Indo Sport
Champions Cup exit upends Munster’s season | Where is Leinster’s line speed? | The Rugby Show
19 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is an Irish independent podcast. Now welcome. So we've a lot to get through. Munster out of the Champions Cup is the headline news from the weekend. We will be at the Helix on the 30th of January live show. Really looking forward to it. Lots of you coming along. We have some tickets to give away.
Chapter 2: What led to Munster's exit from the Champions Cup?
Very simply, if you want to win the tickets, just answer the following question. Eddie O'Sullivan led Ireland at two World Cups. Which country did he coach against Ireland in the 2011 tournament? Give us your answer to indosportpodcast at independent.ie and you'll be in with a chance to win a pair of tickets. But if you just want to come along generally, then go to thehelix.ie. Thehelix.ie.
We're going to have Eddie there. We're going to have Luke Fitzgerald. We're going to have Ian Madigan, Will Slattery, Sinead Cassan as well. Talking all things Six Nations as we...
shoot towards Thursday in Paris so this will be the Friday before that 30th of January the Helix in Dublin go to thehelix.ie and you'll get your tickets there and it should be a really good night of rugby chat so to events at hand a week a long time in rugby last Monday Munster were straight off the back of a really good spirited encouraging performance away to Toulon
La Rochelle had put down a marker in Dublin to show they could still mix it with the big boys in this tournament. And Scott Robertson was the New Zealand manager. And here we are a week later. Robertson is no more. And Munster and La Rochelle find themselves dumped out of the Champions Cup at the pool stages, supposedly in a tournament where it's very easy to make the knockout stages. Well...
Not so for Munster and La Rochelle. Disastrous, really. Rog said as much. Unacceptable, he called it. Munster will be away to Exeter and on they'll go. If they were to make their way through Munster, they would play either La Rochelle or Ulster in a semi-final. But that's all for another day.
As for Leinster, they beat Bayonne and they will be very, very happy, I think, with the Champions Cup draw in that Bordeaux in particular, Toulouse, Bath are all on the other side of the draw now. So Leinster finished third overall in the standings and it proved a blessing. I mean, for Bordeaux finishing top, they got Toulouse in the round of 16. That was their reward.
Leinster third in the overall standings. So they'll have home advantage against Edinburgh. And then in the quarterfinal, they'll be at home again to either Harlequins or Sale. You would kind of think they have a great chance, therefore, being in a semifinal where they would have either Toulon, Glasgow. Glasgow would be away. Glasgow would be away. Toulon, Glasgow away or Bulls, Stormers at home.
So suddenly they're kind of joint favourites now with Bordeaux for the tournament, despite maybe not playing their best stuff thus far. So that round of 16 game, they all get underway first weekend of April. So kind of a long way away from now. Our rugby coverage on Indosport is sponsored by Energia. They sponsor rugby in Ireland at all levels. Grassroots with the AIL.
They are official energy partners to Leinster, Connacht and the Irish men's and women's teams. And if you want to learn more about Energia's rugby partnerships and their exclusive home energy offer for fans, you can visit energia.ie forward slash rugby.
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Chapter 3: How can Munster recover from their recent losses?
There's a fact about that. The intensity was off. I think the yellow card was crucial. I mean, there was two tries in that yellow card period. And to be fair, Castro had that 80-yarder pullback for what was a forward pass, no question. But they looked vulnerable on just two wide passes. So, I mean... You'd like to think that the overall picture is they're getting a lot of stuff right.
But as Clay Macmillan, I thought he was very honest about it after. When I read his comments, I said, yeah, that's exactly what I would have said, is that they're just getting small bits of stuff wrong and they're all costing them.
and in tight games we all know small things cost big you know and I suppose you could say the same in Toulon Rod is right they had a couple of chances in the first half maybe to put more pressure on Toulon they didn't but I'm just hoping for them that their trajectory was good early in the season that This last run of gut-wrenching setbacks doesn't derail them.
I think there's a lot of good there. I think McMillan is getting them going in the right direction. But they have to stop the small stuff that's really punishing them. And they had enough of small stuff on Saturday that really cost them a game. When you lose a game by a couple of points, you can probably find 10 things that went the other way, you'd have won.
But you can't have those 10 things and expect to win.
Yeah, they're paying such a big price for these mistakes because I am in the Eddie camp. I watched them and, like, I haven't seen Munster attack like this in a while. You know what I mean? Like, there was a lot of great stuff. The first try, the Craig Casey try, and they went 10-0 down. Like, it was a real... Cast are here to play. They've named a strong team.
They're going after this kind of a thing. And... They were like halfway line, nothing really on. And it goes to Crowley and through the centres and Abrahams. It was brilliant all night. And then O'Donoghue and then suddenly Casey arrives. It's a fantastic try. Like they cut them to shreds. And it was a loose enough game as well at times. Both sides running from deep and both having joy.
Like some of Munster's attack when it clicks, when it goes well, is really excellent. You're looking at this team going, geez, these can really play. They're a great watch. Five tries at home, you know what I mean? It's why baby out with bathwater here would be that, you know, they need to keep their heads almost, as Eddie said, and focus on so much good stuff.
They're almost in the big stuff, the hard stuff well.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of Munster's performance for their season?
I mean... Yeah. Sliding doors and all that. Lara Scheller there, of course, by the way, in the challenge cook because they needed a losing bonus point minimum at home to Harlequins and failed to get it. Marcus Smith, late penalty, 27-17. Rog called it unacceptable. We lost big tonight. So they're away to Newcastle, which he won't be happy with. And then Ulster have Ospreys.
Connacht beat Montauban 75-14, 11 tries, 56 points on the board by halftime. They have Leinster next Saturday. It's the full opening of the Dexcom Stadium. Yeah, Challenge Cup is going to be an area of focus for Irish rugby fans over the coming weeks and months. So that's kind of it on Munster. Like the full time whistle, like a few boos and just kind of oddly quiet, surreal.
Can't believe it's happening. I think Eddie's nuanced view is very fair. Their season hangs in the balance. Let's put it that way.
Yeah, but there's still loads to play for, loads to play for. And there's time now, there's a bit of breathing space in the ORC for them to go back to basics. But they need to start winning in that tournament as well because they need to get top eight. But there's lots, I think the better ground suits them towards the end of the season.
Like they've had really good runs in the ORC the last couple of years towards the end.
on their round three even last year they got to the semi-final under a kind of hybrid coaching ticket so there's lots for them to fix it's not but it's just a big dent in their armour once they're a Champions Cup team they pride themselves on it and when there's four teams going through from each pool it's quite humiliating to get knocked out at this stage for a team no less with La Rochelle and you can hear it in Roger's comments if you pride yourself being in a Champions Cup team you want to be in that last 16
Yeah, an accumulation of small things, but they're paying a hell of a price for them. Meanwhile, Leinster 22, Bayonne 13 over in France. Leinster were 10-3 down at halftime. It's yet again a ninth win in a row for Leinster and no one's that happy. That's the version again. This was kind of an oddly enjoyable game, like a big downpour. Bayonne have a great home record, Basque region.
There was a great atmosphere at the game. Bayonne, nothing to play for, were just up for it. It was just like one of those kind of
interesting occasions where there's not much at stake here for either side in a way Leinster obviously wanted to finish as high as they could but as Bordeaux will attest it doesn't always work out in your favour if you do it just kind of took on a life of its own if we're just playing to win the game exactly that like Eddie would know the Basque country well from his time at Brits
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