The Left Wing

As part of the Left Wing’s countdown to Saturday’s Six Nations game between Italy and Ireland in Rome, Sinéad Kissane spoke to an Irishman with the inside track on the development of Italian Rugby. Stephen Aboud worked for 26 years with the IRFU in various roles including developing player pathways. In August 2016, he started working for the Italian Rugby Federation as the head of technical direct...

Doubts over Johnny Sexton's fitness for Saturday's clash with Italy in Rome have resulted in Joey Carbery earning a recall to the Ireland squad and Rúaidhrí O’Connor joins Sinéad Kissane on today’s Left Wing podcast with the latest. The Munster out-half, who started in their win over the Ospreys on Friday, returns to the squad for the first time since being sensationally dropped for the Six Nation...

On the latest episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald are joined by Cian Tracey to look back on Ireland's dramatic win over France. The Grand Slam dream remains very much alive for Andy Farrell's men and both Luke and Cian are very impressed with where the team is at after their second consecutive Six Nations win. James Ryan's return to form, Wayne Barnes' controversial decisio...

Well, what a classic we’ve just watched here at the Aviva Stadium. Ireland have beaten France 32 points to 19 in a sensational Six Nations game. It’s a bonus point win – four tries in total from Ireland - Hugo Keenan, James Lowe, Andrew Porter in the first half and Garry Ringrose in the second half. The Grand Slam is still on for Ireland. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the latest episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery is joined by French rugby expert Paul Eddison to discuss the rise of France under Fabien Galthié and tomorrow's clash with Ireland. The French team was a mess when Galthié took over in 2020 but after 14 wins in a row and a Grand Slam last year, they are the team to beat ahead of their home World Cup in the autumn. Paul explains how France trans...

Andy Farrell has named his team to play France at the Aviva stadium on Saturday and Rúaidhrí O’Connor joins Sinéad Kissane on the latest Left Wing podcast to discuss. There's one change to the team that started the win over Wales last weekend - the injured Dan Sheehan is out, Rob Herring starts at hooker and Ronan Kelleher is back fit again and he's been named on the bench. Sinéad, Rúaidhrí and Ci...

On the latest episode of The Left Wing podcast, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald are joined by Jonathan Bradley to look back on the opening weekend of the Six Nations. Ireland kicked things off with a very impressive win in Wales and Luke says that Ireland were able to bully Warren Gatland's side. Conor Murray and Finlay Bealham were both drafted into the side late in the week and both produced b...

It’s a triple blow for Ireland on the injury front as they prepare for their Grand Slam decider against France this Saturday. Cian Tracey joins Sinéad Kissane on the latest Left Wing podcast with the injury news and to look ahead to Ireland’s chances. Tadhg Furlong, Jamison Gibson-Park and Cian Healy have all been ruled out and Cian expects the same XV to start with Johnny Sexton set to complete t...

Right after the final whistle in Cardiff, Sinéad Kissane is joined by Rúaidhrí O’Connor and Cian Tracey to get the post-match reaction to Ireland’s 34-10 win over Wales. What started off as a blitz with twenty-seven points scored in twenty-seven minutes, Ireland then lost their way and allowed Wales back into this contest before being able to steady the ship and withstand the Welsh onslaught. But...

Sinéad Kissane has this latest report for the Left Wing podcast from Wales ahead of Ireland’s Six Nations opening clash in Cardiff. Hear from Ireland’s forwards coach, Paul O’Connell and Wales captain, Ken Owens, with their respective views from the team camps, while Welsh rugby writer, Steffan Thomas, gives his insights into the return of Warren Gatland and their chances against the Irish. Plus,...

Ireland have been dealt a major setback ahead of their Six Nations opener against Wales with the news that Tadhg Furlong is out with a calf issue. On the latest Left Wing podcast, Sinéad Kissane is joined by the Irish Independent’s Rúaidhrí O’Connor who is with the Ireland team training base in Portugal. Rúaidhrí says there was no indication that Furlong would be missing out but says Andy Farrell...

On the latest episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald are joined by Jonathan Bradley and Welsh broadcaster Ross Harries to preview the Six Nations. Jonathan starts by asking whether anything other than a title would be a disappointment, with Ireland riding high at world number one. How many games should Johnny Sexton play and who should start at number 12 is up for discussion t...

Continuing the Left Wing’s countdown to the opening weekend of the Six Nations, Sinéad Kissane caught up with referee Andrew Brace. Andrew has been referring for the last decade, he grew up in Cardiff and has been living in Limerick for the past 13 years. And for this Six Nations, he’ll referee Scotland against Wales in Murrayfield in round 2 which will actually have an all-IRFU match official lin...

It’s opening week of the 2023 Six Nations and the Left Wing podcast is bringing you extra shows throughout the weeks of the championship. Every Monday we’ll bring you the latest squad updates and team-related news and this week Cian Tracey joins Sinéad Kissane with all the latest on the Ireland squad who are currently training in the Algarve. Cian and Sinéad go through the selection calls that And...

On the latest episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald are joined by Cian Tracey to look back on the final round of Champions Cup pool games and to look ahead to the Six Nations. The Six Nations launch took place earlier this week, and Cian shares the insights he got from Ireland head coach Andy Farrell and captain Johnny Sexton. Farrell made a big call in dropping Joey Carbery...

It’s the final round of pool games in the Champions Cup this weekend and Sinéad Kissane is joined by Cian Tracey on the latest Left Wing podcast to discuss the team news and possible permutations for the Irish provinces. On Saturday Leinster are at home to Racing looking to book a home tie in the next round and Ulster face Sale desperately trying to turn around their season. A win for Ulster will...

Munster’s Joey Carbery has been axed from Ireland’s Six Nations squad which was announced by Andy Farrell today. Cian Tracey joins Sinéad Kissane on the Left Wing podcast to discuss the massive call by Farrell as well as the make-up of the rest of the squad. Leinster youngster Jamie Osborne is the only uncapped player included while Robbie Hanshaw misses out with his ongoing wrist issue. Overall,...

On the latest episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald are joined by Rúaidhrí O'Connor to look ahead to the Ireland Six Nations squad announcement and the final round of Champions Cup pool games. Andy Farrell has question marks over key veterans such as Conor Murray and Bundee Aki after the duo were left out in the cold last weekend - will the Ireland coach keep faith in the pai...

Sinéad Kissane looks ahead to Round 3 of this weekend’s Champions Cup action with the Irish Independent’s Rúaidhrí O’Connor and the big news is that Conor Murray has been dropped from the Munster squad to face Northampton in Thomond Park. It’s a big call from coach Graham Rowntree who has picked Craig Casey to start and Paddy Patterson as back-up on the bench. Overall, there are nine changes to th...

On the latest episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald are joined by Cian Tracey to discuss all the latest rugby news. The show kicks off with a discussion on the amount of minutes Dan Sheehan has played for Leinster and Ireland this year and whether it is better for players to be battle tested or well rested. The chat then turns towards the Champions Cup, and in particular the...

On the first episode of The Left Wing in 2023, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald are joined by Rúaidhrí O'Connor to discuss all the latest rugby news. The lads kick off by discussing the injury to Johnny Sexton that could rule him out of at least the start of the Six Nations. Joey Carbery, Ross Byrne and Jack Crowley would all be in contention to start against Wales if Sexton misses out, and Luke...

On this week's episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald look back on the latest weekend of Champions Cup action. The lads kick things off looking back on Leinster's win over Gloucester and the decision of the English team to send over a massively weakened side to the RDS. Luke hopes the decision comes back to bite Gloucester and says Leinster won't have learned anything from the...

It’s round two of the Champions Cup this weekend and Rúaidhrí O’Connor joins Sinéad Kissane on the latest Left Wing podcast to look ahead to the games involving the Irish provinces with all the latest team news. Leinster are going for two wins out of two when they play Gloucester at the RDS, Ulster are up against the defending champions La Rochelle in Belfast on Saturday evening – that’s ground pe...

On this week's episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald are joined by Jonathan Bradley to discuss the opening round of the Champions Cup. Ulster are the first team on the agenda after their embarrassing 39-0 defeat to Sale - Jonathan says it is the worst Ulster performance he has seen in eight years covering the team. However, Luke thinks that coach Dan McFarland can turn things...

The Irish provinces have named their teams for the opening weekend of European action and Rúaidhrí O’Connor joins Sinéad Kissane to preview Racing 92 v Leinster, Munster v Toulouse, Sale Sharks v Ulster and Connacht v Newcastle Falcons. Plus they also discuss the IRFU’s Women's Rugby in Ireland report that has been launched with the IRFU requiring an additional €1.4m per annum to implement their w...