There's a lot of player welfare talk surrounding professional rugby these days but extraneous — pointless — internationals outside the autumn test match window, and ignoring borderline hits because they are unpopular decisions don't add up to looking after the players. We get into the bizarre Ireland B vs Italy B in mostly empty stadium, and ask where England are, and if they are going anywhere.

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Bruce Craig wuz robbed: will threat of high court make high tackles hightail it? Or will the ABs still get their scalps and get away with it? Leinster lose despite being the Harlem Globetrotters (apparently), Nucifora releases Budget 2019, and who gets picked for Ireland?

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The "Gobshites" are back with a discussion of Munster's non-victory victory in Windy Park, the return of the tighthead rock Marty Mooradze, OMG just how good were Leintster roysh, slagging off Freddie Burns, and predicting this weekend's Euro-thrashings.

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A slightly delayed Molecast but our takes still haven't cooled down. Whitehouse or Shitehouse, provincial pecking order, the future of Sean O'Brien (and the Real Sean O'Brien), an exciting weekend of Euro-rugby ahead for the provinces... plus rogue predictions are back.

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The Molecast is back for the new season with more sounds of slurping tea and opening beers, as well as much discussion of fullbacks: PC Thug and burger-stealer Geordan Murphy, Simon "Slim" Zebo, and even Joey Carbery. Then we tried to solve everything to do with English rugby, which didn't go too well or get very far.

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We get into the ineffable logic of Joe's selection policy, Ireland's journey vs Ireland's destination, refereeing card games, NZ cynicism and go down a few blind alleys in anticipation of the end of an incredible season of rugby success.(BTW episode #12 didn't get published, so you didn't miss one. Stay tuned for the 30th anniversary reissue.)

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Do you like *long* podcasts? We have a lot to get through. Semi-finals, finals, retirements, squad announcements for Australia, a bloody transfer saga, and maybe most dramatically of all: the demise of the B&I Cup and Nucifora's plans for the club game. It's a bumper edition of the Molecast.

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Sometimes it isn't all Wayne Barnes' fault, and hopefully one of us will be big enough to admit it. It was a dog of a game, but sometimes that just can't be helped all that much, and thankfully Leinster showed yet another way to win. We also discuss Jordi's future, coaching duos, Leo's selections and throw in a little bit of ref talk for good measure.

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The Moles get into provincial appointments and dismissals up North and out West respectively, before we delve into the Pro14's health ahead of its semi-finals. And of course, we have a long hard think about Leinster's showdown in Bilbao with Racing 92 and why they should finish the job and round off a stellar European season.

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The Moles have lots to discuss after the contrasting European Champions Cup semi-final results for the Irish provinces including the serious men of Leinster; the silver linings for Munster and Van Gran's Grand Plan. Also, why would you take a job with Ulster right now? And what of Sean O'Brien?

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