In the final weeks of the 2018 Six Nations, Ian Keatley repped each of the outhalves Ireland would be facing on their championship run-in. One week in training he would be Dan Biggar, the next he would be Finn Russell and there would be skip and no-look passes. Ahead of the Grand Slam decider with […]

8 years ago

This one looks messy. Offaly fell to Wicklow in their Leinster Senior Football Championship clash at the weekend and missed out on a quarter final date with All-Ireland champions Dublin. Offaly boss Stephen Wallace did not last long after that. The Offaly county board – Management Review Meeting – convened on Wednesday evening for a […]

8 years ago

‘Can ye please take the work experience lad off the ratings?!’ Ronan O’Gara is firmly of the belief that player ratings, if they are to be done at all, should only be compiled after a second or third viewing of a match. There is often so much going on that it is a mighty […]

8 years ago

Some hard but considered comments here. The 2017/18 Champions Cup final turned out to be a sluggish, error-prone and fraught affair. As if often the case when that happens, the match officials feel the heat. Racing came to Bilbao to get Leinster into a scrap and to knock them off track. Having previously torn the […]

8 years ago

Rob Kearney followed its’ flight all the way out of play. Remi Tales did a remarkably good job for Racing 92 in the tough circumstances into which he was pitched. An hour before the Champions Cup final, Tales was named on the Racing bench after Dan Carter failed a late fitness test. Two minutes and […]

8 years ago

The fact that he managed to play through such obvious pain really tells you a lot about the Tipperary native’s competitive zeal. Donnacha Ryan badly injured his left shoulder only 11 minutes into Racing 92’s Champions Cup final against Leinster. In going for a lineout steal, Ryan was tackled in the air and hit the […]

8 years ago

He took it in good spirits. Eddie Jones may well just steer clear of conferences and Q&As in the future. Ahead of England’s Six Nations clash with Ireland, at Twickenham, footage of Jones at a sponsor’s event in the summer of 2017 surfaced. Said in jest, his comments on the ‘scummy Irish’ and about Wales […]

8 years ago

Brilliant stuff from the humble Wexford farmer! Tadhg Furlong has now beaten the Springboks, Australia and the All Blacks. He is A grand Slam winner. He was an integral part of the 2017 Lions team that drew a memorable series with New Zealand. He has proved to be up there with the very best tightheads […]

8 years ago

Less than three minutes into the 2017/18 Champions Cup final and Pat Lambie badly ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament stepping inside an on-rushing Rob Kearney. The South African knew his day was done and he needed medical staff to help him get off the pitch. Up came the sub’s board and number 22 came on […]

8 years ago

How Robbie Henshaw made it to the end of the Champions Cup final is a true marker of his toughness and durability. Racing 92 had Henshaw marked out as a real dangerman in attack and pressed up on him as much as possible. Either by getting in his face or dishing up a big hit, […]

8 years ago

“Who’d be a ref?” That was the question posed by Racing 92 lock Donnacha Ryan after his side’s cruel 15-12 Champions Cup final loss to Leinster. Racing led for 70 minutes of a fraught affair before Leinster turned a three-point deficit into a three-point win, thanks to two Isa Nacewa penalties. Such was the tense […]

8 years ago

It is getting close to 11pm in Bilbao and it looked as though the last of the Racing and Leinster players had filtered through the mixed zone. Then, asmost reporters had returned to work stations to file stories, a battered and bruised Tipperary man emerged. Donnacha Ryan was only a couple of hours after playing […]

8 years ago

Such a needlessly quick turnaround. For some reason, this time around, the EPCR wanted to get the European Player of the Year decision wrapped up and sorted before the Racing and Leinster players left the field at the San Mames stadium. In past seasons, the likes of Sean O’Brien, Owen Farrell and Jonny Wilkinson have […]

8 years ago

9:34pm local time (Bilbao) and only Jack Conan has been through the post-match mixed zone. His medal is firmly hung around his neck and the 330ml can of Heineken he nurses looks doll-like in his hands. Johnny Sexton, Leo Cullen and Isa Nacewa have wrapped their press briefing with a gleaming Champions Cup trophy plonked […]

8 years ago

Johnny Sexton on top form yet again. The Leinster outhalf spoke superbly about pressure, nerves and destiny ahead of the Champions Cup final against Racing 92. Just 30 hours later he faced the press again with that cup sitting four feet away and a winners medal draped around his neck. Sexton was not the only […]

8 years ago

Ahead of Leinster’s Champions Cup clash with Racing 92, Isa Nacewa was lining up kicks from across the San Mames pitch. The veteran Kiwi [with one Fijian cap] played his final European game, in Bilbao, and it was fittingly in his fourth European Cup final. Nacewa has not only lost a yard of pace, he’s […]

8 years ago

By Jesus, that was not a pretty final to watch but Leinster got over the line and are champions of Europe. Champions of the Champions Cup. Champions. Leinster bounced back from a 12-9 deficit to beat Racing 15-12 in a nervy final at the San Mames stadium. Isa Nacewa ultimately proved the matchwinner but one […]

8 years ago

LEINSTER 15-12 RACING Leinster are the European champions again for the fourth time after beating Racing 92 in one of the nerviest finals you’ll ever see. Leinster trailed after only three minutes and only led with three minutes to go as two Isa Nacewa penalties in the closing stages turned a 12-9 deficit to a […]

8 years ago

A young man who clearly knew where he was going. At 32-years-old, Rob Kearney is one of the most decorated players in the history of Irish rugby and he is far from finished. The Louth native started this season, and a couple before that, being told his time as starting fullback for Leinster and Ireland […]

8 years ago

Every Leinster player will be well aware of their roles and responsibilities against Racing 92 but Garry Ringrose just has so, so many to see too. The Champions Cup final will see individual, set-play, pod, coaching and set-piece battles taking place all across the San Mames stadium. The two form teams in Europe meet for […]

8 years ago

Leinster’s players, coaching and backroom staff have taken up most of the first 15 rows on the Aer Lingus EI746 flight from Dublin to Bilbao. Rob Kearney and Sean Cronin sit together near the front while the giant forms of James Ryan and Devin Toner brush off the overhead containers in their window seats. Rhys Ruddock […]

8 years ago

Jamie Heaslip and Richie McCaw have come across some of the best to have ever played rugby in their respective careers. Both agree on the toughest player they have ever faced off against. Heaslip and McCaw are both now ex-pros so they can speak a little more openly than they may have during their long […]

8 years ago

Bilbao is very much red but Saturday will see blues battle it out for the Champions Cup final. The San Mamés was resplendent in sunshine as both Leinster and Racing 92 went through their captains’ runs. First up were Leinster, who had arrived in late on Thursday night and were happy for the opportunity to […]

8 years ago

We so often expect players to come out with their game-face on so close to a big match. Isa Nacewa can do it better than most. Johnny Sexton is a different matter. One of the treats of Leinster’s run to the Champions Cup final has been the increased press conference appearances of Johnny Sexton. The […]

8 years ago

The calls have been made. Leinster will hope they are the right ones. Leo Cullen appeared in front of the press at the San Mamés stadium just 15 minutes after his Leinster XV for the Champions Cup final was announced. The big calls revolve around Luke McGrath returning as scrum-half, Jordan Larmour starting on the […]

8 years ago

Here we go now. As reported by SportsJOE, Leinster are starting with Jordan Larmour on the right wing for the Champions Cup final against Racing 92. The 21-year-old, who has only played No.14 once in his professional career so far, gets the nod ahead of James Lowe. The Kiwi is not included in the matchday […]

8 years ago

What a shame for James Lowe. Leinster will, this afternoon, name their team for the 2017/18 Champions Cup final and then have a run-out at Estadio San Mamés in Bilbao. The Blues flew out to Spain on a Thursday evening Aer Lingus flight and they brought a sizeable squad with them, including Michael Bent, Rory […]

8 years ago

Leinster will have assessed the big breakdown threats and will be working on the most effective and ruthless plan they can get away with in Bilbao. Following Racing’s semi-final win over Munster, Donnacha Ryan spoke with The Hard Yards from Paris about what turned out to be a devastating game-plan: “We really tried to bar up […]

8 years ago

Go up to Ulster, work with a new coach, get a run of games at outhalf and improve your World Cup chances. If only it were that simple. Ulster Rugby look set to sit on the hands and pine for incoming head coach Dan McFarland until January 20 of next year. The appointment of McFarland, […]

8 years ago

The big question is, ‘Who is stepping up to stop Teddy Thomas?’ Leinster head into the Champions Cup final, in Bilbao, with very few serious injury issues for this stage of such an attritional season. Key players like Johnny Sexton, Rob Kearney, Tadhg Furlong and Scott Fardy all put their feet up after helping Leinster […]

8 years ago

Some players will be moving on from Manchester United this summer, while Jose Mourinho is expected to bring in some new faces. United will wrap up their season in the coming weeks and transfer season will kick into gear. The likes of Daley Blind, Matteo Darmian and Marouane Fellaini may all move on while Mourinho’s […]

8 years ago

Naked as the day he was born, only with a few more tattoos. 15 years after winning his second snooker world championship, Mark Williams added a third by defeating fellow veteran John Higgins at The Crucible. The Welshman raced into a 14-7 lead before he was pegged back to 15-15. It looked as though Williams […]

8 years ago

He didn’t want to be missing out on all the football. The football world has come together over the past 48 hours, since word emerged of Alex Ferguson’s emergency procedure at a Salford hospital following his brain haemorrhage, to offer their support and prayers to a man who has dedicated his life to the game. […]

8 years ago

“I’m getting tired of learning lessons myself, personally, to be honest.” Peter O’Mahony struggled to take many positives out of Munster’s Champions Cup semi-final exit at the hands of Racing 92, last month. For Munster, in Europe, they have done remarkably well in reaching the knock-out stages but have suffered the knock-outs far too frequently for […]

8 years ago

Conor McGregor has not fought in Dublin since July 2014. We are just over a month away from Conor McGregor’s re-appearance in Brooklyn to face up to charges stemming from his attack on a bus carrying several UFC stars and staff at the Barclays Center. UFC president Dana White has said he will wait until […]

8 years ago

Munster entertained Edinburgh at Thomond Park, on Saturday, in what would be their final home game of the season – a Guinness PRO14 semi-final qualifier. Johann van Graan’s men won 20-16 and will next face Leinster in the last four, at The RDS, on Saturday May 19. The Edinburgh game was one last chance for […]

8 years ago

Such a shame for the guy. Five days out from the Champions Cup final and the injury updates mean so much more. Jordi Murphy and Luke McGrath are back training this week and both should be in contention to face Racing 92 in Bilbao on Saturday. Leinster have confirmed the bad news, however, that Fergus […]

8 years ago

This opens up a world of selection opens for Leo Cullen and Stuart Lancaster. While Racing 92 will go into their Champions Cup final against Leinster without Maxime Machenaud, the Irish province are set to welcome back their primary scrum-half. Luke McGrath put his ankle to the test on the training pitches out at Leinster’s […]

8 years ago

Not a bother to him. Just as Dublin GAA fans, and the rest of the country, were getting used to the idea of not seeing much of Diarmuid Connolly this summer, he shows up gripping a hurl. On Thursday, Dublin football boss Jim Gavin confirmed that the 30-year-old would not be available for selection this […]

8 years ago

BRIGHTON 1-0 MAN UNITED Another Premier League game, another set of Manchester United players queuing up not to play in the F.A Cup final. Shorn of Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez, United lost limply to a Brighton side that ensured their league survival with a well deserved 1-0 win. United played a front three of […]

8 years ago

If he was not aware of what he has signed up for, Steven Gerrard knows now. The former Liverpool and England midfielder has been announced as the new Rangers manager on a four-season deal. Gerrard was unveiled amid much pomp and pageantry, at Ibrox, and promised to bring passion and commitment to the task at […]

8 years ago

There you go lads. Take and do with that information what you will. It was with the remarkable timing of one of his flat passes that Johnny Sexton appeared on the national airwaves and let it be known that he was targeting the Lions tour to South Africa in 2021. Not only that, the outhalf […]

8 years ago

Dave Kearney arrived into Leinster’s sub academy a decade ago with the same misconception as most aspiring rugby professionals. “I was eating as much pasta as I could take and then hitting the gym,” he recalls. “Trying to get as big as possible in as short a time possible.” Now well established in the Leinster […]

8 years ago

Done deal

8 years ago

Watch out South Africa

8 years ago

Some dedication

8 years ago

Devin Toner will also tour, but the prospect of this new-look second row is tantalising. With only Munster in action from the four provinces this weekend, and with Connacht’s season already over, it may have been missed that Ireland are set to be without Iain Henderson this summer. The second row injured his knee in […]

8 years ago

Liverpool’s players, if they were so inclined, would have watched Real Madrid’s semi final second leg against Bayern Munich and thought, ‘We can have these’. 24 hours on, the Real players must have been thinking the same thing. The usual procedure, the later one goes in a cup competition, is for knock-out games to get […]

8 years ago

“I try get around to Rhys Ruddock’s house at least once a week!” Most of the Leinster lads are decent at cooking their own grub but, even for those that are not, senior performance nutritionist Daniel Davey has them covered. Davey, who also works closely with the Dublin footballers, is the God-send that posts up new, […]

8 years ago

He may get his Premier League predictions somewhat muddled but Mark Lawrenson is spot on here. The former Liverpool and Ireland defender has almost made bias predictions an art-form [see below] but he can spot a decent defender when he sees one. The Premier League table based on Mark Lawrenson's predictions is bizarre https://t.co/fCatdNhm73 pic.twitter.com/O1yBlszm6D […]

8 years ago