Latest news with #Hanrahan
The 42
17-05-2025
- Sport
- The 42
Connacht finish disappointing season with win over Zebre
Zebre 12 Connacht 22 CONNACHT WRAPPED UP a disappointing season by winning their first URC game in six and they were good value for their victory at Stadio Lanfranchi. The next few weeks will be a huge reset for them with coaching appointments top of the agenda but at least they head into the summer on the back of a win. Fetuli Paea chases Shayne Bolton. Roberto Bregani / INPHO Roberto Bregani / INPHO / INPHO It sees them finish 13th in the table, nine points off the qualification places with just six wins from 18 league games. Connacht, having enjoyed 65% possession, led 12-7 at the break but should have been much further ahead after dominating large parts of the opening half in Parma. It was obvious from the outside that while this was a dead rubber Connacht were fired-up to make an impression with skipper Cian Prendergast leading the charge. It was appropriate then that it was the Kildare man who finally broke the deadlock after 17 minutes when he bumped through one tackle, slipped through another and fended off a try effort down the left to score after good work by David Hawkshaw and Finn Treacy. Advertisement JJ Hanrahan added the extra points from the wing and with Connacht enjoying dominance in the scrum where Finlay Bealham was superb, they pushed forward from there. A penalty advantage from a scrum gave them the platform for their second try and quick hands from Hanrahan after scrum-half Ben Murphy went wide close to the lines sent Shayne Bolton over in the right corner after 29 minutes to make it 12-0. But Zebre got a foothold. Out-half Giovanni Montemauri hit the left post with a penalty from 35 metres two minutes later, but they began to build the phases and work their way into the game. And they struck two minutes from the break, working the ball from deep before Argentine flanker Bautista Stavile finished in the right corner despite the best efforts of Treacy to prevent him grounding the ball. Montemauri landed a superb conversion from the touchline to leave five between them at the interval. Connacht got on top again after the restart but despite some good probing runs from Ben Murphy, interval replacement Cathal Forde and winger Treacy, they were unable to increase their lead during the third quarter. But the pressure eventually told and with penalty advantage after a lineout in the right corner Shamus Hurley-Langton found a gap to barge through and score, with Hanrahan adding the conversion to make it 19-7 after 62 minutes. However, a yellow card to replacement scrum-half Matthew Devine for an offside infringement as Zebre went end to end through winger Simone Gesi and Stavile, was followed by a try from full-back Jacopo Trulla in the right corner with ten minutes remaining. That ensured a nervous finish for Connacht but a penalty from Hanrahan, awarded the man of the match in his final game for Connacht before returning to Munster, two minutes from time ensured Connacht go into the summer on a winning note. Scorers for Zebre: Tries: B Stavile, J Trulla. Con: G Montemauri (1 from 2) Scorers for Connacht: Tries: C Prendergast, S Bolton, S Hurley-Langton. Cons: JJ Hanrahan (2 from 3). Pen: Hanrahan (1 from 1) Zebre: Jacopo Trulla; Scott Gregory (Gonzalo Garcia 57), Fetuli Paea, Damiano Mazza (Enrico Lucchin 61), Simone Gesi; Giovanni Montemauri (Luca Morisi 76), Alessandro Fusco; Danilo Fischetti (c) (Paolo Buonfiglio 65), Luca Bigi (Tommaso Di Bartolomeo 48), Muhamed Hasa (Juan Pitinari 54); Matteo Canali (Guido Volpi 67), Leonard Krumov; Davide Ruggeri (Giacomo Ferrari 60), Bautista Stavile, Giovanni Licata. Connacht: Santiago Cordero; Shayne Bolton, David Hawkshaw (Cathal Forde half-time), Bundee Aki, Finn Treacy (Piers O'Conor 61); JJ Hanrahan, Ben Murphy (Matthew Devine 64); Denis Buckley (Jordan Duggan 61), Dave Heffernan, Finlay Bealham (Jack Aungier 50); Josh Murphy, Joe Joyce (Darragh Murray 42); Cian Prendergast (c), Shamus Hurley-Langton, Paul Boyle (Sean Jansen 51). Ref: Hollie Davidson (Scotland).
Irish Examiner
17-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Connacht end six game losing run with hard fought win over Zebre
URC: Zebre 12 Connacht 22 Connacht have a lot of work to do during the summer off the field to get their house in order but at least they will head into the off-season on the back of a badly needed win after carving out victory in Parma. It was their first win in six URC games sees them finish 13th in the table, nine points off the qualification places with just six wins from 18 league games. Connacht, having enjoyed 65% possession, led 12-7 at the break but should have been much further ahead after dominating large parts of the opening half at Stadio Lanfranchi. It was obvious from the outside that while this was a dead rubber Connacht were fired-up to make an impression with skipper Cian Prendergast leading the charge. It was appropriate then that it was the Kildare native who finally broke the deadlock after 17 minutes when he bumped through one tackle, slipped through another and fended off a try effort down the left to score after good work by David Hawkshaw and Finn Treacy. JJ Hanrahan added the extra points from the wing and with Connacht enjoying dominance in the scrum where Finlay Bealham was superb, they pushed forward from there. A penalty advantage from a scrum gave them the platform for their second try and quick hands from Hanrahan after scrum-half Ben Murphy went wide close to the lines sent Shayne Bolton over in the right corner after 29 minutes to make it 12-0. But Zebre got a foothold. Out-half Giovanni Montemauri hit the left post with a penalty from 35 metres two minutes later, but they began to build the phases and work their way into the game. And they struck two minutes from the break, working the ball from deep before Argentine flanker Bautista Stavile finished in the right corner despite the best efforts of Treacy to prevent him grounding the ball. Montemauri landed a superb conversion from the touchline to leave five between them at the interval. Connacht got on top again after the restart but despite some good probing runs from Ben Murphy, interval replacement Cathal Forde and winger Treacy, they were unable to increase their lead during the third quarter. But the pressure eventually told and with penalty advantage after a lineout in the right corner Shamus Hurley-Langton found a gap to barge through and score, with Hanrahan adding the conversion to make it 19-7 after 62 minutes. However, a yellow card to replacement scrum-half Matthew Devine for an offside infringement as Zebre went end to end through winger Simone Gesi and Stavile, was followed by a try from full-back Jacopo Trulla in the right corner with ten minutes remaining. That ensured a nervous finish for Connacht but a penalty from Hanrahan, awarded the man of the match in his final game for Connacht before returning to Munster, two minutes from time ensured Connacht go into the summer on a winning note. ZEBRE: J Trulla; S Gregory (G Garcia 57), F Paea, D Mazza (E Lucchin 61), S Gesi; G Montemauri (L Morisi 76), A Fusco; D Fischetti (c) (P Buonfiglio 65), L Bigi (T Di Bartolomeo 48), M Hasa (J Pitinari 54); M Canali (G Volpi 67), L Krumov; D Ruggeri (G Ferrari 60), B Stavile, G Licata. CONNACHT: S Cordero; S Bolton, D Hawkshaw (C Forde half-time), B Aki, F Treacy (P O'Conor 61); JJ Hanrahan, B Murphy (M Devine 64); D Buckley (J Duggan 61), D Heffernan, F Bealham (J Aungier 50); J Murphy, J Joyce (D Murray 42); C Prendergast (c), S Hurley-Langton, P Boyle (S Jansen 51). Referee: Hollie Davidson (Scotland).
RTÉ News
17-05-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Connacht finish above Ulster after win v Zebre
Connacht have finished 13th in the BKT United Rugby Championship, ending their season with a 22-12 win away to Zebre in Parma. The province, still under interim head coach Cullie Tucker, halted their five-game losing run in the league, which sees them climb above Ulster in the end of season rankings. Tries for Cian Prendergast, Shayne Bolton and Shamus Hurley Langton, as well as seven points from the boot of departing out-half JJ Hanrahan were enough for them to get by the Italian side in a poor game in Parma. Connacht took the lead through Prendergast on 17 minutes, with the captain scoring a wonderful individual try from 40 metres out. Receiving an offload on the run from Bolton out on the left touchline, the flanker bounced through the tackle of full-back Jacopo Trulla, before fending off two more efforts to touch down and score, as Hanrahan converted to make it 7-0. The province were dominant at the scrum in the opening half, and that gave them the platform to extent their lead on 27 minutes. Kicking into the 22 following a penalty at the setpiece, Connacht's maul was stopped just short, but playing with penalty advantage they quickly moved the ball wide, where Hanrahan found Bolton in the right corner to score. Hanrahan's conversion pulled left and wide, leaving it 12-0, and shortly after Zebre had the chance to reduce that gap, but Giovannni Montemauri's penalty from 30 metres out clipped the post and went wide. The home side got back into the game just before half time when Bautista Stavile just managed to ground the ball in the right corner despite the best efforts of David Hawkshaw, although the try was made by Trulla's wonderful chip and chase kick in midfield, which set up the devastating counterattack. Montemauri converted the try, cutting the gap to 12-7 at the break. After a sloppy third quarter from both sides, Connacht reestablished their two-score lead when Hurley Langton drove his way over the line on 59 minutes, with some excellent work off the bench by Sean Jansen getting the province in a position to score. Hanrahan converted to make it 19-7, but rather than kick on and claim a bonus-point Connacht continued to be frustrated in attack, as Zebre looked threatening off turnover ball. With 11 minutes to go, some great work down the left wing from Stavile and Simone Gesi almost resulted in a Zebre try, and although Piers O'Conor recovered to make the tackle, Matthew Devine was yellow-carded for a cynical act at the ruck. From the resulting penalty Zebre got in for a quick score when they worked thee ball wide to Trulla for a try, but the missed conversion left it at 19-12 heading down the stretch. And Connacht saw out the final 10 minutes well in Devine's absence, with a Hanrahan penalty three minutes from the end sealing the win, ending a disappointing season on a minor high.
Gizmodo
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
Things Go from Bad to Worse for Ellie on The Last of Us
Seattle. Day two. And things are about to get very, very bad. The fifth episode of The Last of Us season two continued Ellie and Dina's journey through Seattle, on the hunt for Abby, the woman who killed Joel. And they finally have a lead. One of Abby's friends is in a nearby hospital. They just have to get through a city overrun by a raging war between a major military presence in the WLF and a dangerous religious group, called the Serephites or Scars. Both of them would get their shot at Ellie this week but, ultimately, it would be Ellie giving the shots in one of the best scenes in Last of Us history so far. Before the story could shift to Ellie, though, The Last of Us once again started with the WLF. Soldiers awkwardly stand around a hospital as Hanrahan, established as one of the leaders in the previous episode, sits down with Sgt. Park, the woman tasked with clearing the hospital. Park looks absolutely drained and defeated as she explains that things were going well until her soldiers started to clean the basement. In the basement, specifically on level B2, a group led by someone named Leon began to encounter the deadly vegetation all over the walls. Five minutes later, Leon told Sgt. Park that the disease was in the air, and to seal them in. Which they did. Hanrahan tells Park she dealt with the situation 'heroically and permanently,' before adding, 'I'm sorry about your son.' Yes, the aforementioned Leon was Sgt. Park's son, and he knew he had to have his mom sacrifice him for the greater good of his friends. It's a scene that, once again, ever so slightly, humanizes the WLF even though they are being set up as the bad guys in Ellie's quest to find Abby. A quest that is being aided greatly but the fact that the WLF are speaking so freely on the walkie-talkie she and Dina stole the previous night. Dina is using it to figure out when and how to sneak through the city undetected, but fully aware that the brazen, open communications of the WLF show they are not scared in the slightest of their enemy, the Scars, hearing them. Once Dina charts the path, she and Ellie head out. Their goal is to find the hospital where they believe they'll find Nora, one of Abby's friends who was in Jackson when they killed Joel. Along the way, Dina reminds Ellie she never asked her about the first person she killed and we're hit with the gut-wrenching Dina origin story. As a young child, she watched as a raider killed her mom and sister and was forced to kill him in retaliation. The revelation pulls the curtain back a bit on Dina's love of Ellie. She, too, understands what it's like to watch a loved one be killed. She understands that need for vengeance and it's why they are so good together. Part of Dina's plan to get to the hospital is to sneak through a large abandoned building that the WLF is ignoring for some reason. They know there are infected in there but also agree to not use their guns to avoid attracting any WLF soldiers. That goes well for about two minutes until they realize the building is crawling, literally, with smart infected, much like Ellie encountered back in Jackson. Ellie knows there was only one of them that time, and she didn't get out unscathed then. Now, up against at least half a dozen of them, she doesn't like their chances. The 'no guns' thing goes immediately out the window as Ellie tries to draw the infected's attention away from the much more at-risk Dina. It works for a second, but these infected are fast, strong, and about 10 seconds from killing both girls when other shots ring out. Out of nowhere, it's Jesse, who saves the girls and makes a break for it as the WLF takes chase. Jesse, Dina, and Ellie make it into a park where the WLF stop, refusing to go in. That's a bad sign. We learn that Jesse and Tommy followed Ellie and Dina to Seattle (without permission) a day after they left, and figured out where they would be thanks to Dina's map back at the theater. Unfortunately, they don't get too much more info because the whistling starts. Again, that's not good. This park is Scar territory, and something is going down. The trio watch as the Scars tie up a member of the WLF and gut him as he promises he has no information about Isaac's plans. As they watch in shock, an arrow comes out of the darkness and pierces Dina through the leg. Jesse grabs her and runs while Ellie heads her own way, narrowly escaping the Scars again. (By the way, if ever you needed a reminder that The Last of Us is based on a video game, it was this episode where the characters run into something bad, fight it, get chased, then escape over and over again.) Ellie then sees something in the distance. It's the hospital she and Dina were looking for, and despite her friends going home without her, she decides to venture forward. In what seems like nanoseconds (at least way too fast for us not to at least mention), Ellie finds Nora in the hospital. Nora can't believe what she's seeing and tells Ellie about how much Joel's death impacted her. Which is a lie. She then says that 'the bitch got what he deserved' as she throws chemicals at Ellie and makes a run for it. Here's where things got really good, though. Ellie chases Nora through the hospital, avoiding all sorts of WLF gunfire along the way. But, because of the locked basement we heard about at the beginning of the episode, Nora is trapped. She jumps into the elevator shaft and quickly finds herself on B2. Ellie follows, seeing not just the deadly flora all around, but specks of something in the air. Leon Park, who we see still half alive, was right. The disease is in the air and Nora is infected. Ellie finds her at the end of a hall, and Nora laughs. She thinks they're both dead. 'You stupid bitch,' Nora says. 'We're breathing spores. We're infected. You killed us both.' 'Did I?' a scarily confident Ellie replies. Then Nora realizes who Ellie is. She's the immune girl they heard rumors about. The immune girl who was going to save everyone at the hospital Joel attacked. And, in this moment, she tells Ellie what Joel did. That Joel killed everyone in the hospital, including the only person in the world who could've made a cure. And that person was Abby's dad. 'I know,' Ellie coldly replies. It's a shocking moment because, up until this point, we assumed Ellie didn't know what Joel did. His actions and subsequent lie are a cloud that's been lingering over the show and their relationship since the end of last season. But we can see it in Ellie's eyes. She did know. And, somehow, she's okay with it. She continues to press Nora for Abby's location, but Nora won't budge. So, Ellie grabs a pipe and begins smashing her with it, committing a type of torture we didn't know she was capable of The moment of pure hatred in Ellie is quickly cut off, and she's in bed back in Jackson. She wakes up and Joel is there. What the heck could that mean? What it means is that Ellie torturing Nora is us seeing her at her very worst. Though the fifth episode of The Last of Us season two was a little repetitive, it was worth it for that incredible moment of revelation and tension at the end as Ellie finally came face to face with one of Joel's killers. But not the one she's looking for. Not yet.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Yes, That's Josh Peck in ‘The Last of Us.' Here's How He Landed That FEDRA Role and ‘Jizzboy' Speech
SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from 'Day One,' Season 2, Episode 4 of 'The Last of Us,' now streaming on Max. There was an unexpected 'Drake & Josh' and 'The Last of Us' crossover on Sunday night. More from Variety Josh Peck, the Nickelodeon icon who also stole scenes as a Manhattan Project scientist in 'Oppenheimer,' popped up at the beginning of HBO's newest episode of 'The Last of Us.' He delivered a memorable monologue as Janowitz, a Federal Disaster Response Agency soldier who bonded with his brothers-in-arms by telling them an expletive-ridden story about detaining 'voters' — the ironic FEDRA nickname for Quarantine Zone residents who've had their rights stripped away. In a departure from 'The Last of Us Part II' video game, the show flashes back to 2018, as soldiers in the Seattle Quarantine Zone are riding in the back of a cramped van to a mission. Janowitz entertains his buddies by telling them about the time he stopped three voters who were disseminating religious pamphlets. He recalls getting backup from Greenberg, a particularly violent FEDRA soldier who apparently confused 'disseminating' for 'jerking off and splooging in the streets.' Janowitz says that when one of the detainees corrected Greenberg, the officer slammed his head into the wall and yelled 'Nobody asked you, jizzboy!' The story gets raucous laughter from his comrades, except for one person: Jeffrey Wright's stern, humorless Isaac Dixon. 'The Last of Us Part II' gamers know that Isaac is the leader of the Washington Liberation Front who helped take control of the region from FEDRA, but little is known about his past. It turns out in the show, Isaac is a FEDRA sergeant who betrays his own men to help the local rebels, who are led by Alanna Ubach's character, Hanrahan. After their van is stopped by a blockade led by Hanrahan, Isaac gets out, greets Hanrahan then promptly throws a grenade into his vehicle full of surprised troops, locking the door behind him. Hanrahan shakes Isaac's hand and says, 'Welcome to the fight.' Isaac's explosive moment is underscored by Peck's lighthearted speech that opens the episode, but, as fans know, 'The Last of Us' is accustomed to shocking twists. Speaking with Variety, Peck explains how he landed his role and how he humanized his 'despicable' character. Before you auditioned, were you a fan of the video game or Season 1 of the show? To be honest, I'm kind of a wimp. So when the show first came out, knowing how big the video game is, I didn't watch it at first. Then when I got the audition, I'm like, 'Let me make sure I understand.' Obviously I knew that people were obsessed with the show and how huge it was, but I really wanted to make sure that I was matching the tone for the audition. So I watched the first episode, and eight hours later I had watched them all. It grabbed me immediately. It was just an audition that came in and, like most great writing, when I read the scene, I was like, 'I think I know how to do this.' I sent it out into the universe and hoped, but sort of didn't expect to hear anything back because I don't usually get things as good as this. So when I heard back, I was so excited. What drew you in and made you want to binge the show? Like most people, Episode 3 was one of the most beautiful love stories I've ever seen. I have to give so much credit to what feels like a perfectly cast show. You think about the great shows of our generation, and most of them have been on HBO, like 'The Sopranos' or even a show like 'Breaking Bad,' and there isn't a single character on that show that could have been played by anyone else. That's how I feel with 'The Last of Us.' I immediately fell in love with every character I was supposed to fall in love with, and I hated everyone I was supposed to hate. How does it feel to be on one of those generational HBO shows now? I haven't seen it, so I gotta take your word for it. Is it good? It's great. Your scene kicks off the episode, and right away I was like, 'Wait, that's Josh Peck.' Amazing. I'll be enjoying it when everyone else sees it on Sunday. I feel very, very lucky to have been involved and to have been able to work with someone like Craig Mazin, who I've been a fan of for a long time. I don't think it's a coincidence that anything I've done that's been at a higher level, be it something like 'Oppenheimer' or this or when I've gotten the chance to work with great actors, it feels refreshingly easy because everything has been worked out. There are no holes in the script. Everyone is at the top of their game, and you feel excited to be a part of that team. You have all these hilarious lines, like 'jizzboy' and 'splooging,' in this world that's normally very dark. What did that tell you about your character? War can make people say and do things that they never thought they were capable of doing. It's important that you have empathy for your characters, even when they are despicable, because otherwise I don't really know how to humanize them. What gave me a great insight into this guy was I had to personalize the story in a way. Obviously, nothing in my life could ever match up to something this extreme and horrible, thankfully, but I could relate it to just telling my friends one of my favorite stories that still cracks me up. That was my entry point into how to personalize this thing, and strip it from the extreme nature of it and just do what this guy is doing. He's talking to his co-workers, his friends and telling a story that happens to be pretty terrible. Another good entry point is when he confronted by his superior, the great Jeffrey Wright, he's hurt. He's like, 'Hey, man, this is my go-to story. Aren't we all on the same page here?' There were entry points in ways in which I could humanize it, even though what he's talking about is beyond my understanding. How did you find something to relate with him? I tried to connect the story to a story in my real life that I've told before that's totally benign and maybe would only make me laugh. He's kind of talking about that he wanted to save the guys, in some respect, that were getting bullied. Like, he was almost upset or he was just throwing his hand up that this one guy who continued to talk, knowing that they had this insane fellow soldier that was going to make that person pay. It was finding these subtle, humanizing points so that I don't look at this kid like a total monster. He's like a consiglieri. He seemed to me like a mouthpiece. He was good at following orders and whatnot. But did I ever think that he would attain the the ranks of an Isaac? I'm not sure. What do you think stuck out about your audition that landed you the role? This is very actor-y inside baseball, but so much of what you get fed as an actor of my level, where you're probably auditioning to play a supporting character, there's not always a lot there to do. So the truth is, I've been bummed out before if I didn't get a part, and my acting teacher looked at me and said, 'Josh, this isn't Hamlet.' With certain things you audition for, like some silly procedural or whatever, she'll be like, 'There's probably 20 guys who could play this part.' So then it comes down to flavor and a look. When you get great writing and a monologue like this, you get excited as an actor, because you go there's a lot for me to do here. I get to make a lot of choices. I get to bring myself and do the work that's required. Those are the auditions you feel the best about because you left everything on the table. With 'The Last of Us,' the writing was so good that I immediately had a very specific take and choice about who this guy was. Where did you shoot the scene? How many days of filming did you do? We shot on the streets of Vancouver, and then we shot on a sound stage. It was two days. I remember putting on the helmet, it was like we had just enough headroom in the vehicle that we were in. I was refreshed because if we had been more cramped it would have been tougher, but we had just the right amount of room to deliver what we needed to. The first day was all of the exterior on the street and shooting into the vehicle. Then we shot all stage the next day. What's great about a show like this is you're afforded the time and the resources. They built the van so they could remove the walls and get every angle that we needed. Finally, do you have a Greenberg in your life that you pictures when you were talking about him? Oh, yeah, I have a Greenberg in my life, and he knows who he is. You don't know him. He's a civilian, I don't wanna give his name. He's a wild, wild person. This interview has been edited and condensed. Best of Variety Sign up for Variety's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
