The Left Wing

On this week's episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald are joined by Cian Tracey and Liam Napier of the New Zealand Herald to discuss all the latest news from the Ireland tour. The lads kick off by discussing whether Johnny Sexton should start against the All Blacks in the second test or should Joey Carbery get the nod with a view to the 2023 World Cup? The chat moves onto reas...

Ireland have lost their first test of the tour of New Zealand. Andy Farrell's team were beaten 42-19 by the All Blacks at Eden Park, Auckland. The home team scored six tries with Keith Earls and Bundee Aki scoring tries for Ireland while Johnny Sexton could be ruled out of the second test after failing a HIA. Irish Independent rugby correspondent Rúaidhrí O'Connor and Cian Tracey - who's in Auckla...

On this week's episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald are joined by Cian Tracey and Ross Karl from Sky New Zealand to discuss an eventful week for the Ireland team. Cian joins the show from Auckland after returning from Ireland's heavy defeat to the New Zealand Maori. Both Cian and Luke are disappointed that more youngsters didn't raise their hand for test-match selection, whi...

Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald look ahead to Ireland's tour of New Zealand with the Irish Independent’s Cian Tracey on this week’s Left Wing podcast. Three tests against the All Blacks and two games against the New Zealand Maori are on the schedule in what promises to be a riveting few weeks. Can Ireland win a game on New Zealand soil for the first time ever? The lads are in agreement that it i...

On this week's episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald are joined by Cian Tracey to discuss Andy Farrell's Ireland squad and the URC semi-finals. The Ireland head coach has selected 40 players to travel to New Zealand for what is set to be an exciting and challenging five-match tour - the lads discuss the players who were unlucky to miss out, lucky to be picked and all the othe...

On this week's episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald look back at Ulster's win over Munster and are joined by AP Cronje to look ahead to the URC semi-finals. It is the end of the Johann van Graan era at Thomond Park - but how should we judge the South African's time at Munster? Luke isn't convinced that he achieved a whole lot during his five seasons in charge and thinks that...

On this week's episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald are joined by Cian Tracey to look back on the Champions Cup final. Why did Leinster lose to La Rochelle? Poor execution, a top-class performance from the French side and a weak bench impact are some of the reasons put forward by the lads. While Leinster will have to wait another 12 months to end their Champions Cup drought,...

On this week's episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald look ahead to the Champions Cup final. It is Leinster vs La Rochelle and Johnny Sexton vs Ronan O'Gara as Marseille hosts the European decider this weekend. Will asks Luke what it's like to prepare for a Champions Cup final and how it differs from other big games, while Luke also compares how Michael Cheika and Joe Schmidt...

On this week's episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald are joined by Cian Tracey to look back on the Champions Cup semi-final weekend. Leinster are into the final for the first time since 2019 after a very impressive demolition of Toulouse - and Ronan O'Gara is waiting for them after his La Rochelle side saw off Racing 92. Luke was extremely impressed with the pace that Leinste...

On this week's episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald are joined by Cian Tracey to look back on the Champions Cup quarter-finals. Leinster booked their place in the semi-final after a dominant win against Leicester in Welford Road, and the lads are in agreement that they are well primed to take on Toulouse in Saturday's semi-final. The French giants outlasted Munster in a dram...

On this week's episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald are joined by Cian Tracey to look ahead to the Champions Cup quarter-finals. It is set to be a bumper weekend, with Munster and Leinster playing back to back on Saturday afternoon. Munster host holders Toulouse in what promises to be a cracker at the Aviva Stadium, and while Cian thinks the French side will be too strong, L...

On this week's episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald are joined by Cian Tracey to look back on the Champions Cup quarter-finals. Leinster booked their place in the semi-final after a dominant win against Leicester in Welford Road, and the lads are in agreement that they are well primed to take on Toulouse in Saturday's semi-final. The French giants outlasted Munster in a dram...

On this week's episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald are joined by Cian Tracey to look ahead to the Champions Cup quarter-finals. It is set to be a bumper weekend, with Munster and Leinster playing back to back on Saturday afternoon. Munster host holders Toulouse in what promises to be a cracker at the Aviva Stadium, and while Cian thinks the French side will be too strong, L...

After the heavy defeat to England, is this now a moment of reckoning for Ireland’s women’s rugby team with professional contracts set to be the next phase in the XV game’s development here? Wasps hooker, Cliodhna Moloney, and Cian Tracey join Sinéad Kissane to discuss the fall-out from last week’s loss as well as looking ahead to Ireland’s final Women’s Six Nations game against Scotland when the t...

On this week's episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald are joined by South African rugby journalist AP Cronje to discuss the resurgence of the South African teams in the URC. The Bulls, Lions, Stormers and Sharks are a combined 18-2 at home against the rest of the competition, which is a complete turnaround to how they started the competition away from home. AP gives the lads t...

Cliodhna Moloney joins Sinéad Kissane and Cian Tracey on the latest episode of the Left Wing to look ahead to Ireland’s Women's Six Nations game against England in Leicester on Sunday. Cliodhna and Cian talk about the huge task awaiting Ireland against the number one ranked team in the world especially for an Irish team that is without most of its Sevens players who've been pulled from the squad a...

On this week's episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald are joined by Jonathan Bradley of The Belfast Telegraph to discuss the Champions Cup round of 16. Leinster and Munster march on to the quarter-finals after wins over Connacht and Exeter, with the southern province producing a classic Thomond Park performance to sweep Exeter aside. There was also drama in Belfast, as Ulster...

On this week's episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald are joined by Sean O'Brien to look back on the Ireland legend's career. O'Brien confirmed last week that he will retire at the end of the season and he says that the 2017 Lions tour in New Zealand was when he was playing at his peak. The Tullow Tank says that the 2015 World Cup quarter-final against Argentina is one game th...

Cliodhna Moloney, the Wasps hooker who was a surprise omission from Ireland’s Six Nations squad, joins Sinéad Kissane and Cian Tracey on the latest episode of the Left Wing to look ahead to Ireland’s must-win game against Italy on Sunday. The big news is that Beibhinn Parsons is back in the first XV, one of six changes to the team. Eimear Considine drops out of the match-day 23 with Lucy Mulhall s...

On this week's episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald are joined by Ruaidhrí O'Connor to discuss Leinster's big win over Munster and Ireland women's head coach Greg McWilliams to discuss the Six Nations campaign to date. Leinster secured a big win in Thomond Park to head into Champions Cup action in style, but both Luke and Ruaidhrí are worried about Munster's prospects after...

On the latest Left Wing podcast Sinéad Kissane previews Ireland women’s Six Nations crunch clash against France with Cian Tracey and former Ireland captain, Claire Molloy. The big talking point has been coach Greg McWilliams’ decision to keep Beibhinn Parsons on the bench and sticking with the starting XV that lost 27-17 to Wales in their opening match. It will be a daunting trip to Toulouse to on...

On this week's episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald discuss all the latest rugby news and are joined by Chris Foy in the UK to chat about Eddie Jones, England and their coaching succession plan. The lads kick off by looking back at Ireland's opening game of the Women's Six Nations. Despite losing to Wales, Luke thinks there are reasons to be positive ahead of a big test agai...

On the latest Left Wing podcast Sinéad Kissane was joined by former Ireland prop, Lindsay Peat, and Irish Independent rugby writer, Cian Tracey, to look ahead to the 2022 Women's Six Nations with Ireland kicking off their championship against Wales at the RDS on Saturday. Peat, who played her final game for Ireland last November, spoke about the turbulent months for Irish women's rugby following t...

On this week's episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery is joined by Cian Tracey to review the 2022 Six Nations. Ireland came up short in their title quest but ended up with a Triple Crown after four bonus-point wins. The lads are in agreement that the continued development of the attack was a big positive although the number of handling errors needs to be addressed ahead of the summer tour to New...

Irish Independent rugby writers Rúaidhrí O'Connor and Cian Tracey join Sinéad Kissane from the Aviva Stadium after Ireland’s victory over Scotland earned them a Triple Crown title in Dublin. Luke and Will return for the regular Left Wing show for more rugby discussion and analysis next Wednesday. Listen and follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from. For more Left Win...