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The 42
a day ago
- Sport
- The 42
Glasgow will sense opportunity against a Leinster team in need of a lift
LEINSTER NEED A trophy, but Saturday's quarter-final defeat of Scarlets suggested a URC title might not capture as many imaginations as the province would like. A turnout of less than 13,000 made for a strange occasion at Aviva Stadium. While not a small number, the crowd was utterly lost in a 51,000+ capacity stadium. There are understandable reasons why the fixture didn't attract a larger audience: falling on a bank holiday weekend, where DART services were closed between Connolly and Dun Laoghaire, against a team Leinster were widely expected to beat with some ease and in doing so, secure another home game seven days later. Yet it's not all logistics. Leinster's devastating Champions Cup loss to Northampton Saints clearly sucked much of the enthusiasm out of the province's season. The URC is a very clear and distinct second prize. The province's players have previously made clear that it's essentially all or nothing in terms of winning Europe. Even if Leinster do win the URC in the coming weeks, the season will be remembered for another failure at Champions Cup level. That's the cold, harsh reality when you're a team with such lofty ambitions. Less than 13,00 turned out for Leinster's URC quarter-final. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO Post-game on Saturday, Leo Cullen repeatedly called for the supporters to turn out when defending URC champions Glasgow Warriors come to Dublin on Saturday [KO 2.45pm]. While stressing he was not disappointed with the attendance for Scarlets and detailing reasons why that might have been the case, he also underlined the lift a larger crowd can give to his players – players who perhaps need that lift given the lingering Champions Cup pain. This was not the look of a group energised by the chance to end their season with a URC medal. 'Please turn out in force,' Cullen said. 'We would love to see you here in June and get excited about cheering on the team and all the rest, because the players feed off that energy. Like, the players are human beings and they want to do well, they want to feel that support behind them.' All that said, Cullen refused to use the smaller crowd as a contributing factor in his team's scrappy, disjointed display. 'No, no, no, no. I don't want to use that at all,' he continued. We played here in front of empty stadiums in Covid and I would much rather have what we had there today. In no way am I giving out here, in no way. 'There is a reality, a shift. It is outside the norm and we all have our habitual bits to the makeup of our calendar, certain things we do at certain times of the year. We just need to make it more in the public consciousness among people that watch rugby. We'll just keep beating the drum. We are asking supporters to come out here again next Saturday. It is short. We had a two-week lead-in and this is one week so it is more challenging again.' In reality, the gate return might be the least of his worries. If Leinster are similarly off-colour against Glasgow the province might well be staring another home semi-final defeat in the face. Cullen's men held 65% possession and 70% territory against Scarlets but still struggled to put the game to bed more efficiently. Cullen was asked if he feels his players can peak over the next two weekends. His answer led him back to yet more reflections on what went wrong against the Saints. Advertisement 'The thing is, you talk about a season and you have players that have to go through the course of it. The peaking bit is a challenge and that's for us to get our preparation right this week, trying to get them peaking during Six Nations and on Champions Cup weekends. 'It's unusual having seven playoff games in a season. We're not going to get seven this year but you have to have some level of a plan for that. We had Six Nations, then three Champions Cup games, two great and one poor. 'Was that Northampton or us? Were they excellent or was that us? We had a chance at the end. Different day, different decisions, different outcomes and you go on to another game. Again, it's turn the page. Jack Conan makes a break. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO 'We had a chance to refresh last week when we were off and managing that can be a bit of a challenge as we chopped and changed the team a bit for Zebre and Glasgow. There's not much at stake in those games, that's the reality and that can potentially lure you into bad habits. 'With play-off rugby, its cagey, play the conditions and the opposition and find a way to win. It doesn't matter. You deal with the variables on the day: big crowd, small crowd. It forces Scarlets to change the way they are playing if we are two or three scores in front in the second-half, but unfortunately it's not to be. That's the way the game goes and you find a way to navigate through that and I'm pleased the way the lads did that.' Leinster have already faced Glasgow twice this season, both at the Aviva. In April, a painfully one-sided Champions Cup quarter-final saw the province thump an injury-hit Glasgow 52-0. More recently Leinster edged a URC meeting 13-5. Yet the Warriors will see this as a real opportunity against a Leinster side still licking the wounds of that Northampton loss. 'We've come up against them in a Champions Cup game and they looked like they were running on fumes that week,' Cullen said. 'You watch them in the warm-up then when there's not a huge amount at stake (in the URC game) and you can see they are a very focused team. 'You could see they were very physical. We had some chances, so did they, they had a lot of possession in the first-half and they were probably disappointed not to capitalise. Then we go down the other end and go 7-0 in front, maybe could have scored another before half-time. 'It was just a cagey sort of game. Will it be a cagey game again, I don't know. It's a knock-out game so what matters is just getting through. People tend not to remember the detail as in what actually happens in these games. We just need to go through.' That need is increasingly evident as the weeks roll by.
The 42
2 days ago
- Sport
- The 42
Leinster 'win ugly' as pain of Northampton lingers into URC title tilt
LEINSTER ARE TRYING to keep their focus on the immediate future but the recent past appears to be weighing on their minds. Yesterday's URC quarter-final win against Scarlets contained many things you don't want to see from a team who had their mental temperament questioned after suffering a devastating home Champions Cup semi-final loss to Northampton Saints four weeks ago. A strong, confident start against the Welsh side saw Leinster move 12-0 up in the opening 10 minutes before their performance grew increasingly disjointed. As Scarlets scrapped to make it a proper contest, Leinster looked nervy, disconnected and unsure of themselves. Two second-half tries kept the Welsh at bay but it was far from convincing stuff from the home team, who lumbered through this sticky quarter-final in front of an audience just short of 13,000. Holes were exposed in Leinster's defence as the Scarlets again found space against Jacques Nienaber's system – the Welsh side also recording a 35-22 win over a much-changed Leinster team in April. The result is all that matters in knockout rugby but there was no escaping the feeling Leinster will need to lift things for Saturday's semi-final meeting with Glasgow Warriors – a 2.45pm kick-off at the Aviva. 'Listen, we are pleased to get through to the next round. It's great to be in knockout rugby,' Cullen said. Advertisement Leo Cullen was frustrated with some decisions. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO 'When you finish top (of the league), you'd love to go, 'Can you hand us the trophy here?' But unfortunately that's not the way this competition is geared up. 'Some teams that are trying to get into the top eight are almost playing cup rugby to get there whereas when you have already qualified and guaranteed top spot, it can make those couple of games leading into the knockout game a bit tricky because you don't have jeopardy aspect – the real, 'If we lose this we're out.' 'Sometimes that creates a little bit of bad habits when you play games like that. Obviously we played Glasgow in our last (regular season) game here and maybe it was a little bit of the same for them. We had the Zebre game before that as well.' Cullen's answer then wound toward that shattering loss to Northampton, before he highlighted Scarlets' try on the stroke of half-time – outlining that he felt his side should have been awarded a penalty before Ellis Mee and Blair Murray went the length of the pitch to score. 'We felt the pain of losing a knockout game against Northampton,' Cullen continued. 'And there are lots of big moments in the game (v Scarlets). I think we're well on top for large parts of, particularly the first-half. 'It's a big moment before half-time, isn't it, because we are on their line. If you look at it, there are multiple Scarlets players that are offside, but we play and we don't execute, so there's stuff in our control. And then they go the length of the field, in a perfect world it gets refereed and you have a penalty there, and we're eight points clear at that stage, we'd go into half-time 11 points up. 'Instead it's one point and you're like 'Ughhhh'. But I thought the composure was good at half-time. Again, it paints a completely different complexion on the game. 'We've lost a knockout game (v Northampton) where there's a penalty in front of the posts which (Henry) Pollock is off his feet which we should have had which we could have kicked to level the game. There should have been a penalty try at the end of that game which means we would have won that game which meant we would be talking about how we got on in the Champions Cup final. 'We're not at that stage, so knockout rugby, there are so many different variables, and we need to get all of our bits right and we'd hope that the referees get their bits right as well. 'But that's what it's like. It's tense, there's pressure there for both teams. And I thought we applied pressure for large periods of the game today. That's pleasing and a credit to the players. 'That try was such a big swing. It's a 92-metre turnaround and call it a 10-point swing in terms of the scoreboard. To come back from that, get back on top again and make sure we had a two-score lead for most of the remainder of the game was pleasing. 'It's winning ugly sometimes, isn't it? You've got to do it, so I am pleased we won ugly.' Two more ugly wins would be enough to end the season with a trophy. Anything less will ensure another long, tough summer for Cullen and his players.
The 42
19-05-2025
- Sport
- The 42
Seven years on, Carbery aims for second Champions Cup medal
WHEN JOEY CARBERY helped Leinster to their most recent Champions Cup trophy in 2018, as well as the Pro14 crown a week later, there were lots of people who thought the talented playmaker would go on to guide the province to a few more of those titles. Carbery himself might have been among them. He had yet to confirm his decision to move to Munster that summer and as Carbery weighed up that switch, the possibility of winning more silverware with Leinster must have been difficult to resist. Athy man Carbery had enjoyed two strong seasons for his home province, with 23 in 37 appearances over the 2016/17 and 2017/18 campaigns. Sure, many of them came at fullback and Carbery wanted to be an out-half but he was playing well with Leinster. The young New Zealand native was also establishing himself as the back-up to Johnny Sexton with Ireland, earning 13 Test caps in those two first years of international rugby. Leinster had just secured their fourth Champions Cup title and were already beginning to dream of a fifth star. Carbery was an unused replacement in that 2018 final win over Racing 92 in Bilbao, but he played his part in the run to the decider. There were two starts at fullback in the pool stages, as well as replacement appearances in the quarter-final and semi-final. Carbery's winner's medal was well-earned. Advertisement There are many from the 2018 final still playing with Leinster now and still searching for that elusive fifth Champions Cup crown. Tadhg Furlong, James Ryan, Luke McGrath, Robbie Henshaw, Garry Ringrose, and Jordan Larmour all started the 2018 decider, as did the soon-to-retire Cian Healy. Andrew Porter, Jack Conan, and Jamison Gibson-Park were on the bench. Carbery after the 2018 Champions Cup final. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO Given what he has been through with injuries in the years since and given Leinster's strength during that time, it's a little crazy that Carbery could have his second Champions Cup winner's medal before any of those former team-mates. Carbery is now part of the Bordeaux set-up plotting to win this competition for the first time, as well as chasing the Top 14 title. 'The assault on history' reads the front page headline on today's edition of Midi Olympique. An exciting Northampton group stand in their way, having already ended Leinster's campaign in the semi-finals. The Top 14 side are viewed as favourites, having dethroned Toulouse in the semi-finals. Both finalists went strong with their domestic selections last weekend, opting against resting key players a week out from the Champions Cup final. Bordeaux enjoyed a 34-29 win over Castres in the Top 14, while Northampton had a 28-24 win against Saracens in the Premiership. Both of them are bouncing into this Saturday's decider in Cardiff. Carbery came off the bench for starting out-half Matthieu Jalibert against Castres and that will be his likely role in the Champions Cup final unless Bordeaux boss Yannick Bru decides to go for a 6/2 split with his replacements. That was the case for one of their pool games and the quarter-final against Munster, with Carbery missing out on involvement in both cases as Bru went with a scrum-half and an out-and-out back three player as the two backline substitutes. That would be cruel on Carbery, so he'll be hoping Bordeaux's coaches go for the classic 5/3 split they've used in their other five Champions Cup games this season, including the semi-final victory against Toulouse. Carbery has been enjoying life with Bordeaux. Billy Stickland / INPHO Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO A second Champions Cup medal would add handsomely to the list of achievements Carbery has already put together in rugby. His injury record means there is understandable sympathy towards him from many quarters, but Carbery has done things that many players can only dream about. An international debut at the age of 21 that involved kicking a conversion as Ireland beat New Zealand for the first time in their history. Four appearances in a Grand Slam success in 2018. A series win in Australia in 2018 and an even bigger one in New Zealand in 2022. Carbery has 37 Ireland caps in total. He didn't play for Munster in the URC knock-outs in 2023 but made 10 starts in that title-winning campaign, while he also won an AIL with Clontarf and a Leinster Schools Senior Cup with Blackrock. That's plenty of success and he's still only 29. A victory with Bordeaux this weekend might be as sweet as any given the road Carbery has taken since that double with Leinster in 2018. It has been the one less travelled but the talented Irishman is chasing down another double now.
The 42
16-05-2025
- Sport
- The 42
This is a sad end to the Ireland sevens' exciting, emotional journey
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE not to feel sad for the group of Irishmen who spent such a big chunk of their 20s striving to put Ireland on the rugby sevens map. They succeeded. The Ireland men's sevens team played at the Olympics in 2021 and 2024. They finished second on the World SVNS Series last year and third at the 2022 World Cup. Terry Kennedy was World Rugby sevens player of the year in 2022 and easily could have been again last year. Having restarted in Division C of the Rugby Europe Championship in Bosnia and Herzegovina back in 2015, Ireland rose steadily through the ranks to become contenders. It was an exciting, emotional journey featuring lots of highs and some big lows. But now, a decade later, the Ireland men's sevens team is no more. The IRFU has shut the programme down and as things stand, there is no plan in place to even try to plot a route to the 2028 Olympics. This really does appear to be the end. Kennedy is among the ex-Ireland sevens players who have shared their anger at the IRFU's decision to discontinue the men's sevens programme. He branded the union's actions as 'utterly disgraceful' and 'absolutely shocking,' words echoed by several of his former Ireland team-mates and their supporters. Kennedy finished up with Ireland after the Olympics to pursue his career outside rugby. That was constantly a dilemma for these Irish players. At the start, they weren't even paid. When contracts eventually came into play, they weren't lucrative. Even in the last couple of years, the highest salary a men's sevens player could earn was €30,000 per season. Only a select few were at that level. Others were earning between €18,000 and €22,000. Some came into squads when they weren't even on that much. So no one was in sevens for the money. Nearly all of Ireland's players over this period have worked or studied outside of rugby in order to get by. Some of them have relied on support from their families. And those family members deserve a mention. The men's sevens community has been a tight-knit one, parents and loved ones travelling around the world together and keeping each other up to date when their lads were on the road. They're feeling anger and sadness right now too. The Ireland men's sevens team had some great success. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO A degree of the frustration stems from the timing. The 2024/25 World SVNS series finished two weekends ago. It's not like the remaining contracted Irish players were given a full year to prepare themselves for life after sevens. The Ireland squad were due to meet IRFU performance director David Humphreys on Monday. There was an awareness that bad news was coming at that meeting. But for a statement to then get released suddenly on Wednesday evening hurt for people who wanted to be told face to face that they would no longer have jobs as pro players. Advertisement Still, this decision is not a major surprise to those involved. There has been a sense of doom around the Irish men's programme for some time now. World Rugby's extensive financial struggles in sevens mean unions like the IRFU have been questioning its sustainability. Indeed, it has been reported that World Rugby has lost up to €25 million since centralising the sevens series in 2023. When Ireland moved on from last year's Olympics without a major chunk of their most experienced, proven players, the writing was on the wall. This 2024/25 campaign was a miserable season for an inexperienced Irish side as they finished 11th out of 12 teams. By the time the final leg in LA rolled around, World Rugby had belatedly clarified its plans for the series next season. Ireland were already in the relegation play-off places and duly got chopped as the series was reduced from 12 to eight teams for next season. That all would have meant Ireland having to go through the Rugby Europe Championship to qualify for the third tier of the restructured SVNS series. And that confirmation proved to be the final straw for the IRFU. They pulled the plug. So the union can argue that they were only able to make a final decision after World Rugby confirmed its plans, although the evidence of the 2024/25 campaign is that the IRFU was already firmly on the path towards wrapping up the men's programme. Otherwise, there would have been a genuine post-Olympics plan in place. The 2024 Games were always likely to be the finishing point for many of the core players. But the union opted against truly refreshing the men's programme. Of course, this decade of the Ireland men's sevens team's rebirth correlates exactly with David Nucifora's tenure as the IRFU's performance director. Terry Kennedy and Jordan Conroy. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO The Australian is a huge advocate of sevens as a development tool for 15s, but also as a standalone game. He hoped the sevens team could unearth and improve players for the Irish provinces and the Ireland 15s team. He also believed sevens could be a popular game in its own right here. It's clear now that few in the IRFU agree. Nucifora moved on last year after the Olympics and he must be exasperated to see 10 years of work on the men's programme going down the drain. The Irish union has other priorities now. Sevens was undoubtedly important in giving current Ulster players Zac Ward, Rob Baloucoune, and Cormac Izuchukwu a pathway into professional 15s rugby. Baloucoune and Izuchukwu have Ireland 15s caps. There have been others who got an opportunity in the Ireland sevens set-up at just the right time. Ireland 15s internationals such as Hugo Keenan, Jimmy O'Brien, and Shane Daly had substantial spells with the sevens team and have spoken highly about how that time improved their core skills. There are further 15s players such as Nick Timoney who are held up as products of the sevens programme, yet didn't spend long with the squad in reality. And on the flip side of those positive examples, there have been some players directed into sevens from provincial academies who didn't feel it furthered their game and may even have denied them chances in the 15s game at crucial points in their development. Whether the Ireland men's sevens programme developed players for professional 15s at a steady enough rate over the last 10 years is open to debate. Unfortunately for all involved in the programme, the IRFU's assessment was that it didn't. The union evidently doesn't believe that sevens has captured the imagination of the wider sporting public in Ireland. The series is difficult to follow due to the vastly different time zones involved and the lack of TV coverage these days. World Rugby has struggled to sell the rights in recent years because broadcasters haven't been drawing in big audiences. So the IRFU no longer feel that the investment is worth it. To men like Kennedy, Harry McNulty, Mark Roche, Billy Dardis, Jordan Conroy, and Jack Kelly – Ireland's most capped sevens players – this decision must hurt greatly. They were the heartbeat of Irish men's sevens. They had amazing experiences on the circuit and formed a remarkable brotherhood. None of the sevens stalwarts had a chance to go back into the 15s game after missing out on senior contracts first time around, but they did get the chance to represent Ireland on a global stage. Sadly, no one will follow in their footsteps now. IRFU performance director David Humphreys. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO The IRFU has been spending millions of euros on sevens. €2.97 million in 2021/22 became €3.84 million in 2022/23 and then €4.24 million in the 2023/24 campaign, which was the Olympics year. Those numbers cover both the men's and women's programme, with the latter staying alive for now because the union feels it genuinely is a development pathway for women's 15s internationals. So the IRFU will save itself money through this decision, even if there is funding from World Rugby for teams who participate in the SVNS series, understood to be to the tune of around €350,000. Further funding came from Sport Ireland due to the Olympics element of sevens, while the Ireland sides have been sponsored by TritonLake since 2021. The IRFU has cited the need to safeguard its 'long-term financial sustainability.' The union has reported three deficits in the last four financial years. And it has been well flagged that professional rugby is on shaky financial ground around the world. The axing of the men's sevens programme is part of an increasing trend of the IRFU tightening its belt. That kind of cold, financially-driven decision doesn't take into account the human element of this. And that's another reason Wednesday evening's announcement hurt and caused anger. CEO Kevin Potts did thank 'everyone who has contributed to the success of the Men's Sevens programme,' but the 500-word statement lacked warmth. There were no celebrations of the amazing moments Ireland have had in the past decade, no direct mention of the families who have given so much, the staff who have worked so hard behind the scenes, and no real sense of gratitude towards players who have toiled and sacrificed plenty in order to proudly represent Ireland. This is the end, but they deserve to be saluted.
The 42
15-05-2025
- Sport
- The 42
'I don't believe the powers that be support the game' - McNulty on IRFU axing men's Sevens
THIS TIME LAST year, Harry McNulty was preparing for the pinnacle of his sporting life. The Ireland men's Sevens team were heading to their second Olympics, this time in front of full crowds in Paris, and McNulty was captain. It was the culmination of a long journey on the Sevens circuit. McNulty's mother signed him up for a Sevens open day in 2015 and almost a decade later, he retired as Ireland's most-capped Sevens player, stepping away last November. Six months on, the men's Sevens team finds itself on the chopping block with the IRFU yesterday announcing the programme will be discontinued, the Union stating the decision 'is part of a broader strategic effort to ensure long-term financial sustainability and focus on key initiatives outlined in the Union's strategic plan'. The move hasn't exactly been met with shock, with a feeling the writing had been on the wall for some time, but the announcement has caused anger and deep disappointment. It comes on the back of a difficult year for Ireland Sevens – with both the men's and women's team suffering relegation from the World Series as the series was cut to eight teams – and the men's side in particular dealing with a high player turnover coming out of last year's Olympics. McNulty represented Ireland at Sevens level at two Olympics. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO McNulty has frustrations around how the sport has been handled and promoted by World Rugby, but feels those issues have provided the IRFU an easy out in terms of pulling the plug. Advertisement 'I think the powers that be probably were looking for any excuse to be able to take away the men's programme,' says McNulty. I think there was a bit of an agenda. I don't believe the powers that be support the game. They seem to have this outlook on us since David Nucifora has left that it's not worth the time and effort put into it.' The former Ireland captain takes issue with how the IRFU statement highlights the finances. Last November, the IRFU'S financial reports for the 2023/24 season revealed a deficit of €18 million for the 2023/24 season, with the Union spending €4.2m on Sevens. McNulty sees that €4.2m figure as 'very much an outlier' given it was an Olympic year. For the 2022/23 season that number stood at €3.8m, and it was €2.9m in 2021/22. 'It would be the same as when the men's (15s team) went to the World Cup, the amount of money spent on that team was way, way higher than the amount they would have spent in previous years as well, so it's quite inflated and very a shocking number that can be presented to the public, when in reality, I believe it's an outlier.' As he sees it, there are other ways to save money. One top-end central contract for an Ireland Test player would go a long way to covering multiple salaries at Sevens level, many of which were set around €18,000. Then there's the money the IRFU spend on travel and food for its committee members around the Six Nations and Test tours. Another factor which has caused anger was the IRFU's claim that the men's Sevens programme 'does not contribute as a development pathway for the 15s game, with current academy structures in place within the provinces offering greater development opportunities for men's rugby'. 'I think that's nonsense,' says McNulty. 'I left the Munster Academy after two years and went back playing in UCD. I would never, ever have made it into another club. At best I might have been able to go abroad to a Division 2 or 3 somewhere in France or England. I was very lucky that I went to the (Sevens) programme in 2015. I was signed up for an open day trial when David Nucifora and Anthony Eddy arrived and from there, I'm now a two-time Olympian, I've won a bronze medal in the World Cup, I captained the side, and it's completely changed my life. 'And I didn't even go into the 15s from there, but the number of players that came into our programme from being in an academy, and being on the very peripherals of those programmes, they came into us for one or two years and went back and became starting members of those teams. That's very quickly forgotten internally within the IRFU and provincial setups when communication was taking place about how those players were playing. The majority of that development came from being with us in the programme and working on those core skills.' McNulty adds that he is happy to see the women's Sevens programme continue, but finds that in itself highlights the value in having a programme for the men. 'I think every reason why they've kept the women's program is the reason that they should have Sevens, and they're now taking away the men's version of that but then blaming that as a financial burden, which I don't understand. 'Rachael Burford, who works with International Rugby Players and the RPA and obviously played for England, a World Cup-winning rugby player, said that if this was the other way around there would be public uproar. So is it just too political if they were to not support the women's programme from an IRFU standpoint?' Primarily, he feels for the former teammates and staff he worked with who will be losing their jobs. 'For the last couple of months the lads have probably been wondering what's going on. They've had very little communication. They were actually meant to have a meeting on Monday but then this was released yesterday instead. 'How are you supposed to play and perform in the last couple of months when you had a sense that everything could be thrown away for next season, but you're also being kept in the dark and you have no idea, so you've got to try and keep playing just in case things keep going? 'It's a very difficult time for everybody involved and also all the background staff and everybody that's put everything on the line. It's just showcasing the IRFU don't care about them. 'And also, in a broader speculation, it's also showing that the IRFU don't care about Team Ireland and the Olympics and are saying that it's a waste of their time to even be a part of that journey.'
