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The Irish Sun
04-07-2025
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
Craig Casey shares hilarious ‘fear' weighing on him before captaining Ireland for first time vs Georgia
CRAIG Casey will captain Ireland for their summer Tests against Georgia and Portugal. Interim boss Advertisement 2 The Shannon man has amassed 18 Ireland caps but this will be his first as captain 2 Casey won't be hoping for a repeat of when he captained Ireland A team against the All Black XV Since Andy Farrell selected Captain Doris was unavailable with a shoulder injury and With other seasoned internationals such as James Ryan and When speaking to Virgin Media he spoke about what it means to him to be given the Ireland captaincy for the summer Test matches. Advertisement Read more on Irish sport He said: "It was brilliant. It's probably not something you dream about when you are younger. Captaining Ireland is probably something that is way out of my league of what I thought I could do when I was younger. "When you see the calibre of players that have never captained their country I think it is very special for me. The former Ardscoil Rís captain was asked what will be going through his head as he leads his Ireland teammates out onto the pitch to face Georgia and his response was an unexpected one. He answered "Firstly I hope the mascot isn't taller than me like the (Ireland) A game." Advertisement Most read in Rugby Union The Limerick native's first taste of international captaincy came when the Ireland A team faced the All Black XV in the RDS Arena in 2022. An image of him leading the team out went viral as the mascot was taller than the Ireland A captain. Andy Farrell wants end to social media 'nonsense' after son Owen's Lions call The 5,5 star will be hoping for a different result in Tbilisi as they ran out 47-19 losers and he is also hoping for a shorter mascot. Casey added: "I'll be massively proud, it's going to be a huge occasion obviously for my family and all the people that have put a lot of time into me. Advertisement "It will be a huge honour to lead out my country for the first time and I'll be hoping to put my best foot forward."
BBC News
04-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Ireland's uncapped 13 - Tommy O'Brien
With 16 players on British and Irish Lions duty this summer, interim Ireland head coach Paul O'Connell's 33-man squad for this summer's matches against Georgia and Portugal features 13 uncapped players. BBC Sport NI takes a closer look at those hoping to feature in green for the first time. Back Tommy O'Brien made his debut for Leinster in 2019 but injury setbacks have prevented him furthering his career and international prospects at a faster 27-year-old seasoned provincial player has put in impressive displays in the latter end of the 2024-25 campaign, his rich vein of form including a player-of-the match performance against Irish interprovincial rivals Ulster in scored a spectacular try in that game, also crossing while shining against Glasgow and Northampton in the knockout stages of the Champions Cup to make it try-scoring performances in three successive games.O'Brien can play on the wing or at centre and represented Ireland Under-20s between 2017 and 2018, captaining the side in also played for Ireland A in their game against their English counterparts in Bristol in February.O'Brien has yet to be capped at senior level despite previous experience training with the panel.
The 42
02-07-2025
- Sport
- The 42
'He's learning and improving all the time, that's why he's back in this environment'
HE'S BEEN ONE of Munster's most important players for years, but when it comes to international rugby, Gavin Coombes has often found himself on the outside looking in. The 27-year-old has clocked up 120 appearances for his province but has been capped just twice at Test level, coming off the bench in a July 2021 meeting with Japan before starting against the USA a week later. Over the past 12 months he's kept his head in the door with Ireland, but has been left frustrated when it's come to selection. Coombes was named in the Ireland A squad ahead of their February meeting with an England A team, but missed the game after being called into Andy Farrell's senior squad ahead of the Six Nations meeting with Wales. He left that international window having played no minutes for either side. However the backrower looks set to get back into a green jersey over the coming fortnight, with Ireland hoping to give gametime to all of their 33-strong squad on the upcoming tour of Georgia and Portugal, which kicks-off in Tbilisi this Saturday [KO 6pm Irish time, Virgin Media]. 'Gavin, he's turned up, he's looking fit, he's looking hungry the last few days,' says Denis Leamy, Ireland's defence coach for the two-game tour. Coombes won his two Ireland caps in July 2021. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO 'I think he's deployed himself really well, he's been really good in training. Gavin has been in and out of Irish squads over the last couple of years. The times he's been left out, he's understood the reasons why and (they) have been very fair. Gavin has gone away and worked hard on those parts of the games. 'He's back in now, he has that chance now on Saturday, hopefully, if selected, that he can go and apply that and put his best foot forward. He's a guy that over the last couple of years has been very good for Munster.' Leamy, who coaches Coombes at Munster, feels the Cork man has points of difference he can offer in the squad. 'I think he's hugely strong around opposition 22. His ability to make yards, score tries, he's one of the best around at that and his general play is improving all the time. Advertisement 'He's worked great between 22 and 22. His ability to make yards in open play, his ability to clock up big numbers in his tackles, his rucks and the fundamentals around his basic play, around number eight (working) at the base (of the scrum). He's learning and improving that all the time, that's why he's back in this environment.' With many of the Ireland coaches away on the Lions tour with Andy Farrell, Leamy is enjoying the opportunity to join O'Connell's set up as defence coach. 'It's brilliant to come in and just get different perspectives on how the different provinces are playing the game. Everyone's playing the game relatively similar, but there's little tweaks here and there and everyone sees the game slightly different. Ireland assistant coach Denis Leamy. Leah Scholes / INPHO Leah Scholes / INPHO / INPHO 'A lot of the boys I've worked with either at Leinster or at Irish U20s level, so I know the vast majority of them. It's lovely to see them develop as players, how they've grown into men and how they've developed their own perspective on the game, their own opinions. It's excellent to be back in around them. 'We just find when it's a national set-up, the unity straight away, they all mix. My generation, there was huge rivalry and I think there is still rivalry but it took us a few weeks for the frostiness to wear off. The boys just seem to get on so well. They're straight in, they're best mates, they're constantly over and back on WhatsApp and all the different platforms. It's better than when I was a player. They've grown up a little bit from when we were there.' Leamy expects to see this Irish group get tested in a variety of ways against Georgia. 'I think it's very clear that they're well put together off their launch players, their scrums, their lineouts. They have really good three phase, four phase plays and they run them really well. Their big threat is Davit Niniashvili [fullback/out-half]. 'He's obviously an excellent player, but they're very well put together at 10 by Tedo Abzhandadze. He runs the thing very well. They have the ability to play around you. They have the ability to take you on confrontationally, and they're a very, very well coached team. You can see that they're top level rugby players and they're well used to playing in a big league like France. 'You'd imagine that Georgia would have loads of reasons to be inspired to play a huge game against us on Saturday,' he added. 'We're expecting a really tough, tough game. We're expecting opponents that are really well put together by their coaches… Richard Cockerill, you have Conor McPhillips who's worked in the Irish system and who's been with Bristol as well. He's a really experienced attack coach, so you can see in their game that they're well put together. They're physical. They've got a great platform around their scrum, their maul, their lineout. It is a big test. We're out of our comfort zone and it's exactly the sort of test that we're looking forward to.'
Irish Daily Mirror
27-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Hopes high at Munster's Tom Ahern will travel and get his Ireland cap
Tom Ahern is hoping to lay the jinx that has followed his fledgling Ireland career around the Waterford-born second/back-row is 25 years-of-age now, made his Munster debut against Dragons in 2020 and was almost ever-present for the rest of the season, playing 19 times all told, 10 of them as wasn't a Munster fan across six counties doubting he was a chip off the right red block and the view was Andy Farrell-endorsed as was called into Ireland panel on a trainee-invite in November continued as he was with Emerging Ireland in South Africa in September/October 2022 and, unusually, was involved in all three games leading to him being selected for the Ireland A squad that a shoulder injury intervened and,chosen again for the Ireland A to play England earlier this year injury intervened having been selected for the Ireland tour to Georgia and Portugal this summer he is on tenterhooks as a tightening hamstring is threatening his participation, so much so the IRFU called in Connacht's Josh Murphy as cover - just in case."I've been unlucky with a couple of injuries, it's happened a couple of times now and obviously initially you're very disappointed but that's the nature of the game to be fair," he says."I was buzzing when I got called up to the Six Nations again this year even though it was just a week, I was delighted to be up here, just working with the class coaches, class players ."It definitely gave me a bit of confidence to push on the rest of the season and hopefully end up back here."You've got to pick yourself back up. I've got a good support system around me and I'm going to move past that eventually and focus on the next job and try to eventually get back up here again.''I'm just taking these next couple of weeks in my stride and overall just delighted to be up here.'To have been chosen for Ireland was a post-season boost following a trying time at Munster in both the Champions Cup where they lost an away quarter to Bordeaux and the URC where they lost in a quarter-final penalty shoot at Sharks.'It obviously didn't end the way that we wanted it. It's a tough way to go out but we were playing good rugby towards the end of the season and a lot of the lads that are up here were playing good ball as well.'So, we can take the confidence from everybody individually playing well and so hopefully we can bring it up here now.'There were also some eyebrows raised initially as the club coaching staff began to ease him from second-row to the far more dynamic back-row slot.'Definitely got a lot more comfortable there, I've had good lads in Munster, the likes of Pete (O'Mahony), who's very helpful towards my game, when I was playing no6. "I've Denis Leamy who is very helpful to me as well so definitely a lot more comfortable there this season. It's whichever for me, I'm happy to do either."I suppose down in Munster it's a bit different to up here, I think up here everybody in the pack is in the middle of the field working together, while back in Munster it's usually the two back-rows that are holding the edges a bit more."So you're playing out wide a bit more and it's really different down in Munster. Up here it's kind of similar enough playing second-row or back row.'An interesting observation given his non-rugby background."Nobody played rugby in my family, it was all GAA, a big GAA family. I played hurling football with my local club, Ardmore, until I was about 16 and then once I kind of got into the East Munster set-up."It was just I'd gone to a rugby summer camp in the town where my mum's from and got a love for it there and just kept playing all the way up through, down in Youghal, down in Dungarvan, down in Waterpark. "That's kind of my underage background before I moved up to Limerick and into the Academy and played for Shannon then as mentioned that Ireland A and Ireland senior cap has been within reach but that does mean hasn't played against top international opposition - there was the Munster-All Blacks game in October 2024, quite the close run thing."What they definitely brought that day was a lot of physicality and it kind of initially caught us off guard and we didn't perform how we wanted on that day but I'd say the big takeaway was the physicality aspect."They were quality players we played that day and we had the front up and like I said the physicality aspect and the speed of ball was a serious pace as well."I'd imagine they'd (Georgia/Portugal) be similar enough now in the next couple of games. Both those teams work off massive physicality, it would be an increase in tempo from the club game." IRELAND SUMMER TOUR SCHEDULESaturday, 5th July: Georgia v Ireland, Mikheil Meskhi Stadium, Tbilisi (kick off 9pm local time, 6pm Irish time);Saturday, 12th July: Portugal v Ireland, Estádio Nacional do Jamor, Lisbon (kick off 7pm local, same Irish time)Ireland Men's Squad – Summer Tour 2025, departing for Tbilisi on Wednesday, 2nd (14): Shayne Bolton (Connacht)*, Craig Casey (Shannon/Munster)(captain)(18), Jack Crowley (Cork Constitution/Munster)(24), Nathan Doak (Banbridge/Ulster)*, Ciaran Frawley (UCD/Leinster)(8), Hugh Gavin (Galwegians/Connacht)*, Stuart McCloskey (Bangor/Ulster)(19), Ben Murphy (Clontarf/Connacht)*, Calvin Nash (Young Munster/Munster)(10), Jimmy O'Brien (Naas/Leinster)(8), Tommy O'Brien (UCD/Leinster)*, Jamie Osborne (Naas/Leinster)(7), Sam Prendergast (Lansdowne/Leinster)(8), Jacob Stockdale (Lurgan/Ulster)(38)Forwards (18): Tom Ahern (Shannon/Munster)*, Jack Aungier (Lansdowne/Connacht)*, Ryan Baird (Dublin University/Leinster)(27), Jack Boyle (UCD/Leinster)(2), Thomas Clarkson (Dublin University/Leinster)(6), Gavin Coombes (Young Munster/Munster)(2), Max Deegan (Lansdowne/Leinster)(2), Cormac Izuchukwu (Ballynahinch/Ulster)(1), Alex Kendellen (UCC/Munster)*, Gus McCarthy (UCD/Leinster)(4), Paddy McCarthy (Dublin University/Leinster)*, Michael Milne (UCD/Munster)*, Darragh Murray (Buccaneers/Connacht)*, Tom O'Toole (Ballynahinch/Ulster)(16), Cian Prendergast (UCD/Connacht)(4), Stephen Smyth (Old Wesley/Leinster)*, Tom Stewart (Ballynahinch/Ulster)(2), Nick Timoney (Banbridge/Ulster)(3)
RTÉ News
27-06-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Tommy O'Brien: 'I don't want to be a one-cap wonder'
All things going to plan, Tommy O'Brien should become a full Ireland international in the next two weeks. It's been a long time coming for the 27-year-old. The fact that it's taken the Blackrock man so long to nail down his place in Leinster's starting XV has been more down to his injury record than any lack of will or ability. Just over six months ago, he made what would have been a bold statement when he said he believed he just needed a run of games to prove to the Irish coaches he was ready to make the step up to Test rugby. He's backed up that talk. At the time, he was priming himself for a return from a hamstring injury which sidelined him for three months. He cruelly picked up the injury in the process of scoring a try in Leinster's opening game of the BKT United Rugby Championship away to Edinburgh, and it was one that ruled him out of the Emerging Ireland tour of South Africa. The Irish coaches showed faith in him by giving him a chance to impress for Ireland A against England A towards the end of February and he impressed enough to be brought into the wider senior squad later in the Guinness Six Nations. His form since then has been as good as any winger in Ireland, starting nine of Leinster's final 13 games of the season, scoring three tries and establishing himself as first choice on the right wing for the province, with a highlight reel of moments in both attack and defence. "I've loved my rugby the last few months," the wing said this week, ahead of Ireland's summer Tests in Tbilisi and Lisbon. "I love just getting a run of games. It's something I haven't really had in my career, getting an extended period of games, and thankfully that tied in with the [URC] trophy. "I guess I've known what I can do in training, but it's obviously behind closed doors so the general public wouldn't see it, but I had a bit of confidence in what I was doing, and the fact you're training in Leinster with such high level players, such international quality players, I took a bit of confidence from that and I felt I just needed to get a chance to get a couple of games under my belt." Despite missing three months with that hamstring injury, the 12 games he played for Leinster this season are the most he's ever logged in a season, with his injury history limiting him to just 31 games in the previous five campaign. If there is a silver lining to O'Brien's (below) injury this season, it's that he's coming into the summer feeling fresh rather than fatigued. "It probably is something that potentially stood to me. I think I played 13 or 14 games this year where some guys would be in the 20s. "It's not something I'd trade, I would rather play the 20-something games, but it's almost as if my season started in February or whenever I started playing games. So I'm enjoying that now and the body's feeling good. "Injuries-wise I guess it was weird, I always would have been able to come back and have full faith - it's probably a credit to all the physios - but I never really felt coming back that I was running at 80% or 75% or whatever. "Once I was back, I felt like I had full confidence in myself to be able to do whatever I felt like I needed to do." Now that he's in the Ireland squad, he's planning to stay there. With 16 Ireland regulars currently away on the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia, this summer's squad has an inexperienced feel to it, and O'Brien is one of 12 uncapped players in the squad of 32, which will be captained by Craig Casey and coached by Paul O'Connell. And having got a taste of international rugby for Ireland A in February (below), he believes he's ready for the real thing, either on the wing or at centre. "I definitely don't want to be a one-cap wonder. Hopefully this is the start for me now of being in this squad and pushing for places. "Obviously, there's guys away, Lowey [James Lowe] and Mack [Hansen] are away with the Lions, so there's two wingers there for Ireland, but I want to try stake a claim and make myself a mainstay in this squad and try to push [for a place in future squads]. "Obviously there's this summer tour and then you've November internationals and Six Nations and stuff. "I'm dying to play a game for Ireland, so wherever they play me, I'll happily play. "I think I probably have been viewed more as a winger at the moment, but if it's wing, if it's centre, if it's the 23 role, yeah, I'm happy to play wherever. "It's what you dream of as a kid, getting to represent your country. There's 12 of us in here who haven't done it yet, so fingers crossed now as many of them can get that first cap."
