Episode 38 - Semi-Final Showstoppers Deliver but can a Global Franchise League?

The Rugby Pod

The Ringer

Rugby, Comedy, Sports

4.8 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 10 June 2025

⏱️ 78 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week on the Pod, Jim and Goodey unpack a blockbuster weekend of semi-final action across the Prem and URC. Leicester edge Sale in a tense encounter, sealed by a wonder try, while Bath blow past Bristol with a second-half blitz led by the Bath Bomb Squad. Leinster break their knockout curse to book a URC final spot against the Bulls and their monster front row. Plus, we break down a proposed new global franchise league: is it the future of rugby or just another failed experiment waiting to happen? Plenty other news, chat and opinions as usual. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Pod, pod, pod.
0:01.1	Rugby pod.
0:06.8	Hello everyone and welcome back to the rugby pod where we'll be diving into a monster weekend of semi-finals action.
0:13.8	Blood was spilled, sweat and tears everywhere.
0:17.4	And we'll be breaking it all down, won't we, James?
0:19.7	That's right, Andrew.
0:21.0	We also need to chat about wait for it.
0:23.4	The saviour of Rubber Union.
0:25.9	We've heard it all before, but this time they claim to mean business.
0:30.8	There's another league launching.
0:33.0	It's called a franchise.
0:34.4	It's going global, world worldwide, apparently.
0:37.0	So we're going to unpack that and give
0:39.2	our opinions on the news that came out last week. Stick it in the bin. So negative, Andrew,
0:45.9	straight from the offer. We're going to unpack the bin. That's what we're going to do on this show.
0:50.6	You can't just say put it in the bin. We're going to look through the bin and see what dirty
0:53.2	nappies are in there because someone's
0:54.6	eating them.
0:56.7	There we go.
0:57.4	So settle back.
0:58.2	Enjoy.
0:59.1	And make sure you subscribe on Spotify.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 8 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Ringer, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Ringer and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.