481: Leinster v Ulster preview

ALSO AVAILABLE AS A PODCAST


LEINSTER :

15. Ciarán Frawley 14. Joshua Kenny 13. Rieko Ioane

12. Charlie Tector 11. James Lowe 10. Sam Prendergast 9. Luke McGrath

1. Jack Boyle 2. Gus McCarthy 3. Rabah Slimani4. Brian Deeny

5. James Ryan 6. Alex Soroka 7. Scott Penny 8. Jack Conan (c)

16. Dan Sheehan 17. Paddy McCarthy 18. Tadhg Furlong 19. Joe McCarthy

20. Max Deegan 21. Fintan Gunne 22. Harry Byrne 23. Ruben Moloney


ULSTER

15. Jacob Stockdale 14. Rob Baloucoune 13. Jude Postlethwaite

12. Stuart McCloskey 11. Werner Kok 10. Jack Murphy 9. Nathan Doak

1. Angus Bell  2. Tom Stewart 3. Tom O’Toole 4. Harry Sheridan

5. Charlie Irvine 6. David McCann 7. Nick Timoney (c) 8. Juarno Augustus 

16. John Andrew 17. Sam Crean 18. Scott Wilson 19. Joe Hopes

20. Bryn Ward 21. Conor McKee 22. Jake Flannery 23. Ethan McIlroy


BKT United Rugby Championship 25/26 – Round 2

Friday, December 19, 2025

Aviva Stadium

KO 7:45pm

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


Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU)

AR 1: Andrew Fogarty (IRFU)

AR 2: Tomás O’Sullivan (IRFU)

TMO: Olly Hodges (IRFU)

480 : Leicester Tigers v Leinster wrap

12 December 2025; Jamison Gibson-Park of Leinster scores his side’s first try during the Investec Champions Cup match between Leicester Tigers and Leinster at Mattioli Woods Welford Road in Leicester, England. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile


🏉 Reiko’s 1st start

🏉 Joe McC

🏉 Defensive concerns

🏉 The road ahead

🏉 Paddy McC


HUGO GORDON


FULL TIME TAKES

Cian O’Muilleoir (WhatsApp)

The more I think on that performance, the more I reckon the 1% is right. 

The previous big obvious things (scrum, lineout, discipline) are more or less fixed, certainly improved. 

Outside of that we’re getting into the right patterns and areas both sides of the ball, pretty much, but then… it falls apart. The reason differs. Sometimes it’s ruck resourcing. Sometimes it’s ball placement. Sometimes it’s offence or defence position or role confusion. Sometimes it’s accuracy/execution.

None of them feel like they’d be a massive issue to fix by themselves. But they’re all happening in every match like a random failure generator.

It needs fixing, and quick.

Darach Kennedy

An away win in Welford road. I’ll take that. Someone else can try and gather up some negatives.

Greg Kelly

Leinsters poor attack and sloppy execution continues. You wonder what’s really going on. We were the better team overall and they never really looked like scoring in the second half but our attack was woefully sloppy.

Irish rugby should be concerned overall with the loose head situation. Regardless of what happens referees seem to think we are weak there. There were some real garbage calls against McCarthy in the first half but as with Porter there is a perception.

Christy O’Connor

Another poor performance overall with some good individual performances. So many poor passes and spilled balls. At least our lineout was the best I’ve seen in a good while.

Doris needs to be careful moaning at the ref so much, the hit on Conan was a rugby incident and nothing more.

Our defense is not going to be good enough when we come up against better teams

Kevin Kelehan

Very happy that despite conceding two really well taken tries against the run of play the lads kept their belief and upped their work rate. The coming six weeks will make or break Leinster’s season, Ulster, Munster, Connacht, La Rochelle and Bayonne. Great to be heading into that run knowing that when the opportunity for players to go missing, they refused to take it.

Odran John OBrien

Brilliant win away from home but the Leinster attack is simply awful

anyone have Isa’s number? We could all do a whip around to persuade him to come back and coach

Chris McDonnell

If we could only put the straps Robbie henshaw has on his accordion on to a rugby ball, he might not drop the ball as much.

Craig Grehan

Win is a win. Grafted that one out

Tom Fingleton

Look at all the stats from tonight and the try return from the dominance . Tells you all really

Richard Collumb

4 points away, despite playing at times like they only met each other in the dressing room.

Eamon Saunders

Not a great team performance but again some very good individuals

Lorcán Murphy

The good news is they’re getting gritty away wins playing poorly with injury disruption. Can only get better

Get in the conversation yourself by leaving

your own thoughts each week after the full time whistle

in Leinster & Ireland matches on our Facebook page


CHAMPIONS CUP WRAP

ROUND 2

Leicester Tigers 15–23 Leinster

Stormers 42–21 La Rochelle

Clermont 14–35 Sale Sharks

Sharks 28-23 Saracens

Munster 31–3 Gloucester

Bordeaux-Bègles 50–21 Scarlets

Glasgow Warriors 28–21 Toulouse

Cardiff 29–26 Ulster

Castres 33–0 Edinburgh

Harlequins 68-14 Bayonne

Northampton Saints 50-5 Bulls

Toulon 45-34 Bath

Bristol Bears 61-12 Pau

Round 3

Friday, 9 January 2026

Castres v Bath

Edinburgh v Gloucester

Saturday, 10 January 2026

Bulls v Bristol

Clermont v Glasgow

Leinster v La Rochelle

Sale Sharks v Sharks

Scarlets v Pau

Leicester Tigers v Bayonne

Sunday, 11 January 2026

Harlequins v Stormers

Toulon v Munster

Bordeaux-Bègles v Northampton Saints

Saracens v Toulouse


NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

BONUS CHAT : “THE RISE AND RISE OF PADDY McCARTHY” (YOUTUBE)

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN (SUBSTACK) 


AI doing me wrong, Mad Dog & Englishmen, opinions on opinions

Saturday, December 13, 2025

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.

As promised last week, the Christmas decorations are now up in the Pagano household, and I have even resorted to AI to festivize the logo for the time of year that’s in it.

Speaking of AI, I’m afraid I have to hang my head in shame when it comes to our latest preview show on YouTube. When I talk of producing content I often joke about having a “Harpin’ Legal Department” or “Harpin’ Graphic Department” assuming most people know my tongue is firmly in my cheek as I type. The reality is that apart from my excellent group of contributors who join me on pods and take part in our WhatsApp group, the different hats are generally worn by my good salf.

Which means I have come to resort to AI more and more for research to save time, and sadly the same ways AI photos often come out with 6 or 7 fingers on each hand, the data I ask for can be wildly inaccurate.

The Preview show follows a specific template each week, and one mini segment involves looking at the other matches in the round of the weekend for the tournament Leinster or Ireland are playing in that weekend. When it’s Champions Cup time, I do try to include all the Irish provinces which means I have to also keep tabs on the Challenge Cup.

So when setting up the graphic for the video, rather than go to the official Challenge Cup site like I should have done, I relied on AI to provide me with the list of games and for some reason I was told Ulster were playing against the Dragons while Connacht were playing the Cheetahs.

Both were totally wrong, their opponents were in fact Cardiff and Black Lion respectively, and it’s way too late to fix it. I only noticed there was egg on my fac when I was researching for my weekly Dublin FM slot and it dawned on me that Connacht couldn’t possibly be playing away from home two weeks in a row.

CLICK HERE FOR THE ENTIRE ARTICLE ON SUBSTACK

479: Leicester Tigers v Leinster preview

Our guest : MARK JACKSON


LEINSTER :

15. Jimmy O’Brien14. Tommy O’Brien 13. Rieko Ioane 12. Robbie Henshaw

11. James Lowe 10. Harry Byrne 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Paddy McCarthy 2. Rónan Kelleher 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. Joe McCarthy

5. James Ryan 6. Jack Conan 7. Josh van der Flier 8. Caelan Doris (c)

16. Dan Sheehan 17. Jack Boyle 18. Thomas Clarkson 19. Diarmuid Mangan

20. Max Deegan 21. Luke McGrath 22. Sam Prendergast 23. Ciarán Frawley


LEICESTER TIGERS

15 Freddie Steward 14 Adam Radwan 13 Will Wand

12 Solomone Kata 11 Ollie Hassell-Collins 10 Billy Searle 9 Tom Whiteley

1 Nicky Smith 2 Jamie Blamire 3 Joe Heyes 4 Cameron Henderson

5 Harry Wells 6 James Thompson 7 Tommy Reffell (c) 8 Joaquin Moro

16 Finn Theobald Thomas 17 Archie van der Flier 18 Will Hurd 19 Tom Manz

20 Sam Williams 21 Ollie Allan 22 Orlando Bailey 23 Joseph Woodward


Investec Champions Cup 25/26 – Round 2

Friday, December 12, 2025

Mattioli Woods Welford Road

KO 8pm

Live on : Premier Sports 1


Referee – Pierre Brousset (Fra)

AR1 – Vincent Blasco Baque (Fra)

AR2 – Julien Caulier (Fra)

TMO – Tual Trainini (Fra)

Harpin’ on…Leinster’s season so far

“Welcome to our latest bonus chat, if you missed our podcast looking back at Leinster v Harlequins be sure to check it out on Apple, Spotify and all the other usual places. I was joined on the pod by Tom Coleman who’s last appearance was way back on September 21st, right before Leinster’s season kicked off in Cape Town so I thought this was a perfect opportunity to give an overview of Leinster’s season so far – well Tom, after 6 rounds of the URC and 1 game into the latest quest for that 5th star, how have we been doing?”

477 : Leinster v Harlequins preview

ALSO AVAILABLE AS A PODCAST

Our guest : MARK JACKSON


LEINSTER : 15. Jimmy O’Brien 14. Tommy O’Brien 13. Garry Ringrose 12. Ciarán Frawley 11. Jordan Larmour 10. Sam Prendergast 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Paddy McCarthy 2. Dan Sheehan 3. Thomas Clarkson 4. RG Snyman 5. Joe McCarthy 6. Jack Conan 7. Josh van der Flier 8. Caelan Doris (c)

16. Rónan Kelleher 17. Jack Boyle 18. Tadhg Furlong 19. Diarmuid Mangan 20. Max Deegan 21. Luke McGrath 22. Harry Byrne 23. Rieko Ioane


HARLEQUINS : 15. Cameron Anderson, 14. Cassius Cleaves, 13. Oscar Beard, 12. Luke Northmore, 11. Cadan Murley (c), 10. Jarrod Evans, 9. Will Porter

1. Boris Wenger, 2. Jack Walker, 3. Harry Williams, 4. Kieran Treadwell, 5. Stephan Lewies, 6. Zach Carr, 7. Will Evans, 8. Tom Lawday

16. George Turner, 17. Will Hobson, 18. Pedro Delgado, 19. Joe Launchbury, 20. Lucas Schmid, 21. Lucas Friday, 22. Jamie Benson, 23. Bryn Bradley


Investec Champions Cup 25/26 – Round 1

Saturday, December 6, 2025

Aviva Stadium

KO 5:30pm

Live on : Premier Sports 1


Referee : Craig Evans (WRU)

AR1 : Adam Jones (WRU)

AR2 : Ben Breakspear (WRU)

TMO : Keith David (WRU)

Harpin’ on…the Champions’ Cup contenders

Every Tuesday we post a “bonus chat” from our Sunday evening wrap pod recording, here’s the latest one.

This is the lead-in : “Next weekend sees the opening round of the Champions Cup, and rather than engage in the annual complaints about the format which doesn’t seem to be moving the needle with the organisers, we thought instead we’d start our coverage by looking at the various contenders for winning the 2026 final in Bilbao, which Leinster fans won’t need reminding is where we won our fourth, and crucially our most recent, star. I suppose David before you list your contenders from around the continent I should probably ask, are Leinster one of them?

475 : Dragons v Leinster preview



LEINSTER : 15. Jimmy O’Brien 14. Joshua Kenny 13. Hugh Cooney 12. Ciarán Frawley 11. Jordan Larmour 10. Harry Byrne 9. Fintan Gunne

1. Jack Boyle 2. Gus McCarthy 3. Thomas Clarkson 4. Brian Deeny 5. Diarmuid Mangan 6. Alex Soroka 7. Scott Penny 8. Max Deegan (c)

16. John McKee 17. Jerry Cahir 18. Rabah Slimani 19. RG Snyman 20. Josh Ericson 21. Luke McGrath 22. Charlie Tector 23. Ruben Moloney


DRAGONS : 15 Angus O’Brien (c) 14 Cai Evans 13 David Richards 12 Aneurin Owen  11 Huw Anderson 10 Tinus de Beer 9 Rhodri Williams

1 Dylan Kelleher-Griffiths 2 Oli Burrows 3 Robert Hunt 4 Seb Davies 5 Matthew Screech 6 Ryan Woodman 7 Thomas Young 8 Mackenzie Martin

16 Will Austin 17 Wyn Jones 18 Owain James 19 Levi Douglas 20 Shane Lewis-Hughes 21 Niall Armstrong 22 Joe Westwood 23 Ewan Rosser


United Rugby Championship 25/26 – Round 6

Friday, November 28, 2025

Rodney Parade, Newport

KO 7:45pm

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


Referee: Morne Ferreira (SARU)

AR 1: Craig Evans (WRU)

AR 2: Lucas Yendle (WRU)

TMO: Chris Allison (SARU)

473 : Ireland v South Africa preview

Our guest : HUGO GORDON


IRELAND :15. Mack Hansen 14. Tommy O’Brien 13. Garry Ringrose 12. Bundee Aki 11. James Lowe 10. Sam Prendergast 9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Andrew Porter 2. Dan Sheehan 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. James Ryan 5. Tadhg Beirne 6. Ryan Baird 7. Josh van der Flier 8. Caelan Doris (c)

16. Rónan Kelleher 17. Paddy McCarthy 18. Finlay Bealham 19. Cian Prendergast 20. Jack Conan 21. Craig Casey 22. Jack Crowley 23. Tom Farrell


SOUTH AFRICA : 15 Damian Willemse 14 Canan Moodie 13 Jesse Kriel 12 Damian de Allende 11 Cheslin Kolbe 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu 9 Cobus Reinach 

1 Boan Enter 2 Malcolm Marx 3 Thomas du Toit 4 Eben Etzebeth 5 Ruan Nortje 6 Siya Kolisi (c) 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit 8 Jasper Wiese

16 Johan Grobbelaar 17 Gerhard Steenekamp 18 Wilco Louw 19 RG Snyman 20 Kwagga Smith 21 Andre Esterhuizen 22 Grant Williams 23 Manie Libbok


Quilter Nations Series – Round 4

Saturday, November 22, 2025

Aviva Stadium, Dublin

KO 5:40pm

Live on : RTÉ2, TNT Sports 1


Referee: Matthew Carley (Eng)

AR1: Karl Dickson (Eng)

AR2: Christophe Ridley (Eng)

TMO: Andrew Jackson (Eng)

FPRO: Dan Jones (Eng)

472 : IRELAND V AUSTRALIA wrap

2025 Quilter Nations Series, Aviva Stadium, Dublin 15/11/2025Ireland vs AustraliaIrelands Mack Hansen scores his sides third try of the match despite Australias James O’ConnorMandatory Credit ©INPHO/Gary Carr


🏉 Full-Mack at 15 

🏉 Options galore

🏉 Baird The Poacher

🏉 Smart decisions

🏉 Think inside the Boks


No guest this week, flying solo


FULL TIME TAKES

Kevin Kelehan

Questioned in recent weeks, accused of being a team in serious decline, players being told in the media they were past their sell by date, line out coach and best lock in Irish history told he was shyte at his job. Then we get the best Irish performance since RWC 2023 and one as unpredicted as smashing France in Marseilles in 2024. Australia absolutely failed to deal with the weather conditions and coughed up a lot of easy possession in the red zone but this was the Irish team giving Andy Farrell and Paul O’Connell a performance they’ve been owed for a while. Despite the absence of lions Joe McCarthy, Van Der Flier, Ringrose and Keenan the team was rejigged into a cohesive unit and its clear there is more depth in the squad than has been thought for a couple of years, players like Henshaw and Hansen look reinvented whilst McCloskey looks to be the most unlucky player in recent history in only getting short stints. Hopefully the team can match this performance again next week and hopefully the BOK evolution hasn’t moved on too much since last summer’s drawn series.

Adrian Hickey

Australia still in shock after the Lynagh/Ioane show last week I reckon. When our very sick, reintroduced fb Mack can help himself to a hattrick out of position says quite a bit. Ronan not cutting the mustard the last bit. Gus on bench at hooker next week to back up Dano or he has to do 80. Kudos to Sambo for the drop btw

Bert McLoughlin

A lot more cohesive this week and apart from poor discipline in the 1st half we should have kept their score lower

Kettlebell Padawen

Sam’s best game in green. Australia were shocking

David Ryle

Sam should have shut his detractors up but no they’re still nit picking his performance.

‪Rob Gardner‬ (via BlueSky)

JPG could give anywhere between 1-15 a good go.

Get in the conversation yourself by leaving

your own thoughts each week after the full time whistle

in Leinster & Ireland matches on our Facebook page


NOVEMBER SERIES WRAP

ITALY 14-32 SOUTH AFRICA

PORTUGAL 58-12 HONG KONG

ENGLAND V NEW ZEALAND

GEORGIA 38-17 CANADA

ROMANIA 18-26 USA

WALES 24-23 JAPAN

IRELAND 46-19 AUSTRALIA

FRANCE 34-21 FIJI

SCOTLAND 24-33 ARGENTINA


NEXT HARPIN’

TUESDAY

GUEST POST : “Who could replace Leo?” (blog)

WEDNESDAY

80+ COLUMN (Substack)