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RTÉ News
30-04-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
RTÉ Rugby podcast: URC whitewash for the provinces plus exclusive Linda Djougang interview
Neil Treacy is joined by Bernard Jackman and Jonny Holland to discuss the week's big news in Irish rugby. We look back on Sunday's Energia All-Ireland League final, where Jonny's Cork Constitution side were edged out by Clontarf 22-21 in a gripping Aviva Stadium decider. The panel then turn their attention to a chastening weekend for the Irish provinces in the BKT URC (12:55), with all four sides losing a regular season game on the same weekend for the first time since 2015. Later, we look ahead to Leinster's Investec Champions Cup semi-final against Northampton Saints on Saturday (43:21). And Neil also sits down at the Aviva to chat to Ireland prop Linda Djougang (53:05), who looks back on the recent Guinness Women's Six Nations campaign, and discusses her journey through rugby, as well as Ireland's World Cup ambitions.
The 42
27-04-2025
- Sport
- The 42
21-year-old Cooney stars as Clontarf dethrone Cork Constitution
Clontarf 22 Cork Constitution 21 Dave Mervyn reports from the Aviva Stadium BRINGING BACK MEMORIES of their 2016 Joey Carbery-inspired final win, Hugh Cooney stamped his mark all over Clontarf's riveting 22-21 victory over defending champions Cork Constitution at the Aviva Stadium. Carbery was a Leinster Academy player when he steered Clontarf to their second Energia All-Ireland League title, and the 21-year-old Cooney followed suit with a player-of-the-match performance today that saw him score a try, save one, and supply two try assists. A 74th-minute converted score from Connor Fahy, Cooney's 20-year-old centre partner, was just enough to get Clontarf over the finish line, despite Cork Constitution replying through replacement Jacob Sheahan with three minutes left. It is a fourth Division 1A crown for Andy Wood's men, and their first since 2022. With Cork Con missing out on retaining the top flight trophy, Shannon remain the last team to go back-to-back in the mid-2000s. Advertisement James Taylor, the player-of-the-match in last year's final, converted tries from Sean French (27 minutes) and Adam Maher (38) as Cork Con twice came from behind to lead 14-12 at half-time. Armed with the vast majority of the possession and territory, Clontarf should have been in front but Conor Kelly, the division's top points scorer, uncharacteristically missed two penalty attempts and pulled a conversion wide. The talismanic Cooney crossed and set up Clontarf captain Dylan Donnellan's 15th try of the season. The table toppers failed to take advantage of Ronán O'Sullvan's sin-binning, but Kelly was back on target with a 46th-minute penalty. It remained 15-14 to 'Tarf with Taylor and Kelly both missing penalties, before Wexford youngster Fahy, in his first year at the club, stormed over for a cracking try which Kelly converted, putting eight points in it. Sheahan rallied Cork Con by bursting over off a lineout maul, with Taylor's crisp conversion restoring the one-point gap. However, lively replacement Oran Walsh came up with a late turnover to seal a famous All-Ireland senior and Under-20 double for 'Tarf. Clontarf scorers: Tries: Hugh Cooney, Dylan Donnellan, Connor Fahy; Cons: Conor Kelly 2; Pen: Conor Kelly Cork Constitution scorers: Tries: Sean French, Adam Maher, Jacob Sheahan; Cons: James Taylor 3
RTÉ News
27-04-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Hugh Cooney is Clontarf hero in win over Cork Constitution
Bringing back memories of their 2016 Joey Carbery-inspired final win, Hugh Cooney stamped his mark all over Clontarf's riveting 22-21 victory over defending champions Cork Constitution at Aviva Stadium. Carbery was a Leinster Academy player when he steered Clontarf to their second Energia All-Ireland League title, and the 21-year-old Cooney followed suit with a player-of-the-match performance today that saw him score a try, save one, and supply two try assists. A 74th-minute converted score from Connor Fahy, Cooney's 20-year-old centre partner, was just enough to get Clontarf over the finish line, despite Cork Constitution replying through replacement Jacob Sheahan with three minutes left. It is a fourth Division 1A crown for Andy Wood's men, and their first since 2022. With Cork Con missing out on retaining the top flight trophy, Shannon remain the last team to go back-to-back in the mid-2000s. James Taylor, the player of the match in last year's final, converted tries from Sean French (27 minutes) and Adam Maher (38) as Cork Con twice came from behind to lead 14-12 at half-time. Armed with the vast majority of the possession and territory, Clontarf should have been in front but Conor Kelly, the division's top points scorer, uncharacteristically missed two penalty attempts and pulled a conversion wide. The talismanic Cooney (above) crossed and set up Clontarf captain Dylan Donnellan's 15th try of the season. The table-toppers failed to take advantage of Ronán O'Sullvan's sin-binning, but Kelly was back on target with a 46th-minute penalty. It remained 15-14 to Tarf, with Taylor and Kelly both missing penalties, before Wexford youngster Fahy stormed over for a cracking try which Kelly converted, putting eight points in it. Sheahan rallied Cork Con by bursting over off a lineout maul, with Taylor's crisp conversion restoring the one-point gap. However, lively replacement Oran Walsh came up with a late turnover to seal a famous All-Ireland senior and Under-20 double for Tarf.
Irish Times
27-04-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Clontarf edge past Cork Con to earn fourth Energia All-Ireland title
All-Ireland League Division 1A final: Clontarf 22 Cork Constitution 21 The full-time whistle was greeted with the Black Eyed Peas and Tonight's going to be a good night. Well, it was certainly liable to be one hell of a night in Castle Avenue after Clontarf dethroned Cork Con with this taut, tense and fluctuating win to earn a fourth Energia All-Ireland title. In so doing, Clontarf varnished a first Fraser McMullen Cup named in honour of their legendary former player with a fourth Energia All-Ireland League crown. Located amid a plethora of GAA clubs in Dublin's northside, the eight-time runners-up keep rebuilding and keep coming back under Andy Wood. So, the curse has been exorcised now and it could be argued that this was Clontarf's best season. As their noisy blue and red invasion of the Aviva began the celebrations, this meant as much as anything the club has ever achieved. Having topped the table, beating Con already twice, and having had more of the possession, territory and chances in this game, Clontarf deserved this win, but Con – cup match animals to their core – made them sweat all the way, but for the third season running the reigning champions were beaten in the final and Shannon remain the last side to retain the AIL fully 20 years ago. READ MORE To a large degree, Con repelled Clontarf's power game better than most, but the winners had the game's outstanding player in 21-year-old Leinster academy centre Hugh Cooney, who decorated the game with all manner of big moments on both sides of the ball. After a scoreless opening quarter, when Clontarf failed to translate some huge carrying by number 8 John Vinson into points and Conor Kelly uncharacteristically missed a couple of penalties, the dam burst as the sides traded four tries and the lead three times. Cooney took a good line off Sam Owens to reach out for the line, albeit Kelly missed the conversion, to belatedly earn 'Tarf some deserved reward. But Con's response was ominously swift as Sean French took a good line off Adam Maher's pass to score and James Taylor converted. Clontarf's Hugh Cooney breaks with the ball despite the attention of several Cork Constitution players. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho Back came 'Tarf, adding some deft touches to their power when Cooney took an inside pass off fellow centre Connor Fahy to make inroads and offload for Dylan Donnellan to demonstrate his renowned finishing ability with his 15th try of the season – relatively modest by his standards. Again, Con responded strongly, Daid Hyland's surge off the base of an attacking a scrum launching a high tempo, four-phase attack which ended with Maher spotting a gap and sniping through it to score. A huge defensive set by Con, when withstanding three Clontarf penalties to the corner despite the binning of Ronán O'Sullivan for blatant side entry at the first of them, felt huge, all the more so when Vinson had to be replaced at half-time. But his replacement, Oran Walsh, immediately made a wonderful tackle on Matthew Bowen which led to a turnover penalty and when Cooney was high tackled by French, Kelly steered 'Tarf in front with the difficult penalty. Con's excellent defensive lineout then stymied 'Tarf after Cooney had shot up out of the line to tackle French in a manner which had Jacques Nienaber's influence all over it, before his tracking and superb tackle denied Maher . After Taylor, man of the match in last season's final, slightly miscued a kickable penalty and was withdrawn, if to return soon after, the Cooney show continued with a turnover penalty. But their lineout couldn't deliver again, before Kelly missed a kickable scrum penalty. It turned out to be a good miss. Walsh ran back the restart with gusto, and Kelly pulled the strings by dropping back, taking a pull back and releasing Cooney for him to send Fahy away. The 'Tarf centre had runners on his outside and Cooney back on his inside, but took the right option and stepped inside the last man, Bowen, to score nearer the posts. The importance of this, and Kelly's conversion, was underlined when Con went to the corner and replacement Jacob Sheahan powered off the drive to score; Taylor's conversion making it a one-point game. But one more turnover by Walsh, who had a huge 40 minutes, enabled Clontarf to run the clock down and for Kelly to kick the ball dead. Clontarf are champions once more. SCORING SEQUENCE – 22 mins: Cooney try 0-5; 27: French try, Taylor con 5-7; 33: Donnellan try, Kelly con 12-7; 38: Maher try, Taylor con 12-14; ( half-time 12-14 ); 46: Kelly pen 15-14; 73: Fahy try, Kelly con 22-14; 77: J Sheahan try, Taylor con 22-21. CLONTARF: Tadhg Bird; Andy Smith, Hugh Cooney, Connor Fahy, Peter Maher; Conor Kelly, Sam Owens; Charlie Ward, Dylan Donnellan (capt), Ben Griffin, Fionn Gilbert, Jim Peters, Callum Smith, Aaron Coleman, John Vinson. Replacements: Oran Walsh for Vinson (h-t); Luke Brady for Peters (67 mins); Conor Bateman for Ward (70 mins). Not used: Declan Adamson, Will Reilly, Stephen Ryan, James Conroy, Alvin Amaniampong. CORK CONSTITUTION: George Coomber; Daniel Hurley, Sean French, Niall Kenneally, Matthew Bowen; James Taylor, Adam Maher; Mark Donnelly, Billy Scannell, Luke Masters, Sean Duffy, John Forde, Jack Kelleher, Ronán O'Sullivan, David Hyland (capt). Replacements: Charlie Connolly for Masters (h-t); Jacob Sheahan for Duffy, Rob Jermyn for Hurley (both 58 mins); Danny Sheahan for Scannell (59); Eoghan Smyth for Taylor, Eoin Quilter for O'Sullivan (both 67); David Good for Connolly, Taylor for Coomber (both 75); Louis Kahn for Maher (73). Referee: Keane Davison (IRFU).
Irish Independent
27-04-2025
- Sport
- Irish Independent
Hugh Cooney gives Clontarf the edge over defending champions Cork Constitution to seal AIL final glory
Energia All-Ireland League men's final: Clontarf 22 Cork Constitution 21 The AIL trophy is on it's way to Castle Avenue as a Hugh Cooney-inspired Clontarf beat Cork Constitution in a tense final at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday evening. The game was at a standstill until a bit of brilliance from Cooney broke the deadlock.
