512: Leinster v Edinburgh preview


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)

511 : Leinster v Scarlets wrap

27 March 2026; Tommy O’Brien of Leinster scores his side’s third try during the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Scarlets at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile


🏉 Wonderful wingers

🏉 Backup 9s

🏉 Sam’s future

🏉 Fits and starts

🏉 Scrappy Scarlets


RICHARD MIFSUD


FULL TIME TAKES

David Lawlor

We strolled through Europe last season and came out with a disappointing defeat in the semi’s. This year we’ve been way below that level but we’re still in a decent spot in Europe and the URC. Hopefully with Ryan, Conan, Keenan and Baird to come back in the next few weeks things might improve. Osborne at 12 is the future.

Liz Power

I was bored out of my skull. There was a mass exodus around us between 65 and 70 minutes. Getting to the bar/train was more appealing than watching it

Christy O’Connor

That first half is one to forget. Very poor over all, we had a couple of moments of great play early in the 2nd half but it became stuttery again. JGP has made a number of passes this season that we’re intercepted, luckily the majority never led to tries. JJ Kenny and Tommy O’Brien were in great form.

This has been are poorest season in a long long time, if we win anything I’ll be shocked. The only thing we’ve been consistent with this season has been our ill discipline

Tom Clarke

Need to up the performance big time for next Sunday.

Richard Collumb

Nienaber is our Steve Borthwick.

Cormac Mannion

I thought we could rely on “muscle memory” for the next few matches and Farrell’s influence would still have an effect on the performances. Well that theory went out the window very quickly. The discipline of the team was an absolute disgrace in the first half. Countless penalties and zero defensive alignment.

The attack wasn’t much better. The team lived off raw talent rather than the coaching. It’s awful to watch and the more I see, the more I’m reminded of the 2014-2015 season under MOC. Quite a few players looked disinterested tonight

Kevin Kelehan

This game was always going to be imperfect trying to re-integrate the blue Irish players en masse. Thankfully the second half was better, bodes well for the more important games against Embra and Ulster at Ravenhill. The attendance below 13,000 is however a real worry for financial planning of the game next season, need to be getting much bigger crowds than this

Bernie Cunningham

Overall a patchy performance, lots of errors trying too hard at times. Need to up our game next wk…6/10

Gavin Hegarty

Good few of these players were firing under Andy Farrell two weeks ago. Now they are rudderless and dull. How is this possible? Something seriously wrong in UCD.

Louis Hoffman

We won’t win anything this year.

Chris McDonnell

Can’t play rugby without an outhalf. The best 2 outhalves in the club are frawley and tector. Pendergast is broken and needs to be given time off.  3 seasons ago Cullen should have done the decent thing and walked away. The man is deluded if he thinks he’s not the problem.

Michael Byrne

Harry Byrne and Frawley aren’t getting enough time at 10, no point in investing time with Frawley at 10 now with a move Connacht, Leinster will regret that decision. Harry Byrne needs game time, its going to cost us when we face tougher opposition. We were very nearly full strength and should have put Scarlets away early. They really came to play so it was a decent win but 3 years ago that game would have been over in 20 minutes.

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URC WRAP


NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “LEINSTER’S BEST XV”

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN 


510 : Leinster v Scarlets preview


LEINSTER : 15 Jimmy O’Brien 14 Tommy O’Brien 13 Garry Ringrose 12 Jamie Osborne 11 Joshua Kenny 10 Harry Byrne 9 Jamison Gibson-Park

1 Andrew Porter 2 Dan Sheehan 3 Tadhg Furlong 4 Joe McCarthy 5 Brian Deeny 6 Max Deegan 7 Josh van der Flier 8 Caelan Doris (c)

16 Gus McCarthy 17 Jerry Cahir 18 Rabah Slimani 19 Conor O’Tighearnaigh 20 Alex Soroka 21 Fintan Gunne 22 Sam Prendergast 23 Robbie Henshaw


SCARLETS : 15 Blair Murray 14 Tom Rogers 13 Joe Roberts 12 Johnny Williams 11 Ellis Mee 10 Joe Hawkins 9 Dane Blacker

1 Kemsley Mathias 2 Harry Thomas 3 Archer Holz 4 Sam Lousi 5 Max Douglas 6 Jarrod Taylor 7 Dan Davis 8 Fletcher Anderson (c)

16 George Roberts 17 Sam O’Connor 18 Henry Thomas 19 Jake Ball 20 Tristan Davies 21 Archie Hughes 22 Ioan Jones 23 Macs Page


BKT United Rugby Championship

2025/26  Round 14

Friday, March 27, 2026

Aviva Stadium

KO 7:45pm

Live on : Premier Sports 1, URC.tv


Referee: Aimee Barrett-Theron (SARU)

AR 1: Peter Martin (IRFU)

AR 2: Chris Lough (IRFU)

TMO: Quinton Immelman (SARU)

509 : Glasgow v Leinster wrap



🏉 Gone in 11 minutes

🏉 Struggling attack

🏉 Confusing calls

🏉 Defensive concerns

🏉 They were Warriors



FULL TIME TAKES

Cormac Mannion

I know people will say we were missing a load of internationals but so were Glasgow! Also, that squad of players last night had been training together for the last few weeks. You wouldn’t have thought it. Some of the handling skills were downright shocking. Zero intention shown in tackling at times. No real defensive alignment, no defensive patterns.

The attack ran out of ideas every time it went past 3-4 phases. Shovel it sideways and eventually basketball pass out to a forward loitering on the wing.

Sam didn’t have a great game but he didn’t have much to work with. Slow ruck ball and McGrath was very slow distributing to him with a number of hospital passes. He really was having to force the game at times and needlessly kicked the ball away because he ran out of options

We look badly coached and the shape of the team reminds me of the latter stages of Gary Ella’s and MOC’s tenures … the awful defence under Ella and the dire attack under MOC.

Our only hope is the returning internationals retain the “muscle memory” from Farrell for the rest of the season

David Lawlor

Discipline was a killer but falling off tackles like that is what you expect to see from the half time minis. Pack Reiko off now and use Henshaw, Ringrose and Osborne in midfield for the rest of the season. Snyman should only be used off the bench as an impact sub. Major questions to be asked over Sam’s ability to control big games.

Gordon Addie

Glasgow are regularly in the top spots in the URC every season, so should never be taken for granted that Leinster go and win away to Warriors, theyve lost plenty in Glasgow over the years. The surprise was how emphatic the victory was given Glasgow were arguably missing about 12-13 starters and had a 2nd string pack out, while Leinster fielded a team with several Lions, a Springbok and an All Black. The sides will look very different next time they meet likely in a knock out game but Glasgow will fancy they can upset them again.

Liam Brosnan

Leinster were a great team, now they are a good team. Other teams have improved, it’s cyclical. They are not contenders for champions cup but they are the best irish side

Kevin Kelehan

Glasgow are a different side to last season, much stronger, we’ll be back in Scotland for the semi in the Champions Cup assuming both sides don’t slip up. Discipline cost Leinster this match, not good enough, on 13 men conceding 26 points and chasing the game after that. Leo needs to field a near full strength side next week as the lack of match continuity was glaringly obvious in this defeat. Some of the more excitable fans showing their true colours after this game, you don’t turn on specific players and or the coach when you lose away to the top team in the league.

Greg Kelly

We used to win these games at a canter. You have to wonder what has changed? Ioane can head home now as he is not the calibre of marquee player required. Snyman has been poor the last few games and it seems teams are now wise to his offload game. Sam’s confidence has been shredded by the 6 nations and we looked soft upfront tonight. We need to be competitive in these international windows otherwise it’s uphill in the playoffs

Craig Grehan

Are we all neglecting the fact we’d a team of irish internationals not playing ?

Let’s not forget.

Why are we not playing Osborne? Ringrose? Gibson Park? Captain Doris? Van Der Flier? McCarthy? Ryan? Furlong? Sheehan?

Dont gimme the “International rest” crap.

We’d Conan and Kelleher there.

Big games need big calls.

We’re a team of softies at times

Richard Collumb

Coaching ticket not up to it. Prendergast needs a break & discipline needs improving

Chris McDonnell

The step up in attack when frawley came on was massive. To think he was driven out of the club is baffling. I’d say Lancaster can’t believe his luck.

The coaching ticket needs to go. The 3 stooges are dragging us from bad to worse. Cullen claims to love the club, if he really did he’d admit he’s out of his depth and walk away.

Christy O’Connor

I’ve said it a million times now, we have gone backwards under Nienabar and Bleyendaal. Ulster players deserve their spots in the Irish team, they are playing much better rugby, they’re playing how we used to play before we lost Lancaster.

Absolute shite rugby style. Clueless in attack. More fun watching paint dry

Louis Hoffman

Cullen and Nienaber must go.

Dreadful

But to see that kn*bjockey Zebo delighted that a Scottish team beat an Irish one. What a jerk

Odran John OBrien

Time for the coaching team to change

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URC WRAP


NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “WOMEN’S 6N PREVIEW”

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN 


508: Glasgow v Leinster preview

ALSO AVAILABLE AS A PODCAST

LEINSTER : 15 Hugo Keenan 14 Joshua Kenny 13 Rieko Ioane 12 Robbie Henshaw 11 Jimmy O’Brien 10 Sam Prendergast 9 Luke McGrath (c)

1 Alex Usanov 2 Rónan Kelleher 3 Thomas Clarkson 4 RG Snyman 5 Brian Deeny 6 Jack Conan 7 Will Connors 8 James Culhane

16 John McKee 17 Jerry Cahir 18 Rabah Slimani 19 Conor O’Tighearnaigh 20 Max Deegan 21 Scott Penny 22 Fintan Gunne 23 Ciarán Frawley


GLASGOW : 15 Josh McKay 14 Kyle Rowe 13 Johnny Ventisei 12 Stafford McDowall (c) 11 Ollie Smith 10 Dan Lancaster 9 George Horne

1 Patrick Schickerling 2 Gregor Hiddleston 3 Fin Richardson 4 Alex Craig 5 Alex Samuel 6 Euan Ferrie 7 Sione Vailanu 8 Macenzzie Duncan

16 Seb Stephen 17 Rory Sutherland 18 Sam Talakai 19 Jare Oguntibeju 20 Ally Miller 21 Angus Fraser 22 Jack Oliver 23 Adam Hastings


BKT United Rugby Championship

2025/26  Round 13

Saturday, March 21, 2026

Scotstoun Stadium

KO 5:30pm

Live on : Premier Sports 1, URC.tv


Referee: Adam Jones (WRU)

AR 1: David Sutherland (SRU)

AR 2: Ciaran Stark (SRU)

TMO: Aled Griffiths (WRU)

507 : Ireland v Scotland wrap

14 March 2026; Jamie Osborne of Ireland scores his side’s first try during the Guinness 6 Nations Rugby Championship match between Ireland and Scotland at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile


🏉 Beirne & the backrow

🏉 Jamie O

🏉 Tartan resistance

🏉 Squad depth

🏉 What’s next


MARK JACKSON


FULL TIME TAKES

Cormac Mannion

Bizarrely we looked stretched out wide despite adding more pace in the backs. However, we.absolutely smashed Scotland up front. Really happy with how we’ve progressed over the last four weeks and we were missing so many players.

We looked far better coached today whereas Scotland lost their heads a few times

Louis Hoffman

Defence won us that game despite the score, almost nullified totally a great Scottish backline

Gavin Hegarty

When, in the history of any tournament, has each team come out happy?

France: winners

Ireland: good tournament and hugely improved after a disaster start. Triple crown

Scotland: retain Calcutta cup, 3/5 a good return

Italy: beat England for the first time. 2/5 a good return

England: salvaged a lot of pride in their loss to France and showed a turn

Wales: finished bottom but showed they are coming back to what world rugby needs

Just my Sunday morning thoughts!

Rugby was the real winner yesterday

Gerald Williamson

The Irish defense when under pressure from Scottish attacks performed exceptionally well. The subs bench made quite an impact particularly Darragh Murray’.

Bernie Cunningham

Ireland just a grt performance, Scotland just couldn’t handle Ireland in all aspects of the game today. COYBIG

Christy O’Connor

Brilliant performance, when will the Scots learn not to give us fuel before our games (Darcy Graham Ireland are there for the taking) 🤣

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SIX NATIONS WRAP

Italy 18-15 Scotland  

England 48-7 Wales  

France 36-14 Ireland

Scotland 31–20 England  

Italy 13–20 Ireland  

Wales 12–54 France

England 21-42 Ireland

Wales 23-26 Scotland  

France 33-8 Italy

Ireland 27-17 Wales 

Scotland 50-40 France

Italy 23-18 England

Ireland 43-21 Scotland

Wales 31-17 Italy

France 48-46 England


NEXT HARPIN’

ST PATRICK’S DAY

BONUS CHAT : “6N TEAM OF THE TOURNAMENT”

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN 


506: Ireland v Scotland preview


IRELAND : 15 Jamie Osborne 14 Rob Baloucoune 13 Garry Ringrose 12 Stuart McCloskey 11 Tommy O’Brien 10 Jack Crowley 9 Jamison Gibson‑Park

1 Tom O’Toole 2 Dan Sheehan 3 Tadhg Furlong 4 Joe McCarthy 5 Tadhg Beirne 6 Jack Conan 7 Josh van der Flier 8 Caelan Doris (c)

16 Rónan Kelleher 17 Michael Milne 18 Finlay Bealham 19 Darragh Murray 20 Nick Timoney 21 Craig Casey 22 Ciaran Frawley 23 Bundee Aki


SCOTLAND : 15 Blair Kinghorn 14 Darcy Graham 13 Huw Jones 12 Sione Tuipulotu (c) 11 Kyle Steyn 10 Finn Russell 9 Ben White

1 Pierre Schoeman 2 George Turner 3 Zander Fagerson 4 Max Williamson 5 Grant Gilchrist 6 Matt Fagerson 7 Rory Darge 8 Jack Dempsey

16 Ewan Ashman 17 Rory Sutherland 18 Murphy Rae 19 Alex Craig 20 Magnus Bradbury 21 George Horne 22 Kyle Rowe 23 Harry Jordan


Guinness Six Nations 2026

Round 5

Saturday, March 14, 2026

Aviva Stadium

KO 2:10pm

Live on : Virgin Media One


Referee: Luke Pearce (RFU)

AR1: Angus Gardner (RA)

AR2: Damian Schneider (UAR)

TMO: Andrew Jackson (RFU)

FPRO: Ian Tempest (RFU)

Throwback Thursday – Ireland v Wales 2018

We’ve already looked back at the French and English contests from the 2018 Slam so it’s only right and proper that we keep that going ahead of the visit of the Welsh to Dublin too. A couple of starters from 8 years ago are wearing the exact same numbers on Friday…can you spot them?

Wales : 15. Leigh Halfpenny 14 Liam Williams 13 Scott Williams 12 Hadleigh Parkes 11 Steff Evans 10 Dan Biggar 9 Gareth Davies

1 Rob Evans 2 Ken Owens 3 Samson Lee 4 Cory Hill 5 Alun Wyn Jones > CAPT 6 Aaron Shingler 7 Josh Navidi 8 Ross Moriarty

Replacements: 16 Elliot Dee 17 Wyn Jones 18 Tomas Francis 19 Bradley Davies 20 Justin Tipuric 21 Aled Davies 22 Gareth Anscombe 23 George North.

Natwest Six Nations 2018 – Round 3

Saturday, February 24, 2018

KO 2:15pm

Aviva Stadium

Referee – Glen Jackson (New Zealand)

Assistant 1 – Pascal Gauzere (France)

Assistant 2 – Matthew Carley (England)

TMO – Rowan Kitt (England)

Click here if you’d like to read my preview, but for the record my prediction was for an Ireland win by 1 to 3 pts…


WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH…

“Our defence was too narrow.”

Whatever about the merits of that statement, my question is…how can that be the very first thing someone says about this match???

Alright, hang on…I know it’s the first thing I’M saying about this match, but I’m merely quoting a straw keyboard warrior. You know what I mean 😉.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ARTICLE ON SUBSTACK

80+ column : March 4


ON THIS WEEK’S COLUMN…

  • WRAP OF A WRAP
  • RUGBY’S ASHES
  • AS YOU WERE
  • DROPPING THE DROP
  • RENNIE’S REMIT
  • CLICKBAIT OF THE WEEK
  • COACHING BY REFS
  • SAY OOH LA LA, LUKE MCGRATH
  • LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE
  • TROLL PATROL
  • COMPETITION UPDATES (incl Schools Cup)
  • NEXT HARPIN’

WRAP OF A WRAP

Since we cut from two guests on the wrap pods to one, having the same guest two out of three weeks has been a rarity but that’s how things turned out for the Cardiff pod and since Conor Cronin also chipped in to the 500th episode it means he earned three caps in as many weeks which I doubt has ever happened.

Unfortunately that one dull fact is more interesting than anything that actually happened in the URC match at Cardiff Arms Park but still Conor did a great job analysing what went wrong; I reckon it’s worth a listen if you missed it, click here to do so.



RUGBY’S ASHES

An “identical exhibition trophy” is set to be used for the remainder of the championship

New Six Nations trophy required after fire damage

RTÉ.ie

Not really a crazy story I suppose, fires happen, but I have to say I’m intrigued by the article simply saying “The fire, reported to have taken place in Ireland, led to no injuries…”.

Eh, maybe since you’re the Irish national broadcaster you might want to follow up on that? Where in Ireland? How did the fire start? To be fair if those details WERE in the article I probably wouldn’t pay them much mind, but they are still conspicuous by their absence and it leaves me an itch that needs scratching.

Plus all the talk of a new trophy being “forged” gave our WhatsApp group the perfect opportunity to run a host of Tolkien themed memes…

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL COLUMN ON SUBSTACK

Friday night sh*te, not so super defending & flag foibles

Saturday. February 28, 2026

Hi there, welcome to Broken Play, aka my Saturday morning Substack scribbling, and since you’re here, if you haven’t already, please hit the subscribe button if you don’t mind.

Needless to say I’m not in a very good mood this morning, mostly because Leinster got beaten last night of course, but also because it was a really, really, truly awful game of rugby. You’ll just have to take my word for it that I’m not saying that due to sour grapes, it really was a long, arduous 80m watch although since Leinster got beaten, I’d say it did provide sufficient Friday evening viewing for the majority of those watching!

But that’s what wrap pods are for so I’ll try to put the frustration aside for the moment and leave it until Sunday to do the tortuous rewatch. No point in sharing a link to the preview this week, but to get a sense of how I was feeling before this match here is my latest spot on Dublin South FM…

Anyway, enough about all that. This time last week instead of doing this article I was sitting in the car recording my part of our 500th episode special. It was eventually an enjoyable experience, but not before I got through the process of downloading/editing/re-uploading which took literally hours longer than it should have. Do check it out if you missed it, you’ll find the YouTube version here.

Speaking of this Broken Play article, I see I missed the 1 year anniversary of it – the first edition was scribbled on February 9, 2025. That’s unusual for me as in general I’m good at keeping track of such things, but anyway I have to say I enjoy doing them and as long as I can drag myself out of bed at this ungodly hour on Saturdays I’ll keep it up for the foreseeable.

I just remembered there’s Super Rugby on, so it is now accompanying me and Chiefs v Crusaders isn’t a bad contest to have on in the background. Chiefs have just taken a 14-0 lead but we all know that means nothing in this comp, defences were shaky anyway but with a gagillion Law “trials” meant to “speed up the game” anything is possible.

This week I want to touch on a subject that is, well touchy. Last night’s disappointment for Leinster in Cardiff brought to an end an extremely enjoyable week on social media for me. Any big win for my team has me in a good mood, but England? In Twickenham? When we thought our chances were slim at best? Magical.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ARTICLE ON SUBSTACK