Matt McClean five strokes off lead and heading Irish challenge at Lytham Trophy
The Malone international (31) carded a one-over 71 to share 17th place, just five strokes behind England's Jackson Garnett, whose 66 gave him a one-shot lead over Wales' Matt Roberts and Italy's Michele Ferrero.
Connemara's Luke O'Neill and Edmondstown's Thomas Abom were 25th after 72s while Dundalk's Caolan Rafferty shot 73 to share 41st with Royal Dublin's Jack McDonnell and Athenry's David Kitt, who had a hole-in-one at the ninth.
The top 40 and ties after today's second round make the cut for tomorrow's final 36 holes.
Co Sligo's Aodhagan Brady and Warrenpoint's Colm Campbell shot 74, Grange's Jake Whelan a 75 and Edmondstown's Liam Abom and Charleville's Jordan Boles a brace of 76s to give themselves a chance .
However, Roscommon's Simon Walker and Millicent's Brian Doran likely have too much to do after respective rounds of 82 and 84.
Meanwhile, Castleknock's Paul Coughlan will defend his title in the C20 Group Munster Men's Stroke Play Amateur Open at Cork Golf Club today.
Coughlan captured his first championship crown last season and will look to draw on that experience this weekend.
'That was my first championship one. I had a couple of runners-up and near misses as well,' Coughlan said. 'It was nice to get one over the line.'
A 75-strong field, which includes newly crowned West of Ireland champion Dylan Holmes (18) from Greystones, will play 36 holes today with the top 30 and ties qualifying for tomorrow's final two rounds.
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Irish Times
4 days ago
- Irish Times
Stuart Lancaster announced as new Connacht head coach
Connacht Rugby has confirmed Staurt Lancaster as the province's new head coach. Lancaster has signed a two-year deal with the western province and arrives in Connacht following a seven-year stint as senior coach with Leinster before becoming head coach of French side Racing 92. Before his time with Leinster, Lancaster was England head coach for four Six Nations campaigns and their home Rugby World Cup in 2015. Lancaster's appointment comes after Pete Wilkins stepped down as Connacht head coach in April. READ MORE Lancaster will also take charge of Connacht's defence, with Rod Seib (attack), Cullie Tucker (scrum & contact) and John Muldoon (lineout & maul) rounding out the province's coaching ticket. 'I'm hugely excited to be joining Connacht Rugby and begin this new chapter of my life in the West of Ireland with my wife Nina,' Lancaster said in a statement released by the province on Tuesday morning. 'Connacht is a club with a proud identity, a passionate supporter base, and enormous potential both on and off the field, so I'm honoured and humbled to be given the opportunity to lead the Professional Men's team programme. 'I'm a firm believer in creating an environment that enables players to thrive and realise their potential, while playing a brand of rugby that inspires the community of which they represent. 'Ever since my initial conversations with Willie (Ruane, Connacht Rugby CEO), David (Humphreys, IRFU performance director) and the rest of the selection committee, it's clear that same belief exists here in Connacht, and that's why I'm so excited by this opportunity.' He added: 'I'm looking forward to working closely with all of the staff and players, and I can't wait to get to know the supporters and wider community over the coming weeks and months.'
Irish Times
5 days ago
- Irish Times
‘I can't sit down': Julie-Ann Russell divides time between basketball, GAA and family after hanging up soccer boots
Julie-Ann Russell has a match tonight. With the basketball season over, the local Gaelic football team has her full attention – once her work for Microsoft is done, her daughter Rosie is fed and her husband Kieran is home. Home being a house they built in Moycullen, a serene part of the world on the way out of Galway city towards Connemara. Soccer did not build this life for Julie-Ann, Kieran and Rosie, because professionalism is still not a possibility for female players living in Ireland. Not when Russell won the first of her 66 caps in 2009, nor when she won the last against Wales in the Euro 2025 playoff defeat at the Aviva Stadium. So much was on the line that December day, including Russell's entire career. READ MORE 'If we won that game, Eileen Gleeson would be running for president,' she said. 'We would all have really good sponsors. It is mad how a result changes everything. What Eileen did was unbelievable. We lose a game and she is gone.' How does a mother, following a four-year hiatus, play such a vital role for the Republic of Ireland? Four months after Rosie was born, Russell ran the 2023 New York marathon in 3 hours, 48 minutes. In Barcelona last March, she clocked 3:25. This suggests that the Russell household was athletics-mad? 'I still have a laugh with my dad (Wally Russell): 'I can't believe you didn't let me do running'. 'There was no time!' he says. 'Every evening I was being brought somewhere. I also did Irish dancing, horse riding, tin whistle. Not just sport. I won cross-country in school and was asked to join the club. But I wasn't let!' John Russell, her big brother, is the Sligo Rovers manager, having made over 300 appearances in the League of Ireland despite being an 'injury-riddled' midfielder. Julie-Ann Russell announced her retirement from football following Ireland's defeat to Wales in a Euro 2025 qualifier playoff. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho 'I always played soccer with John and I loved it. I could see you could get on an Ireland team and travel. I didn't even know there was an Ireland team in basketball.' The loss to Wales meant that her career ambition to feature at a major tournament in Switzerland this summer fell agonisingly short. But goals against England at Carrow Road last year and victory over France in Páirc Uí Chaoimh made her return an enormous success, despite the lingering pain from how it all ended. 'Oh it was our own fault,' said Russell of Wales' 3-2 victory over two legs. 'We should have put it to bed in the first half at the Aviva. I had a chance - 'keeper made a good save. I probably could have done better. Denise (O'Sullivan) hit the crossbar. If one went in, in the first half, we would have cruised it. 'Going in at half-time I was thinking, 'we are going to do this'. And then, stupid f**king VAR. It wasn't in any other game. It was a handball (by Anna Patten) but nobody saw it.' Wales scored the ensuing penalty. Russell's return to the Ireland squad, all the while furthering her actual career in Microsoft and raising Rosie, borders on the impossible. It was made possible by her outstanding form for Galway United and the 'safe' environment created by Gleeson. Julie-Ann Russell takes a shot during the first leg of Ireland's Euro 2025 qualifier playoff against Wales in Cardiff last November. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho 'Eileen rang to check if I was still interested in playing for Ireland, because obviously my whole life had changed,' she recalls. 'I said I would, but in the back of my head I was thinking, 'will Rosie be able to come with me?'. I'd never been away from her for longer than a day, so I asked if there would be time for Rosie and Kieran to call up. 'Eileen said 'Rosie is coming into camp, no ifs or buts'. I was still sh***ing it going in after four years, but the moment I walked into the hotel, I felt so safe. I just feel that it was handled very poorly — Julie-Ann Russell 'Rosie and Kieran were allowed to bop around the hotel, in for meals, just not at training or team meetings. We had a room to ourselves.' The FAI tend to bring criticism on themselves but that was a progressive move. 'You couldn't ask for more. It brought so much good energy.' In one sense, Russell has paved the way for mothers to play international football but in reality it is unsustainable. 'How did I do it? If I didn't have a full-time job and I was professional while being a mum, that would be totally fine. But I had just started a new role in Microsoft as well.' Two days after returning from maternity leave on July 1st, she sought a two-week break to play international football. 'I was mortified. But they were so supportive. And then I was plastered all over Microsoft!' That's what happens when you score a brilliant goal to beat France in the Páirc. Julie-Ann Russell scored in the victory over France at Páirc Uí Chaoimh last July. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho 'It was definitely the best game I've ever played. [My dad] is from Cork so we had lots of family there. All my Galway United team came down. So it was extra special. I remember the roar of the crowd when the goal went in.' Failure to qualify for Euro 2025 ended the international careers of Louise Quinn, Niamh Fahey, Diane Caldwell and Russell. In one fell swoop, 404 caps' worth of experience was gone. Gleeson and her assistant coach Colin Healy were subsequently replaced by Carla Ward and Alan Mahon. Marc Canham, the FAI's outgoing chief football officer, acted swiftly and the views of senior players, such Russell and Katie McCabe, were not sought. [ Recruiting talent from Ireland's diaspora the key to progress Opens in new window ] [ After the glory and the after-party Tottenham face Postecoglou crunch time Opens in new window ] 'It is a very good idea to ask older, experienced players to know what can be improved or done differently,' said Russell. Asked about how she viewed the decision to replace Gleeson and Healy, she said: 'If I step back, I probably think it was a bit unfair but sport can be cruel and it is a results game. If I was the FAI, I would have kept them because I thought the environment they built was so good.' Russell remains unimpressed by the association's subsequent treatment of Healy and Gleeson. 'Personally, I think it is a mess. It is sad what has happened. They are two great human beings who are very good at their jobs. I just feel that it was handled very poorly.' Julie-Ann Russell is congratulated by Jessica Ziu after scoring for the Republic of Ireland against France in last year's home Euro 2025 qualifier. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho Ward tried to convince her to come back for a tilt at reaching the 2027 World Cup in Brazil. 'No, I am done. I want to have more children. I have just turned 34. That was a massive factor in it. I'd be 36, 37 so it isn't realistic as the talent coming through is class.' Ellen is phenomenal. She should be in the Ireland team — Julie-Ann Russell By farming out this talent to foreign clubs, without a central academy system in place, the FAI may risk making the same short-sighted mistakes with the women's game in the 2020s that it made with the men's game in the 1990s. 'If I was 18 or in my early 20s now, I'd go professional because they can train full-time,' said Russell. 'Realistically, that is only abroad. Back in UL, I focused on my career as number one with football second. You had to do that. Long-term it was not sustainable to go football, football, football. One bad injury at 24 and you have no education.' The solution remains the same. 'It is sad but I do think it comes down to money. The standard in Ireland is definitely improving but the standard abroad is as well.' Could the FAI have done more for women's football since the 2023 World Cup? 'I do think that the home-based training sessions should have cracked on. Some girls at under-19s to about 22 have not developed properly and they are in limboland – not yet ready for senior football, but they will be. Those sessions were perfect for them.' The FAI discontinued the sessions, with chief executive David Courell citing costs. Limboland has become the norm; Izzy Atkinson (23) and Abbie Larkin (20) have not kicked on since the World Cup, despite moves to Crystal Place, while the rare talent that is Ellen Molloy returned home from Sheffield United. 'Ellen is phenomenal,' said Russell. 'She should be in the Ireland team. There is a star quality about her. That [knee] injury put her back. If she got really, really fit she'd be unstoppable. I'd have her in any team. 100 per cent.' Ward disagrees. Julie-Ann Russell with her daughter Rosie and Galway United teammates Jenna Slattery and Rola Olusola after victory against Shamrock Rovers in the 2024 All-Island Cup final at Tallaght Stadium. Photograph: James Lawlor/Inpho Anyway, Russell has a match tonight. Quietly, during her second coming with Ireland, she returned to the hardwood for Moycullen. 'I love basketball. It is such a class sport. I took a little break before the Wales game. Told them I couldn't make training. But I played the whole time. Basketball is finished but I am still playing Gaelic. I went back a few weeks ago.' It appears that she is not even remotely retired. 'I can't sit down. I compartmentalised [retirement from soccer] and moved on. Life is so busy. I haven't thought about it. Maybe I will in the future if Rosie plays football. I won't push her – I see kids hating sport when their parents push them.' Did Wally push her and John? 'Not a bit,' she said. 'My mum was like, 'you are doing too much, you'll burn out, look at all the bruises!'.' Soccer had its time with Julie-Ann Russell but her sporting life has many miles to run.
Irish Examiner
15-05-2025
- Irish Examiner
'Cranky soul' James Coughlan navigating rigours of ProD2 life at Biarritz
'It's been mad.' Former Munster backrow James Coughlan summed up a year as sporting director of ProD2 side Biarritz in three simple words, as he marked the first anniversary of his arrival at the club. 'It really is a rollercoaster of a job,' he said. 'It's been great. We've been doing our best to get everything sailing as smoothly as possible. There have been loads of difficult times, loads of really good times – every directeur sportif in any rugby club would tell you the same thing.' They probably would, too. Not every directeur sportif has, however, arrived at a rugby club in such flux as Coughlan did on his first day at Parc des Sports d'Aguilera, Monday, May 13, 2024. At the time, the club had been under new ownership for less than a month and bosses were still ironing out a few stubborn financial details with the league. Meanwhile, departing interim coach Simon Mannix – now in charge of Portugal, who will host a Lions-shorn Ireland in July at the Estádio Nacional in Lisbon – was completing a relegation escape, with a little help from rivals, having taken charge the previous December. They finished 14th of 16, with 53 points. Biarritz were told they would not be demoted to the amateur leagues last June, nearly a month after the season had ended. That was the good news. But, Coughlan said: 'We had 22 players and a whole new staff to bring in – I didn't sleep much for May, June, or July.' The day after the green light from the league, he announced in a press conference that veteran Samoan second row Piula Fa'asalele would join from Toulouse. It started a wave of announcements. In the end, 20 players arrived in the off-season. That was enough to give Coughlan's new coaching team – ex-Stade Francais academy head and Algeria coach Boris Bouhraoua, Remi Bonfils, Jérôme Filitoga-Taofifénua and Sebastien Buada – something to work with. But there's no denying they all walked into the eye of a perfect rugby club storm. Coughlan saw that as a plus-point: 'If you're at the start of a story, then it's the best place to come in. If you're not excited by a challenge, don't go looking for jobs in professional sports.' While sleep has been easier to come by since those first few months passed, Coughlan and his staff have set a punishing pace. 'We've been to Dubai with a sevens team. We had a really good start to the season and then a difficult period in the middle. We've given 10 guys from the academy their first game in a pro rugby match. 'When you're in the mix of it, you don't really take the time to step back and have a look.' But, while he's pitchside at training sessions – and while Canal Plus' cameras will track him down during the weekly televised games – he leaves the day-to-day coaching to the staff he's assembled for the job. 'The best way to describe it is that I look after the club project, and the staff look after the team project,' he explained, succinctly. Former Munster No. 8 James Coughlan joined Biarritz as director of rugby last summer. Pic: Biarritz. Meanwhile, he's busily rebuilding long-strained relations with the important amateur arm of the club – the association – which holds, as is standard in French rugby, the FFR licence that permits the Biarritz Olympique to play the game every week at all levels. 'It's a work in progress,' he said. 'Like any relationship, there are times you agree, and times you don't. It's making sure you try and get as healthy and open a relationship as possible so everyone is on the same wavelength.' After a strong start to the ProD2 campaign – they were second with six wins after nine matches – Biarritz slipped down the table. A seven-match losing streak at the start of 2025 had them glancing nervously into the relegation singularity as they dropped to 13th in mid-February. Four wins in their last eight – including an impressive victory at surprise strugglers Oyonnax – means the Basque club are 12th, with 60 points and nothing to fear when they host play-off contenders Colomiers on final night of the regular season this Friday. Coughlan, ever the sporting professional, has mixed feelings about Biarritz's campaign. 'I'm a cranky soul unless we're winning. That's what you're judged on in professional sport: wins and losses. 'Am I happy that we're [safe] in the ProD2? Of course I am. That's all I wanted at the start of the season. I had an idea that, if we finished between 64 and 68 points, we'd be in the top six or seven. But there's more of a gap between the top six and the bottom eight this year. 'I'm happy we're making progress. I'm happy we're going in the right direction. I'm not happy to celebrate 10th, either. It's not being arrogant – it's just wanting to win. That drive will never go away.' Recruitment and retention is at the top of Coughlan's mind now. Some 20 players have signed contract extensions, while six arrivals have so far been reported. A few more will follow. But there's no repeat of last season's squad turnover. 'We're missing a bit of power up front,' Coughlan said. 'The ProD2 is a difficult league if you're missing big, powerful men.' The long-term plan – in common with every professional club in France – is to enhance the age-grade pathway through to the senior squad. With near-perfect timing, the club's academy squad secured promotion to the age-grade's elite competition recently, and will face the likes of Toulouse, La Rochelle, and Bayonne next season. There's clearly talent there. And Coughlan wants to tap this homegrown potential so they become local heroes in the years to come. 'We want to make it so the club doesn't just continue to feed the top 14 players,' he said, citing the likes of Joe Jonas, Lucas Peyresblanques, and Maxime Lucu, who came through the Biarritz system but who now play their rugby elsewhere. Another former academy player, Yann Lesgourges, will return next season from Bordeaux. He was one of three ex-Biarritz under-20 players involved in Montpellier's Top 14 win over the Champions Cup finalists last weekend. 'With any professional team, the foundation of the club is your academy setup,' Coughlan said. 'We need to get those things so that the club isn't just feeding other teams, but promoting Biarritz and trying to get us back into the Top 14.' Promotion ambitions come at what Coughlan describes as 'the pointy end' of a five-year plan at the club. Year one – survival and renewed stability – is one game from being done. 'The next two years is to try and make sure that we're in the top six fight. That doesn't happen overnight – it takes three, four or five years of being in the top half. 'You get to the pointy end of the league and be like Colomiers – who are finishing like a train, who could sneak all the way in and get to the Top 14 – and you get sponsors in the area seeing that the club is developing. Then you can elevate your budget, improve your recruitment, and develop homegrown talent, so they come through. 'In five years, the plan is to be pushing to qualify for the Top 14.' That's the long-term on-pitch goal. More immediately, Coughlan is looking forward to welcoming Munster to Biarritz for a preseason friendly on August 22 – which honours the shared history of the two clubs in Europe, and celebrates the 20-year anniversary of the epic 2006 European Cup final between them. 'That will be brilliant for the club here,' he said, 'but also for regenerating those friendships between supporters, between the lads, having the older fellas over as well as the younger fellas. 'That's what rugby is about.'
