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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey there, we are Indosport with me, John Molloy. We cover sport and we have things like this. If Andy Farrell really wants him to stay in the Irish set-up for the next World Cup, they could extend his contract out beyond the World Cup. But the Irish youth could pick up the tab on it. And Leinster, I'm sure, wouldn't object to having him in the squad if they weren't paying for him.
So it doesn't make sense that both of them want him, but none of them can keep him. There's no doubt in my mind that he would be in the Irish World Cup squad going forward. He's still a very, very, very good player. Very experienced.
This is an Irish Independent Podcast.
Hello everybody and welcome to the Left Wing Podcast. What a weekend of club rugby that was. The URC semi-finals more than made up for what was maybe a drab quarter-final stage. Leinster holding off the Stormers and the Aviva on Saturday evening and that was shortly after the Bulls produced an epic comeback in Glasgow to set up a rematch in two weeks time of last year's final.
Leinster will host the Bulls once again in Croke Park on Friday night this time which should make for hopefully a good atmosphere. And then elsewhere, we had a dramatic finale to the top 14 regular season. Bordeaux, incredibly, won't be in the top 14 playoffs. They lost at home to Claremont. They lost a 17-point lead.
Roger's La Rochelle team completed their sixth victory in a row to sneak in, I suppose, in the end, but take that last spot in the top 14 playoffs. Even in England, it went down to Exeter and Saracens playing on the final day for a spot in the semifinals. It was Marc McCall's last ever game, as it turned out, as Saracens coach, because Exeter beat them well.
They obviously have a rivalry going back to... maybe the salary cap issued days a couple of years ago.
So lots going on over the weekend, but we're going to probably obviously mostly focus on the URC, but I will touch on Rog and I suppose the Andy Farrell news from last week as well, where he signed up for another four years and what that means for the future of Andy Farrell, for Ireland, for Rog, for a whole host of individuals. So yeah, lots to get to today. Luke Fitzgerald is here with me.
Luke, how are you?
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Chapter 2: What were the highlights of Leinster's URC semi-final win over the Stormers?
I never actually felt Leinster were in danger, massive danger there. I know Stormers made it into a dogfight in the second half and Leinster didn't play their best in the second half and we can touch on reasons why. But as the game unfolded, did you feel like Leinster were in real danger getting dumped out on Saturday night?
Yeah, no, I have the complete opposite experience watching it live in the press box. I thought they lost control of the game. They blew a couple of big chances to put it to bed. I'm thinking of Rico O'Hanney knocking on with an overlap on penalty advantage and then getting turned over. Prendergast gets turned over under his own posts, or sorry, under the Stormers' posts.
And I saw a frustration there. a little bit of a loss of leadership in the third quarter after halftime. And I thought when, wasn't it Ruan Nell kicked that 50-22 to set up an opportunity, that was the moment the Stormers were going to go and claim it and go ahead in the game and ask Leinster a question that they've struggled to answer in the past. And in fairness to them,
You know, they get pelters whenever they don't win a tight game like this. I thought they managed the last quarter or the last 30 minutes of the game far better than the Stormers did. I thought the way they handled that 52 situation in terms of getting pressure on the line out, legally or illegally, it was effective.
Chapter 3: What does the rematch against the Bulls mean for Leinster?
Then Sliminy gets over the ball and they managed to get the penalty, clear their lines. And then you know, the Stormers lost their heads a little bit. Certainly, Ruan Ackerman did. And that moment was the moment where you knew it was done then and the yellow card had followed and Gibson Park's try just put it to bed.
But I thought the sense in the game, the Stormers, even though they'd never led, had gotten, you know, they were 13-0 down, but they began to win every moment. And moment after moment after moment, you could see the belief leaving Leinster and the belief growing in the Stormers' team
and they were winning the scrum battle, they were winning the physical battle, they were defending brilliantly and frustrating Leinster, who again were looking like they were out of ideas at times in attack. And it was going one way, and between the bench and the starters being inspired a bit by the bench or getting energy from the bench,
They won a game that, you know, they get criticized for losing those games. So they deserve huge credit for winning one and coming out against a very good Stormer side. You know, obviously lacking a few star names, but Leinster are lacking a lot of big names. And Porter went off injured, which was a big problem for them. So I certainly thought at the time it was right in the balance.
Maybe I was colored by the Bulls game earlier on where they came back from 21-3 down to beat Glasgow. But you could see the slow poison working. That's an African way of winning games and squeezing the life out of an opponent. And they just, Leinster escaped the clutches and full credit to them. We've got a final to look forward to.
Yeah, it's funny just listening back to your answer there. There's parts I definitely agree with, like Leinster losing control of the game compared to, say, the first 25, 30 minutes, where I think they only made two tackles in the first 25 minutes. I don't think I've ever seen a game.
I don't even think when Australia beat Namibia 142-0 at the 0-3 World Cup, did they not have to make at least three tackles in the opening 25 minutes? But then, yeah, the Stormers turned that into an arm wrestle. But I don't think they were winning moment after moment after moment. That wasn't... Perhaps I'm just so divorced from watching it live, but I watched it in clinical conditions.
But Luke, I'd be interested to get your thoughts on whether you agree with Rudd or maybe you're closer to me. But I thought Leinster didn't take a couple of opportunities in that second half for sure. But I never felt that they were really on the rack. The Stormers never really got close to the try line. I know that 50-22 was a big moment and Samani came up with a huge turnover penalty there.
But that was the only time the Stormers really threatened in the second half. They didn't actually have any territory really to speak of. They did defend well for sure. And their scrum obviously got on top. But I don't know.
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Chapter 4: How does Andy Farrell's new contract impact Irish rugby?
What was your sense? Did you feel like this was really Leinster... On the rack, again, Rudd was right probably about the bench providing huge impetus, but I'm interested to know what your verdict was on the second half in particular.
Yeah, I probably lean more towards your way of thinking on it. You know, I won't say, like, I wasn't... I was never really comfortable. There's enough quality there from the South African side.
There's enough dangerous players out wide that you can never really kind of... When the game is in the balance on the scoreboard, you're never fully confident because all it takes is one intercept or something like that. But I still felt it was going to be more something like that rather than, as you said, sustained pressure. So, yeah, my feeling is probably more along your way of thinking.
Now, I would say that Leinster... there's a bit of a problem at 10, isn't there, for them going forward? And I just think maybe the lack of control maybe stems a little bit from... It looks like that decision is now up for grabs, that 10 position again, isn't it? What kind of clarity does that give you? And I actually thought in the first half, there's some beautiful moments from Sam Prendergast.
We really saw the full array of passing and things like that. But then there was moments where You know, you saw that kind of young 10 in him where, you know, there's kind of a botched kick or there's, you know, there's a few little moments like that. It just, you know, outside of, say, Gibson Park, didn't feel like there was a huge amount of control of the game.
So that's the one part I would disagree. I said it didn't feel like it was unbelievably under control, but it didn't feel like it was really like sustained control dangerous pressure from, um, from the stormers, you know, but, um, certainly I was definitely nervous.
So maybe I'm somewhere in the middle between you guys, I think is probably where I'm landing on it, you know, and I would have definitely liked to have seen a little bit more control from Leinster. Um, Because I think they were capable of doing that.
And I did think as well, there were times like my overall impression throughout the game was that they looked a little bit blunt to me for large parts of the game. And I do think there was like the tries they scored in the first half, there was some pretty awful defense from the Stormers at times.
Now, Leinster had some good plays, some good handling at times that kind of picked them apart, some decent lines. But for the most part, I thought they fell in love with that ball at the back again, like really nonstop ball. Like, so I think there's an onus on the guys at the back to get a better feel for, you know, when they're calling the ball at the back.
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of Farrell's deal for Ronan O'Gara's future?
But I do think sometimes you do need to risk that tip on a risk that, you know, that the, you know, I suppose maybe slightly going backwards or maybe not getting a full game line. And in fairness, I did think that De Villiers was a nightmare at the breakdown. They just could not shift him. So I'd say there was a few where they were like, it felt pressurized in there.
It felt like they were getting slow ball. It felt like there was a few that were very close to turnovers. I thought referee could have given a few more towards a storm at times. So I get why you're tempted to do that, but I still feel like sometimes you have to risk the tip on. And I think...
One thing I would say as well, if I was looking at the forwards and the interplay in there, where they got more pay is actually when, like if you think about Doris, I thought Doris came into the game a little bit better carrying towards, now maybe it was tiredness, but I also felt like he used his footwork a little bit more towards the end of the game. I do think the Leinster forwards against...
those big South African players. I think you've got to get lower, but I think you've got to work your feet a little bit more. You don't always have to use the tip-off, but they're going to have to take the risk and do it a little bit against the Bulls next week. You just have to do it against them. You cannot ignore that interior for the whole game.
Not the whole game, but for the majority of the game, because they just will not get the opportunities outside as the game goes on, is my feeling. I felt like they were... the, the stormers started to read them really well. And I thought similar stuff started happening.
I know we haven't, we're not, we're going to talk about it a little bit, but in the Glasgow Bulls games, we saw at the start of the game, like they ripped them apart out wide, um, quite a few, like quite a, quite a few on a, quite a few occasions.
And those kind of stopped towards the, towards the latter part of the second half or first half and towards the second half, they just couldn't, you know, they didn't get the same pay that they got in the first half where they split them badly. Um,
because i felt like they kind of got used to and they got used to seeing the same picture and i thought that was what was happening with lenster as well to be honest with you so interesting to see if there's anything that they try there or if they you know if there's a word had with the forwards or the 10 whoever's playing next week in there to say guys we're going to need to take some risk in here and try and break them or get a little bit more momentum in the tight exchanges so just just uh my thoughts on that it wasn't all down to lens i think there was some good defense too very good defense
Yeah, definitely. Just to change tack for a second, like, I want to talk about Jamison Gibson-Park, who got mad at the match.
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Chapter 6: Why is Jamison Gibson-Park considered crucial for Leinster and Ireland?
You know, the top job, you obviously don't have those constraints, but sometimes it feels like maybe there's one more to go. And that's very much an out, like, you know, that's just my view. I haven't heard anyone else say that he probably needs to do a province before, but I just think that'd be good for him to do that.
Um, to see how it kind of works in the interior, in the kind of upper echelons of, of, of the IRFU and how he would cope with that. Um, and, um, Yeah, maybe I just like to see that. And maybe that's because I don't see, I'm not as up on the top 14 maybe as I should be. And I only see La Rochelle and kind of, you know, dribs and drabs around kind of the cup, you know.
But I would just like to see him more regularly in an Irish shop. And maybe that's because I'm not watching enough top 14. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, he certainly has a serious CV building up and it's someone I definitely like to see at the top job.
And it's interesting to see now what happens to him over this period because it sounds like he did want to make the move into kind of international rugby. He kind of made a few little soundings there.
But, you know, as you said, maybe he has kind of turned the corner with this La Rochelle team and has kind of introduced a few young bodies and is now a new phase for this team that kind of keeps him hungry there. But yeah, He's certainly someone I would like to see in Irish rugby sooner rather than later.
Yeah, what do you think will happen with Rona O'Gara in the short term? Obviously, his contract is up until 2027 with La Rochelle. He's talking about wanting to go into international rugby, but obviously the Ireland job won't be available, most likely. There's talk of England, but there's no guarantee Steve Borthwick leaves after the next World Cup either.
I think the most likely thing is he just signs on with La Rochelle and stays there. Do you think Leinster is a realistic option? I saw you saying that.
Yeah, I think it's realistic. I don't think it's going to be this summer, but I think if there is a decision taken at Leinster that at 2027, when Neil Cullen would have been there for 12 years, that either he's redeployed to another part of the organisation or that he and or the organisation decide to shake hands, thanks for your service, but we need a new voice, a new direction.
I think that's definitely a possibility at the end of next season. And then you look to the market and I think the players will be on board with O'Gara coming in despite the fact that they have that La Rochelle history, despite the fact that he played for Munster.
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