The Second Captains Podcast

It's been quite a few seasons since Connacht have been in the Champions Cup and an opening game against three-time winners Saracens wasn't exactly a gimme. But after trailing early doors, they pulled it back in an amazing 80-point game at the Dexcom Stadium. Munster got the win in another big-score game against Racing 92 on an emotional night in Cork, ten years on from the death of Anthony...

Welcome back to the podcast where you can receive your news from inside the mind of Howard Webb three to four weeks before Howard Webb himself announces it. Arsenal have announced job cuts, with £20m-a-year Mikel Arteta explaining that the redundancy programme is all part of the club's relentless drive towards excellence. Coventry maybe better not follow suit, what with the fuss their manager&...

Your World Service taster menu features, this week, a platter of football for your gorging pleasure. Man Utd, Martinez, Man City, and Haaland's moral core. If you like what you hear, you can sign up to the World Service with no obligations and no ads at secondcaptains.com/join for just €5 a month + VAT. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

George Gibney was yesterday sentenced to 15-and-a-half years in jail for the sexual abuse of four girls in the 1970s and 1980s, bringing to an end a decades-long fight for justice. Two of the survivors from the 1990's case against Gibney join us in studio today, and they are very familiar to listeners of our “Where Is George Gibney?” podcast. Ber Carley and Tric Kearney stood behind Orla Poole...

Leinster are back at the RDS, and notwithstanding some teething problems (no scoreboard, floodlights blinding their out-half, 40 minutes without scoring), they cruised to a win over Cardiff in front of a capacity crowd. Munster and Ulster played out a thrilling draw of questionable quality on Saturday night, but both teams will have regrets about not getting the win. Erstwhile RDS kingpin Shane Ho...

A crushing win for Manchester City at Anfield, who went a man up in the second half then tore Andoni Iraola's scufflers to pieces. A beaming Enzo Maresca hailed his players and supporters for creating a big noise of their own to counteract all the noise the hater media has been making since City were found guilty of the biggest cheating scandal in the history of English football. City fans cer...

On this week's Second Captains World Service we discussed Maresca’s blind faith in Man City, how the Liverpool and City fans will react on Sunday and Ken and Branno headed off to the Garvaghy Road in Armagh to ask what defines “a long time ago”? Plus there's Ronaldo's rant, Ireland under 21's beating England, all the young dudes in Irish rugby and next week we review Liverpool V Ci...

Galway is one of only two counties to have won an All-Ireland football title with an outside manager, and they’re endeavouring to do it again with the unveiling on Saturday morning of their new manager, Kerry legend Eamonn Fitzmaurice. Dara Ó Cinnéide played with him for years, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t fundamentally opposed to the appointment, notwithstanding the diamond Galway have gotten f...

After what at times came to seem like an eternity this international window has finally shut. Ireland ended their four match run with five points leaving them third in the table. But, bar a Troy Parrott goal for the ages, these last few weeks will be remembered long into the future for the debate off the field and the rancour inside press conference rooms, more of which occurred this weekend. We c...

Manchester City arranged ‘sham’ contracts (which misrepresented the true agreement between the parties) with a number of its commercial partners, as well as relying on ‘sham’ agreements with others, to artificially inflate the club’s revenues and reduce its costs. This week on the world service, amid a flood of football stories, we got stuck into Sham City. We had a deep chat with Richie Sadlier a...

… And now some news from the Premier League. It was revealed last Friday that Manchester City are set to be found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges laid against them by the Premier League, which could quite possibly be the biggest story in the history of English football. Miguel Delaney of the Independent is with us today to talk about sanctions, appeals and club compensation. We also talk to Archi...

After the most dramatic, most divisive day in Irish football for a quarter-century… a football game. Gavin Bazunu was not a part of the Irish squad, Ireland bowed their heads for the Israeli anthem, no handshakes were exchanged, but the game happened, and Ireland went and won it 3-0. Ken was in Debrecen to see this calamitous week through to its conclusion. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy f...

We already knew this was going to be an international football week unlike anything we’d ever experienced and the sight of the Ireland football manager accepting the support of the Taoiseach over derogatory comments made about him by another country’s football association brought it into even sharper focus. We cover all that on the World Service this week, but we also wanted to get a broader view...

A rabble-rousing weekend in the PL saw Keith Andrews and Fabian Hurzeler humble the Basque Premier League princes. But when Brighton and Brentford smash one of the big teams, who really deserves the credit?  We discuss why Wirtz is probably not gonna make it at Liverpool, before John Brewin and Nick Ames join us to talk about Brighton's thrashing of Arsenal, Manchester United strolling to a p...

The rule changes made by Jim Gavin's Football Review Committee have dramatically improved/changed the game of Gaelic football forever. Now hurling wants a piece of that pie. But why would "the greatest sport ever played by any man" want to change at all? Jamie Wall joins us to discuss hand passing, rucks and sideline cuts. Branno was in Dalymount on Friday to see Bohs score late in a thrilling win...

In this week's best of show, you'll hear part of our interview with FAI Director of Football, John Martin, on why the FAI has committed to playing our Nations League games against Israel, Ken on teenage phenom JJ Gabriel's decision that he wants out at Man United at only 15 years old, and our football correspondent humbly reminds his audience of his towering stature.  Hosted on Acast. See aca...

The Premier League season labours past week 4 with a sense that things are yet to fully ignite - but the recently rebranded Pro Ref, formerly known as PGMOL, has hit its stride by issuing their first apology of the season.  After a weekend dominated by the referees, it seems a good moment to welcome to the pod William Ralston, author of a new book about refereeing: "The Impossible Job - The T...

From the Air Force One fly-by to the Chinook helicopters to the talk on Irish unity to chants of "four more years" in the Doonbeg clubhouse, it was as strange a weekend as Irish sport has ever seen. None of it bothered Shane Lowry, who put in a stunning 4 days of golf to beat the field by a record margin of 11 shots. Gavin Cooney was there to witness the chaos and the golf and he joins us in studi...

The English teams have been tearing it up in the Champions League so far this week. We chatted to Lars Sivertsen about Martin Ødegaard’s blistering early-season form and signs that adoption of tactics long-favoured at Arsenal and Manchester City might be helping Liverpool turn a corner under Andoni Iraola? The Parrott theme was strong throughout the week given he's scored the winner in the la...

82,000 in the stadium and 1.6m watching on RTE - there's never been an event like this in Irish sport. We look back on a mesmerising but surreal evening in Croke Park with Sinead O'Carroll and Malachy Clerkin. We discuss Katie's insights on Katie', grabbing the mic, how boxing was always the easy bit, and if she is 100% definitely retiring. Plus there's Westlife, the Croker crowd, seeing both side...

For players new to La Liga, there's no better way to get people's attention than scoring the winner against Real Madrid. Betis Troy has lift-off - but did he really RAM Jose Mourinho's historic quotes back down his throat, or is it possible that the interpersonal rivalry element of this story has been exaggerated for dramatic purposes?  We talk about Arsenal's dominant victory against Chelsea...

It’s been a hell of a week on the World Service - Ken is  back - Katie build-up has been emotional - And on top of all that, we’ve made friends within Hector Bellerin! Plus there was transfer window madness, and today one of Germany’s most respected football writers, Christoph Biermann, joined us to talk about his new book: Game Theory: How Luck and Analytics shape football. Next week we...

We welcome former world champ and one of the best coaches and boxing analysts in the world, Andy Lee into studio. Andy has coached Katie, has fought on the same card as her, and was in London for her moment of Olympic glory. Ken took a look at who has moved, and more importantly, who hasn’t, on the final day of the transfer window, and how a butterfly flapping its wings creates an angry fan on the...

Week two of the Premier League season has concluded - and SC’s football correspondent has finally deigned to check in. Ken explains his absence and reports on his activities.  We follow Troy Parrott’s quest to establish himself at Ireland’s new pet club, Real Betis. Some unduly harsh reviews of his full debut remind us that Spain is traditionally a difficult feeding ground for number 9s.&nbsp...

It’s been a daft week here on Second Captains with a stonking opener to Premier League season, Troy Parrott making his La Liga debut, the biggest, fastest, strangest sale in sports franchise history, and Glasgow Celtic flaming out of the Champions League. Next week is even tastier with Katie Taylor's historic fight in Croker and more importantly, the return of Ken Early! To listen to all our progr...