8/9 Rugby

The first silverware of the professional rugby year has been handed out, as Brett McKay and Harry Jones come together for a Champions Cup Final edition of the Weekend Post-Mortem for The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast, recorded as the Cup was being lifted in Cardiff. An enviable celebration is underway in the French wine regions, after Bordeaux’s super impressive 28-20 win over Northampton in the Final i...

Lee Calvert from the outstanding Blood & Mud rugby podcast joined Brett McKay & Harry Jones on The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast to try and make sense of a Champions Cup Final that not too many saw coming, to contemplate where, if anywhere, Northampton and Bordeaux will find their point of difference, and just where 1980s mega group Duran Duran fits into this complicated picture. Plus, Lee shares some t...

The pointy end of the rugby seasons are only getting pointier, and finals football is very close as Brett McKay and Harry Jones hand down another Weekend Post-Mortem for The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. And the Weekend Post-Mortems are going to start hotting up now – Super Rugby Pacific has a new competition leader and maybe a changing of the guard in Auckland, the URC finals are locked in after some...

Crusaders CEO Colin Mansbridge joins Brett McKay & Harry Jones on The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast for an in-depth chat about what make the Crusaders so great, both as a team and an organisation. And we have to say, the explanation might surprise you! Fourteen Super Rugby titles in 29 season puts them in pretty rarified air, in terms of professional rugby, and it’s extraordinary to think that Colin is...

Harry Jones is out of hospital and triumphantly joins Brett McKay for a welcome return to the Weekend Post-Mortem for The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. All the Leagues are on their downhill runs to playoffs and have common themes. Teams are well set and standout favourites – hello Leinster, Bath, and the Chiefs; Teams are making a charge – the Bulls, ACT Brumbies, Crusaders, and Leicester, and teams ar...

The Telegraph’s Charlie Morgan joins Brett McKay but not Harry Jones to go through all the ins and outs of the Lions Squad announcement, in this bonus edition of The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. With the British & Irish Lions arriving in Australia in less than two months for their 2025 Tour, the guys ponder the key questions from the announcement event at the O2 in London: Who were we most surprised t...

The Lions Squad Announcements is almost here, the Champions Cup is saved (hoo-RAH!), and rugby YouTube star Huw Griffin joins Brett McKay & Harry Jones on The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast to celebrate the best of British and forget about everything we hated before the semi-final stage. As all rugby podcasts are at the moment, we’re contractually obliged to mention potential Lions Tour bolters amongst o...

A stunned crowd in Dublin and a jubilant one in Bordeaux were the order of the day, as Brett McKay & Harry Jones rip into a Champions Cup Semi-Final edition of the Weekend Post-Mortem for The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. Northampton and Bordeaux will face off in the European Final in Cardiff on May 24, after winning their respective Semi-Finals over Leinster and Toulouse in two brilliant games of knoc...

Brett McKay & Harry Jones tackle a very simple question on The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast this week: which team, out of all the teams in all the professional competitions around the rugby world, is bang on average? And how do you measure which team is properly average? For one thing, it’s not ‘average’ as is in terrible, it’s literally ‘average’. The very bog standard team in each comp, and then the...

Upended tipping and fantasy comps and surprise results were the name of the game, as Brett McKay & Harry Jones rip into the Weekend Post-Mortem for The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. The Hurricanes beat the Brumbies in Canberra for the first time in years, Scarlets showed Leinster that reputations can often count for nothing, Northampton rediscovered their European form in a Premiership game, and winles...

If the Crusaders are well and truly back in 2025 (and they are), then what on earth happened to them last season? Brett McKay & Harry Jones welcome Jamie Wall onto The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast this week, to contemplate that and many questions in and around New Zealand rugby. Last year’s Champions, the Blues, seem to have adapted the position of the 2024 Crusaders however, and this weekend’s crucial...

Harry Jones dials in from Limerick in Ireland, with many Munster tales to tell as he joins Brett McKay on the latest Weekend Post-Mortem for The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. Munster’s annoying loss to the Bulls and the rise of Benetton in the URC top the discussion, as does the statement from the Chiefs and the Super Point chaos and mayhem in Perth in Super Rugby Pacific, and Sale’s return to the Prem...

Rugby YouTube star Riaan Louw joined Brett McKay & Harry Jones on The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast to ponder a very simple concept: what would you pinch from any other League in the rugby world to make your own league that much better? Whether it’s the URC’s graphic, the Top 14 budgets, Super Rugby’s impatient referees, or League One running Japanese and English language websites and social media, ther...

The Telegraph’s Charlie Morgan joined Brett McKay & Harry Jones for a properly comprehensive review of the Champions Cup Quarter Finals – and Leinster’s surging domination - on the latest Weekend Post-Mortem for The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. The Irish powerhouse are still yet to concede a point in the knockout stage, while Northampton, Bordeaux, and Toulouse will join them in the Semi-Finals in May...

It’s the halfway point of Super Rugby Pacific, and that seems the ideal time to start drawing conclusions about the competing teams, as leading columnist turned author Geoff Parkes joined Brett McKay & Harry Jones on The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. But in Australian rugby, it’s much more than just how each of the four teams are going. Headlined by incumbent Wallabies flyhalf and ACT Brumbies star no....

Champions Cup Round of 16 blowouts and thrashings that only underline the need for a format re-jig, plus more Super Rugby Pacific intrigue and Moana Pasifika history stand out for Brett McKay & Harry Jones on the latest Weekend Post-Mortem for The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. The start of the Champions Cup knockout stage saw 114-point games, sixty point thumpings, and average aggregate scores of 72 po...

Player welfare, and what that entails in the incredibly broad landscape that is now professional rugby, was the key topic when former Hurricanes and All Blacks great turned players advocate Conrad Smith joined Brett McKay & Harry Jones on The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast this week. Now the Head of Rugby Operations for International Rugby Players, the global players association, Conrad goes into great d...

Legendary Sky Sport NZ commentator Tony Johnson joined Brett McKay & Harry Jones on The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast this week, as they try to get to the bottom of just why 2025 has been the best start to a Super Rugby season in living memory. And it’s not an easy question with one simple answer. It’s not just that all the Australian team are competitive. It’s not just that anyone can beat anyone on an...

The Bulls toppling the traveling Leinster at Loftus and the NSW Waratahs notching their first win over the ACT Brumbies in 14 starts were the headlines for Brett McKay & Harry Jones to launch into another Weekend Post-Mortem for The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. Plenty of surprises too! Quins won their first London Derby in a good while, Panasonic lost a second straight game for the first time ever in...

Brett McKay & Harry Jones were thrilled to welcome NSW Waratahs flyhalf Tane Edmed onto the show for this week’s episode of The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast, in which Tane conducted a proper Goal-Kicking 101 for the guys that right into the details about his process and ball placement, and even detail like ball set-up and tee height. If you’re a goal-kicking nerd, this is definitely the chat for you. T...

France have been crowned Six Nations Champions for 2025, headlining the final Test Match edition of the Weekend Post-Mortem for The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast until the July Internationals. Brett McKay & Harry Jones take a look at all the Round 5 results, in which England continued their resurgence toppling Wales, and Ireland were left to ponder the what-ifs as they did enough to beat Italy. Plus, th...

France blew the 2025 Six Nations tournament apart when they thumped Ireland last weekend in Dublin, and the fallout is still fresh in the mind of former Ireland international turned renowned pundit Bernard Jackman, who joined Brett McKay & Harry Jones for this week’s episode of The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. The 15-point margin largely flattered Ireland, with Bernard glowing in his praise for the Fr...

An upsetting weekend of rugby was headlined by France triumphantly turning the Six Nations on its head, as Riaan Louw joined Brett McKay & Harry Jones on this week’s Weekend Post-Mortem for The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. Ireland were thumped at home and now have to answer serious questions; the Brumbies, Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika brought the upsets to Super Rugby Pacific, and one URC Shield has...

The biggest rugby match of 2025 will almost certainly decide this year’s Six Nations tournament, when Ireland host France in Dublin this weekend. The Telegraph’s Charlie Morgan joined Brett McKay & Harry Jones for this week’s episode of The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast, where all the weeds were got into for this blockbuster clash. France have gone down the 7-1 bench split route again, but in doing so h...

Another high-scoring round of Super Rugby Pacific is set to a backdrop of Gene Hackman films, as Brett McKay & Harry Jones launch into another Weekend Post-Mortem for The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. And there were URC shocks! Edinburgh winning in Limerick, the Stormers silencing the wet Bulls at Loftus, and Ospreys breaking a nine-year duck in Glasgow. Tables are tightening up across the board! Plus:...