Latest news with #RTÉRugby
RTÉ News
6 days ago
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Bernard Jackman conflicted about Rugby World Club Cup
Bernard Jackman says he has conflicted feelings over the new Rugby World Club Cup, which is set to take place in for the first time 2028. Last week, EPCR confirmed that the respective leagues and unions had voted in favour of the tournament, which will take place once every four years. To accommodate the summer tournament, there will be no Champions Cup quarter-finals, semi-finals or final in the year of each World Club Cup. Instead, the eight 'quarter-finalists' will advance to the World Club Cup, with the rest of the 16-team competition drawn from Super Rugby and Japan. It will mean that once every four years there will be no official Champions Cup final, something Jackman believes is dangerous for the furturre of an already struggling competition. "I actually think it devalues the Champions Cup, because you're not going to have a winner every four years. It's a different competition," he said on the RTÉ Rugby podcast. The current format of the Champions Cup has been much maligned since it was introduced in 2020, with the current pool format eliminating just eight of the 24 teams involved. And Jackman believes the EPCR may be better off putting their efforts into restoring the Champions Cup to its former glory, before looking to expand it globally. "I think the best solution is to try and focus on how you can actually get the Champions Cup back to having more games that are ultra important. "The knockout stage of the Champions Cup, we've seen some brilliant rugby but in the group stages it's been too lenient. You're not getting that jeopardy, that must-win mindset that I think we all loved about the old format. "I would have been happy with the winners of the Champions Cup playing the winners of Super Rugby in a one-off game, or over two legs. For me that would have been a fitting World Cup." The former Ireland international conceded that he sees the logic behind the tournament, which will pit the best of the Top14, Premiership and URC against some of New Zealand and Australia's biggest clubs. And while he has reservations around how it will eventually look, he recognises how the game's current financial situation may have dictated the decision. "I also have to say the game is struggling to bring new fans, to bring revenue, so I don't want to be too critical of people who are trying to do something different. But my gut on this is that we had a very good competition and the tinkering with it has devalued it to a certain extent, and that's where the issue is. "It's going to be nice to see a Munster or an Ulster or Leinster play the Chiefs. I am interested in that. "Then you're going to have the issue of how many of those teams or how many of the Champions Cup teams will believe they can win it, and if it's a competition worth winning and are we going to see half-arsed games. "That's also a worry for me at the moment, without that absolute clarity around what the value of winning it or getting to the final. "Will it make the group stage for the European Cup that year even more farcical, where teams don't want to go and play an away leg in Australia? "They're the questions in my mind, and until I see exact details around what that looks like, post qualification for that, I'm going to hold my opinion."
RTÉ News
07-05-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
RTÉ Rugby podcast: The Leinster fallout, Lions ramifications and Munster v Ulster
Neil Treacy is joined by Bernard Jackman and Johne Murphy on this week's RTÉ Rugby podcast to look back on Leinster's shock Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Northampton Saints. We look back on how the Saints brilliantly broke down Leinster's previously watertight defence, and discuss some of the big decisions Leinster made which spectacularly backfired, both before and during the game. We also look at how Saturday's game could shape the Lions squad this week, and preview a huge URC meeting of Munster and Ulster.
RTÉ News
05-05-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
'Absolute disaster' - RTÉ Rugby panel on Leinster shock defeat to Northampton
Leinster's bid for a fifth Champions Cup title will go on for another year at least following Saturday's stunning defeat to Northamton Saints. The RTÉ Rugby panel of Donal Lenihan, Bernard Jackman, Fiona Coghlan and Jamie Heaslip review the 37-34 semi-final loss. "Unbelievable, it's one of the most incredible games I've ever seen," said Lenihan. "Absolute disaster for Leinster. They had their opportunities." You can watch the full video above, including interviews with Leinster captain Caelan Doris and player of the match Tommy Freeman.
RTÉ News
03-05-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Jack Conan: Anything but winning is deemed not good enough
As Leinster turned defence into the best form of attack earlier in the season, Bernard Jackman remarked on the RTÉ Rugby podcast that Jacques Nienaber had turned a bunch of south county Dublin rugby players into "proper psychos". That was back in December, and four months later the province's defensive efforts have only improved. In the Investec Champions Cup round of 16 and quarter-finals, they put a combined 114 points on Harlequins and Glasgow Warriors, but more impressively they held both opponents scoreless across a combined 160 minutes of rugby. As they prepare to welcome Northampton Saints to Aviva Stadium this afternoon, what do the Leinster players think of Jackman's assessment? "There's definitely a few psychos in the team anyway," Jack Conan tells RTÉ Sport. "You see Tommy O'Brien run around smashing lads on the wing, and a few head-bangers in the pack as well. It might look a bit chaotic at times, but we know it's quite strategic and well planned out." "It's very much a well thought out system and you need a few psychos in there to go and put your head where you wouldn't put a shovel." When these sides met at Croke Park 12 months ago, Leinster looked like they were cruising towards the final when then were 20-3 ahead early in the second half, only for an adventurous Saints side to mount a comeback and get back with three points in the final minute. After a nervous defensive stand, it was Conan (above) and Caelan Doris who combined for a late turnover to seal the win, although the former insists he did the heavy lifting. "What are my abiding memories? Me making the turnover to kind of squash the last attack. And Caelan said he had one hand it as well, which was not true," Conan laughs. Leinster were still getting to grips with Nienaber's aggressive defensive system this time last year. At times it worked – like their quarter-final against La Rochelle - and at times it was caught out, with Northampton finding ways around it at Croker. "I think after Toulouse last year there was a few of us who'd played in the four final losses, and you're just sitting there and being like, 'I can't believe this is happening again'." This season, it's been their biggest weapon. Across 22 games in both Champions Cup and URC, the province are giving up just 13 points per game. In this competition alone, that average falls to nine points per match. "I think defensively, when Jacques came in last year, it's such a different defensive system than anything we've been used to before. "It's a thing that took a long time to really install and for lads to be comfortable with it and for it to become habitual and instinctive, so I think that's now happened. "I think we now know what to do, when to do it, and we back ourselves to do it, where before I think there were some lads who got it 100%, and some lads who didn't maybe get it 100%. "And in a system like that, if you don't commit fully to it, you're going to get picked apart. And I think we're just more comfortable with it now, it's installed that much, that bit better I think." The province are 80 minutes away from their ninth appearance in the Champions Cup final, and fourth in a row, having lost the 2022, 2023 and 2024 deciders. Having won each of their first four finals appearances, they've only known heartbreak since 2018. And while dejection has become a familiar feeling, it never gets easier to stomach. "They get harder and harder," Conan, who is among the replacements this afternoon, says of their recent Champions Cup pain. "I think after Toulouse last year there was a few of us who'd played in the four final losses, and you're just sitting there and being like, 'I can't believe this is happening again'. "It is unbelievably tough to take and you definitely do a bit of soul searching. "You have to ask the harder questions of yourself on how well you're preparing and how professional you're being in those moments. "It's been unbelievably tough to take. Every single one seems to get worse and harder to kind of wrap your head around." With a squad full of Ireland internationals, as well as three high profile foreign signings, the vast majority of other clubs in Europe can only look on with envy as Leinster play in their eighth final since 2017. But Conan is taking little comfort from simply being in the mix to win. "It is great and it's exactly where we want to be, but when we know how good we can be and what we can achieve, anything but winning is deemed not good enough, you know? "So even though we've been incredibly consistent and to make three finals in a row and four finals over the last number of years... It's not where we want to be. We want to be winning. We want to be pushing on and adding more stars to the jersey and everything else. "Those, I don't want to say failures, but not getting over the line has to be something that spurs you on, that drives me, makes me want it more. "There's still so many lads in this environment, who've grown from 2019, who've come into the squad and are now like world class players and they've never really won it and in Leinster it's about time that we really kick on and get it done. "We're relishing that opportunity and it'll be a great opportunity against Northampton for us to take another step closer to that."
RTÉ News
01-05-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
'Dorothy was part of that journey' - Linda Djougang 'gutted' by Dorothy Wall's World Cup heartache
Ireland prop Linda Djougang says she's "gutted" for her team-mate Dorothy Wall, who was ruled out of this summer's World Cup due to injury. Wall became the second high-profile Ireland player to be ruled out of the tournament in England, after suffering a torn achilles during Saturday's Guinness Women's Six Nations defeat to Scotland in Edinburgh. The versatile forward would have been a key player for Ireland in the World Cup, having featured in every game of the championship, scoring four tries. The 24-year-old had surgery on her torn achilles on Wednesday which will rule her out for several months, and she joins flanker Erin King on the sidelines for Ireland's World Cup campaign later this year. "It's so hard, especially such an important year for us to have two pivotal players going out through injuries, and missing out," Djougang told the RTÉ Rugby podcast this week. "I clearly remember on the pitch, it was beside me, and hearing your team-mate screaming that way, it's definitely not something you want to hear. "Dorothy has been having such a good tournament and she's probably my standout player. She's so good, she's our lineout leader and we had to adapt to that. "A World Cup comes every four years and it's something that we've been building on, something we've been dreaming of, and something we've been working hard to get." Djougang, the most experienced Test player in the Ireland squad with 46 caps, says those injuries make her even more grateful for the chance of playing in the World Cup later this summer. "When we didn't qualify a few years ago to go to New Zealand, Dorothy was part of that journey. For me, my heart just goes out to her. I know we spoke about representing our country at a World Cup, we spoke about that dream for us, I just feel so gutted for her. "It's been our goal, it's been her goal. She's been through all of it. She's that pivotal player for us, and she's definitely stepped up beyond even what we expect of her. She's going to be a great loss. "I think that it reminds us that this can be taken that quickly. "It's the sport we play, you can't go in thinking you don't want to get injured. You try to give everything for your country, like Dorothy and Erin have been doing. It's just unfortunate," the prop added. Djougang scored one of Ireland's tries in Saturday's 26-19 defeat to Scotland, among four in total for the powerful Leinster prop over the course of the championship. It saw an otherwise positive Six Nations campaign end on a sour note for Scott Bemand's side, but she believes Ireland will be a better team from their experience at the Hive last week. "It was definitely very disappointing, but we knew why it was disappointing. "I think that's something that we can definitely build on. We knew that we probably didn't execute our gameplan and that we didn't kick where we needed to kick. "Equally we didn't take our opportunities. We definitely are learning. This year's Six Nations has been going well for us, and had also been eye-opening for us, to what we can do and where we want to get to. We're quite lucky that we have another opportunity now in the summer to rectify those mistakes against Scotland. "We know what we're capable of and now, going into the summer, we have two games against Scotland and Canada and we definitely want to head to the World Cup with a good head on our shoulders," she added.
