“I made a mistake that was not in keeping with my character and the standards I set myself. I am now taking steps to address the matter.” With Jim Gavin pulling out of the race to be the President, we ask GAA man Ciaran Murphy what his community makes of it all.

Leinster have conceded 74 points in two games, losing both, while Munster have won two from two, albeit against weaker opposition. Sam Prendergast missed a penalty, a drop goal and threw an intercept pass in the closing stages of Leinster's loss to the Bulls, while Jack Crowley steered Munster home against Cardiff with a drop goal landing MOTM display. Munster play Leinster in Croke Park in 2 weeks time; let the outhalf wars begin.

We chat to Gerry Thornley and our man in South Africa, Craig Ray, about the race for 10, Nienaber's new contract, South Africa's scarily successful evolution as a rugby team and we reflect on the sad news that Lewis Moody, 2003 World Cup winner with England, today announced that he has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease.

And we bring you the breaking news that we’re bringing KenCall live to our Gaiety shows next Monday and Wednesday* (Wednesday is sold out*). If you’ve heard anything on the podcast that’s been grinding your gears, or maybe you just want some life coaching from Ken, email your voice note to editor@secondcaptains.com - subject line KenCall. Keep them under 30 seconds please. For tickets go to secondcaptains.com/live

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Brentford’s Sepp van den Berg showed one way not to defend against Erling Haaland this weekend: start the game by pushing him around in a mildly irritating manner. Don’t make him angry, you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.

Chelsea picked apart Liverpool by exploiting their known weaknesses, as detailed by Marc Cucurella after the match. When does a crisis evolve from frothing internet madness to actual crisis? And what is the biggest challenge facing Arne Slot over the next few weeks?

Nick Miller joins us to talk about Ange Postecoglou’s start to life at Nottingham Forest. Postecoglou says that as a child he used to pick fights with people he knew would beat him up. Has he taken the Forest job on the same principle? How are the Forest crowd’s feelings towards beloved former manager Nuno affecting the reception of Ange? And are people still confident the good ship Marinakis is steering the right course?

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The weekend's sport draws to a close, Monday arrives and you get a double shot of Second Captains. The world feels brighter, airier, you walk with an extra bounce in your step. Then comes Tuesday and there's a sudden void in your life. How can you make it six whole days without another dispatch of independent, member-led broadcasting?

Well, we've got a solution for you, dear Monday listener. Listen to this week's SC taster menu, realise there's a light at the end of the tunnel, and sign up for the World Service for just €5 a month + VAT at secondcaptains.com/join. The gang's all here!

This week there's the Arsenal x the RAF collab you never quite saw coming, Ken on why Team USA's Ryder Cup fans just can't get a chant together, Paul Flynn on what the GAA can learn from the NFL, and the recent apparent evolution of Premier League football into set piece rollerball.

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It was a wild Ryder Cup weekend at Bethpage Black, for good and for bad.

Despite heckling from American fans that managed all at once to be annoying, unoriginal and verging on the obscene, Europe wiped the floor with the US over the first two days of the tournament. And then came Sunday...

Malachy Clerkin of the Irish Times is in studio and Joe Callaghan joins us from New York to chat about Shane Lowry's huge performance despite the abuse he and Rory McIlroy faced, when the welcome change in atmosphere at a Ryder Cup spills over into something ugly, and poor old Keegan Bradley's captaincy from hell.

Plus there's a slice of Ian Wright and SC after dark.

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An explosive reaction to Liverpool's first defeat of the season maybe suggests discontent with performances was simmering through the recent series of late wins. Have we seen enough to state boldly that a certain Liverpool-player-of-the-decade and a certain almost-record-signing might not both fit into an effective Premier League team? Maybe not yet - but let's do it anyway.

Meanwhile Arsenal demonstrated the virtues of combining power and balance in their comeback win at Newcastle, while Chelsea's board expressed their possibly-unrequited confidence in Enzo Maresca.

David Sneyd spent his Friday hanging out with Keith Andrews and Brentford's director of football Phil Giles. The next day Brentford thrashed Manchester United 3-1. We hear from David about Andrews approach to the job, and why a club regarded as one of the best-run in the Premier League believed he was the right man to take them forward.

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Kate O'Connor's heptathlon silver medal at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo was one of the truly great Irish sporting achievements. To post 5 personal bests in her 7 events, some of them with a knee injury, speaks to a truly elite mental toughness.

Derval O'Rourke watched it all, was left by turns speechless and emotional over the course of Saturday morning, and joins us today to talk about the importance of solid structures around Kate, the new stratosphere she has been launched into, as well as Cian McPhilips' tantalising run for fourth in the 800m final.

We join Joe Callaghan, who made the border crossing from Canada to get to Bethpage Black, a blue collar course in New York, for a Ryder Cup that will have lots of bite and spite, on and off the course.

And there's lovely sports Dads, the spirit of Seve, and we imagine what VR headsets abusing polite European sportspeople might be like.

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What must it be like to go to sea on what is expected to be a normal fishing expedition, only for the captain to go mad and start forcing random crew members to walk the plank?

The Chelsea players got to find out on Saturday evening as Enzo Maresca’s flurry of first half substitutions sent an already-entertaining game into the realm of farce.

We talk about that game and the tribulations of a couple of Ireland players before Miguel Delaney and Jacob Hawley join us to talk about Arsenal’s draw with Manchester City.

What was it about Arsenal’s starting XI that set off mutinous rumblings at the Emirates? Is Pep Guardiola really embracing anti-football? And what does Arsenal’s “spring-cleaning” of Tim Lewis suggest about the direction of the club?

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The Champions League has been a lot of fun this week with Gurbanov, the madness in Turin, and Liverpool winning late, yet again. We chatted to Neil Atkinson of The Anfield Wrap.

Ken tells us about where he was when Newcastle played the mighty Barcelona in 1997. We also chatted to the sports editor of The Nation, Dave Zirin, about the NFL coming to Ireland, to Cathal Dennehy in Tokyo about the world champs and there's lots more including Roman Brannecdotes, the latest revelations from the Barcelona/Bartomeu internet manipulation scandal, and Trent's Ballon d’Or campaign.

Tomorrow we cover Newcastle Barca, Cian McPhillips' going big in Japan and next week we have Ryder Cup, Ian Wright in London, and Branno will return from his trip to the Evan Ferguson show in Rome.

The special guest at our live show in London next week, Wednesday September 24th, will be Arsenal legend and one of our favourite people in football, Ian Wright. Last batch of tickets available at https://www.secondcaptains.com/live-events/

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