Leinster win back-to-back URC titles
episode
The Counter Ruck: The Irish Times Rugby Podcast
21 min
2 speakers
6 chapters
transcribed 3 months ago
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What led to Leinster's back-to-back URC titles?
Hello and welcome to the Counter-Rugby podcast brought to you by the Irish Times in partnership with Oak Energy. Gordon Darcy is standing by as Leinster have won a second consecutive URC crown. They bounce back from the Champions Cup disappointment to comprehensively beat the Bulls in Croke Park. So without further ado, here's myself and Darcy. Right, so Leinster have just won their second consecutive URC, as we tend to do for some of the bigger matches. We're talking pretty much immediately after full-time. What, about 15 minutes or so since Leinster bougied the ball off into the stands at Croke Park. Pretty dominant victory. Tries for Tommy O'Brien, Riku Ioane, Jack Conan, Sam Prenn against Harry Byrne.
It was 22-0 at halftime. Maybe not quite game done with memories of how the Bulls overturned things against Glasgow in their semi-final, but they struggled to fire a shot. Just one try in the second half of the Bulls, Ken and Moudier, and equally they had another one chalked off for a pass from Moudier. So that's the most important thing. Gordon Darcy, hello. The first thing I said to you before we started recording, that was a lot more one-sided than perhaps I was led to believe in the build-up.
Yeah. Do you know what it kind of struck out to me? It was a little bit like the Champions Cup final. Very heavily one-sided. One team never, never showed up, never got off the bus, never got off the plane for the Bulls in the Bulls case. And the team is better equipped, kind of just took more advantage. So Bulls had more disadvantage coming into it. Those Leinster going into the Champions Cup final were heavily underdogged. So, yeah, it kind of just felt a little bit like that. If things went Leinster's way, they always had that in the back pocket. You wanted the Bulls to get off the flight and to really show up. That passage, maybe 65 to 75 minutes, where you're looking at that going... If the Bulls were able to deliver that for 50 minutes, what would the game have been like?
What I'm feeling is for the Bulls to be able to do that, it needs to be in South Africa.
To what extent, though, do we say that's the Bulls, as you said, not getting off the flight and it's very difficult?
How did Leinster dominate the Bulls in the URC final?
And look, I know, I suspect the main reason for the week, the fortnight between semifinal and finals, they could shift tickets, especially when the game is in Croke Park, but it does give the South African sides, or if teams are traveling to South Africa, the benefit of you're not traveling at a week's notice. So, you know, there was that extra mitigation built in. So to what extent... Because there was a big talking point beforehand was the clash of styles. You know, Leinster wanting to play on the ball, lots of rucks. You were calling for them to avoid empty rucks in midfield in the first half. They probably did a pretty good job of that. To what extent was this Leinster just keeping the ball away from the Bulls, winning those high scraps and making sure that they didn't get
that loose ball that they thrive on and equally set piece dominance. They didn't quite get that. They did in the scrum, but not the extent that it became game changing. To what extent do you credit Leinster for denying them that? Or to what extent do you think just that physicality they need for that game plan wasn't there?
The overarching thing that I have in the back of my head, kind of rooting around, is if anybody's watching the State of Origin, I've been following Andrew John's fundatory and it's just been eye-opening. It brings me really back to the fundamental time I started playing rugby and started thinking about rugby. One of the overarching comments he's talked about is talking about the jump from club rugby to State of Origin.
What were the key moments in the first half of the match?
Stuff that gets you away at club rugby won't get you to, you won't get away with it at the state of origin. You have to be better, you have to be a better coach, you have to be better prepared, you have to be all these things because you're playing against better players. And in this instance, I think a lot of the Bulls players, a lot of key individuals had really, really poor games.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What led to Leinster's back-to-back URC titles?
0:04–2:15
2
How did Leinster dominate the Bulls in the URC final?
2:15–3:32
3
What were the key moments in the first half of the match?
3:32–4:16
4
How did the Bulls' performance compare to their semi-final?
4:16–5:18
5
What tactical advantages did Leinster have over the Bulls?
5:18–14:19
6
How did individual player performances impact the game?
14:19–21:39
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Counter Ruck: The Irish Times Rugby Podcast
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