The Second Captains Podcast

The November series ended on Saturday with 3 Irish wins from 3 games, as Ireland saw off Argentina 28-19 to complement the wins over South Africa and Fiji. But in the absence of a truly hard-fought win over top-level opposition, we're left to wonder just how much we learnt from the month. Shane Horgan and Denis Hickie run the rule over Jacob Stockdale, another explosive Irish winger with possibly a big career ahead of him, as well as the rest of the players who took a step forward, including Rob Kearney who stormed back into form against the Argentinians. Paul Kerrigan has had a tough couple of years with Cork, but he had a great day yesterday as his club Nemo Rangers won their 16th Munster title, beating All-Ireland champions Dr. Crokes of Killarney. He talks to us about being underdogs, using your history, and support from other Cork clubs. Plus there's Murph swearing like a sailor, headbutts, and being afraid of the Scots. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The returns from injury of Pogba and Zlatan helped Manchester United to enjoy their best day in a while, as Manchester City had another of those now-quite-normal days where they play some of the most stunning football in the history of the Premier League. Are Guardiola's team not getting the credit they deserve? It was a bad day for British football managers, as Tony Pulis was sacked by West Brom and David Moyes started his time at West Ham with a 2-0 defeat against Watford. We discuss their travails with John Brewin and Jacob Steinberg. Meanwhile, with a jocular post after their win in the North London derby, Arsenal inadvertently sicked a lot of their 12 million Twitter followers onto the journalist Adam Crafton, who had posted a combined Arsenal-Spurs XI consisting entirely of Tottenham players.Crafton noted the following day that he had since been subjected to sustained homophobic and anti-Semitic abuse, including death threats. Do clubs with gigantic followings need to take more care, or do journalists need to toughen up? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ireland have won both of their November Internationals so far - but the game widely expected to be tight they won handily, and the one they were expected to win handily, they scraped through. Where does that leave them going into next Saturday's test against Argentina? Gerry Thornley of the Irish Times and Shane Horgan are on hand to discuss the dilemma Schmidt faces with Joey Carbery at outhalf, and why Los Pumas are the ideal opponents at this stage of the World Cup cycle. Na Piarsaigh of Limerick City had never won a county title until 2011, but since then they've won 4 county titles, 4 Munster titles, and an All-Ireland title. After their latest provincial win, 2-goal hero David Breen talks to us about beating All-star goalie Stephen O'Keeffe at close range, commuting from the UK, and impressing his co-workers at Wasps RFC. Plus there's GAA masochism, Harry Arter's war of nutrition, Eoin's hamstring, and another grovelling public apology from Mark Horgan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Ken returns from Copenhagen impressed by the city's sophistication and liveability and slightly taken aback by the rumbustious temperament of its people.We reflect on Ireland's performance in the 0-0. Was this anti-football taken to the Nth degree? Or do we need to recognise the often-unseen effort and tenacity that goes into a result like that?Which Laudrup was the best? Brian, Michael, or father Finn?Martin O'Neill was channelling the great Dave Allen in his press conference today. Between the laughs, we'll hear some of the Ireland manager's thoughts on tomorrow's decisive match.We hear from Danish journalist Kian Fonoudi on how the Danes felt after Saturday's draw. Meanwhile Michael O'Neill looked desolate last night after Northern Ireland were knocked out of the World Cup by Switzerland. On the plus side, the NI boss is hot stuff in the international jobs market. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Antonio Conte banished David Luiz to the stands and took all three points at home to Manchester United. Such a display of managerial decisiveness would impress most chairmen, but this is Chelsea.James McClean wondered why MOTD focused on his foul on Tom Ince but not the hail of projectiles showering down on him from the crowd. Does McClean also need to think about how he managed to lose the high moral ground against the Poppy people?Slaven Bilic has been sacked by West Ham but is David Moyes the solution to what ails West Ham? Have West Ham’s board noticed how Sunderland are doing lately?Daniel Harris and John Brewin join us to analyse Chelsea’s defeat of Manchester United. Are Jose Mourinho’s problems on the road being caused by a lack of adventure, or do the issues have a more fundamental cause? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Carl Frampton had pretty much a dream 2016 - he won his first world title, and with it became Ring Magazine's Fighter of the Year. 2017 has been rather gloomier, with a loss in the rematch to Leo Santa Cruz, a farcical return fight in Belfast which was cancelled with 24 hours notice, and a split with his management/training team, the McGuigans. But he's back in the ring on Saturday week, and he's with us on the show to talk about a fresh outlook, moving out of Barry's shadow, and falling in love with boxing again. Eoin attempts to be outraged by Stephen Cluxton's omission from the All-star team this year, which prompts Murph to wonder whether there should be a yearly limit to outrage-tweets, and there's the unwanted return to our collective consciousness of grunge week. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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