Jack Carty pens new one-year deal with Connacht after regaining place in side following Pete Wilkins departure
Jack Carty may have turned around his season by earning a new contract despite being shunned by former head coach Pete Wilkins but he admits it will take something special to transform his Connacht side's dwindling Champions Cup qualification hopes.
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The Irish Sun
2 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Leo Cullen in rare show of anger as he snaps at media questions ahead of Leinster's URC final vs Bulls
LEO CULLEN has insisted that Leinster do not deserve to be branded as failures if they are beaten tomorrow. If the province do not 2 Cullen has shipped criticism since their Champions Cup semi-final loss to Northampton 2 Tomorrow will be Jordie Barrett's last game for the Blues During that time, they have lost three finals and one semi-final in the Champions Cup and three semi-finals in the URC, twice when they had finished top of the standings in the regular season. They topped the pile again this time around and Cullen does not believe his charges deserve to be automatically dismissed if they cannot get over the line again. He said: 'They're all individual games. Every play-off game is a final as such. We have played in lots, whether they come in a quarter-final, semi-final or final. 'The group is learning all the time, young players come through, you are adding layers of experience. Read More On Irish Sport 'I think the way some of the questions are leading me, it's like, 'Whoever loses is a failure'. In this game there are two good teams going at it. If you lose in a final, are you classified as a failure? 'You can play your best game in the final. So both of these teams could play their best games of the season but unfortunately one of the teams has to lose. 'So one of the teams, who has just played their best game, they are classified as losers because they have lost but are they failures? "You are guaranteed nothing. So you have to prepare the best you can with the time you have to put in your best performance. Most read in Rugby Union 'I hope the group goes out and does itself justice. It's on the day.' Many in the squad have never lifted a trophy with Leinster while even more have never done so in front of a crowd, with their last two PRO14 titles coming during the Covid-19 pandemic when restrictions were in place. 'Pierre loving retirement' - Peter O'Mahony's wife teases Ireland legend as kids run amok in cute snap But Cullen does not want his players to get sidetracked by the prospect of doing so this weekend. He added: 'Unfortunately, the reality is once you get closer to something, that's what people tend to look at and they can quite often trip themselves up. 'So making sure we focus on playing well, because that's the bit we can control . . . the outcome and some of the other variables, we can't control. Bulls will test us in lots of different ways.' But the former lock did admit that Leinster's recent tale of woe and anything else that is thrown into the mix could help in terms of adding a bit more intent to their game-plan. He said: 'Bulls, we played in the semi-final last year and lost, had to travel down to Pretoria and try to deal with some of those challenges. 'They look like they've got here OK, so, from our point of view, does it give us a slight advantage, an extra day? Then again, they've had that time together, a chance to build a bit of a siege mentality. 'Lads have trained well this week, put a good plan together, but now we've got to deliver it. 'We trained out there in very difficult conditions. If conditions are like that at the weekend, we need to make sure we are able to adapt.' CAVALRY CHARGE Leinster have been boosted by Ross Byrne is on the bench for what is his last game before he joins Gloucester but Cullen said: 'Cian, you think what he has done and achieved with the club, the contribution he made to Leinster rugby, that was probably the most difficult.' LEINSTER: J O'Brien; T O'Brien, Ringrose, Barrett, Lowe; Prendergast, Gibson-Park; Porter, Sheehan, Clarkson; McCarthy, Ryan; Baird, van der Flier, Conan. Reps: Kelleher, Boyle, Slimani, Snyman, Deegan, McGrath, Byrne, Osborne.
RTÉ News
4 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Passionate Jake White commendation reveals Bulls' URC buy-in
South African rugby is buying in, and Jake White's Bulls are all in. After eschewing Super Rugby to switch hemispheres in 2021, the big four franchises are bringing the crowd with them. The BKT United Rugby Championship is their direct replacement for Super Rugby, a tournament which the Pretorians won three times. South African sides have made up five of the compeition's eight finalists in the last four seasons. This means something. The URC is where "you're seeing the best players in the world" reckoned the always engaging 61-year-old when he addressed reporters at Croke Park yesterday ahead of Saturday's Grand Final against Leinster. The Champions Cup? Well, that's nice too. White's heartfelt and enthusiastic commendation contrasts with Leinster's laboured praise for their second-best friend. Earlier this week, Dan Sheehan insisted there was "absolutely no way" Leinster would be beaten in the hunger stakes and players aren't really expected to say anything different. "If you reach a final, everyone is desperate to win; let's be fair," said White, whose side finished the regular season in second place behind Leinster. "No one sits in a final and says we are not desperate or as desperate as the other team... it would be naïve." White is a World Cup-winning coach, with the Springboks in 2007, and has plied his trade in Australia, with the Brumbies, who he took to the Super Rugby final in 2013. He spent three years in both France, with Montpellier, and Japan. White has been around the world and his thoughts on the URC are worth reading, especially when asked to compare it to the Bulls' former home. "Well, let me say this, one of the things which is interesting, and I've been around a long, long time, is that [the fans] didn't buy into Super Rugby when they joined it either," he said. "They didn't understand it. They didn't know who the guys from Waikato were and the guys from Otago and then as time went on they got a better feel for how Super Rugby worked. "And in the URC, I would still be honest and say they're still not sure how it all fits in because when we play Saracens they say 'is it a URC game?' and the same when we play Northampton. "But I think, over time, they now realise it's actually a phenomenal tournament and you're seeing the best players in the world. "I mean, it's no different from what happened when Super Rugby started to take off. "They realised you could see Christian Cullen playing for the Hurricanes and you can see Jonah Lomu playing for Auckland." Ahead of tomorrow's decider, White, whose side have lost two of the last three finals, said so great is "rugby fever" in the Rainbow Nation that they will receive support from erstwhile rivals. "I mean let's be fair, we're playing Ireland tomorrow," he said. "They just happen to have a different colour jersey on Saturday but we're playing Ireland and that's probably why South Africa have tuned in, because they know these players as Irish internationals. "I've got some messages from back home, people are supporting the Bulls. "People in Cape Town are supporting the Bulls. People in Durban are supporting the Bulls and think about it, that's like Munster supporting Leinster tomorrow against the Bulls. "That's just what happens when rugby fever is high. But they've bought into it and it's no different from how it happened in Super Rugby." White was also asked about lock Joe McCarthy's assertion last weekend that "everyone loves to hate Leinster". Is that the same in South Africa? "Nah, nah, everyone's in awe of Leinster," he said. "Just read that team, from Andrew Porter, and go through the list. I mean, it just gets better as you're reading it, the team is full of stars. "I think what, what [Joe McCarthy] says there, it's exactly what top players do say, is that they need to find a way to be better, and they need to find the 'why' of why they want to win. "And what he was right [to say] 'they don't like us', doesn't matter, as long as we understand what we need to do. "So, we're the same, we're not the most loved team in the world either. "Let's be fair, the Bulls wouldn't win too many popularity awards if you went around either but it doesn't matter. "The reality is we've got a job to do, as Leinster have got a job to do tomorrow, and it's got nothing to do with who likes who and who doesn't like who. "Whoever plays well tomorrow and whoever takes their chances is going to win the game."
Irish Daily Mirror
9 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Cullen retains Prendergast at but with a safety net beside him and on the bench
Leo Cullen has backed Sam Prendergast to recover the form that had the out-half as a potential Lions ignoring his semi-final place-kicking meltdown - missing five from eight semi-final attempts at goal - put him in to start against the Bulls in the URC Grand Final at Croke Park Prendergast puts a moratorium on what's been a lively debate as to what is best for Leinster in the short-term and best for Leinster in the longer term as they look to win a first trophy in four is all very well coaches and pundits claiming Leinster are the best club in the rugby-verse, the one with the best pathways and Academy but if those very coaches are repeatedly walking off with the silverware and the pundits are building plinths to be toppled over, it stands for very dominated their first two Champions Cup knockout games, keeping successive teams scoreless, but would lose to Northampton in the they have also dominated their two URC knockout games, neither Scarlets nor Glasgow - despite Prendergast's mis-fire - causing them any real problems., They need to win just this one to take the trophy.A backdrop against which Cullen has put his faith in Prendergast but, calculatedly included Ross Byrne on a five-three bench split as back up, and world class All Black Jordie Barrett at no12, a cool head if hope is that with Jack Conan's leadership at no8, Jamison Gibson-Park at no9 and Prendergast, Barrett at 10-12, there is enough experience and leadership for the collective, a lot of whom have never won a trophy with Leinster, to get over the Cullen: "You want to go out and do your best on any given day and not look too much at the outcome part but, unfortunately, the reality is once you get closer to something that's what people tend to look at and they can quite often trip themselves up."So making sure we have the right mindset, focus on playing well is important because that's the bit we can control, the outcome and some of the other variables, we can't control those."Bulls will test us in lots of different ways, so in making sure we have a good plan to be able to deal with the technical tactical parts is on part and then there's the mindset part of that as well."There's tons of experience in the group but Bulls have lots of experience as well, so we must ensure we go out and play our best game in a final."Barrett is no stranger to the big occasion.'We're very lucky to have Jordie, he has hopefully added in lots of different ways to the group because at the end of the day we're a tiny country in terms of playing population and we're up against a juggernaut team who we would have watched play Super Rugby and dismantle teams over the years so we know we're in for a serious bloody challenge."At which point Cullen dials up the underdog complex, little ol' Ireland against the mighty South African payload."People talk about resources and all of that, we're producing players. You go to South Africa, they're a people of what, 64m people? We're a country of how many people, 8m? Where does rugby sit in terms of sport, fourth. In South Africa it's no1 or it's close to no 1.'In terms of the rugby-playing population, what would they have? 12 times the amount of players we have registered, maybe 15 times? We're a drop in the ocean in terms of what we're up against."When we get the opportunity to bring in a player such as Jordie, it's fantastic to be able to do that but it's off the back of all the support we actually get."It gets reinvested into the group ultimately because you can only bring so many players in because part of our job spec is to produce players to play for Ireland."Something Leinster have spectacularly good at, they have 13 players going on the 2025 Lions Tour and another 12 touring with Ireland this is enough for the bookies to have installed Leinster as huge favourites and prompting the questions as to why there are so many doubters and, in turn, why they have failed to get over the line since 2021. 'We know we've a serious challenge on our hands," shrugs (v Bulls, Croke Park, 5pm, Saturday, TG4, SuperSport, Premier Sports, Flo Rugby & Jimmy O'Brien, Tommy O'Brien, Garry Ringrose, Jordie Barrett, James Lowe, Sam Prendergast, Jamison Gibson-Park, Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Thomas Clarkson, Joe McCarthy, James Ryan, Ryan Baird, Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan (CAPT)Replacements: Rónan Kelleher, Jack Boyle, Rabah Slimani, RG Snyman, Max Deegan, Luke McGrath, Ross Byrne, Jamie OsborneVodacom Bulls: Willie le Roux, Canon Moodie, David Kriel, Harold Vorster, Sebastian de Klerk, Johan Goosen, Embrose Papier, Jan-hendrik Wessels, Johan Grobbelaar, Wilco Louw, Cobus Wiese, JF van Heerden, Marco van Staden, Ruan Nortje (CAPT), Marcell CoetzeeReplacements: Akker van der Merwe, Alulutho Tshakweni, Mornay Smith, Jannes Kirsten, Nizaam Carr, Zak Burger, Keagan Johannes, Devon WilliamsReferee: Andrea Piardi (FIR, 55th league game). VERDICT: Leinster to win, justify favouritism and have a handy last quarter against a weak Bulls bench
