Second Captains

This week on the Second Captains World Service, Ken brings us up to speed on FIFAs decision to award the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia and the frankly bizarre ceremony that went with it. Meanwhile, Murph caught up with US Murph to chat about Juan Soto's new contract with the New York Mets - the largest in professional sports history. Plus, we look back on our chat with GAA heavyweights Rian O'Nei...

Leinster were in a knife fight in Bristol, then took out their rocket launchers, RG and Jordie. Is it fair that a team already this good gets to sign two of the best players in the world? We talk to Ruaidhri O'Connor of the Irish Independent about the launch of Leinster's Galacticos era, JVDF's beatific smile, the eternal Peter O'Mahony, Stade's insanity, and the status of the Champions Cup in 202...

Manchester United's exciting defeat to Nottingham Forest was followed the next morning by the news that star sporting director Dan Ashworth had walked the plank after five months in the job.  We reminisce about a spectacular weekend for Sir Big Jim, who got the ball rolling with a "let them eat cake" interview with United We Stand. Who's the Dumb Money now?  Barney Ronay and Miguel Delan...

It’s been a tough week on the Second Captains World Service if you're an Ireland football fan with the women losing out to Wales and Kelleher letting one sail over his head to allow Newcastle score a late equaliser. We ever so slightly deflate the Kelleher hype balloon, attempt to define what constitutes a Premier league legend and chat to Ireland player Chloe Mustaki about the link between physic...

The 48 enhancements that added up to the biggest change in the 140-year history of Gaelic football sailed through a Special Congress on Saturday, and will profoundly alter the game at club and county level for 2025 and beyond.  FRC member Eamonn Fitzmaurice and Paul Flynn tell us why this had to happen, why there's still room left for tweaks, and what it tells us for the GAA's appro...

We've seen teams and managers in crisis before, but not this team and not this manager. So nobody can tear their eyes away from the spectacle of Pep Guardiola having apparently no idea how to stop Manchester City's spiral, beyond spouting ancient wisdom-phrases even he does not appear to be actually paying any attention to. Meanwhile some of Guardiola's former charges were helping Chelsea make min...

After the "Where Is George Gibney?" podcast was released three years ago, people couldn't help asking Mark Horgan what was next.  What's next is "Stakeknife", his new BBC Sounds podcast series with Ciarán Cassidy, the first two episodes of which were released last week - and Mark is in studio with us today. In his role for the IRA, Freddie Scappaticci was a notorious enforcer for an inte...

Last Friday, after eight days of evidence and three days listening to closing speeches, a jury of eight women and four men found Nikita Hand had been assaulted by Conor McGregor in a hotel room back in December 2018, awarding her almost €250,000 in damages. We talk to Sinead O'Carroll of  the42.ie , who we spoke to after the Paddy Jackson Belfast Rape Trial , about the verdict, the...

City are sinking, Spurs are surging, Salah is scoring and unsigned, Man Utd have their saviour and Liverpool are now 8 points clear at the top, but first we have McDevitt's "Five Takeaways From My Premier League Weekend".  The biggest game boiled down to a debate over whether Kyle Walker is finished? We look at the evidence for and against. We also discuss Southampton's samurai-like dedicatio...

Brian Fenton broke the (GAA) internet this week by announcing his retirement. We spoke to Fenton’s former Dublin teammate Paul Flynn, who thinks the Leinster Football Championship is now up for grabs. Gavan Casey and Andy Lee joined us to discuss Hawk Tuah, Rosie Perez and Taylor V Serrano. Miguel Delaney chatted with Ken about his new book States of Play, and we give a sneak peek o...

Ireland were ahead 22-9 at half time, at home, with three tries banked and the fans fully behind them - but instead of a comfortable win, they survived a last minute Argentinian onslaught to scrape home by 3 points. It was a win, against a good team, but the coaches didn't look too happy afterwards. We chat to Shane Horgan and Gerry Thornley about the 13 penalties conceded, Ireland's issues w...

Richie Sadlier joins us to talk about Ireland's... memorable trip to Wembley.  We talk about the first half and how we all felt at half-time. We talk about the unpleasant turn things took in the second half and how by the end we felt nothing at all.  It's humiliating to talk about positives but maybe we can compare degrees of negativity. For example, it's officially  Hosted on...

Are You Sick Of Winning Yet?  Sure, Finland could have scored several goals and were desperately unfortunate to lose by a goal to nil - but as the Scoreboard Captains podcast has always insisted, winning isn't everything, it's the only thing.  We talk about how high the standard of expectation needs to be set for Evan Ferguson and gush about how Ireland are enchanting a new generation of...

A brand new trailer for a brand new BBC Sounds series from the production team who brought you Where Is George Gibney?, Ken chatting to Daniel Wiffen, Ken chatting about David Coote, and a conversation with Gavan Casey, who's on the ground in Dallas ahead of Taylor-Serrano II and Mike Tyson-Jake Paul this Friday. It's been a helluva week on the World Service so far, and we're bringing you a taste...

Branno was among the 38000 at the Aviva to see Drogheda win the FAI Cup final against Derry City - but the 2024 season isn't quite over yet.  We talk about the violence in Amsterdam around last Thursday's match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv, which drew the attention of world leaders in a manner unlike any Europa League game before.  Dion Fanning and Gavin Cooney join us in studi...

Ireland made 21 handling errors and conceded 13 penalties in an error-strewn 10-point loss to NZ on Friday night. But was it all James Lowe's fault for geeing up the crowd while celebrating a kick!!? We chat to Gerry Thornley and Shane Horgan about this performance in isolation, and in the context of this Ireland team's form over the last few years, about Farrell's spiky post-match press conferenc...

The mighty (?) All Blacks are in town this week, fresh from a narrow, opportunistic win over England. They weren't outstanding.... besides the three incredible tries they scored. Post-peak NZ are not great, but still very good, and will take some beating on Friday night in Lansdowne Road. Jamie Wall is in studio to talk about Ballygunner's path to All-Ireland club glory, the breath of fresh air pr...

They've only gone and done it... we talk about Shelbourne's title win and how Damien Duff has succeeded where some illustrious predecessors failed. The season keeps getting better and better for Liverpool as Arne Slot keeps winning matches and rivals keep having problems. Mark Critchley and John Brewin join us to talk over some more of the weekend's football. How did Manchester United's thinking e...

On this week's edition of our World Service tasting platter; we look forward to the grand finale of the League of Ireland which sees Damien Duff's Shels needing a win to ensure their first league title in 18 years, Ken hones in on what exactly makes Ruben Amorim an exciting prospect for Man United and Lawrence Donegan fills us in on his cross-country expedition ahead of November's US Presidential...

Just as we were about to wrap up today's bank holiday football pod recording, the news came through that Manchester United had finally fired Erik ten Hag. The very-much-in-studio-and-not-on-holidays Ken gives his live initial reaction to the most overdue story in football. (1.25.18) Saturday night saw a sensational return to form for the Real Madrid v Barcelona fixture - and a stunning p...

It’s been another hectic week on the Second Captains podcast, we’ve had the Champions League, the addition of Johnny Sexton to the Ireland rugby brains-trust in a non-executive capacity, and we also had Eddie Dunbar in studio, one of the best road-cyclists in the world. While Ken, told us about Oleksandr Zinchenko’s new book, written by FriendOfTheShow Raphael Honigstein. Join the party...

The Gaelic football patient checked itself in at the weekend, gladly submitting to extensive, experimental surgery in full view of the watching public.  We speak to Paul Flynn and FRC member Michael Murphy about the new rules (or enhancements, as Jim Gavin insists we call them) that worked, the rules that jarred... and the rules that our Murph reckons they put in just so we could get rid of t...

Howard Webb provided some good grist to the conspiracy mills over the weekend by getting himself filmed texting and earpiecing before Saliba's yellow card was changed to a red. But maybe the PGMOL supremo deserves some praise to go with the flak. At least his referees are providing an element of unpredictability otherwise missing from a lot of overcoached Premier League football. Branno...

The appointment of Thomas Tuchel as England manager has divided both the proud nation of England and the ignoble profession of football journalism into two camps: Little Englanders and Merchants of Woke.  Yesterday we heard from The 42's Gav Cooney and Rory Smith of the New York Times, and today had his say. Have the FA made the right choice in appointing a foreign coach?  Earlier in the...

Johnny Sexton has won European Cups, Grand Slams, has the all time Irish and Six Nations points records and is a former world player of the year. It takes talent but also an obsessive drive to get this good, and his new autobiography, Obsessed, explains the mental toll this took on Sexton. He joins us in studio to discuss his big breakthrough in 2009 at Croker, his pattern of bust-ups followed by...