The role sports psychology has played in Leinster and Ireland’s success

Inevitably, before their success in the United Rugby Championship last season, plenty of public commentary focused on Leinster’s inability to get over the line in big games. Clearly, they had the talent. Was the problem instead to be found in the top two inches?

Enda McNulty, a former All-Ireland winner with Armagh, worked with both Leinster and Ireland as a sports psychologist.

He joins Gordon D’Arcy - with whom he worked during his playing days - to look at the importance of sports psychology in winning environments. Does sport psychology work? How do you get players to buy in? Why did Leinster and Ireland under Joe Schmidt embrace training the mind so readily? To what extent can previous success be attributed to training the mind?

This episode originally aired in May 2025.

Produced by John Casey.

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