The Second Captains Podcast

It's time for our weekly sneak peek at what we've been up to with our brilliant Second Captains world service members, and this week has been pretty bloody dramatic. The reaction to our extraordinary win over the All-Blacks continues with Shane Horgan, and we said goodbye to Irish football team manager Martin O'Neill. We have a debut for our new football pundit - ANGRY Richie Sadlier, a really brilliant interview with Andy Lee about his new book "Fighter", Eoin's Poems made a thoroughly unwanted return, and Ken picks his new man for Irish football... And it's NOT Mick McCarthy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It was a game between the teams ranked 1 and 2 in the world, and for a breathless 80 minutes, that's exactly what it looked like - a game of huge quality between two evenly matched teams. That Ireland were able to win such a match augurs well for the future, but there's enough in the here and now to keep us very satisfied indeed as Ken, Eoin and Murph reflect on a classic Irish sporting occasion, before we are joined by Gerry Thornley and Eoin Reddan to give us the Irish angle. And we hear from Jeff Wilson, The Golden Boy, one-time record New Zealand try-scorer to tell us just how awesome we are, and maybe give us a little hope that we'll be able to hold onto Joe Schmidt for another couple of years yet. Plus there's former Tipp hurling legends assaulting hard-working journalists, re-watching the game in a happy daze on Saturday night and Sunday morning, and late 90's Otago Highlanders' highlights. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is this... rugby country? The very real chance that life may be imitating advertising is the appalling prospect that greets the Irish football team as they prepare to take on old buddies Denmark in Aarhus tonight.Seamus Coleman and Martin O'Neill insisted that they and the squad greatly enjoyed the win over New Zealand but can they really have enjoyed seeing the difference in the way the crowd at the Aviva reacted to the rugby and football versions of Ireland?Jonathan Northcroft joins us to talk about his World Cup diary, Deadlines and Darts with Dele. He was mainly covering England for the Sunday Times, and 2018 has been a transformative year for the English national team. Is there anything in their turnaround from which Ireland can take heart? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's our weekly taster menu of Second Captains fare - and this week things took a turn for the extraterrestrial as Ken wrestled with the news that alien invaders had been spotted along the west coast of Ireland. In light of that devastating bombshell, the build-up to Ireland vs New Zealand seemed almost frivolous, but we had TV3 New Zealand's Ross Karl in studio waxing lyrical about Beauden Barrett, Shane Horgan on the things that have to happen for Ireland to win, and lest we forget - tomorrow we have a football show on all the reaction to Ireland/Northern Ireland tonight. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ireland defeated Argentina on Saturday, the team that has ended our World Cup on 2 of the last 3 occasions lest we forget, but rarely has a win over a bona fide top tier nation been so readily digested and then ignored in the rush to look ahead to next Saturday's clash with New Zealand. Gerry Thornley of the Irish Times and Matt Williams join us to take whatever learnings we can from last Saturday, before the hype begins in earnest. Are New Zealand all that brilliant any more? If they can barely squeak past an England team that couldn't win a line out, what have we to be scared about? Is Rory Best's position in the team under threat? We discuss the loss of Conor Murray and Robbie Henshaw, and the battle for number 1 in the world. We enlist the spirit of Will Greenwood and Scott Quinnell to turn the hype up to 11, Ken and Murph are at daggers drawn already - and it's only Monday, and we salute the return of the trash-talking Eddie Jones... after one moral victory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Manchester City's crushing dominance in the Manchester derby means Manchester United are roughly back to where they were before the last international break. It feels now as though their recent string of comeback wins have been papering over cracks that haven't gone away, and the outlook for the season heading towards Christmas is bleak. Jack Pitt-Brooke joins us to analyse the Manchester derby. Was there anything United could have done to wrest the match away from City? And will fans ever really care about what many of them see as little more than creative accounting?And Tom Williams talks to us about how France is adjusting to PSG's unprecedented dominance. Tom also explains the reasons behind Thierry Henry's miserable winless start as Monaco coach. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to our spritz of world service goodness. This week we talked about happy Jose, the Manchester derby, Liverpool's mojo, and we made the case for Simone Biles as the most influential and most dominant athlete in the world. Plus there's Ireland V Argentina build up with Shane Horgan and Diego "Mr 99" Albanese tomorrow (next week we will be talking All Blacks)and we had a great show on Wednesday - Ken talked to David McWilliams about liberal Ireland's economic miracle. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the Centenary edition of Poppy Mania hits full throttle, James McClean and Neil Lennon have both complained that they have become the victims of anti-Irish racism in the UK. Meanwhile Nemanja Matic has unexpectedly entered the drama as a striking new character who could have a big future.In this bumper football show, David Sneyd joins us in studio to talk about the FAI Cup Final, the difference between happiness and joy, and whether the future of Irish football is Irish-based.And we speak to Rory Smith about the latest Football Leaks reports from Der Spiegel and its associated publications. Please join us at secondcaptains.com to listen to our daily shows and support independent, member-led, commercial-free broadcasting. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ireland eased their way to an 8 try win over Italy in Chicago on Saturday evening, and the two players many people were looking at to make an impact on their debut starts for their country contributed 5 tries between them - the hard-carrying, turn-over king Tadhg Beirne, and the electric Jordan Larmour. Eoin Reddan and Gerry Thornley join us to talk about Larmour and why, as Eoin points out, he's not just good at the mercurial stuff, but is also doing all of the things Joe Schmidt is asking of him. Will he make the World Cup starting XV? Eoin says yes, but he's not sure in what position. There's also Tadhg Beirne's all-around brilliance, and the form of the back up half backs. We also find time to discuss Ballyea and Ballygunner's epic shoot-out in the Munster club hurling championship, which led to an all-time great outbreak of mutual respect. Plus there's a new slot for World Service members to get excited about, and we find out hurling snobbery is not just for summer-time, it's for life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A little taster of what was on the Second Captains World Service this week: Davy Fitz on whether he set out to settle scores in his new book, Kiwi conspiracy theories, rattled All Blacks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.