEGO” KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

LEINSTER : 15 Hugo Keenan 14 Tommy O’Brien 13 Garry Ringrose 12 Robbie Henshaw 11 Rieko Ioane 10 Harry Byrne 9 Jamison Gibson-Park

1 Andrew Porter 2 Dan Sheehan 3 Thomas Clarkson 4 Joe McCarthy 5 James Ryan 6 Jack Conan 7 Josh van der Flier 8 Caelan Doris (c)

16 Rónan Kelleher 17 Jerry Cahir 18 Rabah Slimani 19 Alex Soroka 20 Scott Penny 21 Luke McGrath 22 Sam Prendergast 23 Jamie Osborne

TOULON : 15 Melvyn Jaminet 14 Gael Dréan 13 Juan Ignacio Brex 12 Jeremy Sinzelle 11 Setariki Tuicuvu 10 Tomas Albornoz 9 Ben White

1 Jean‑Baptiste Gros 2 Teddy Baubigny 3 Kyle Sinckler 4 Corentin Mézou 5 David Ribbans (c) 6 Junior Kpoku 7 Charles Ollivon 8 Mikheili Shioshvili

16 Gianmarco Lucchesi 17 Daniel Brennan 18 Beka Gigashvili 19 Matthias Halagahu 20 Zach Mercer 21 Baptiste Serin 22 Esteban Abadie 23 Mathis Ferté

BKT United Rugby Championship

2025/26  Round 16

Saturday, April 25, 2026

Stadio di Monigo

KO 7:45pm

Live on : Premier Sports 1, URC.tv

Referee: Morne Ferreira (SARU)

AR1: Alberto Favaro (FIR)

AR2: Alex Frasson (FIR)

TMO: Christopher Allison (SARU)

515 : Leinster v Sale Sharks wrap

🏉 1st half heavy weather

🏉 Props – handle with Cahir

🏉 Lineouts

🏉 Dan & Hugo

🏉 Sale of goods

THIS WEEK’S GUEST

HUGO GORDON

FULL TIME TAKES

Liz Power

First half was squeaky bum, cracking rugby but very low scoring, but Leinster stretched their legs in the second half. Tommy O’Brien is having an excellent season. We haven’t looked convincing all season with the exception of a couple of games. We railroaded teams in previous years and haven’t won much so maybe stuttering is the way to go 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

Eamon Saunders

Good win building nicely to be fair ,another semi final to look forward to 💙

Cormac Mannion

I was absolutely bulling at half time. Same crap as last week – awful handling skills and poor ball presentation at the ruck. Needless knock-ons, players taking their eye off the ball etc etc.

Much better second half and it finally clicked.

However, Sale were absolutely atrocious. They offered absolutely nothing in attack bar putting snow on the ball.

Worrying to see some of those potential injuries and we definitely must have been cursed by someone… another prop injury!!!

Dave Murray

Two different,but poor, first 40 minutes of of rugby this week and last. But too much for Sale in the second half, like last week also. Will it be good enough for Toulon at home in May? Let’s see. But good to have a home semi final, to look forward to.

Gavin Hegarty

If we played like that against Bordeaux or Toulouse we’d ship 50. Simply not good enough.

Sale had no lineout and two yellow cards yet were still within 6 of us.

Granted we did pull away but it was hugely frustrating.

Some little mistakes that Leinster of previous seasons wouldn’t make.

Chris McDonnell

What does robin Mcbride get paid for?

We got a bye to the semi final to be honest. The last 2 weeks neither side would make the top 6 in the URC

Just papering over the cracks. We have 3 coaches who clearly are out of their depth. McBride doesn’t know what a scrum looks like.

Kevin Scullion

We will get beaten by a good team, simple as…

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CHAMPIONS CUP WRAP

QUARTERFINALS

Bath 43–41 Northampton Saints
Leinster 43–13 Sale
Glasgow Warriors 19–22 Toulon
Bordeaux Bègles 30–15 Toulouse

NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “URC RUN-IN”

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN 

514 : Leinster v Sale Sharks preview

Our guest : NEIL “KEEGO” KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

LEINSTER : 15 Hugo Keenan 14 Tommy O’Brien 13 Garry Ringrose 12 Jamie Osborne 11 Rieko Ioane 10 Harry Byrne 9 Jamison Gibson-Park

1 Alex Usanov 2 Dan Sheehan (c) 3 Tadhg Furlong 4 Joe McCarthy 5 James Ryan 6 Ryan Baird 7 Josh van der Flier 8 Jack Conan

16 Rónan Kelleher 17 Jerry Cahir 18 Thomas Clarkson 19 Max Deegan 20 Scott Penny 21 Luke McGrath 22 Ciarán Frawley 23 Robbie Henshaw

SALE SHARKS : 15 Joe Carpenter 14 Tom Roebuck 13 Rob du Preez 12 Rekeiti Ma’asi-White 11 Tom O’Flaherty 10 George Ford 9 Gus Warr

1 Si McIntyre 2 Ethan Caine 3 Asher Opoku-Fordjour 4 Ernst van Rhyn (c) 5 Ben Bamber 6 Jacques Vermeulen 7 Sam Dugdale 8 Dan du Preez

16 Alfie Longstaff 17 Ralph McEachran 18 James Harper 19 Reuben Logan 20 Jos Gilmore 21 Dom Hanson 22 Marius Louw 23 Alex Wills

Investec Champions Cup

2025/26  Quarterfinal

Saturday, April 11, 2026

Aviva Stadium

KO 5:30pm

Live on : Premier Sports 1

Referee: Pierre Brousset (Fra)

AR1 : Gianluca Gnecchi (Ita)

AR2 : Filippo Russo (Ita)

TMO: Tual Trainini (Fra)

512: Leinster v Edinburgh preview

Our guest : NEIL “KEEGO” KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

LEINSTER : 15 Hugo Keenan 14 Tommy O’Brien 13 Rieko Ioane 12 Jamie Osborne 11 Jimmy O’Brien 10 Harry Byrne 9 Jamison Gibson-Park

1 Andrew Porter 2 Dan Sheehan 3 Tadhg Furlong 4 Joe McCarthy 5 Ryan Baird 6 Jack Conan 7 Josh van der Flier 8 Caelan Doris (c)

16 Gus McCarthy 17 Alex Usanov 18 Thomas Clarkson 19 Brian Deeny 20 Max Deegan 21 Luke McGrath 22 Ciarán Frawley 23 Robbie Henshaw

EDINBURGH :15 Piers O’Conor 14 Darcy Graham 13 Matt Currie 12 James Lang 11 Malelili Satala 10 Ross Thompson 9 Charlie Shiel

1 Pierre Schoeman 2 Ewan Ashman 3 D’arcy Rae 4 Marshall Sykes 5 Grant Gilchrist (c) 6 Liam McConnell 7 Dylan Richardson 8 Ben Muncaster

16 Jerry Blyth-Lafferty 17 Boan Venter 18 Paul Hill 19 Glen Young 20 Freddy Douglas 21 Ben Vellacott 22  23 Jack Brown

Investec Champions Cup

2025/26  Round of 16

Sunday, April 5, 2026

Aviva Stadium

KO 5:30pm

Live on : Premier Sports 1

Referee Luke Pearce (Eng) 

AR1 : Hamish Smales (Eng) 

AR2 : Joe James (Eng) 

TMO : Andrew Jackson (Eng) 

Citing Comm : Wejdane Limame (Fra)

489 : Bayonne v Leinster preview

Our guest : NEIL “KEEGO” KEEGAN

www.keegolaughs.com

Apologies Up Front on Apple Podcasts

Leinster: 15 Jimmy O’Brien 14 Tommy O’Brien 13 Garry Ringrose 12 Robbie Henshaw 11 Joshua Kenny 10 Harry Byrne 9 Jamison Gibson-Park

1 Jack Boyle 2 Rónan Kelleher 3 Tadhg Furlong 4 RG Snyman 5 James Ryan 6 Max Deegan 7 Josh van der Flier 8 Caelan Doris (c)

16 Dan Sheehan 17 Jerry Cahir 18 Thomas Clarkson 19 Joe McCarthy 20 Scott Penny 21 Luke McGrath 22 Sam Prendergast 23 Rieko Ioane

Bayonne : 15 Cheikh Tiberghien 14 Tom Spring 13 Sireli Maqala 12 Manu Tuilagi 11 Yohan Orabe 10 Joris Segonds 9 Herschel Jantjies

1 Ignacio Calles 2 Lucas Martin 3 Junior Tagi 4 Ewan Johnson 5 Lucas Paulos 6 Alexandre Fischer 7 Arthur Iturria (c) 8 Nika Lomidze

16 Facundo Bosch 17 Emosi Tumania 18 Emerick Setiano 19 Alvaro Garcia Iandolino 20 Baptiste Heguy 21 Manex Ariceta 22 Guillaume Martocq 23 Victor Hannoun

Investec Champions Cup 25/26 – Round 4

Saturday, January 17, 2026

Stade Jean Dauger

KO 3:15pm

Live on : Premier Sports 2

Referee : Luke Pearce (Eng)

AR 1 : Joe James (Eng)

AR 2 : Jonathan Healy (Eng)

TMO : Stuart Terheege (Eng)

488 : Leinster v La Rochelle wrap

10 January 2026; Harry Byrne of Leinster celebrates after converting an 80th minute penalty to give his side a 25-24 victory during the Investec Champions Cup match between Leinster and La Rochelle at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile

🏉 That start & that finish
🏉 More injuries
🏉 More ill discipline
🏉 Breakdown decisions
🏉 Vintage visitors

THIS WEEK’S GUEST

HUGO GORDON

FULL TIME TAKES

Sheena Crean

A super match to attend, havent witnessed that atmos in the aviva in quite some time, but left feeling Leinster’s attack is soulless. Defensively strong but lacking ideas elsewhere. Joshua Kenny is a very exciting prospect, would be super to see him start a 6N game- maybe v Wales so that he doesnt get the same level of pressure overload that appears to be destroying SP (or perhaps SP simply isnt good enough, time will tell)

Eamon Saunders

That was close but great performance from Leinster considering we had so many big names missing

Cormac Mannion

Yet again we score early and then fail to do so for a huge chunk of the match. Gotta admire the grit but our ball presentation going into contact, our breakdown work and our ruck defence are utter garbage at the moment.

Fair play to JJ, he’s really growing into the role and it’s brilliant to see him and TOB burning players with sheer speed.

The third and fourth tries were great to see, pure instinct and well worked through the hands.

Balls of steel for Harry to nail that final kick but quite telling that Sam handed the ball to him.

La Rochelle wil be kicking themselves though. They butchered two certain tries

Conor Cronin

I’ll be doing a rewatch tomorrow before I judge this game completely, but I will say that from my seat it seemed like the ref had more impact on this game than he should have, and our choice to not go for points at 12-0 could’ve returned to catch us out, it would’ve put us 3 scores ahead and had an impact on their attitude to the game. Game management and captain decisions need a little attention for tight games like this

Vincent Duggan

Leinster lucky to get away with this one. La Rochell butchered 3 try attempts. Carley is an international standard ref he pulled Leinster for all the stuff they get away with in the URC, killing the ball a the breakdown and offside in midfield. Prendergast was responsible for two tries because of his inability to defend. Leinster were cut apart in midfield.

Tom Clarke

Given the injuries and then the injuries in the game that was a great win. A lot to work on defensively but the lads showed great fight and resilience.

Andrew Byrne

Looks like our depth at prop is better than we all thought. Fair play to Jerry Cahir off the bench, did a great job when he came on.

Billy Glynn

Two men playing their first H Cup two tries from kenny and brilliant from jerry Cahir AIL to H Cup 👏 great win with a bonus point can’t complain really.

Keith Bruce

Great game, La Rochelle didn’t take their chances and should have overrun Ireland, not looking good for Leinster in the six nations.

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CHAMPIONS CUP WRAP

Round 3

Castres 20–43 Bath
Edinburgh 26–24 Gloucester
Bulls 49–61 Bristol Bears
Clermont 21–33 Glasgow Warriors
Leinster 25–24 Stade Rochelais
Sale Sharks 26–10 Hollywoodbets Sharks
Scarlets 38–47 Pau
Leicester Tigers 57–14 Bayonne
Harlequins 61–10 Stormers
Toulon 27–25 Munster
Bordeaux 50–28 Northampton Saints
Saracens 20-14 Toulouse

Round 4

Friday 16 January 2026

Pau v Bulls

Bath v Edinburgh

Saturday 17 January 2026

Sharks v Clermont

Bayonne v Leinster

Stormers v Leicester

Toulouse v Sale

Munster v Castres

Gloucester v Toulon

Sunday 18 January 2026

Bristol v Bordeaux

Northampton v Scarlets

La Rochelle v Harlequins

Glasgow v Saracens

NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “Final round permutations” (YouTube)

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN (Substack)

487: Leinster v La Rochelle preview

ALSO AVAILABLE AS A PODCAST

Our guest : MARK JACKSON

Leinster: 15. Ciaran Frawley, 14. Tommy O’Brien, 13. Rieko Ioane, 12. Robbie Henshaw, 11. Joshua Kenny, 10. Sam Prendergast, 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Paddy McCarthy, 2. Dan Sheehan, 3. Tom Clarkson, 4. Joe McCarthy, 5. James Ryan, 6. Jack Conan, 7. Josh van der Flier, 8. Caelan Doris (c)

16. Ronan Kelleher, 17. Jerry Cahir, 18. Andrew Sparrow, 19. Diarmuid Mangan, 20. Max Deegan, 21. Luke McGrath, 22. Harry Byrne, 23. Andrew Osborne

La Rochelle: 15. Dillyn Leyds, 14. Jack Nowell, 13. Jules Favre, 12. Simeli Daunivucu, 11. Davit Niniashvili, 10. Ihaia West, 9. Nolann le Garrec

1. Reda Wardi, 2. Tolu Latu, 3. Uini Atonio, 4. Charles Kante Samba, 5. Will Skelton, 6. Oscar Jegou, 7. Levani Botia, 8. Grégory Alldritt (c)

16. Quentin Lespiaucq, 17. Louis Penverne, 18. Aleksandre Kuntelia, 19. Kane Douglas, 20. Kirill Fraindt, 21. Thomas Berjon, 22. Antoine Hastoy, 23. Nathan Bollengier

Investec Champions Cup 25/26 – Round 3

Saturday, January 10, 2026

Aviva Stadium

KO 5:30pm

Live on : Premier Sports 1

Referee: Matthew Carley (Eng)

AR1: Adam Leal (Eng)

AR2: John Meredith (Eng)

TMO: Ian Tempest (Eng)