The Left Wing
Leinster team reaction | No Lowe, Clarkson's big day & Henshaw gets the nod
22 May 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
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 you ask Arsenal's defenders, Gabriel and Saliba, to play in that PSG team or that Bayern team, they would be exposed as much as those centre-backs were last night. Because effectively, the attackers were on top. Then you ask the question, how many defenders were actually on the pitch last night? Because none of the full-backs have no interest in defending. They're like wingers.
And I've seen Saliba and Gabriel in an open game in that League Cup semi-final doubleheader against Newcastle last season get torn apart by Izak.
I won't have anyone convince me that they can defend in that space. Hello everybody and welcome to this extra episode of the Left Wing Podcast. The Champions Cup Final teams have been named minutes ago and we are going to discuss all the major talking points today. Will Slattery here with you, delighted to be joined by one of our two men in Bilbao, Cian Tracy.
In just a moment, Rory O'Connor is also over there. But first, the Left Wing Podcast is sponsored by Energia. Energia are a proud partner of Leinster Rugby, supporting a side that has reached the Investec Champions Cup Final in Bilbao this weekend. Energia, think of the possibilities. Cian, hello. Hello.
Well, greetings from an absolutely roasting Bilbao where it's currently 31 degrees and it's due to go up to 34 degrees in the next couple of hours. It's hot, it's sticky, but it's beautiful.
Yeah, I know. God, hot, sticky and beautiful. I don't know what kind of visual you're painting there, but yeah, I'm sure it's The atmosphere is building nicely. Sandman Stadium, I was there back in 2018. It is a very, very cool ground to host a match in. So I'm sure the atmosphere will be rocking.
It's funny, like the weather didn't feature massively in any pre-match build-ups that certainly we did on the show here or that I heard. But I actually think, I don't see how 34 degrees being bandied around our high 20s benefits any Irish team playing this weekend.
Yeah, the factor 50 is going to be lathered on, that's for sure. Even in terms of obviously Ulster playing tonight, Will, at 9pm local time. And at 9pm local time last night, it was still 29 degrees here. So it'll be less of a factor compared to what Leinster and Bordeaux are going to play in tomorrow. But it's still going to be extremely warm here tomorrow. And yeah, you're right.
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Chapter 2: What are the major talking points in Leinster's Champions Cup final team selection?
Just before we get into the team news, like many fans on the ground, obviously maybe some Leinster supporters are coming in tomorrow, but from an Ulster perspective as well, I was curious to see would there be many of them around?
Yeah, there is. So we flew over yesterday. We came via Barcelona and there was loads of Leinster and Ulster fans on our flights from Dublin and then the connecting flight from Barcelona as well. We were in the Old Town last night and the Ulster players walked past us having their ice cream cones, looked pretty chilled out. Ian Henderson was there with them.
You couldn't not but feel very sorry for him. I mean, it's just sickening for him that he misses out. I know it's his It's his own fault in that he's suspended. But yeah, you'd want to heart a stone not to feel sorry for a guy like that who's soldiered with Ulster through the years. So there's plenty of fans on the ground, Will. There's a good Ulster contingent here, plenty of jerseys around.
And you know yourself from having been at Champions Cup finals over the years. One of the great things about this weekend, like it's one of my favourite weekends of the year. One of the great things about it is that you see all different jerseys of many different clubs. It's a real...
It's a real kind of one in the calendar, I think, that rugby fans, no matter what team they support, they try and get to. And especially when it's in a place like Bilbao that obviously rugby doesn't come around here too often. So, like I said, I think it's going to be a brilliant weekend in Soar.
Yeah, that's a good point. I've been to a good few and I've been to ones with obviously Irish teams involved and I've been to ones with no Irish teams involved. And even those ones are still very, very entertaining. And as you said, there's a great bit of colour and kind of people come from all over Europe to watch the finals weekend. So, yeah, hopefully... Hopefully they get two good games.
Let's move to the team news then. Leinster named their team at 12pm after the Bordeaux go through. Now, actually an unchanged starting 15 from the Toulon game, albeit there was question marks coming into this weekend about how Leo Cullen might go about it. Keenan, 15. Tommy O'Brien fit enough to take his place in the right wing.
Gary Ringrose and Robbie Henshaw in the centre as number 12 was one big talking point, as was the left wing potentially. Rico Ioane starting there. James Lowe not getting the nod. Harry Burnham and Gibson Park still at half-backs. Front row, Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan and Thomas Clarkson getting the start of the title prop. People thought Furlong might come back in there.
Joe McCarthy in James Ryan at second row and in the back row, Conan van der Vlier, Doris. The main changes really come on the bench. I think there's five changes to the bench versus the bench they had versus Toulon. Ronan Kelleher is the sub-hooker. Paddy McCarthy back for his first appearance since the La Rochelle pool game, which is a long time ago now.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of the weather for the game?
But that to me would suggest maybe he's not fully fit then. Because you would imagine, you know, at Leinster, every team carries extra reserves in case someone goes down in the warm-up or the captain's run. So that to me would suggest that maybe he's not fully fit. Yeah, I think the rest of the team, I'm sorry, Tom Clarkson is the other big one. I mean, what a call that is from Leo Cullen.
I think it would have been very easy to... Plugged Tyke Furlong back in there. Obviously, he made his return last week in that Ospreys game as well. But I think Clarkson is having a brilliant season. And I think he fully, fully merits starting. And you think back to that Toulon game, Will, and you're right, it's an unchanged team. But Leinster didn't get much pop off their bench.
And I think if you look at the bench that they have now, it is much stronger than they had against Toulon. Because obviously... Everyone remembered that Leinster were sort of hanging on for dear life at the end of that game, but you'd feel a little bit more comfortable even allowing for the fact that Ryan Baird and Orgy Snyman are out injured, like they're two huge losses.
I think if they had been fit, I think Leinster probably would have went for a 6-2 bench, but I think as it is, they were probably backed into going for a 5-3, but it's a pretty strong 5-3 at that point.
Yeah, let me just go through the two respective benches from the final and semi-final just to illustrate, I think, the point you're making. I agree with you. That's the thing that jumps off the sheet to me here. Like, this weekend, Kelleher, Paddy McCarthy, Tyke Furlong, Dermot Mangan, who's in form, Max Deegan, Luke McGrath, Kieran Frawley and Osborne.
For the semi-final, it was Kelleher, Gerry Kerr, who's had a good season, but, you know, was AIL this season as well, Ravis Lamani, Soraka, Scott Penny, McGrath, Sam Prendergast and Jamie Osborne.
that bench does seem to be a key difference for me this time around because the first 15 is so strong when you see it written down but that bench I agree with you that could be a significant boost for them this weekend especially as you say with the heat the bench I feel like will be even more important than ordinarily so because the heat it'll be much harder for those guys who traditionally play 70 minutes
Plus for Leinster, you know, Andrew Porter, I'm thinking like maybe that like in that searing heat, I struggle to see them maybe lasting quite as long. Maybe I'm overthinking the heat element, but the bench, I think, to your point, will be vital.
Yeah, no, you're definitely not overplaying the importance of the bench. And interestingly, we've just had confirmation as well that there may be water breaks in the game tomorrow, depending if I think they work off some sort of heat index. I'm not sure of the exact term, but if it hits a certain level, then there'll be water breaks.
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Chapter 4: Why was James Lowe omitted from the final team?
You look at Boris Pallou in the second row as well. um with Adam Coleman and they've got a pretty strong bench you mentioned Big Ben to come off to come off the bench later on in the second half now the weather definitely won't suit him that's for sure but their pack is giving the likes of Luke Goo that Jaddy Bear I mean Jaddy Bear is just playing the best rugby of his career
And we just had the Leinster press conference there.
Chapter 5: What influenced the selection of Thomas Clarkson over Tadhg Furlong?
Leo Cullen was chatting along with Dan Sheehan and Caelan Dorris. And they were all, I was asking him about the sort of the insight that Noel McNamara is going to have. Obviously, Noel McNamara is Bordeaux's attack coach. Listeners will be very familiar with that. He's the former head of the Leinster Academy and Ireland under-20s coach. He actually taught Dan Sheehan in school.
He was his maths teacher, which is quite funny to see how far they've come. Sheehan was laughing that he kicked him out of his class. I'm sure he was only joking. He said he wasn't very good at maths, but like, The insight that Noel McNamara will have, I mean, Caelan Dorris was his Ireland under-20s captain.
I know he's been gone from the Irish system for a while, but he knows these players very, very well.
Chapter 6: How does Robbie Henshaw's selection impact the team dynamics?
And I think in a day like this, that insight will be very, very helpful.
when you look at the two teams one thing that does jump out like the Bordeaux pack played really really well against Toulouse but on paper you don't play a game on paper like the Leinster pack like if they're going to win should be able to get an edge against that Bordeaux 8 there's not as many star names in that Bordeaux 8 not to say they can't race their game as they did against Toulouse but the names really jump off the team sheet from a Leinster perspective like Lions international players Bordeaux their quality their star quality is definitely behind the scrum so I wonder is that an edge Leinster could potentially get
Chapter 7: What is the significance of the bench strength for Leinster in this match?
Yeah, all eight are Lions players, like the starting Leinster pack. Obviously, Thomas Clarkson was a late call-up last summer and I absolutely think that that's where they will look to get the edge. I mentioned Carl Dixon already in terms of his interpretation around the breakdown. I think the first scrum will be quite telling as well. Luke Pearce was the ref
another English referee jury for this Leinster semi-final win over Toulon like generally speaking Irish teams haven't favoured that well with English referees in charge in terms of the scrum and that but I think that boded really well in terms of how well the Leinster pack stood up to
the Toulon scrum particularly in that semi-final so that is an area where they'll look to get on top for sure I think the first scrum would really set the tone for what's to come but like I said they should have no fear whatsoever if you go mano-mano for the packs alone I think the Leinster players are coming out on top pretty much in most positions aren't they?
Alright I think that pretty much covers all the team news what's your good feeling telling me about how tomorrow goes?
I've kind of been flip-flopping throughout the course of the week, but when I come back to it, it's just hard to avoid the sense that this Bordeaux team are just in a better place than Leinster. But I give Leinster such a good shot here tomorrow. I'd feel a lot more confident, I think, if they had Baird and Snyman just to kind of beef up that bench a little bit more. But
This is a Bordeaux team, Will, who've lost, I think it's 10 games in the top 14 this season. Now, some of them, they would have rested players for away games, but they're not an unbeatable force. As good as they are, they're not a Toulouse who has a load of Champions Cup medals under their belt. Now, I think... We've already discussed the weather.
It's also worth mentioning that Bordeaux is only a couple of hours down the road from Bilbao. So there's going to be a huge number of Bordeaux fans here. So not quite a home game for them, but it's pretty close. So I'd give Leinster a great shot, Will, but I'm sort of expecting a narrow Bordeaux win, I think. What about yourself?
Yeah, it's funny. I've been thinking Bordeaux the entire time, but just as I've gotten a bit closer and now that I've seen the 23s, I'm kind of starting to think, could Leinster get over the line? But the logic, I think my logical part of the brain says that Bordeaux should have too much because I don't think Leinster have hit quite the heights this season.
But is there one big performance in them? I'm kind of thinking, I remember Croke Park in 2009 when Leinster finally took down Munster. There was no indication going into that game really based on form that they would do that. Munster looked the better team, the more informed team. But Leinster produced this famous performance and were able to get over the line that day.
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