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 the Left Wing Podcast. There is one round of URC fixtures to go and there is plenty to play for for all four Irish provinces who are looking to improve their seating or even qualify for the top eight outright. I'm Will Slattery. I'm delighted to be joined for tonight's chat by Luke Fitzgerald. Luke, how are you? Good, Will. How are you? Doing very well, thanks.
Lots to discuss tonight. Also delighted to be joined in studio by Rory O'Connor. Rory, how are things? Good, thanks. Great to have you with us. Guys, a reminder that the Left Wing Podcast is sponsored by Energia.
This weekend, Energia hope everyone will show up and support the Ireland women's team in their final Six Nations game against Scotland in the Aviva Stadium as the fixture looks to make history and set records. There will be family-friendly fan zones and a sign-making station at the stadium. For more information, go to Energia's social channels. Energia, think of the possibilities.
Guys, as I mentioned, URC final round upcoming Saturday. Last weekend, interesting weekend. Ulster 38, Stormers 38, kicked things off on Friday night. A really good end-to-end game up in Belfast. Then Leinster 31, Lions 7 in the Viva Stadium on Saturday evening. Leinster pulling away in the back end of that game to get a bonus point victory. Then Connacht 26, Munster 7.
Didn't really live up to the kind of blockbuster derby we had hoped for a couple of weeks out, but very impressive from Stuart Lancaster's men, which leaves us with a table of the top nine. As follows, Glasgow in first on 60 points, Stormers 59, Leinster 58, Bulls 54, Lions 53, Munster 51, Cardiff 50, Ulster 50, Connacht 49. So Rudd, lots to play for. Exciting coming into the final round.
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Chapter 2: What were the standout performances from the URC weekend?
And every weekend there's been a bit of a swing. So it's good and it's there's a real chance of all four Irish provinces getting in, which would be a really impressive result. There's obviously a chance one of them is not going to make it. One of three, Leinster, are already there, but the other three are all still battling it out. So it's shaping up nicely.
Yeah, so the fixtures for this coming weekend, we'll discuss about last weekend and next weekend on tonight's show. Friday night, kind of pretty interesting. We have Ulster hosting Glasgow. We have Cardiff hosting the Stormers. And we've Connacht making the trip to Edinburgh.
And then the kind of the two key games to look out for then on the Saturday is Leinster hosting the Ospreys at quarter past five, I think.
745 Munster Lions that's the last game of the regular season so Munster at least will have an idea of what they need to do to improve their seeding or potentially just to actually remain in the top 8 come that point but going back to last weekend Luke let's go to Connacht Munster Connacht 26 Munster 7 when the teams were announced on Friday and there was no Crowley there was no Tyke Byrne amongst a few other players like Tom Farrell Michael Milne John Klein was out as well
It looked like it was an advantage, Connacht, and so it proved. 19-0 up at halftime. They were never really threatened by Munster. They played really, really well, scored some lovely tries. Also defended very well, which has been a kind of a hallmark of their improvement in the back half of the season. Just really impressive on both sides of the ball.
And then kind of another tick in the Stuart Lancaster, I suppose, rejuvenation of Connacht over the course of the season.
Yeah, I thought they were really great. And, you know, I think, look, it was one of those matches where it was a combination of them being, you know, very good. Great might be, you know, a bit possibly a little over generous. I think Munster were poor. They didn't show much, didn't show much ambition. And it was a bit worrying. I was worried watching Munster.
They look flat, like for such a huge game, look very, very flat.
um and it just shows i mean they just don't have that depth do they they really miss that leadership group that core leadership group and um they're a very different team without it and um you know with all the stuff going on off the pitch as well it's kind of worrying enough times for them i think as you say they probably have an advantage in that they're at home and that they kind of know what they have to do and you think they'll come out with you know serious kind of
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Chapter 3: How did Munster's depth impact their performance against Connacht?
Edinburgh will be dangerous, no doubt about that, and they've got to go away, that, that, that, all that kind of stuff. But I would not like to be playing Connacht at this stage of the season. I think they look really strong. I think they look like they understand how they want to play.
I think they've got a lot of players who are actually in form, like a lot of guys who are actually playing good rugby. I mean, Prendergast was outstanding. I thought the two scrum halves were very good throughout the game.
I just thought Bundy looked good he looked sharp when he had his kind of few involvements and the pack are kind of humming you know I was really impressed with them guys so I've gone on a bit I'm conscious I'm going to give Rudds a go but I just that was kind of my impression of Connacht and just how impressed it was and then obviously the other side where Munster were very worrying
Yeah, and the defensive side of the road, like, you know, I've mentioned this game a lot, but like when they conceded 48 points to the Dragons on just like the Saturday before Christmas, it was kind of alarm bells. You're like, Jesus, the Lancaster project really isn't going as people envisage. And then like the leap they've taken since then has been very impressive.
Like Luke mentioned a couple of names there, but like Every line of the team, like Billy Bohan and Sam Illo, so powerful. A prop like Darren Murray, got through a lot of work there. Back row of Pendergast, Hurley Langdon and Jansen was really powerful again. Top Ben Murphy was very exciting. Harry West at 13, when the teams were names, I was intrigued. I was like, oh, I wasn't expecting that.
He had one really mazy run when he just looked so threatening. And it showed me a side of him I hadn't seen before. Yeah, what did you make of them? I was just very, very impressed. And obviously Edinburgh away is a tricky fixture. I know it's a dead rubber for Edinburgh, but they've won three in a row in the league quietly.
And we saw they caused Leinster a few problems, albeit with a couple of intercepts.
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Chapter 4: How are the Irish provinces positioned heading into the playoffs?
But from a conic perspective, what's your kind of verdict on how much they've improved?
Oh, like it's night and day from the day they opened the new stand. They've just gone to another level. I know they didn't get the result against Leinster that night, but they were really competitive in that fixture. And it's just a pity that,
they couldn't get it open earlier and they couldn't get on this run before it opened because it's left them chasing and it's left them like even if they win with five points on Friday night there's a chance they won't be enough for them at the weekend and I think the playoffs almost deserve this Connacht team I think they will be a really dangerous six or seven seed going away to any of the top four I don't think anyone will fancy drawing them I think teams would much prefer Munster be in there than Connacht the way they're playing at the moment
They're absolutely coming like a train into these knockouts. I think they might regret, or Lancaster may ultimately regret, his selection policy in South Africa. And in particular... not bringing Bundiaki at all, considering he didn't play a part in the Six Nations, really.
And I know he's 36 and there's a lot of management stuff at play and maybe there's an injury we don't know about, but not bringing him down there, not unleashing him in one of those two games.
They got nothing from the Lions game.
That's the thing.
We were talking about bonus point management in South Africa. To even leave there at one point wouldn't put them in a much...
And they're good enough to go to the Lions and at least pick up one or two points. We've seen that, but he made massive changes from the Stormers to the Lions and they're not fighting on two fronts anymore. So look, he's used his squad very well this year. He's given everyone an opportunity.
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Chapter 5: What challenges do the Irish teams face in the Champions Cup?
I'm looking at
Brian Gleeson who had his injuries this year but like really should be the coming force for Munster but it isn't having he was okay off the bench in fairness to him he came on and made an impact but there's a real drop off Munster are not getting enough out of players that on paper are very very good players and I think if the worry for McMillan and I don't know you know there's obviously a lot of people are worried that he's going to walk or that as a result of the Randall
thing his time at Munster might come to an end this year but you certainly couldn't say that even though he's accumulated more points this year at Lancaster over the course of the first season you couldn't say that he's had the results the coaching results that Lancaster has had with what is probably a lesser group, a squad of players.
And Lancaster has, you can see with your own eyes, the eye test, Connacht have made incremental improvements across, certainly since Christmas. They look like a more cohesive unit. They look more together in terms of their spirit. He's fixed their defence. He's gone after the things that he targeted at the start of the season and you could see the improvements there.
Whereas Macmillan got this unbelievable start And he's really just hanging on to that start. Those points that he got at the start of the season are what's kind of keeping them in the playoffs at the moment. But he talked about raising the teams. He knew Munster had a high ceiling, but they had to get their floor to a much higher level and be consistent across the season. That hasn't happened.
And their attack's gone backwards. Their defence looks really disorganised. Their set-piece is still a major issue. This win wasn't great on Saturday. Not just a fairly controversial red card, but they were shipping penalties from early on. I don't think they look like they're in a good place at all in terms of being a team because... There are still good players on that pitch.
Yes, they're missing their Ireland internationals, but there are still good players on that pitch from a Munster point of view. And they're not the sum of their parts. And that's alarming because Luke's right. The Lions are a good team. And they could easily turn up in Tolmond with the same level of physicality and spirit that they showed at the Aviva Stadium last Saturday.
And they could turn Munster over.
Yeah, the Lions, that wasn't a 31-7 game, that Lions-Lenster game. Like, Lenster are a better team and deserve to win. But I thought the Lions were...
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Chapter 6: What are the key factors in the upcoming Leinster vs. Ospreys match?
Look, the RFU wanted to stay. Munster... What's left of the hierarchy want them to stay. But the CEO and the general manager are under huge pressure for their own positions at the moment. I don't know what his... He wasn't getting into specifics about what his own demands are in terms of personnel.
They wanted Jason Holland, the former centre and former All Blacks coach as their senior coach or attack coach. He couldn't do it. He didn't want to move from the Hurricanes. So they went to Randall. They obviously had him signed up. Now it's very late in the day.
so they've only signed one new player for next season officially anyway we know there's a couple of people coming down from sorry Jack Angers coming from Connacht but beyond that they have the South African hooker coming from the Scarlets but there's no major overseas signings it's very late in the day for all this to be happening and you're trying to fight on you know trying to keep your URC hopes alive which will impact your budgets and stuff as well
I'd say probably yes to answer your question your initial question but I don't say that with any certainty and I think there's a bit of soul searching and stuff to be done between now and probably it's all hands on deck for the URC for these two weeks and then there'll be another week whether they have a playoff or not the week in the Champions Cup final they'll be back to kind of the off-field stuff and trying to sort all that stuff out
Well, if they win, if they beat the Lions, the most likely outcome is a trip to Loftus First to play the Bulls. Just looking at the fixtures because the Bulls are home to Benetton. You'd expect them to take care of business there. So that'd be a daunting trip. And if they lose and Cardiff, Ulster and Connacht all win, they're out of the Champions Cup next season.
Now, that does seem unlikely that that would all come to fruition. But going into the final round of the Champions Cup, when they were playing Cass, it didn't look likely that they would be eliminated and they ended up being turfed out. So they'll need to take care of business this weekend.
Last thing on Connacht, Luke, you know, it's funny, obviously, like Connacht playing for their place in the playoffs and as you say, a very dangerous team.
But part of me just wants to fast forward to the start of next season to see what they look like with Lancaster with another pre-season under their belt and how they finish this season because they're really starting, the green shoots, when we first would have discussed him coming in and what the best case scenario would look like, you're starting to see those little kind of inklings there.
And I'm very excited to see this project a little further down the line as well.
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Chapter 7: How did the Ireland women's team perform in the Six Nations?
I'm really impressed with him. And yeah, like next season, I, I, I agree. I only kind of see them getting better, even though I don't see bar for all the like massive depth coming into this squad, which has probably been the main issue, but from the resources he has, he's made a serious team. So more time with him, I think seems to be a good thing.
In my opinion, I wouldn't wish away this year just yet.
Well, I'm pretty sure I, I think I tipped them as dark horses for the URC on our first part of the year. Maybe I'm misremembering. And I definitely didn't have any faith in them around December time. But I really think, like we've seen with Ulster, with Glasgow, sorry, with Munster and Glasgow in recent years, if you hit form at this time of the year, this tournament's there to be won.
Now, it's more difficult now that the URC finals are after the Champions Cup finals. So Leinster can go fully, you know, concentrate fully on it. They're not going to be resting people in semifinals and quarterfinals necessarily. But still, I just think that they're a really dangerous team for anyone. And the one player I think who definitely has Ireland upside in the here and now is Sean Jansen.
I think he needs to go on that summer tour. He needs... Him and Hurley Langdon, who's not Irish qualified until next year, they're both such physical players and they give them so much. And that combination with Prendergast is very, very impressive.
Yeah. Lancaster's had such an interesting career in the sense that I feel like in Ireland... If they were doing a French podcast, they wouldn't be talking about him the way we talk about an English podcast. Similarly, although they would respect what he's done at Leinster, but obviously he was their national coach at the Home World Cup and it went so badly.
But whereas in Ireland, he's like feted and celebrated as a great kind of a guru or a very good coach. It's just kind of funny how that works, isn't it? Like different countries have different opinions of him.
Yeah, yeah. But I wondered whether Connacht was going to be a good fit for him because like with Leinster, he was dealing with the cream of the crop from such a good school system. Players who've been in, you know, in basically academy, you know, mini academies the whole way up. They were highly educated, highly rugby educated. They fit the system straight away when they came in.
And he talked about it in Connacht that with the young players that he was dealing with, they were having to catch up on where the Leinster players of the same age will be much further down the track. And I think it's really impressive that he's pulled it together so quickly in his first year. At a time where like he inherited, like Rod saved the attack coach who was brought in on a
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Chapter 8: What does Sam Prendergast's performance mean for his future in Leinster's squad?
And I know McGrath didn't get off the bench in that, um, semifinal, but he's been exceptional the last couple of weeks up in Ulster. He was brilliant. And one thing Luke McGrath gives you and like Luke played with him, he'll notice like he is one of the best defenders and the most committed players, um,
around he's such a valuable player from Leinster's point of view his past is probably what let him down in terms of getting more caps like he was really good at the 2019 World Cup he's never got a look in under Andy Farrell but from a Leinster point of view he's been a really really like quality operator for a long time and he's entitled to go and get a little stint in Perpignan and hopefully it goes really well for him but I
I'm almost surprised Leinster didn't do more to try and hang on to him because I think in those weeks when the internationals are away, he's a really important leader for them. He sets good standards around the place and that defensive tone that he sets is very important. He'll be missed when he's gone.
He's actually a year younger than Gibson Park as well, which is funny. It's like, oh, the veteran Luke McGrath. He's actually younger than the starter. I know because Gibson Park obviously came over later in his career.
He's the kind of guy you love playing with. He's the kind of guy you're like... And that's the thing where you find it hard for... When you look at, say, Prendergast, I hate to keep harping on, but that attempt to tackle was so embarrassing for that disallowed try. And when you see how small, he's not completely tiny, but Luke McGrath,
Like you see a kind of dominion of he is and how he puts himself about. And that's how you play rugby. Like that is how you do it. To me, it's like watching that guy, you know, how you could back off yourself from that kind of, from a tackle. And then you look at how Luke McGrath throws himself into things. He is the exact kind of person you want to play. He's the kind of guy you want to pick.
You want to pick Luke McGrath. You're finding reasons to. I always thought, yeah, you probably didn't get the same zip in the past, but everything else, he's a winner. He plays like a winner. He plays like a guy who's competing at every single facet of the game. You want to go to war with someone like him. He can give a team a lift.
If you're in the middle of a big defensive set and you see him making a hit on a big guy, you're kind of going, well, geez, I better step up here as well if he can do that. So, yeah, I think you're right, Rose. I wouldn't underplay. That's a loss to the squad. He's a good personality. He's a really hard trainer. And yeah, not perfect, not perfect on the skills front.
Um, but bloody hell, like he, he's one of the first guys I'd go to war with, you know, kind of like, um, kind of remind me that like, he's the same mentality as Ferg McFadden, just a winner, you know, he's the kind of guy you're kind of going like, you know, it doesn't look like, you know, Christian Cullen kind of mazy runs.
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