
Leinster mascot hilariously ambushes former Munster star Simon Zebo live on air after URC Grand final
FORMER Munster star Simon Zebo has never hidden his feelings about Leinster.
So when
Advertisement
2
Leo the Lion ambushed Simon Zebo live on Premier Sports
Credit: PREMIER SPORT
2
The hilarious moment came after Leinster won the URC final
Leinster handed the Bulls some payback after two prior URC knockout defeats with a
The win was their first piece of silverware in four years, and the celebrations came thick and fast on the pitch and in the Premier Sports pitch side booth.
Former Munster ace Zebo, who was on punditry duty, could barely hide his dismay as his old rivals lifted the URC trophy.
He sarcastically said: 'I am... over the moon, as you can see!'
Advertisement
READ MORE ON RUGBY
Seconds later, a simple mutter of 'oh no' revealed even more.
Then came the ambush.
Leinster mascot Leo the Lion jumped on Zebo live on air, a moment that had his fellow pundits in stitches.
Though the cameras missed the leap itself, the aftermath was captured perfectly.
Advertisement
Most read in Rugby Union
Breaking
Zebo laughed before cracking a smile: 'Get off me. I was going to give him a left hook into the head!'
Speaking post-match, Zebo admitted Leinster deserved the triumph.
'Big weekend' - Peter O'Mahony embarking on hectic gardening project as he aims to add '300 plants'
He added: '[I was] talking to Schalk Brits up there during the game.
'This has Jacques Nienaber's fingerprints all over it. Where the Bulls are strong, that's where we're going to go after.
Advertisement
'They went after the maul, they went after the scrum. Kicking contest, Leinster were by far the better side.
"It's a ballsy performance but a lot of credit has to go to Leinster, they performed really well.'

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


RTÉ News
an hour ago
- RTÉ News
Rocky road: Plan to develop 'torturous' Cork to Limerick route
One of the country's best-known rugby players recently called it a "torturous b**tard of a road" and anyone who drives the Cork to Limerick road on a regular basis cannot but agree. A regular traveller to Thomond Park from his home in Cork, former Ireland and Munster player Peter O'Mahony was just nine years old when an upgrading of the Cork to Limerick road was first mooted in 1998. He's now 35 years old, a family man with an illustrious career and the road remains for all intents and purposes unchanged - a hotchpotch of dangerous bends, climbing lanes, limited sections of dual carriageway, with some 625 access points along it. Jari Howard, who heads up the N/M20 Cork to Limerick Motorway Project said Mr O'Mahony's comments "hit a real note with ourselves and landowners along the way". "I think he summed it up well. I won't repeat the phrase - people have heard it enough - but it is a stressful road to do, especially if you have to do it on a regular basis," said Mr Howard. Over the past three decades, some 70 people have lost their lives in road traffic related incidents along the route, Mr Howard said. The road is considered one of the most dangerous in the country. Mr Howard heads up the team charged with developing the design and business case for a new 80km dual carriageway and motorway between the country's second and third most populous cities. This week he briefed more than 100 public representatives from both counties on the final design which, if approved, will cut travel times between the two cities by 30 minutes, with a completion date of 2035. Mr Howard confirmed that the chosen route - which it is estimated to cost between €1bn-€3bn - will impact on some 200 farms, and up to 20 houses. "All of this is impactful to the landowners and homeowners but we try to work with them to come up with designs, and mitigation in accommodation works which help minimise that impact. "There will be points that there will be disagreement [on] and that's part of the statutory process when we go to An Bord Pleanála but they [the landowners and householders] can voice their concerns with those issues and they can be looked at by the board and then obviously afterwards, if we are successful in planning, there is a process there for valuation and compensation." The final route includes an 80km motorway from Blarney where the existing dual carriageway is into Cork City, and up to the existing M20 at Patrickswell. There will be a dual carriageway/motorway all the way with 100km of three-metre wide active travel paths for walking and cycling, some near the new motorway and others on the existing N20, which will be declassified. Seven transport hubs will be created along the route at Rathduff, Mourneabbey, Mallow, Buttevant, Charleveille, Bruree and Croom with a freight hub earmarked for Mallow. Following Monday's briefing of public representatives, the project team held public meetings in Charleville, Adare and in Mallow to brief the public. "The whole detail is there [on the displays] from fence to drainage ponds, accommodation under and over passes, where we are re-aligning local roads or creating new local roads, particularly south of Mournabbey where we are widening the existing N20 and we have to connect the existing farms and properties because they won't be able to access directly. "So that's 625 entrances and junctions along the N20 that we are taking down to nine. Nine strategic junctions so people will travel to these junctions to get onto the motorway from there," said Mr Howard. The project also includes the construction of six new road bridges, eight new river bridges, two new railway bridges and up to 60km of associated local roads. The business case for the upgrade to motorway status will go to the Department of Transport for both departmental and external review later this year, and subject to approval, Transport Infrasture Ireland will apply for planning permission for the work in 2026. "We would hope that by 2027 we have planning, and in 2028 we can start breaking ground and do the enabling works. Our plan for this (project) is that it will be constructed in a number of contracts - three to four contracts - broken up logically wherever the new road meets the old road. "We believe the first priority should be the bypasses of Charleville, Buttevant and Mallow. We see them going first, followed soon after from Mourneabbey to Blarney, and then from Croom to Patrickswell." This is welcome news for the residents of all three towns, especially Charleville where in the past decade, ten pedestrians have died on the town's main street after being struck by vehicles. Eight of these involved heavy goods vehicles, while the majority of incidents involved elderly pedestrians. While it will be at least 2031 - another six years - before any of the bypasses are scheduled to open, Evelyn O'Keeffe of the Charleville Community Forum said they welcome the decision to give priority to the bypasses. But she hopes the Government will commit to construction funding. "They've committed to all the other studies - environmental, route, but, as yet, we haven't seen any funding ring-fenced for the construction phase," she said. In the interim, she is now calling on Cork County Council to implement safety measures on the town's main street until the bypass opens. Cork Chamber have also expressed hope that the Government will provide the necessary construction funding saying it is vital they commit to it, and to delivering the route on time. CEO Conor Healy said: "This long-awaited project has the potential to transform connectivity in the southern region, enhancing Ireland's overall economic competitiveness and unlocking opportunities for investment and development in the south of Ireland. "It is vital that Government commits to funding and delivering the M20 in line with the projected timelines to provide certainty for local communities, businesses and other stakeholders." But confirmation that the route will be tolled has raised the hackles of some public representatives. Both Cork North Central TDs - Thomas Gould of Sinn Féin and Labour's Eoghan Kenny told the Cork Echo they would strongly oppose any planned toll. As the project team prepares to move to the next stage and submit its business plan to theGovernment before the end of the year, Jari Howard said large projects like these take time but "we design bridges and roads for 120 years - they are there for a long time but we are as keen as anyone else to get in, get started. Planning is the key and then we can really get going". "You can see what is happening with the Adare Bypass and the Ringaskiddy Bypass - those projects took a lot of time to get to fruitition but once they are going, people are just so happy to see that work going on," he added.


The Irish Sun
an hour ago
- The Irish Sun
Ireland and Leinster star gets engaged to long-time girlfriend in Portugal as fellow aces gush over ‘best news ever'
CELEBRATIONS were in order as an Ireland and Leinster rugby star got engaged to his long-time girlfriend during a sunny holiday to Portugal. Lucy Byrne, partner of Jordan Larmour, revealed the landmark news on Advertisement 2 Jordan Larmour, right, got engaged to lone-time girlfriend Lucy Byrne Credit: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile 2 He popped the question in Portugal Credit: Instagram/lucyybyrne Her message was a simple one denoting the date of their engagement: "19.06.25" The 28-year-old winger dropped down to one knee in sunny surroundings during a family holiday to Portugal . And in the comments, fans and fellow rugby stars alike flocked to offer the congratulations and well wishes. Advertisement Read More on Rugby Another provincial teammate, Josh van der Flier, said: "Congrats guys ❤️" while fellow Ireland international Robyn Flanagan, wife of While Larmour and his family was in celebratory mood, this past weekend was more of a setback variety for some of his Ireland teammates. Advertisement Most read in Rugby Union Dublin in the final preparation for their tour of Australia . And 'Big weekend' - Peter O'Mahony embarking on hectic gardening project as he aims to add '300 plants' On his own performance, Farrell said: 'Obviously not good enough. I always take full responsibility, that's my role. 'It doesn't matter what department, I'm in charge of the job lot so it obviously wasn't good enough and I need to do better. Advertisement 'We made it a tough game, didn't we? 'Obviously the first and appropriate thing to say is congratulations to 'They capitalised very well on the back of quite a few errors from us. Congratulations to them. I'm sure that's a huge moment in Argentinean history. 'But the whole story of the game is that we compounded too many errors. We need to do better than that. Advertisement 'The Lions players, good players coming together, of course we ask a lot of them, and maybe we put too much pressure on the side because it certainly looked like we were a little bit disconnected at times. 'Look, we'll review, and then we need to make sure that we get something positive from that because it's all about how we move forward. 'You can single out one thing but it's not just one thing, it's a compounding of quite a few bits. The amount of balls that we threw blindly, either to the opposition or the floor, is probably a stand-out. 'If you combine that with the kicking game and the aerial battle and what is disappointing is those scraps on the floor from that type of battle, it always seemed to go to Argentina so there's a bit of fight and hunger from them that we can't accept. Advertisement 'Then you combine stuff at the breakdown, the lineout or whatever, and it's too much. 'We're not sugar-coating anything because we need to be honest because if we're not honest how do we gain trust with each other. We have to say it as it is. 'We expected to do better but we're at where we're at and we need to deal with that.'


RTÉ News
an hour ago
- RTÉ News
Jack Conan yet to revisit Northampton semi-final loss with Lions team-mates
With 12 Leinster players and four Northampton Saints in this Lions squad, it would be interesting to know when, or if, their Champions Cup semi-final comes up in conversation behind the four walls. Tommy Freeman, Henry Pollock, Fin Smith and Alex Mitchell all returned to Aviva Stadium last night for the first time since their 38-35 win against Leinster in early May, although this time they were on the losing side, as Los Pumas pulled off a 28-24 win against the Lions. Only a couple of those Leinster players were involved last night, with Rónan Kelleher and Tadhg Furlong appearing off the bench, with the rest held back either to rehab injuries or to stay fresh from their URC final exploits last week. Many of them were in UCD on Friday morning as some of the Lions squad held a skills session with a group of 90 school kids, with Jack Conan, Josh van der Flier, Joe McCarthy, Andrew Porter and James Lowe the Leinster players involved. Having missed the training camp in Portugal last week, the Leinster crew joined up with the squad on Monday, along with the Bath and Leicester Tigers players involved in last week's Premiership final. And Conan says the Leinster and Northampton players are yet to revisit that game between them, although he's not ruling it out. "No, no... It's long in the memory at this stage," he said. "I'm sure they were happy enough to get the win over us but nothing has been said. Maybe after a few pints it might come up, but at the moment it's all pleasantries and all that." The number 8 - who captained the province down the final stretch of the season, following an injury to Caelan Doris – admitted the defeat knocked the wind out of Leinster for a couple of weeks, before they fronted up to impressively beat Glasgow Warriors and the Bulls to win the URC final, their first trophy since March 2021. "It was a bit weird in the changing room after, like we didn't know how to win. Lads were a bit awkward or something like that, but it was good craic. "The afterglow went pretty quickly on Monday morning when you had to pack up for the next eight weeks of your life, and get organised and do everything else and get into camp. The anxiety was pretty high, like first day of school going in." While they ended the season with silverware, the nature of their Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Northampton has sparked debate around whether the season was a success or a failure. When the range of opinions varies so much, often the answer is somewhere in the middle. "I think any season where you win something can never be deemed a failure," Conan added. "Obviously we want to go well in both competitions, and I think if it hadn't been for the performance against Northampton, even if we had lost that game, but we performed really well, I don't think people would have said much about it. "They [Northampton] are a quality side, but I think it was just the way we didn't show up that day, and had a bit of a hangover for a few weeks. "Maybe we don't get the result over the last two weeks, if it wasn't for that game. Maybe it was the bit of a kick that we needed. "The problem is when you win most of the time, it papers over cracks a little bit, so we had to have a good hard look at ourselves and it was tough for a lot of lads, for everyone in the building. You get to win a trophy at Croke Park with all your mates, at the end of the day, I would have taken then. "I definitely wouldn't say it was a failure, but there's definitely some more in this club and more in the lads, so hopefully there'll be a few years still ahead of us." Conan played all three Tests on the 2021 tour of South Africa, although that tour was a world away from what he's expecting to see in Australia, with Covid-19 still a major part of everyday life four years ago. And as the squad prepare to depart for Perth this morning, the 32-year-old is eager to soak it all up. "I can't wait to get over there, everyone says it's just a different fanfare, a different level of excitement when you get properly on tour. "But you can even see it walking around town at the moment, people in jerseys, there's a pop-up shop, so many kids outside the Shelbourne. It's special and I'm looking forward to getting a proper run-out at some stage. "Four years ago was still great, I loved it and had a great experience. "In a way, you get to know the lads in such a different way because it was eight weeks of kind of solitary confinement. You have to mix. "You still have to mix now but you're getting out and about in smaller groups whereas four years ago, everyone was just kind of sitting around."