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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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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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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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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80+ COLUMN – limited version (SUBSTACK)

FRIDAY

MUNSTER V LEINSTER PREVIEW SHOW (YOUTUBE)


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)

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)

465 : Leinster v Zebre preview




LEINSTER : 15. Hugo McLaughlin 14. Joshua Kenny 13. Hugh Cooney 

12. Charlie Tector 11. Andrew Osborne 10. Harry Byrne 9. Luke McGrath (c)

1. Jerry Cahir 2. John McKee 3. Rabah Slimani 4. Brian Deeny 

5. Diarmuid Mangan 6. Max Deegan 7. Scott Penny 8. James Culhane

16. Bobby Sheehan 17. Alex Usanov 18. Andrew Sparrow 19. RG Snyman 

20. Alex Soroka 21. Will Connors 22. Fintan Gunne 23. Caspar Gabriel


ZEBRE : 15 Lorenzo Pani 14 Mirko Belloni 13 Giulio Bertaccini 12 Marco Zanon 11 Albert Einstein Batista 10 Giacomo Da Re 9 Thomas Dominguez

1 Muhamed Hasa 2 Giovanni Quattrini 3 Matteo Nocera 4 Franco Carrera 5 Leonard Krumov (c) 6 Giacomo Ferrari 7 Samuele Locatelli 8 David Odiase

16 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo 17 Paolo Buonfiglio 18 Marcos Gallorini 19 Giacomo Milano 20 Giovanni Licata 21 Migael Prinsloo 22 Martin Roger Farias 23 Luca Morisi


BKT United Rugby Championship 25/26 Rd 5

Saturday, October 25, 2025

Aviva Stadium

KO 5:30pm Irish time  

Live on : Premier Sports 1, URC.tv


Referee: Ian Kenny (SRU)

AR 1: Stuart Gaffikin (IRFU)

AR 2:  Andrew Fogarty (IRFU)

TMO: Colin Brett (SRU)

464 : Leinster v Munster wrap

18 October 2025; Leinster players after their side’s defeat in the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Munster at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile


🏉  Multiple issues

🏉  Jack’s boot

🏉  Beirne unit

🏉  No warnings

🏉  Back to drawing board


HUGO GORDON


FULL TIME TAKES

Sarah Lennon

I feel for Cullen. All the riches in the world and none of them his. The team was disjointed, two dimensional and predictable. They played like strangers.

Munster, as good as they were, simply needed to do the basics well.

The end is nigh, for the team and for the ticket!

Kevin Kelehan

Munster came to Croker with a simple game plan and executed it, led by Tadgh Beirne who led from the front and dominated the breakdown, ending so many multi phase Leinster attacks with turnovers. Leinster were not cohesive and butchered so many decent attacks with bad handling. The ref was not test level, let Munster away with murder when not releasing the tackler going to ground, constantly half a yard offside at rucks, denied Josh van Der Flier a clear try and let a Munster deliberate knock on away as accidental. Leinster badly missed Joe McCarthy, Ryan Baird, Jack Conan, Hugo Keenan and Cealan Doris with Prendergast, Lowe and Snyman all extremely rusty. But hats off to Munster to playing to their game plan and executing scraps into 7 point scores, their new manager unlike Richie Murphy hit the ground full tilt in his first season.

Gavin Hegarty

I’m embarrassed by that performance. Lions and internationals on the pitch beaten by a team that just wanted it more.

I need to watch that penalty try again because from the Cusack stand it made zero sense. But that made no impact on the final score.

We thought the first two games were just blips,maybe not.

Colin Mehigan

We were missing key players and leaders (Doris, Conan, McCarthy, Keenan, Tommy OB, Baird etc). There’s too much hyperbole in modern sport and the aftermath of tonight from fan and media alike will be no exception.

I do have qualms about the Nienaber system which have been reinforced after that game but we did win a trophy 5 matches ago. Munster were due a win against us and they sensed our vulnerabilities before and during the game….now it’s time to see leaders step up for the rest of the season

Michelle Tobin

Injury count was horrendous on both sides. Having said that I’m happy tonight

Christy O’Connor

First off the better team by far won. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Nienabars tactics are awful. We are playing the same awful tactics that Van Graan did for Munster, stick it up the jumper and just try to barge through. We spent the majority of the 2nd half in their 22 and done nothing with it, not once did I feel confident that we would score. Superb defence from Munster but we never stretched them.

Felt sorry Frawley, was a brilliant tackle to deny the BP try only for the ref to make up some new law to give it.

Chris McDonnell

I have been saying this for years now, Cullen is not a head coach. He is a great servant to the club but simply has failed time and time again as coach. Pendergast didnt pick himself for ireland or leinster but simply isn’t any where near good enough at the minute and he may find it difficult to come back from this.

John Hyland

The breakdown was a free-for-all. Leinster lacked any pace or physicality. Crowley bossed our back three, and Prendergast was very poor. I’m not buying the ‘let him develop’ line. If he was good enough we would have seen it by now.

Conor Lowth

Actually refreshing to have a competitive Munster side back.

Leinster are on the decline the last couple of years and are persisting with mediocre players like Osborne, Frawley, Pendergast. These guys are rugby robots, slow with little flair , I fear for Leinster and Ireland

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80+ COLUMN