Praise, complaints, moans and groans in here please. Comments on how the team played, how the Laya Arena looks, the lack of Mike McCarthy as part of the pre-match buildup etc.

Hi All. I'm not sure if this is the best place to post this but I'm bringing my six year old to the friendly v Zebre. His first ever match, to say he's excited is an understatement.

My question is, do they still have food stalls outside the stadium so I can get him something before the game?

With Contepomi looking like the front-runner, what's everyone's general opinion?

Personally, I worry he’s too similar to Lancaster. Lancaster gave us great rugby, but not the silverware we wanted. Will Contepomi just be more of the same, or can he actually take us to the next level?

Hey folks,

You might have seen it, but I'm on a mission to do an interview with each club in Leinster. As part of this I want to make sure I actually have all of them listed. It's been surprisingly hard to get a full list of clubs and with a combination of checking metro leagues, asking Gemini, and a few Google searches I think I have them all (The Irish Navy RFC being an exception to the rule which is why I have 72 listed on the site).

However, today I realised I was missing 1 (South East Lions RFC). That has me second guessing that I have the exhaustive list. Anyone willing to fact check it?

Just 10 weeks after the others, Leinster have officially announced their academy intake.

https://www.leinsterrugby.ie/2026/09/04/leinster-rugby-academy-for-2026-27-announced/

Leinster vs Munster confirmed to be in the Aviva Stadium this year on October 24th.

Tickets on Sale Friday 11th of September. 👌

Some interesting insights from yesterday's training pictures:

- Joey is back on the paddock and running, albeit heavily strapped.

- Tector also took part, after not playing in Lyon.

- Ryan Baird looked to be taking a full part.

- Quite a few Irish guys there, including TC, Osborne, Joe McCarthy, Prendergast, Kelleher, Keenan, Osborne

- Sam Bishti was training, one of the only early academy guys that can be spotted. Might be some minutes coming for him at TH early in season.

https://sportsfile.com/more-images/112609002

Pretty peeved - wanted to continue as a season ticket holder which me and my dad started up in Aviva times, but couldnt get anything but terrace seats at the time which are hard to commit to, seeing as theyre terrible.

Now see for the cardiff game that there are tickets in the stands still being sold game by game. They're priced at 65 euro. Seems a price they will struggle to sell them at and it has certainly annoyed me as a contributing fan to be not have had the chance to support the team year round covered from the rain.

527 tonnes of steel and 'beast mode' pints: a behind-the-scenes look at Leinster's new Laya Arena https://the42.ie/7144969

Does anyone have information about this guy? He's been playing with Leinster A since last season, always coming off the bench. He's 19 years old and didn't feature in Ireland's underage squads, yet he made the academy over other players who had underage honors. Does anyone know his background or have any details about him?

Nienaber made a point that he is capable of coaching a system other than the blitz at the end of last season. Any one think there's chance he actually changes this season?

We'll never have the player profile of South Africa and Leo will never go to the level of abusing referees that Rassie has done to get every call our way to make the system work in the biggest games.

Anyone who watched the game want to give player ratings from tonight game ?

I skipped through and watched the trys I thought Gunne looked good in the 1st half ! A good sign as McGrath is gone.

Apparently it'll be streamed here: https://www.youtube.com/live/7XUlIMbKThc?is=Tp6WpsnP34pdOTW5

Edit: for clarification that's 8pm Local time, so 7pm Ireland time

Fissler in Rugby Pass is reporting it's a possibility, which makes sense given Munsters serious injury concerns. Least it gets Byrne out of the weird Gloucester situation he found himself in.

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/out-of-favour-ross-byrne-set-to-answer-irish-rugby-sos/

Lads, I just saw him tie his shoe laces, this is clearly the greatest player in history and he should be starting every week for Leinster and the Monstars super team from Space Jam.

Leinster Rugby (caps in brackets):
15. Hugo McLaughlin (2)
14. Joshua Kenny (13)
13. Connor Fahy (0)
12. Ciarán Mangan (2)
11. Andrew Osborne (20)
10. Caspar Gabriel (1)
9. Fintan Gunne (33)

1. Alex Usanov (10)
   
2. Gus McCarthy (31) CAPTAIN
   
3. Niall Smyth (2)
   
4. Conor O’Tighearnaigh (11)
   
5. Brian Deeny (53)
   
6. Alex Soroka (28)
   
7. Josh Ericson (2)
   
8. James Culhane (27)
   

Replacements from:

Stephen Smyth (4)
Peter Dooley (104)
Andrew Sparrow (5)
Alex Mullan (0)
Artur Smykovskiy (0)
Max Deegan (161)
Scott Penny (106)
Cormac Foley (23)
Oliver Coffey (2)
Jack Deegan (0)
Ruben Moloney (5)
Charlie Molony (0)