Where do Leinster and Ulster go from here?
5/26/202639 min
After sobering defeats for both Leinster and Ulster in European deciders, Nathan Johns and Gordon D’Arcy look back at the weekend.
Analysis of where things went wrong plus thoughts on how Irish teams might be able to narrow the gap to their French counterparts.
Is player recruitment key for both provinces? And should Leinster rethink their focus on defence?
Produced by John Casey.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsNathan Johns· Host0:01
[upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to the Counterruck Rugby podcast, brought to you by The Irish Times in partnership with Oak Energy. After Leinster's Champions Cup final defeat to Bordeaux, not to mention Ulster's defeat the previous evening against Montpellier, myself and Gerry Thornley recorded a podcast on Saturday from the San Mamés Stadium in Bilbao. If you want to listen to that instant lookback at the weekend, that is in your feed. But joining me today, as usual, at the start of the week for a bit of a more measured take and a look at where the two provinces go from here is former Leinster and Ireland center Gordon D'Arcy. Hello, D'Arc. Hope you had a good weekend if ... Aside from rugby watching, I suppose.
Gordon D'Arcy· Guest0:42
I did. I managed to get one of my kids sunburnt.
Nathan Johns· Host0:44
Ah.
Gordon D'Arcy· Guest0:45
[laughs] Yeah. Lennon decided he was gonna wear a, uh, kind of a, a, a singlet vest for most of Sunday afternoon, and I completely brained it, uh, on sun cream. So [laughs] he went to bed like a hot poker.
Nathan Johns· Host1:00
Stop.
Gordon D'Arcy· Guest1:01
And has a full, he has a full farmer's tan. I was like, "Oh, but listen, you have, you have now got that monkey off your back. You have now got your first farmer's tan." It's an important milestone in every s- every, uh, every son's development.
Nathan Johns· Host1:12
Well, [laughs] that's one way of putting it. You ... Well, uh, your son and everyone else in Bilbao, dare I say, it was a h- Yeah, I'd say there was a few, um, I'd say there was a few, uh, questionable tan lines on, uh, Sunday morning. It was a heck of a weekend, all right. Those poor players having to run out in that, but