The 2024–25 season was Leinster Rugby's fourth season in the United Rugby Championship (URC), their 31st season of professional rugby and their 137th season of representative rugby since their foundation. Along with competing in the URC and its Irish Shield competition, the club also participated in the 2024-25 European Rugby Champions Cup.
In the latter competition, seeking a record fourth successive final, Leinster suffered a shock home defeat in the semi-final to Northampton Saints, ending their run of final appearances. In the URC, however, they reached their first final in the new format, against Bulls of Pretoria. They reached the play-offs as top seeds from the regular season, and retained their Irish Shield title for the fourth time. In the final, they overcame second seed Bulls 32-7 to win the championship for a record ninth time.
In the women's game, Leinster retained their Interprovincial Series title despite a loss to Munster Women, and supplied the bulk of the players to the Wolfhounds franchise that retained their Celtic Challenge title.
Leinster Rugby drew an average home attendance of 26,930, one of the highest of all rugby union teams in the world.https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/2025/04/04/in-another-staggered-season-rugbys-urc-has-lurched-along-all-the-while-breaking-attendance-records/
Leinster Men
Senior squad
Leinster Rugby United Rugby Championship squadProps Jack Boyle Tom Clarkson Tadhg Furlong Cian Healy Paddy McCarthy Michael Milne Andrew Porter Rabah Slimani
Hookers Lee Barron Rónan Kelleher John McKee Dan Sheehan
Locks Ryan Baird Brian Deeny Joe McCarthy James Ryan RG SnymanBack row Jack Conan Will Connors James Culhane Max Deegan Caelan Doris (c) Scott Penny Alex Soroka Josh van der Flier
Scrum-halves Cormac Foley Jamison Gibson-Park Luke McGrath
Fly-halves Harry Byrne Ross Byrne Ciarán Frawley Sam PrendergastCentres Jordie Barrett ST Robbie Henshaw Jamie Osborne Garry Ringrose Liam Turner
Wings Jordan Larmour James Lowe Tommy O'Brien Rob Russell
Fullbacks Hugo Keenan Jimmy O'Brien (c) denotes the team captain, Bold denotes internationally capped players. * denotes players qualified to play for Ireland on residency or dual nationality. ST denotes a short-term signing. Players and their allocated positions from the Leinster Rugby website.
Academy squad
Leinster Rugby Academy squadProps
Rory McGuire (3) Niall Smyth (1) Andrew Sparrow (1) Alex Usanov (1)
Hookers Gus McCarthy (2) Stephen Smyth (1)
Locks Billy Corrigan (1) Diarmuid Mangan (3) Conor O'Tighearnaigh (2) Alan Spicer (1)Back row
Liam Molony (2)
Scrum-halves Oliver Coffey (1) Fintan Gunne (2)
Fly-halves Casper Gabriel (1) Charlie Tector (3)Centres Ben Brownlee (3) Hugh Cooney (2)
Wings Aitzol King (3) Hugo McLaughlin (1) Ruben Moloney (1) Andrew Osborne (2)
Fullbacks Henry McErlean (2) (c) denotes the team captain, Bold denotes internationally capped players. * denotes players qualified to play for Ireland on residency or dual nationality. Players and their allocated positions from the Leinster Rugby website.
Management
Position Name Nationality Head coach Leo Cullen Senior Coach Jacques Nienaber Assistant coach Robin McBryde Backs Coach Tyler Bleyendaal Contact Skills Coach Sean O'Brien Kicking Coach & Head Analyst Emmet Farrell
Transfers
Players in RG Snyman from Munster Jordie Barrett from Hurricanes (short-term deal) Jack Boyle promoted from Academy James Culhane promoted from Academy Paddy McCarthy promoted from Academy Rabah Slimani from Clermont
Players out Michael Alaalatoa to Clermont Jason Jenkins to Sharks Ross Molony to Bath Ed Byrne to Cardiff Temi Lasisi to Connacht Ben Murphy to Connacht Rhys Ruddock retired Charlie Ngatai released Martin Moloney to Exeter Chiefs Harry Byrne to Bristol Bears (short-term loan)Michael Glennon, "Leinster's Harry Byrne signs for Bristol Bears on short-term deal", RTÉ Sport, 31 December 2024 Lee Barron to Munster (on loan) Michael Milne to Munster (on loan)
United Rugby Championship
Table
Fixtures
Play-offs With top spot in the regular season, Leinster claimed home field advantage for the duration of the play-offs.
Bracket
Quarter final In the quarter-finals, Leinster faced the eighth-seeded Scarlets.
Semi-final Leinster were drawn to meet reigning champions Glasgow Warriors in the semi-final.
Grand Final
URC Irish Shield Leinster won their record fourth Irish Shield title.
European Rugby Champions Cup
Pool stage
Knockout stage Bracket
Round of 16 Leinster finished as the second highest ranked side in the pool stages of the Champions Cup, winning home field advantage for every round of the competition until the final (held in a predetermined neutral venue, this year the Principality Stadium, Cardiff). In the round of 16, they face the 15th seeded London based Harlequins. In January, it was announced the game had been moved from Leinster's 2024-25 seasonal home of the Aviva Stadium to the 82,000 capacity Croke Park, following a similar decision in respect of the URC match with Munster, the Aviva being unavailable on that weekend.
Quarter-final In the round of 16, Leinster had become the first team in the history of the competition to prevent their opponents from scoring any points in a knockout game. In the quarter-final a week later, they repeated the feat, becoming the only club to record back-to-back 'bagels' in the competition's history. By the end of the match, Leinster had not conceded a single point in 200 minutes – or two-and-a-half full matches – of European Champions Cup play (stretching from half-time in their group match against Bath), outscoring their opponents 144–0 in that period.
Semi-final After two-and-a-half matches without conceding a score, Leinster gave up a try to their English opponents within 10 minutes. Despite a second-half come-back, the English champions proved too durable, and gained revenge for defeat at the same stage last season, becoming the first away side to win a European Champions Cup semi-final since 2016, and ending Leinster's run of consecutive finals at three.
Leinster Women
2024 IRFU Women's Interprovincial Series Fixtures
Table
Finals day Women's Interprovincial Final
2024–25 Celtic Challenge Leinster were represented, along with Ulster, by the Wolfhounds franchise in this, the third season of the Celtic Challenge, and entered as champions from 2023-24.
The fixtures were announced on 20 November 2024.
Table
Notes
References