Cian Tracey: It's ‘no more Mr Nice Guy' as Leo Cullen is feeling the heat with Leinster's URC hopes in the balance
It took less than two minutes of last Saturday's post-match press conference for Leo Cullen to bring up the Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Northampton Saints. Cullen had been asked a straightforward question about his side's performance in their 33-21 URC quarter-final win over the Scarlets before the pain of the Saints loss quickly resurfaced, as the Leinster head coach's mind drifted back.
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Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
2023-24 'very positive' financially for Munster but this season 'a lot more challenging'
Munster Rugby reached a break-even cashflow position for 2023-24, provincial branch delegates were told at the Annual General Meeting on Wednesday but the forecast for the season just past is projected to be losses of up to €1 million. The Munster Branch AGM, held at Sunday's Well RFC as Sean Loftus succeeded Brendan Foley as President for 2025-26, had the accounts for 23-24 delivered to them by honorary treasurer Tom Kinirons as the professional team benefitted from finishing first in the URC regular season standings to earn a home draw for the knockout stages. They defeated Ospreys in the quarter-finals at Thomond Park and returned to the Limerick stadium a week later for a semi-final which was lost to eventual champions Glasgow. Chief Operating Officer Philip Quinn told the Irish Examiner that a surplus of €100,000 was achieved largely through increased gates throughout the URC season, a lucrative incoming tour match against Super Rugby champions Crusaders at a sold-out Pairc ui Chaoimh and those two URC knockout games, in addition to ongoing reductions in player costs. Describing the break-even position as 'basically our revenue matching our costs, Quinn said: 'Revenue is up to €20 million from €18m, so a significant jump, but a lot of that would have been relative to URC knockout income. Costs in general rose almost in step with increased revenues in 23-24… from €18.6m up to €20m.' Yet Munster's failure to secure a home draw in either the Champions Cup or URC knockout rounds this season, 2024-25, with the latter campaign concluding last Saturday in South Africa with a goal-kicking shootout defeat at the Sharks, means a very different outlook for the accounts to be delivered in 12 months. Also affecting this season's figures, the COO explained, will be lower than expected revenue shares from both the URC and EPCR, organisers of the European club competitions. 'Overall, 2023-2024 would have been very positive, and then looking at the current year, a lot more challenging,' Quinn said. 'We're going to have a loss this year, We're probably going to be between €0.5m and €1m cashflow loss for the year, and we can't put an exact number on it yet, there's a few still a few things to fall in place. 'Our gate income will drop, which we would have expected, like there is one thing within it around the IRFU funding model where we used to have URC South African TV money, about €0.75m in our other income, that's been built into the IRFU funding now for player costs. 'So our income comes down by €0.75m but are costs come down by €0.75m as well. So now it suddenly looks like we've taken €1.1m off our pro team costs but it's not. €750,000 of that is just an extra credit that we're getting down below. 'But the central distributions from URC and EPCR, we were hopeful that in this new model we would be getting an element of revenue share there but because they haven't hit the targets inside there, the revenue isn't coming in, so that's a hit to us because we would have budgeted that in the new model.' Also impacting the bottom line was switching the annual incoming tour game from Cork GAA's HQ back to Thomond Park, despite Munster playing the All Blacks XV last November in front of a sell-out crowd of 26,267. 'We would have had the All Blacks in Thomond Park versus the Crusaders in Supervalu Pairc ui Chaoimh, so there would be a downturn in revenue there, but it would been offset by costs as well. 'We've been consistent in saying if we were to move Leinster from Thomond Park to Supervalu Pairc ui Chaoimh we wouldn't see a huge uplift in revenue, because the costs of moving into Páirc Uí Chaoimh are significant between the rental cost and the operational costs. It offsets the vast majority of revenue that you're going to generate. 'When we're when we're looking at year on year there and having played Crusaders at Páirc Uí Chaoimh and comparing it with the All Blacks, our revenue will be down but also our costs will be down. 'We do still make a significant profit but not as much as we made for the Crusaders game, although the costs associated with bringing the All Blacks here would have been higher. "And then the URC knockout income. Minimal this year for us, unfortunately, and going to South Africa would cost us money. So when we were at home to Ospreys and Glasgow, you're making money on it, this season we're going to actually lose money from last weekend's game.'
Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
URC chief realistic about Croke Park crowd numbers in event Leinster make final
BKT URC boss Martin Anayi is 'being realistic' about a likely attendance at Croke Park in two weekend's time should Leinster overcome some concerning form and qualify for the league final against one of two South African opponents. The choice of GAA headquarters was made last summer when the URC's teams were asked to pencil in potential dates for the calendar ahead. It appeared at that time as if the Aviva Stadium would not be available for a theoretical decider due to soccer commitments. So it is that Leinster and one of the Sharks or Bulls would compete for the league title on the northside of the Irish capital in the event that Leo Cullen's side makes it that far. And that would create a challenge. Leinster did draw a capacity 80,000-plus crowd to Croke Park for a regular season meeting with Munster back in early October, and for a Champions Cup semi-final against Northampton Saints 13 months ago. More recent crowd figures at the Aviva Stadium give cause for concern while Munster's elimination at the last eight stage last weekend in Durban deprives competition organisers of a potential all-Irish clash that would have generated enormous interest. Timing is another factor with ticket offices and marketing departments having just seven days to drum up sales, and early indications are that it would be a bridge too far to have Croke Park anywhere near half full. 'We've got a really good relationship with the GAA and the leadership there, working very closely with Leinster,' said Anayi. 'There's a lot of tickets to sell in a very short period of time, that one week. 'We're being realistic about what can happen, but it's exciting. We'd love to have that as a spectacle, which is one of the brilliant things that is happening in Ireland, that we're seeing rugby being played in GAA stadiums very successfully.' The first three URC finals have all been played in South Africa with a figure of 31,000 in year one jumping into the fifties for the next two. Over 33,000 tickets have already been sold for the Bulls-Sharks semi-final at Loftus Versfeld. Should Glasgow win this weekend, another final would go down south. Ultimately, there is no sure way of ensuring high crowds given the vagaries across five competing nations and the compacted rugby schedule, but Anayi did confirm that there will be a week off between the final two rounds next year. Now in his tenth year as CEO, the Englishman started off an hour-long media briefing by highlighting the journey taken by a league which has clearly improved from its days as the Celtic League, Magners League and PRO12 or 14. Attendances, he claimed, are up 14% with an average of just under 12,000 per game, and broadcast figures are improving every year since the URC's inception with over 150 million viewers logged since 2021. New TV deals through to 2029 were announced for the various territories earlier this year. Total earnings have supposedly shot up by 33% in the competition's new guise, with another 15-16% bump predicted by 2027. The South African union (SARU) will become a full shareholder in the URC as of this summer, but then change is stitched into the DNA of this tournament and there may be more around the corner given the turbulence in Wales. The Welsh union's contract with the URC commits them to four participating clubs. That is at risk with suggestions that one of the regions may go out of existence, although Anayi said the league would work with the WRU which is, again, one of its shareholders. Whatever about losing a team or two, it doesn't look like the URC will be admitting any more for now regardless of speculation in the last year about the possibility of teams like Georgia's Black Lion or London Irish coming on board. Anayi referenced player welfare, logistics and the league's current competitiveness as potential barriers and remarked that 'the bar is very high' for further expansion. Not that any such concerns stopped the establishment of a World Club Cup. Due to start in 2028, it will replace the knockout stages of the Champions Cup that year, and again in 2032. The URC, as a stakeholder in the EPCR organisation that runs the European competitions, is fully on board. 'We've supported the EPCR and it is very much something that our partners in England and France feel strongly about it. It seems it could be quite intriguing … to see the likes of the Brumbies and Crusaders compete against the best teams in Europe, and South Africa. 'We have a couple of touch points in that, where Crusaders came up and played against Munster in Pairc Ui Chaoimh when Munster had won our league and Crusaders had won Super Rugby Pacific. 'That got a really good attendance, a sellout. That was one little nugget to say, 'okay, there is an interest in that'. That was one of the areas that we focused on.'
The Irish Sun
an hour ago
- The Irish Sun
Siya Kolisi blasts backlash over Jaden Hendrikse as ‘banter' after Munster URC drama during shootout
SOUTH AFRICA skipper Siya Kolisi has leapt to the defence of Sharks scrum-half Jaden Hendrikse. It comes in the wake of the controversial Advertisement 2 Siya Kolise rubbished claims that his teammate was faking cramp to delay Jack Crowley's attempt in the URC semi-final 2 Munster players were left devastated aftrer the controversial shootout defeat The two-time World Cup winning captain rubbished online speculation that his teammate was faking cramp to delay Kolisi said: 'We stand with Jaden. He is competitive. There has been banter everywhere in the game — we've seen it from players from all over the world. 'There is always a big thing about it, but it's normal. These things happen and people can say what they like. It's banter between two players, and that's all it is — and that's what Jaden is. 'From our side, he knows we're backing him all the way. He cramped - you can see he was definitely cramping.' Advertisement READ MORE ON RUGBY Kolisi also hinted at double standards, appearing to reference Johnny Sexton's World Cup altercation with He also alluded to similar antics from some Munster players in the past. The flanker went on to further support his teammate. He added: 'I get people saying stuff to me in the game, I don't moan about it. Advertisement Most read in Rugby Union "We just carry on, or you react however you want to react. It is what it is. We are supporting him, we stand with Jaden. 'You've seen the ones that happened during the World Cup, and some guys who were on the field there have also done it to other people. 'Jack Crowley he's coming for you' jokes Peter O'Mahony's wife Jess as son practices his rugby skills 'Let's get over it — it's rugby, it's entertainment. That's what people want.' The URC semi-finals now see Leinster host reigning champions Glasgow and the Bulls vs Sharks in an all South African clash. Advertisement
