495 : France v Ireland preview

Our guest : HUGO GORDON


IRELAND : 15 Jamie Osborne 14 Tommy O’Brien 13 Garry Ringrose 12 Stuart McCloskey 11 Jacob Stockdale 10 Sam Prendergast 9 Jamison Gibson‑Park  

1 Jeremy Loughman 2 Dan Sheehan 3 Tom Clarkson 4 Joe McCarthy 5 Tadhg Beirne 6 Cian Prendergast 7 Josh van der Flier 8 Caelan Doris (c)  

16 Ronan Kelleher 17 Michael Milne 18 Finlay Bealham 19 James Ryan 20 Jack Conan 21 Nick Timoney 22 Craig Casey 23 Jack Crowley


FRANCE : 15 Thomas Ramos 14 Théo Attissogbe 13 Nicolas Depoortere 12 Yoram Moefana 11 Louis Bielle‑Biarrey 10 Matthieu Jalibert 9 Antoine Dupont  

1 Jean‑Baptiste Gros 2 Julien Marchand 3 Dorian Aldegheri 4 Charles Ollivon 5 Mickaël Guillard 6 François Cros 7 Oscar Jegou 8 Anthony Jelonch  

16 Peato Mauvaka 17 Rodrigue Neti 18 Régis Montagne 19 Hugo Auradou 20 Emmanuel Meafu 21 Leni Nouchi 22 Baptiste Serin 23 Kalvin Gourgues


Guinness Six Nations 2026 – Round 1

Thursday, February 5, 2026

Stade de France

KO 8:10pm

Live on : Virgin Media 1


Referee: Karl Dickson (RFU)

AR1: Angus Gardner (RA)

AR2: Jordan Way (RA)

TMO: Ian Tempest (RFU)

FPRO: Richard Kelly (NZR)

494 : Leinster v Edinburgh wrap

31 January 2026; Scott Penny of Leinster, second from left, celebrates after scoring his third and his side’s fourth try during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Edinburgh at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile


🏉 Offload overload?

🏉 NIQ benefits

🏉 Death. Taxes. Penny.

🏉 Tector at 10

🏉 Luke’s leadership


TOM COLEMAN


FULL TIME TAKES

Christy O’Connor

Great result for the players that were playing. Thought Tector done well considering it’s been a long time since he had a run of games at ten.

Still a lot of the same issues with our attack, it’s very 1 dimensional and we need a lot of entries into their 22 to come away with some points

Cormac Mannion

We really are winning the hard way this season but a welcome win and another bonus point.

Still lots to improve on but when you think we are down to the bare bones in terms of players, it was a very satisfactory win

Gavin Hegarty

We made very hard work of it. Simple things that just didn’t work.

For example why did RG continue to try offloads when they never worked?

All teams now know they can easily unlock our shoot up defence by quick passing yet we still do it? Reko got caught out tonight.

Eamon Saunders

Good win again and great to see so much young talent being used

Kevin Kelehan

We have discovered the new and improved version of Mick Kiernan at 12 to fix Ireland’s place kicking problem, his name is Charlie Tector and he will be well ready for RWC 2027. The block down of the conversion on 80 minutes was very frustrating, Embra deserved a point out of that game and conceding it cost Leinster nothing

Dave Murray

A hard earned, but well deserved, 5 points for the 2nd/3rd string. Stormers losing again was pleasing too.

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NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “LEINSTER’S SEASON SO FAR” (YouTube)

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN (Substack)

France v Ireland preview (YouTube)


493 : Leinster v Edinburgh preview


Leinster : 15 Andrew Osborne 14 Joshua Kenny 13 Rieko Ioane 12 Ciarán Mangan 11 Ruben Moloney 10 Charlie Tector 9 Luke McGrath (c)

1 Jerry Cahir 2 John McKee 3 Andrew Sparrow 4 RG Snyman 5 Brian Deeny 6 Max Deegan 7 Scott Penny 8 Diarmuid Mangan

16 Gus McCarthy 17 Alex Usanov 18 Niall Smyth 19 Conor O’Tighearnaigh 20 Josh Ericson 21 Will Connors 22 Fintan Gunne 23 Hugo McLaughlin


Edinburgh : 15 Harry Paterson 14 Malelili Satala 13 Wes Goosen 12 James Lang 11 Duhan van der Merwe 10 Ross Thompson 9 Ben Vellacott

1 Boan Venter 2 Jerry Blyth‑Lafferty 3 Paul Hill 4 Callum Hunter‑Hill 5 Glen Young 6 Ben Muncaster 7 Freddy Douglas 8 Magnus Bradbury (c)

16 Harri Morris 17 Mikey Jones 18 Ollie Blyth‑Lafferty 19 Tom Dodd 20 Connor Boyle 21 Charlie Shiel 22 Cammy Scott 23 Piers O’Conor


BKT United Rugby Championship 25/26 – Round 11

Saturday, January 31, 2026

Aviva Stadium

KO 5:30pm

Live on : Premier Sports 1, URC.tv


Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR)

AR 1: Eoghan Cross (IRFU) 

AR 2: Shane Gaughan (IRFU)

TMO: Matteo Liperini (FIR)

492 : Connacht v Leinster wrap

24 January 2026; Charlie Tector of Leinster scores his side’s third try despite the efforts of Caolin Blade of Connacht during the United Rugby Championship match between Connacht and Leinster at Dexcom Stadium in Galway. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile


🏉 Comeback Kings

🏉 The gameplan

🏉 Opening night

🏉 Leinster negatives

🏉 Connacht’s form



FULL TIME TAKES

Eamon Saunders

Another win on the road glad to get the 5 points but much improvement needed going forward 👍

Greg Kelly

Connacht were plucky and obvious up for the occasion. They applied a lot of pressure in the opening hour but fell away a bit afterwards. They were looking for big moments but fell short of a real catalyst. Leinster were sputtering along and wasteful in attack…again. Ultimately Leinster were the better team and on the hour you always felt they would pull away. As has been said week after week if we do that against the top opposition we’ll get caned but but was enough against a spirited but limited Connacht team.

Kevin Kelehan

Ireland lost big tonight unless Jack Boyle does a Lazarus, have a good bet on England for the Six Nations. The Leinster scrum did amazingly, Niall Smyth passed his exam as did Sparrow and Jerry Cahir again proving the academy let more than Tadhg Beirne slip through their fingers. Charlie Tector again superb but one of the Connacht back row should have got man of the match for over an hour they had the upper hand. Delighted to take 5 points out of a decent Connacht shift.

Chris McDonnell

Another game where harry shows why he was Leinster’s 4th choice last season. He’s good defensively and can kick goals but he’s got nothing in attack.

James Gill

Harry 💯 % kicking might get him an Ireland start. Charlie Tector should b in the A squad. Prendergast was good for connacht but need a few more forwards badly. Leinster building nicely

Eamon Phelan

Sam illo can scrummage

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NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “IRISH 6N SQUAD”

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN 


489 : Bayonne v Leinster preview


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


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)

485: Leinster v Connacht preview

ALSO AVAILABLE AS A PODCAST

Leinster: 15. Ciarán Frawley, 14. Tommy O’Brien, 13. Hugh Cooney, 12. Charlie Tector, 11. Joshua Kenny, 10. Sam Prendergast, 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Andrew Porter, 2. Dan Sheehan (c), 3. Thomas Clarkson, 4. Joe McCarthy, 5. Brian Deeny, 6. Diarmuid Mangan, 7. Will Connors, 8. Jack Conan

16. Gus McCarthy, 17. Jack Boyle, 18. Rabah Slimani, 19. Conor O’Tighearnaigh, 20. Max Deegan, 21. Josh van der Flier, 22. Luke McGrath, 23. Harry Byrne


Connacht: 15. Sam Gilbert, 14. Chay Mullins, 13. David Hawkshaw, 12. Bundee Aki, 11. Finn Treacy, 10. Josh Ioane, 9. Matthew Devine

1. Denis Buckley, 2. Dylan Tierney-Martin, 3. Finlay Bealham, 4. Joe Joyce, 5. David O’Connor, 6. Josh Murphy, 7. Cian Prendergast (c), 8. Sean Jansen

16. Eoin de Buitlear, 17. Billy Bohan, 18. Fiachna Barrett, 19. Darragh Murray, 20. Paul Boyle, 21. Ben Murphy, 22. Harry West, 23. Cathal Forde


BKT United Rugby Championship 25/26 – Round 9

Saturday, January 3, 2026

Aviva Stadium

KO 5:30pm

Live on : TG4, Premier Sports 1 & URC.tv


Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU)

AR 1: Keane Davison (IRFU)

AR 2: Chris Lough (IRFU)

TMO: Olly Hodges (IRFU)

484 : Munster v Leinster wrap

27 December 2025; Josh van der Flier of Leinster celebrates in the closing moments of the United Rugby Championship match between Munster and Leinster at Thomond Park in Limerick. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile


🏉 Defending ✅

🏉 Scrum ✅

🏉 Game management ✅

🏉 Attack plan❓

🏉 Discipline❓



FULL TIME TAKES

Richard Collumb

Close game, Munster pushed hard & Leinster defence improving. Harry best 10 we have.

Lorcán Murphy

A dogfight of a game which will stand to both teams and Ireland in the longer run. This was all about the result and who wanted it more

Dave Murray

Two very tough inter-pros and 9 points from them, we can’t complain about that. Our attack was very one dimensional, but its a tough defence that wins games in Thomond and we defended superbly. NB Leo with Zebo after the game was also a nice bonus

Louis Hoffman

Just about Fair result, few bruised bodies tomorrow. Ruck was a mess

Kevin Kelehan

Munster pushed Leinster bloody hard, Leinster defence was back where it needed to be. The second half against Ulster may be the time we say that Leinster’s season clicked and where the believe came to win when the chances aren’t there.

Gavin Little

Scrums are a mystery… we win penalty after penalty and Munster don’t get penalised, then in the second half the ref calls “use it” almost immediately on every scrum completely nullifying our advantage

Christy O’Connor

Started off brilliant and the intensity was great, it dropped off as the game went on though. Our defense was great and our attack is still very one dimensional.

The highlight of the night was Leo absolutely ripping Zebo in the interview after the game.

Gerald Williamson

The Leinster defense was impressive. It was a close game with not much free flowing Rugby due to the tight marking. The Ref did not have a bad game.

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NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “2025 YEAR IN REVIEW” (YOUTUBE)

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN (SUBSTACK) 

482 : Leinster v Ulster wrap

19 December 2025; Rieko Ioane of Leinster dives over to score his side’s first try despite the tackle of Rob Baloucoune, bottom, and Jacob Stockdale of Ulster during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Ulster at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile


🏉 Self inflicted shit

🏉 Game management

🏉 Why we complain

🏉 Bench inflicted grit

🏉 The McCarthys

🏉[40:21 – bonus chat on Gibraltar Rugby]


RICHARD MIFSUD


FULL TIME TAKES

Tom Clarke

I could copy and paste my comment from last week. But I’ll ask the question again. How are the current coaching ticket bringing these players to the next level?

Gavin Little

Our basic skills used to be second to none, but now every phase feels like a risk. Confidence seems through the floor. Strangers playing with each other.

There used to be complaints that we’d peak too early, and maybe we will come good when it matters. At the moment that seems like a far way off.

John Jones

Still time to build into the season but something not working at the moment. I don’t know if it is just the lack of a proper pre-season together, or if there really is something off in the coaching/current coaching ticket? Still wouldn’t put it past them to put in a big performance Vs Munster though and kick on from there…

Kevin Kelehan

Very happy with Leinster reeling in a quality side last night, the fans expecting Leinster to go out week after week and put 50 points up and concede little more than a consolation try are unrealistic. A lot of credit to Richie Murphy who is getting a lot out of a side with few internationals but lots of guts and effort. I thought James Ryan was very unlucky to be carded for what looked like a fairly standard clear out. On to another game that can be lost in Thomond next week.

Johnny McGovern

I like the look of the Leinster winger Kenny . Stood up physically and has a sense of class about him . May be a bit inexperienced positionally at this level but he has Gaz and will only get better . Unfortunately Tector is not a centre ! Slipped off too many tackles . Gunne should have been brought on at half time too. Ritchie Murphy doing a great job up in Ulster clearly. With a bit more composure second half Ulster would have beaten Leinster . McCloskey and Steward had huge games .

Christy O’Connor

The only good thing lately is that we are winning games. However we cannot keep winning ugly and expect to win a trophy playing like this. Some serious damage is being done to the brand/style of Leinster and the longer it goes on the harder it will be to reverse it.

Craig Grehan

Ulster snatched a loss from the jaws of victory. Leinster very lucky.

3 out halves on the pitch throughout the whole game and we looked flat as feck. Ulster were solid, can’t take that from them.

Have we any centres?

Lineout looked sharper thank god.

How is Ryan not getting to grips with ruck entry?

We’ve also learned Harry byrne is in fact the better 10.

Eamon Saunders

I’m fed up at this stage of saying another poor performance but a win ,maybe I’m wrong but good teams win playing poor but a good performance is what we need

Gavin Hegarty

Dire.

Just dire.

How did we go from niling Glasgow and Quinns with huge scores in Europe and winning the URC last year to this type of performance? Confidence seems shit squad wide.

So many little mistakes. Unforced knock ons, losing every high ball, sliced kicks.

Techtor is a great player but was so far off his own pace. Penny was anonymous all game. Sam’s passing seemed to take an age to wind up.

Something needs to happen to salvage this season, we really didn’t deserve a win tonight.

Chris McDonnell

Dreadful kicking especially from mcgrath, pendergasts confidence is shot. Gunne was very good when he came on. Joe is a monster. Soroka was excellent, lowe is not playing well at all. Tectors first bad game. Less and less people are going to pay to see this brand of rugby. Boxkick after boxkick. Its an expensive hobby to watch leinster the least they can do is try to play good rugby

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NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

80+ COLUMN – limited version (SUBSTACK)

FRIDAY

MUNSTER V LEINSTER PREVIEW SHOW (YOUTUBE)