Ireland started there 2024 Under 20 World Championship with a 55-15 win over Italy in the DHL Stadium Cape Town. They were in total control of this contest barring early on when Italy scored 10 points to lead 10-3 inside the opening 20 minutes.

Ireland of course have a new head coach with Willie Faloon taking over from Richie Murphy who signed a two year contract to remain on as Ulster coach after an interim period. Ireland can call on plenty of experienced heads with a large number of players returning after last season’s run to the Junior World Championship Final saw them lose out to France on finals day.

Evan O Connell returns as captain and played his part in the big win over Italy who pushed Ireland all the way in Cork earlier in the year in the 6 nations with a late Sean Edogbo try seeing Ireland home, 23-22.

Ireland played an open brand of attacking rugby that has continued in this campaign after serving them so well under Richie Murphy and Noel Mc Namara. Ireland have played this open style and also they have a hard edge up front that has seen them claim famous away wins in France and England as well as a hard fought draw in the 6 Nations away to England back in March.

The one area that will concern the Irish management will be the scrum as Italy even in defeat gained a number of penalties from this part of the game and although with some changes in the Ireland scrum and also playing 20 minutes with only 14 men, losing two forwards to yellow cards.

Ireland managed to gain parity late on and earn a few penalties of their own. This will encourage the whole squad with Georgia next Thursday and Australia the following Tuesday. The attacking intent from the opening minute was refreshing to watch. Ireland went after Italy and scored tries with Sam Berman the Ulster bound centre scoring a hat trick.

There were a few rule changes that sees an altered shot clock where you now have 50 seconds to take a penalty down from 1 minute and conversion is now only 30 seconds rather than 90 as it was previously. It will be fascinating to see will these be adopted in many leagues or competitions in the new season from September onwards.

Ireland will need to clean up there discipline and shore up there scrum before facing Georgia on Thursday with a 1pm kick off time. It will be interesting to see what changes may happen as the Irish coaches have said they will make changes through the competition and trust the 28 man squad.

A big win was the best way to start the Championship and they will want to do the same on Thursday vs Georgia. The game is live on RugbyPass TV, an arm of World Rugby unfortunately no Irish station has the rights this year….

My XV to play South Africa

I will put on my selector hat and try and select the XV to play South Africa in Test 1 on Saturday July 6^th with a 4pm kick off time. I will use the squad as selected by Andy Farrell and his coaching team.

15 Jimmy O Brien

14 Jordan Larmour

13 Robbie Henshaw

12 Bundee Aki

11 James Lowe

10 Jack Crowley

9 Conor Murray

8 Caelan Doris

7 Josh Van Der Flier

6 Ryan Baird

5 Tadgh Beirne

4 Joe Mc Carthy

3 Tadgh Furlong

2 Dan Sheehan

1 Andrew Porter

–

16 Ronan Kelliher

17 Cian Healy

18 Oli Jager

19 Peter O Mahony

20 Nick Timoney

21 Craig Casey

22 Sam Prendergast

23 Garry Ringrose

I will also select a different 23 to play in the first Test using the whole 35 man squad rather than just the usual suspects.

15 Jimmy O Brien

14 Calvin Nash

13 Jamie Osbourne

12 Stuart Mc Closkey

11 Jacob Stockdale

10 Ciaran Frawley

9 Caolan Blade

8 Nick Timoney

7 Peter O Mahony

6 Cormac Izuchuwku

5 Joe Mc Carthy

4 James Ryan

3 Oli Jager

2 Rob Herring

1 Tom O Toole

–

16 Ronan Kelliher

17 Andrew Porter

18 Finlay Bealham

19 Cian Prendergast

20 Josh Van Der Flier

21 Conor Murray

22 Sam Prendergast

23 Stuart Mc Closkey

There is my attempt at selecting two different XV’s for the first game v South Africa on Saturday week…

The Bulls will play Glasgow Warriors in the 2024 URC Final in South Africa on Saturday evening at 5pm or 4pm for those of you in South Africa…. I think on the balance of the way yesterday’s games went we have the right and deserved pairing in this season’s URC Final.

The Bulls were full value for the 25-20 win at home to Leinster and this will be another bitter pill to swallow for Leinster as it’s another loss in knock out rugby and that becoming all too familiar to this group of Leinster players.

Leinster will bullied up front and although it was a tight score line, The Bulls will know they have plenty in the tank for the Final on home soil next Saturday. The availability of Willie Le Roux will be important as he was a key factor for the Bulls helping Johan Goosen pull the strings.

The forward battle was won by Bulls and that will defiantly concern Andy Farrell as well as Leo Cullen. Cullen and Nienbar will go back to the drawing board over the summer and with Tyler Bleyendaal coming on board to take over as backs coach from Andrew Goodman who steps up to Ireland taking over from Mike Catt.

The review of the year will be hard to stomach but Leinster have the quality to get back onto the winners podium. They will need to rediscover there spark in attack that has been lost in the last few months and need to slowly move away from the physical up and at them approach.

They will have fresh eyes on the attack with Bleyendaal coming in add to that they will have RG Snyman and Jordie Barrett as the big money signings for the 2024/2025 season. It will take time to recover from yesterday and unfortunately or fortunately in some cases several men from yesterday will need to dust themselves off quickly as the tour to South Africa looms large.

Leinster have questions to answer after another year without a trophy, I know a trophy is not always assured in professional sport but Leinster compete at the top table every year and losing in the knock out phases has become a habit is winning of course. They will look to the two defeats in South Arica as key moments in the URC campaign.

For Leinster, time now to review the year and take a few weeks off as squad, some will go on holiday and family time and more will decamp to Dublin to prepare for the two Test tour of South Africa in July with tests on Saturday the 6^th and 13^th.

Munster will wonder what happened yesterday, Glasgow had to play 20 minutes with 14 men and all Munster managed in that period was 3 points from Jack Crowley’s boot. Munster looked on edge during the game and struggled to find ways in and the line out again faltered when it needed to be on point. To that end, Glasgow came here and disrupted Munster in very similar fashion to last season which saw Munster go away from home and beat Glasgow 14-5.

Are the current Munster squad happier playing away from home rather that Thomond Park, the pressure seemed to tell on them yesterday at vital moments. The half back pairing of Casey and Crowley didn’t perform to the level that they can and that was compounded by poor work at the breakdown and lack of support for the man in possession on multiple occasions.

Poor execution was another Achilles heel and the opening try from Kyle Steyn was after Antoine Frisch had delayed his pass to Alex Nankivell and he knocked the ball on and Kyle Steyn snaffled it up and raced clear to put the Warriors on the board. There other try from Seb Cancelliere was created from a break from Sione Tuipulotu and he broke the Munster defence and in turn put Huw Jones away on the outside and his acceleration away from Simon Zebo and Mike Haley put them 12-3 up with George Horn adding the extra two to put the 14-3 up after 50 minutes.

 Munster managed to create a strike move of their own that saw good clean fast hands with Coombes, Snyman, Loughman and after a quick ruck saw quick hands from O Mahony and Casey to put Frisch in the corner. Crowley added the extras to leave the score 14-10 with plenty of time left on the clock.

Munster couldn’t find the score to sneak ahead and a late George Horn penalty pushed Glasgow 7 clear. Alex Nankivell saw red for coming in at the side of a ruck under the posts and making contact with George Horn’s head.

Munster did manage to create one final chance in the last two minutes from a line out, they set up a maul and RG Snyman tried to get an offload away to John Ryan but the prop didn’t hold the ball and with that Glasgow saw out the final moments and Tom Jordan kicked the ball into the stands to see Glasgow into the 2024 URC Final.

Munster will need to take time like Leinster to review the season as a whole where a draw and loss in Europe at home didn’t help the cause and they will look back on yesterday with genuine regret.

For a number of Munster players it was bon voyage as Simon Zebo will retire, Joey Carbery will move to Bordeaux, RG Snyman will make the short trip east to join Leinster. Munster will welcome Thakkier Abrahams, Diarmuid Kilgallon and Tom Farrell ahead of the new season. Also a number of young players will move into the senior Munster squad on varied contracts.

We have on the balance of the semi-finals the right final, all the best to Glasgow and The Bulls next Saturday….

It is URC semi-finals time, with Leinster playing Bulls in South Africa and Munster are on home soil in Limerick to take on Glasgow Warriors. This will be an intriguing set of games with all 4 sides laying claim to be the 2024 URC winners.

Leinster go down to South Africa to Loftus Versfeld to take on a Jake White coached Bulls side. The Bulls came up here previously and beat Leinster in the RDS. Leinster will be fired up after another defeat in the Champions Cup Final in London back in May.

They will know this is a last shot at a trophy for the 23/24 season, they last won the URC in 2021 and will be hell bent on trying to make another final with the added incentive of Croke Park being a possible venue for the Final if they defeat Bulls and Glasgow beat Munster in Thomond Park.

Leinster have gone with a powerful side with Garry Ringrose back in 13 shirt with Robbie Henshaw reverting to the 12 jersey, a first time since January that Leinster can select their main pairing at centre. Ross Byrne is picked at 10 with Ciaran Frawley covering out half from the bench.

The Bulls will know they have the chance to put Leinster out of another URC knock out phase and if they do that coupled with a Munster loss in semi-final 2, they will have home advantage in next week’s Final.

For 3 of the four sides, that carrot of home final advantage is a distinct possibly so that will drive them on along with the hope of making another Grand Final. Munster won the Grand Final on South African soil last season 19-14. They won that day with a late converted John Hodnett try.

Leinster have it all to do, recent history is not with them in terms of winning finals but they have the squad to do the needful in South Africa tomorrow afternoon. The Bulls won’t roll over and make it tough and they have shown they can score tries from all angles and can match teams up front also. Leinster have gone 5/3 on the bench with Luke Mc Grath, Jamie Osbourne and Ciaran Frawley covering the back line.

The Bulls have the power up front as I say and will look to a strong driving maul to help them past Leinster. The Bulls also have the back line to punish any slip up in the Leinster defensive set up. They have gone 6/2 on the bench and will unload a stacked bench to hopefully see them through.

Munster have earned the right to be at home thanks to finishing the season in first spot and will have home advantage in the Final if they get passed Glasgow. They have spoken of doing it on home soil for all the supporters who could not get to South Africa last season.

This semi-final will have plenty of needle due to Munster’s win in a tight semi-final in Glasgow last season. That coupled with some really tight battles in recent years with usually only a score or 2 between the teams.

Munster will know that home advantage is only part of the story and they will need to perform with impact from the bench being crucial. Time for Munster to stand up and be counted and defend the crown hard won last season.

Semi-final 1 is a tight one to call and will go down to the wire, home advantage will be crucial and with that I think The Bulls may cause a shock and put Leinster out with only a score between the sides.

Semi Final 2 is another tight affair and after last season’s game where Munster got through winning 14-5. I fully expect the game tomorrow to follow a similar pattern but Munster look well placed to get to another Grand Final.

My paring for the 2024 Grand Final will be Munster vs Bulls in Thomond Park…. Let’s see if my prediction is correct. Bring on two good quality semi-finals….

It is quarter final time in the URC with three Irish provinces in action, Munster face the Ospreys in Thomond Park at 7.35pm this evening. Tomorrow will see Leinster take on Ulster in The Aviva Stadium with a 5pm kick off.

In the other quarter finals, Benetton take on the Bulls and the Stormers play host to Glasgow Warriors. All 8 teams have their sights set on the 2024 URC title. Munster will look to make home advantage count and make it to back to back semi-finals. The Ospreys made the last 8 after defeating Cardiff last weekend and edging out the Lions who looked to have had 8^th place locked in.

Toby Booth has the Ospreys playing good rugby at the minute and will have no fears about tonight’s trip to Limerick. They have nothing to lose and plenty to gain by winning this evening. The Ospreys last trip to Limerick was a heavy loss and Munster beat them in the regular season back in March.

Both teams will be without key men like Adam Beard and Tom Ahern through injury but both sides will look towards the replacements to see will those men come in and do a job for their respective teams. As I mention the Ospreys come here with no fear and that makes them dangerous prospect.

It should be an open contest and if the weather holds up we should see both sides playing attacking rugby through the 80 minutes. Munster will want to kick on from the way they ended last week’s game against Ulster and the need to start this game sharper than last week in crucial.

There are a few changes from last week where Munster will have Tony Butler covering 10 and welcome Mike Haley back into the 23. John Hodnett comes into the side at 7. Like last year, Munster will need to grasp the nettle and though they know that it is home comforts all the way if they can negotiate the knock out stages of the URC.

That particular fact is secondary of course and they will need to take it game by game. Thankfully they have been here in recent times and one hopes they have the bank of knowledge stored to help them through any tough moments. It will be close but I think Munster will sneak through by more than a score….

Ulster go the Dublin with memories fresh of that recent last gasp win in the RDS. Leinster will know it is last chance saloon for the season in this game and with that brings extra pressure. Yes Leinster have been here many times but the last trophy to cross the threshold in Leinster HQ in UCD was the URC trophy in 2021 and with that the pressure only ramps up with each passing season…

 Ulster are in bonus territory with a new coaching set up led by Richie Murphy who signed a two year deal to lead Ulster into next season and beyond. Ulster will be buoyed by their performance for large parts of the game in Thomond Park. They also know how to beat this Leinster group beating them twice in league action this year.

Like tonight’s game, there will not be much either way with most likely only a score in it and I just fancy Ulster to complete the hat trick of wins over Leinster and get to the semi-finals to take on either Benetton or the Bulls next week….

As for the other two quarter finals, I can see Glasgow and the Bulls coming through to fill the other two semi final places….