So after week one of the 6 Nations , both our senior men and women’s teams have some soul searching to do after chastening defeats in Donnybrook and the Aviva. The women were humbled 51-7 and the senior men were beaten 32-20. The only bright spot on week 1 was the 20s who won down in Cork 37-28.

All three sides will head to Scotland to try and find form in the case of the men and Women’s sides and to continue the good form of the 20s. The 20s started the weekend off in fine style scoring some scintillating tries in a first win at this level over England since 2015.

The women also had good spells of possession in the opening half of their game in Donnybrook  but they could never force home the advantage and England led 13-0 at the half time break and took full advantage in the 2^nd half and pulled away to win convincingly 51-7.

Adam Griggs will need his side to bounce back in confident form and redress the balance after Scotland came to Donnybrook and won last season. Will Alison Miller come back into the side on the wing and what 7s players will Griggs have at his disposal for this game will be interesting to see.

Unfortunately, the pros vs amateurs’ argument has to be had because it was plain to see that Ireland struggled fitness wise in the face of a constant pressure as the game wore on. This is again going to be laid bare when they face France at home in a few weeks when they visit Dublin in Round 4.

It will again open the question of professional contracts for those players to let them compete at this level. The appetite for this discussion will have to wait until the end of the competition but it is a discussion that will need to take place to just decide where the 15s game is actually going in Ireland.

For the Senior men, it is a case of where the game plan went wrong and why in the face of an England onslaught, they did not have a real plan B to fall back on ?? The loss of CJ Stander for a month is a blow but with Sean O Brien and Jack Conan in the squad , Ireland should have strong replacements and Dan Leavy is also knocking around so he may train this week in the build up to the Scotland game.

Last weekend was not what was expected by many but let’s be fair ,England had the home work well done and executed the game plan that Eddie Jones gave them and they dispatched Ireland in good style. For Ireland , there will really need to be a strong reaction to the loss last Saturday and the 23 selected will really need to show the type of aggression and skill in attack and defence that England showed. Round 2 is next up so the training week will be interesting in Carton House….

The Women’s 6 Nations 2019

This evening Ireland take England in the opening 6 Nations game in Energia Park Donnybrook at 5pm. Not the best time to expect a huge crowd at rush hour in Dublin. That will not matter to the 23 players who will take to the field for Adam Griggs this evening.

This is a huge task as the England squad is a fully professional paid side and the Irish side is still amateur , now this should not be used as a reason to say that if Ireland are beaten tonight , then the fact it was pros vs amateurs should not come into it. The Irish team has good experience within it with Claire Molloy, Ciara Griffin and Sene Naoupu. If Ireland mange like they did to France two years ago to hold their own at the set piece then maybe just maybe they may be able to cause a shock and beat this English side.

England are in a position where they recalled Natasha Hunt and Emily Scarrett who had been on 7s duty in the last two years. In that time the RFU has again handed out full time deals and will allow there women’s side to flourish in the run up to the 2021 World Cup in New Zealand. They will of course want to dethrone France from their place as defending champions.

Ireland have recognised that fact they may already being playing for 3^rd in this campaign and that is a very honest assessment at this point in a campaign but the two sides ahead of everyone else are clearly France and England and that is down to professionalism pure and simple. Also the fact that the other side’s like Wales and Scotland have made strides forward and they will fancy taking Ireland on in the quest for wins in this Championship.

From an Irish perspective it’s about securing wins at home to the big two in 2019 , a number of players have been capped in the past 12 months wand Adam Griggs has worked tirelessly to try and build up a reserve of players her can call on when others are on 7s duty or out injured.

They beat Wales in a warm up fixture a few weeks ago and that will boost the confidence with a new campaign about to start. England under Simon Middleton will be here full sure of the win and bonus point but if Adam Griggs can get his team firing for the 80 minutes ,one doesn’t know what may happen.

So the 6 Nations will start at 5pm this evening then the 20s go into battle at 7.15pm down in Cork in Irish Independent Park , the Irish Legends play there English counterparts this evening in the RDS in aid of Charity.

As Always, enjoy the next 7 weeks, because whether you enjoy rugby or not, I can promise thrills and spills. I hope you all enjoy this year’s fair as much as this author will…… Enjoy….

Ireland Six Nations 2019

Ireland will begin preparations for the 2019 Six Nations with a weeklong training camp in Portugal before returning to Carton House next weekend to prepare for England’s visit in week one of the competition.

Tadgh Beirne picked up a knee injury in the 2^nd half of Munster’s 9-7 win over Exeter Chiefs at the weekend but should be back in contention for the round 3 visit to Rome. Quinn Roux will travel to Portugal in Beirne’s place.

A few other players will stay in Ireland and prepare for this weekend’s Pro 14 action like Rob Kearney and Jack Mc Grath. Andrew Conway will also stay behind and prepare for the England game having picked up a knock in the Exeter game. He should be back in contention to fight for a place in the 23.

Ireland will go into this year’s campaign after the 4 Irish provinces advanced in the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup , Ulster face Leinster in late March in Dublin ,Munster will head to Edinburgh and Connacht will take on familiar foes Sale Sharks in the Challenge Cup quarter finals.

Eddie Jones has already kicked off the verbal jousting by claiming the Jonathan Sexton has access to a “bat phone” when it comes to communicating with referees. It is just another in a long list quotes that can be attributed to Jones. The game with England in two weeks time will set the tone for both sides in this Championship.

England could be in a better place with Jamie George and Luke Cowen Dickie as the starting hooker and back up for the Dublin game. The impact that Henry Slade had on the Chiefs game plan vs. Munster at the weekend will be crucial to England’s chances if he starts in the centre.

Ireland will want the next few days in Portugal to count and the selection of Jack Carty along with Joey Carbery to understudy Jonathan Sexton suggest that we may see a slight change in the way Ireland will attack during the Championship. All three out halves have had regular game time since last November and are beginning to make each club side tick. This is bound to have a positive impact on Ireland.

Ireland will be in good shape heading into this Championship, There is no better way to open the Championship than England in Dublin. Here’s hoping for a good competitive campaign and I will now try and select the 23 to take England on in two weeks time.

15 Andrew Conway

14 Keith Earls

13 Garry Ringrose

12 Robbie Henshaw

11 Jacob Stockdale

10 Jonathan Sexton

9 Conor Murray

8 CJ Stander

7 Josh Van Der Flier

6 Peter O Mahony

5 James Ryan

4 Devin Toner

3 Tadgh Furlong

2 Rory Best

1 Cian Healy

–

16 Sean Cronin

17 Dave Kilcoyne

18 Andrew Porter

19 Ultan Dillane

20 Jack Conan

21 John Cooney

22 Joey Carbery

23 Bundee Aki

Ireland 2019 Men’s and Women’s Squads

The 2019 Six Nations is only 2 weeks away and all our Irish teams will face England in Ireland on week 1, the senior women will play England in Donnybrook at 7pm on the Friday night, the 20s will take on England in Irish Independent Park on the same evening. On the Saturday at 4.45pm Ireland will begin the defence of the title they won in empathic fashion on St Patricks Day 2018.

The women’s team will play Wales this weekend in a warm up fixture in Donnybrook and Coach Adam Griggs has named a 29 woman squad for that game and he continues to add more new blood to the squad. The hope this year will be to consolidate the position from last year when they finished behind England and France.

Both Wales and Scotland have made strides forward in the last few years and are catching Ireland rapidly but England and France are still some way clear of the chasing pack due to fact that they have a few professionals in their ranks.

Ireland will also have to qualify for the 2021 World Cup and that will also be in the back of Adam Griggs mind when selecting his squads and also the fact he will not have a few key players down to the fact they are playing in the 7 circuit is still an issue that he will contend with throughout the Championship.

The depth chart that is so regularly associated with Joe Schmidt is beginning to take shape for the Women’s side also and it may not be to the same levels as the men’s team but the work is being put in and more will have to be done to continue to grow the game at grassroots level.

For the men’s team ,it will be tough to emulate 2018 but that is what will need to be done to keep the good feeling going and at least another Championship is the minimum requirement to end the 6 Nations and then and only then the World Cup will come into view.

That’s the big prize at the end of the year but the defence of the 6 Nations title won in good style last year will be the main focus. Joe Schmidt will want to end his involvement in the 6 Nations like he started out winning consecutive titles in 2014 and 2015.

The Ireland squad is strong and people have made a lot of the fact that Ross Byrne out but Schmidt selected the squad to play in the opening two rounds and men like Leavy, Ross Byrne and others will come into the equation in round 3 or before depending on injuries.

This way of doing things has served Schmidt well in the past and will serve him well in 2019. This year is his swansong and he will no doubt want to go out in the best possible fashion. England first up in Dublin is the best start , it will focus the mind and you can be sure that Eddie Jones and his band of merry men will get a very warm reception in 2 weeks time……

Champions Cup – Changes Ahead

The Champions Cup is entering round 6 where only Saracens of England are assured of a quarter final spot. This of course is big news for the Gallagher Premiership because it may only supply one team to the last 8 although Exeter Chiefs may join them with the right result in Thomond Park next Saturday evening.

We may be about to enter another quarter final phase with only small numbers of Premiership teams namely Saracens and maybe just maybe Exeter Chiefs. The Heineken Cup was changed back in 2014 to see the apparent dominance of one country ended, both the RFU and FFR spoke about forming a breakaway competition and gave the Pro12/14 sides an opportunity to stay with the Heineken Cup and the Pro 12/14 sides decided after a number of discussions with relevant parties that moving to the new competition that is the Heineken Champions Cup from 2015 onward.

Saracens won two titles in 2016 and 2017 after Toulon had won 3 titles on the spin from 2014 to 2016. Some people in the English media are beginning to question how the English sides cannot compete, citing how tough the Premiership is on a weekly basis…

This was talk very similar to what happened back in 2015 when the competition changed to 20 teams. This change may not happen but if Leinster were to go on a win two in a row, mark my words to murmurs will turn into talk and we may see ERPC change the goal posts again. This has happened before and may just happen once more if Leinster do the double.

The Irish sides have done very well this year with all 3 sides in contention for the quarter finals with Munster facing Exeter Chiefs, Ulster heading for Leicester Tigers and Leinster going to Coventry to face Wasps.

Munster need to win to get a quarter final berth and could have a home quarter final if Montpellier defeat Edinburgh on Friday night in Murrayfield. First job’s first, Munster need to beat Exeter and then worry about a quarter final.

For Leinster and Ulster the story is slightly more straight forward, with wins needed to secure passage to the last 8. Both sides will be away from home but have won away this year to fill themselves with confidence heading to round 6.

European rugby still has the thrills and spills it had as the Heineken Cup , in its new guise as the Heineken Champions Cup the same drama can be expected so have the calculators at the ready because round 6 promises to baffle, frustrate and excite in equal measure….

Roll on the weekend starting on Friday night at 7.45pm.

 

 

 

 

In the last week since Leinster faced Munster at Thomond Park last Saturday and the leadership of Jonathan Sexton was called into question by several people after some of his actions during his 60 minutes on the field.

During a first half that saw two yellow cards and a red card along with a few unsavoury scenes, people have asked about Sexton in his position as Leinster captain. He struggled to keep his team in check in the opening half despite being asked by match referee Frank Murphy to speak to his side about their behaviour.

Leinster went to Limerick with a distinct game plan to unsettle Munster upfront and then if that worked they would have used the ball to better effect than they did because when they did move the ball at pace they seemed to cause Munster problems in defence.

Back to the leadership of Jonathan Sexton, many people were angered by his behaviour and also his interactions with match referee Frank Murphy were questioned. Jonathan Sexton was given the captaincy of Leinster last summer after Isa Nacewa retired and when that decision was announced nobody batted an eyelid but this past weekend finally saw people speak up about his behaviour.

Jonathan Sexton is a talented rugby player and can captain a side and will continue in his role with Leinster despite the criticism he received after the game last weekend. What has made Jonathan Sexton a great player is that hard edge that he has, like Roy Keane or Peter Canavan but last weekend this hard edge went slightly awry and this lead to a longer than usual opening 40 minutes that almost lasted 60 minutes after all the stoppages.

The issues surrounding the sending off of James Lowe who saw red for taking Andrew Conway in the air have been dealt with as Lowe has received a two week suspension. World Rugby still need to work with all unions and clubs to continue to keep the sport up to date with the rules around the tackle area.

Jonathan Sexton will need to look at the way he conducts himself and may need to be calmer when dealing with match officials into the future. Frank Murphy did a good job in what was his toughest assignment to date. He has only a small number of Pro 14 games under his belt but has been honing his craft in the All Ireland League over the last few seasons since hanging up his boots after spells with Munster, Connacht and Leicester Tigers in England where he played alongside current Leinster coach Leo Cullen.

Frank Murphy like Jonathan Sexton will be better for the experience last weekend, it was good to see this fixture come to life again after a few games where neither team was at full strength due to the IRFU’s long running player welfare system where Irish players game time in managed to get the maximum from each player during the International windows that will this year include a World Cup later in 2019. This weekend will be a another chance for players to stake a claim for Irish squad inclusion before Europe begins next weekend.

My Ireland Squad for the 2019 Six Nations

Forwards : James Cronin , Jack Mc Grath , Cian Healy , Dave Kilcoyne.

Sean Cronin, Niall Scannell , Shane Delahunt , Rory Best.

Tadgh Furlong, John Ryan , Andrew Porter , Conor Carey.

Tadgh Beirne , James Ryan , Devin Toner , James Cannon.

CJ Stander , Peter O Mahony , Jack Conan , Dan Leavy , Josh Van Der Flier , Jordi Murphy.

 

Backs : Conor Murray , John Cooney , Luke Mc Grath.

Jonathan Sexton, Ross Byrne, Joey Carbery , Jack Carty.

Keith Earls, Matt Healy, Jacob Stockdale , Andrew Conway.

Will Addison, Bundee Aki , Garry Ringrose , Rory O Loughlin.

Mike Haley , Rob Kearney.

Here is the squad I would select for the upcoming 6 Nations. Injuries will have an impact between here and the first round on the opening weekend of the 6 Nations.

Jonathan Sexton has agreed a new central contract with the IRFU and Leinster to continue to play his rugby with Leinster and Ireland until 2021. He will be 34 next year and will hope to go to a third World Cup in late 2019 in Japan.

Since he came back from France after his two years with Racing 92, he has commanded Leinster and Ireland to great effect. He took the captaincy of Leinster this year from the now retired Isa Nacewa.

He was a vital cog last season when Leinster won the double beating Racing 92 in the Champions Cup Final in Bilbao Spain and then was at out half in Dublin when Leinster won the Pro 14 against Scarlets.

Since his debut in 2009 for Ireland against Fiji, he has gone from strength to strength and has been capped 78 times scoring over 700 Test Points. His partnership with Conor Murray has been a hugely important in the recent success of Ireland under Joe Schmidt.

Without those two key cogs one has to wonder where Ireland would be after the defeat at the 2015 World Cup to Argentina. Since then he and Murray have just gotten better and better and have transferred there good form to the red jersey of the British and Irish Lions in 2017 Series against New Zealand that was shared after a draw in the third Test.

Like the other men that the IRFU have recently tied down to new deals, it is important that Leinster look toward to future and they are doing that well with men like Ciaran Frawley , Ross Byrne and Ross’s younger brother Harry who has been capped at A level by Leinster. They seem to be planning for the post Sexton era which is now on the horizon even though he has committed to new deal until the end of 2021.

When Sexton hasn’t been around Leinster have shared around the out half duties with Joey Carbery and Ross Byrne in the past few years but now that Carbery is settled in Munster, Leinster have promoted Ciaran Frawley to understudy Sexton and Ross Byrne with Harry Byrne biding his time in the AIL and at A level with Leinster.

This type of planning is needed as we will now need to slowly see the next generation beginning to come through in all four provinces to put more pressure on the established players across the four teams.

The IRFU has done very well over the last few months to tie down some many key men to new deals across the provinces but that work will continue and also the work at academy, club, school, and the exile programme will need to continue which has provided players like Kieran Marmion and Kieran Treadwell along with home grown talent like Larmour, Carbery, Stockdale and Tom Farrell.

The system the IRFU adopted all those years ago is working at the moment and will need to continue to evolve to keep up with the demands of the modern game….

 

Schmidt Departs Post World Cup 2019

Joe Schmidt has confirmed he will leave his position as Ireland Head Coach after Irish involvement at the 2019 World Cup ends. He has been head coach since 2013 after a successful spell in charge of Leinster having replaced current Australia head coach Michael Cheika in 2010.

He will be succeeded by his current defence coach Andy Farrell who will take over as Head coach from late 2019 until his new deal which he signed last season ends in 2021.

Before that Schmidt was brought to Europe by Vern Cotter as Clermont Auvergne attack coach from 2007 to 2010. He has overhauled how the general public views rugby in his time as Ireland head coach. His professionalism and appetite for work and trying to achieve goals has been a sight to behold.

Now that he has made his position crystal clear will mean that Ireland can fully focus on the challenge at hand of defending the 6 Nations title and trying to better their recent results at World Cup’s.

All the questions about whether he will stay or go will now cease and he can enjoy a few days off before the job will begin again of trying to plot a successful conclusion to his time in Ireland. He has been an incredible addition to Irish rugby over the past 8 years firstly with Leinster and latterly with Ireland.

Yes the 2015 World Cup didn’t go to plan but he has done well in correcting that failure in building squad depth and delivering a Grand Slam, a Series win in Australia, defeating New Zealand twice in 3 years after 28 unsuccessful attempts until November 2016. He has achieved way and above what would have been expected when he was given the job in 2013.

He will be succeeded by Andy Farrell who has been his defence coach since 2016, this will be a first Head Coach role for Farrell who has been an assistant coach with England and the British and Irish Lions. Who Farrell will have in his coaching team will be very interesting due to the fact that Greg Feek will also leave his role as Ireland’s scrum coach after the 2019 World Cup.

He was replaced in the scrum coach’s job with Leinster by John Fogarty who Ireland may look to move into the job that will soon be vacated by Feek. We have less than 12 months to get used to the idea that Joe Schmidt will leave Ireland after the 2019 World Cup.

Also will there be a play for a man like Ronan O Gara who will have completed his 2^nd year with the Crusaders to form part of the new look Irish coaching team, Simon Easterby who also signed the same length of extension as Farrell last year. He will most likely be retained by Farrell. Only time will tell though.

These are interesting times for the IRFU, Farrell has a period of time to learn a few more bits and pieces from the master and then it will be Andy Farrell in charge post World Cup. Joe Schmidt will now plan for his final few months in charge and see what will happen when the 6 Nations kicks off in early 2019.

He has a job to do so you can be sure we won’t have repeat of all that went with the retirement of Brian O Driscoll in 2014 when every last moment was documented and marked. Here’s hoping that 2019 will be a year to remember for all the right reasons….

Ireland Vs New Zealand Review

So for the 2^nd time in the Joe Schmidt era Ireland defeated New Zealand 16-9 on Saturday evening at the Aviva Stadium , the first time Ireland have beaten New Zealand on home soil. Some will see this as a marker for the World Cup in 2019 and while it is a good barometer, we have been here before and the results at World Cup time have not matched up to the results and good performances of the years leading into a World Cup but that result on Saturday seemed slightly different and could just be the key moment leading to the World Cup.

The game on Saturday was again like most previous games against New Zealand, tough and uncompromising but even before a ball was kicked Ireland started to show something different by advancing on the Haka, even though it was only a small step forward , they said to New Zealand today is going to be different.

It turned out that way and for only the 2^nd time in 30 attempts Ireland downed New Zealand but on this occasion New Zealand’s media cannot say that there famed All Blacks were missing key men because they were in a position to select a strong XV with only Sonny Bill Williams ruled out through injury. Steve Hansen has now stated that Ireland are the “number one side” in World Rugby, it is a lovely sentiment but not true because New Zealand are still the World Cup holders.

Getting to the game, Ireland went out with a similar game plan to recent times where they strangled New Zealand at the break down and even though New Zealand constantly slowed down Irish ball by having at least two bodies collapse on the ball as Kieran Marmion was trying to release the ball to  Jonathan Sexton and further out along his back line.

At half time, the penalty count was 9-1 in favour of Ireland and yet even though the penalty count was so high against New Zealand , Wayne Barnes did not reach for his pocket even after what seemed like a professional foul from Sam Whitelock where he slapped the ball downward to deny Ireland the chance to build an attack.

Even though Rob Kearney may have also seen yellow for his challenge on Reiko Ioane, Barnes deemed it to be a fair contest in the air and nothing was awarded. You could again see how far New Zealand are willing to push the boundaries on the field of play.

The try to that would eventually see Ireland home along with the conversion from Jonathan Sexton was converted by Jacob Stockdale who scored his 12^th try in 14 games for Ireland that is a terrific strike rate although his defence still needs work but that will come in time.

It was a move we have seen before in the win over England back in March, were all the moving parts need to be on the same page and that was the case on Saturday when Stockdale chipped over the defence and chased his kick down then he re gathered his kick on and despite the despairing tackle from Aaron Smith he used his momentum to crash over for the vital score.

The Irish performance was full of purpose and men like Peter O Mahony , James Ryan , Devin Toner and Rob Kearney stood up and were counted. Guys like Bundee Aki, Garry Ringrose and Keith Earls did very well in defence. This was one of the best single performances in recent times by Ireland.

The key now for Ireland is to make sure that all this good will and momentum is carried into the Six Nations of 2019 and then try and surpass the past results at World Cup time. That will be the tricky bit and after this November schedule is complete this weekend after the game with the USA , we will then wait to see what will Joe Schmidt do next , will he sign a new deal or indicate he will move on after the 2019 World Cup. Only time will tell and this is a situation he will need time to sort out before making an announcement.

It’s the USA next on Saturday evening and then no matter the result, it will be full steam ahead to defend the 6 Nations title…. That is the way Joe Schmidt will want it and who are we to argue…..