{"id":278765,"date":"2026-01-11T04:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T04:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/278765\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T04:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T04:24:11","slug":"leinsters-harry-byrne-on-nailing-match-winning-kick-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/278765\/","title":{"rendered":"Leinster\u2019s Harry Byrne on nailing match-winning kick \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harry Byrne<\/a> hasn\u2019t enjoyed the smoothest or most linear of careers at Leinster<\/a> but he has surely never had a more enjoyable moment than landing the match-winning penalty with the game\u2019s final kick in the third minute overtime to seal Leinster\u2019s throbbing, dramatic and wild 25-24 win over La Rochelle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After Sam Prendergast had missed a second of thee conversions following Josh van der Flier\u2019s 67th minute try, Byrne then assumed the goal-kicking and hit the upright after Robbie Henshaw\u2019s 70th minute try.<\/p>\n

But, having fallen behind when Nolann le Garrec converted Ihaia West\u2019s second try, Leinster were given one last chance at salvation and there was never any doubt in Byrne\u2019s mind that he would take responsibility and signalled he knew he had landed the penalty, which was about ten metres in from the right touchline.<\/p>\n

\u201cHarry Byrne wanted it,\u201d said Caelan Doris afterwards when asked about the discussion which had preceded the final penalty. \u201cI felt confident [in him].\u201d Ironically, it was from probably the same position that Leinster could have opted to level last season\u2019s semi-final in Leinster\u2019s defeat to Northampton. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was special, definitely special,\u201d Byrne told Premier Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess you don\u2019t realise until after the kick has gone over, watching it eagerly, but yeah delighted it went over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the on-field discussion before that decisive kick, Byrne said: \u201cNot much, I just said to Caelan \u2018I want it\u2019. I wanted to take it, I\u2019d taken the one before and hit it off the post, but I\u2019d hit it well. So, I felt I wasn\u2019t going to miss that one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Leinster’sLeinster\u2019s Harry Byrne celebrates after kicking a penalty in the last minute of the game. Photograph: Nick Elliott\/Inpho <\/p>\n

It was similar to the kick landed by his older brother Ross when Leinster beat Ulster in a dramatic Round of 16 tie three seasons ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a straight kick, I\u2019d probably played for a draw a little bit with the first one so I just put it down and hit it dead centre and struck through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was chaotic, wasn\u2019t it?\u201d added Byrne of the match itself. \u201cWe wanted to play and keep it on the pitch, we probably didn\u2019t realise that they wanted to do it as much as we wanted to do it. It just turned into a bit of a ding dong battle and it was just who would break first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if it was part of Leinster\u2019s gameplan to tire La Rochelle, Byrne said: \u201cIt was 100 per cent a plan, we wanted to keep the ball in play as much as we could and back our fitness. We spoke about it all week. To come on into that environment with slower bodies, arguably, it\u2019s nice and you can inject a bit of tempo into the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely improving, having all the Lions back in it\u2019s more consistent and having more time together every day in training and we\u2019re improving every day. We put a massive emphasis on training and training habits, that\u2019s coming through for us. We\u2019re more fluid in games for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leinster have now won eight matches in a row while still copping plenty of criticism.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot at all. We don\u2019t pay any attention to what goes on outside the building, I know everyone loves to thinks we do and talks about different battles, but we\u2019re just focused on each other. Next focus is Bayonne, the focus is on five points. We spoke about getting 10 points from these two games, so yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNever in doubt,\u201d quipped Leo Cullen after the win, although the Leinster head coach once again somehow conveyed his innately calm demeanour even though his nerves must have been shredded by such a roller-coaster of a game.<\/p>\n

\"Leinster'sLeinster’s head coach Leo Cullen and Joe McCarthy after the game. Photograph: Morgan Treacy\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought the players dug in incredibly well, didn\u2019t they? When we went behind, when it was 17-12 at that stage, we were hanging in there for a period. We had to deal with a bit of disruption during the game,\u201d he said, in reference to suffering injuries to Ciaran Frawley and Paddy McCarthy, as well as yellow cards to the excellent Tommy O\u2019Brien and Joe McCarthy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe probably just dug in there at different stages. We just stayed in the game, kept fighting and eventually took an opportunity.<\/p>\n

Fair play to Harry, who stepped up and kicked the goal at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Cullen conceded: \u201cIt was far from a perfect performance. We started the game well. There\u2019s probably a bit of discipline that gets us in a bit of trouble, two yellow cards. It\u2019s very hard to impose your game when you\u2019re down to 14 men at this level, because you\u2019re up against a good team.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, to find a way at the end is probably the most pleasing bit, because we\u2019ve had to do a little bit of that this year. Think of Leicester away, even when you\u2019re nine or 10 points down against Ulster at half-time. The bench guys had a big impact that day to try and dog out a win.<\/p>\n

\u201cMunster, just the way that game plays out, you have to find a way somehow to win. It\u2019s pleasing that we are finding a way.<\/p>\n

The group are showing strong characteristics. It\u2019s not necessarily us imposing our game, but we\u2019re finding a way somehow, which is good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harry Byrne hasn\u2019t enjoyed the smoothest or most linear of careers at Leinster but he has surely never…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,56839,18,13,14,97446,6,19,17,137645,11,12,12861,53475,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-278765","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-champions-cup","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-harry-byrne","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-la-rochelle-rugby","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-leinster-rugby","22":"tag-leo-cullen","23":"tag-main-news","24":"tag-mainnews","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115874566185988455","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}