The Second Captains Podcast

Ireland showed guts and defiance in an epic battle against world champs South Africa, and while there's talk of the two teams meeting again in a final, have we all got too carried away with a win that doesn't even come close to getting us into a QF? We get reactions from And-versity Farrell on their mental toughness, Tadhg Beirne on their lineout issues, Ryan Baird on what won it for Ireland, and...

Ireland managers down the years have got used to being asked whether there is anything they can learn from Rugby, but is it time to put those same questions to Mikel Arteta?  After the NLD post-mortem, we talk about why Chelsea are too big to fail and how Szoboszlai is ensuring that Jordan Henderson's reputation continues to crater. With apologies, there is a brief section about VAR. The Irel...

Graeme Souness joined us last week in the sold-out Olympia Theatre as part of our tenth birthday celebrations to discuss his philosophy on punditry.   We look at the many myths surrounding Mack Hansen's journey to Irish Rugby superstardom, and there's Gabriele Marcotti on how to rediscover the magic of the Champions League.  Join us for ad-free, contract-free, member-led broadcastin...

Ken hasn't always pulled for the team of us but the anti rugby discourse is sending him the other way. Can Irish rugby hold onto its newest fan? We chat to Shane Horgan and Gerry Thornley about Ireland's improved lineout, their ability to cope with South Africa's defence, Andy Farrell's bench options, Fiji's demo job on Australia and if teams should fear England in a potential semi final. Plus the...

"There's no new way to play football," Graeme Souness told us at the Olympia on Thursday night. But has anyone mentioned this to Roberto de Zerbi? We talk about why Brighton's way of playing football really is new, and why some kneejerk voices in the MSM (Ken) are already turning on Erik ten Hag after what was, to be clear, only his second home league defeat in a year. Then we talk to Paul Brown (...

Ireland briefly stuttered before romping to a feel-good win that included some under-12's tactics, a bit of Bundee brilliance, a lap of honour and Mack in his cacks. We chat to Shane Horgan and World Cup winner Joel Stransky about how happy Andy Farrell and Sexton were afterwards, what we can learn from the Scotland SA game, why France will put the fear into the other teams and why don't more play...

Things are not looking good. Stephen Kenny, the preacher of revolution, outdone once again on the European battlefield by an opposing manager with an ability to tweak in-game tactics. Ireland have lost four out of five in the group, bringing Ireland's total number of competitive defeats to 13 in 26 matches. Bare facts have begun to conspire against Stephen Kenny. On today's Football Pod we are joi...

It was all about the Irish national teams this week on the World Service. First up, the Irish Football team who fly into Paris for their Euro qualifier against the French as lambs for the proverbial slaughter - if Richie and the lads are to be believed. More hope, maybe, for the rugby team as the Rugby World Cup kicks off on Friday with Ireland going in as slight favourites - if AI supercomputer d...

It's a new week on the Second Captains podcast, one which features both the Irish soccer team playing France, and the start of our Rugby World Cup campaign. Ken finds out today that our football team are not, in fact, playing in the Stade de France for rugby reasons - a revelation which while late in arriving, we should offer thanks for arriving at all. We talk to Caitlin Thompson of Racquet...

On Saturday evening, Evan Ferguson became the first 18 year old to score a hat trick in 25 years. This is an incredible sporting achievement, so why does it seem like everyone's first instinct now is to start babbling about money? It actually wasn't always this way.. After Arsenal's late surge to victory against Manchester United we discuss Mikel Arteta's new folksy wisdom-based communication styl...

This week on the world service we covered the Vera Pauw saga, looked on in horror at the Rubiales family dynamic, built up to Bohs V Rovers with Declan Devine, and looked at the mess that's left when the worlds of American Football, the deep south, conservatorships and Hollywood collide. Join us for ad-free, contract-free, member-led broadcasting for just €5 + VAT a month at  secondcaptains.c...

Another day, another Second Captains presenter making their way to a swiftcare clinic - this time it's brave Ciaran Murphy. What's the prognosis, soldier? There were no surprises in Andy Farrell's World Cup squad, but Cian Healy's omission is a blow to their chances. We talk to Andrew Trimble about the time he missed out on the 2015 RWC, how to play Joe Schmidt, the team's patchy form in the warm-...

Oh, Eddie. Half an hour in, Trent Alexander-Arnold was having one of the worst games of his career. At full-time he was hailing "one for the ages", as Darwin Nuñez' late double fired Liverpool to one of their best-ever Premier League wins.  Ken has finally sat down to watch some of the Newcastle documentary and is wowed by the genius of the corporate titans now running NUFC. But can the...

This week we hit all corners of the podcast world, from brave journalism in the mixed zone to to Ken wondering if maybe a famous GAA coach is the devil .Enjoy at your leisure. Join us for ad-free, contract-free, member-led broadcasting for just €5 + VAT a month at  secondcaptains.com/join Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Spain are the women's World Cup champions - a victory for both the universally-admired Spanish coaching system and for one not-very-admired Spanish coach in particular.  Mark Critchley and Jonathan Wilson join us to talk through the weekend's football.  Chelsea crashed and burned at West Ham - teething problems or a portent of doom? Critch saw Manchester City defang Newcastle, with Phil...

Ireland eased to a comfortable RWC warm up win over England, but the moment that had everyone cheering was Keith Earls' tumble-try which reminded us all how much he is loved, how fit he is and how good he is at rugby. We chat to Ruaidhri O'Connor of the Irish Independent about Earls' chances of making the squad, Mack and Lowe's magnificent creations, Ireland's lineout woes and Dan Sheehan's injury...

Legendary broadcaster Michael Parkinson has died, aged 88. Today we re-release an interview we did with him in 2014, looking back on an unrivalled journalistic career which all started with him writing about football for his local newspaper in Barnsley. He went on to become a well respected sports columnist for The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times, and was named sports writer of the year...

A while back we dared to dream of Rugby World Cup semis and finals, but a proper look at the draw soon sobered us up as the reality of facing France or a fast-improving NZ in a QF hit home. Now with Scotland beating and then pushing France close in successive weekends, we're getting increasingly worried about making it out of the pool stages (and let's not even mention Tonga for now). We ask Tom E...

The opening weekend hasn't even finished and Ken already wants to walk back Thursday's top four predictions. Is he getting carried away by one 90 minute Newcastle demolition job? The next couple of games will tell us a lot.  We talk about the continued transfer frenzy as Chelsea aim to follow up their signing of Moises Caicedo by adding Romeo Lavia - who Liverpool have forlornly gone back to...

Whether you're ready for it or not, the Premier League is back with Burnley taking on the treble winners Manchester City tomorrow night. We caught up with Jonathan Wilson and John Brewin to ask all the important questions ahead of the upcoming season - Can anyone lay a glove on City? Is England's Declan Rice the man to help Arsenal kick on even further? And can anyone make as big a mess of it as K...

Caelan Doris was the clear man of the match for Ireland at the weekend, but the most important performance came from outhalf Jack Crowley. His season ended well with Munster, and he continued that good form against Italy. Is he now ahead of Ross Byrne? We chat to Shane Horgan about World Cup warm ups, trying too hard, the back three contenders, dangerous Scots and how Farrell, Catt and O'Connell's...

We have entered the individual award part of the GAA Season aka ''silly season''. Where once this was all we had to get us through the dark winter, now we have the Club Championship and sure it's not even winter! But those factors aside it seems that individualism still holds a powerful candle in the collective world of the GAA. As we saw this week when tweets and talk turned to the POTY debate. T...

Ireland's World Cup campaign came to an end with a clean sheet, a point, and a public disagreement between the manager and captain.   Gavin Cummiskey joins us from Brisbane to report on Pauw's last press conference of this World Cup, in which she revealed details of a heated in-game exchange with Katie McCabe about who should get substituted next. As for Katie's side of this developing s...

Dublin are All-Ireland champions again, and if this was James McCarthy, Mick Fitzsimons and Stephen Cluxton's ninth medal, it was celebrated as if it was their first.  Our crack analysis team of Michael Murphy and Paul Flynn talk to us about why this meant so much to Dublin, their mentality monsters, and how the day went so badly wrong for David Clifford. We also discuss Jack McCaffrey's...

What's your man Early like? A regular question posed to the non Ken Early members of the Second Captains team. In this week's Taster episode Eoin and Murph give some thoughts on their colleague - mainly that he's a bloody Pedant. While Oisin McConville joined our front-liners Paul Flynn and Michael Murphy for a very special All Ireland final preview. We also tripped back in time to 1979 to hear ho...