80+ column : May 20

ON THIS WEEK’S COLUMN…

  • WRAP OF A WRAP
  • HAIL TO THE KING
  • BEEP BEEP
  • HEAD GAMES
  • SPITTING, NO IMAGE
  • BELL WEATHER
  • FUTURE FIXTURES
  • THE BILBAO 23 (BONUS CHAT MEETS LEINSTER SQUAD UPDATE)
  • TROLL PATROL
  • COMPETITION UPDATES (incl 🔝🐱🐴)
  • NEXT HARPIN’

WRAP OF A WRAP

Ten Leinster tries in one match are always exciting to watch especially live, but when you add the context of our season, namely that only the win was of actual use to us plus we’ve a slightly bigger match the following weekend, you end up with a match that will be very quickly forgotten. As the saying goes, “the show must go on” so we did produce a wrap pod for Leinster v Ospreys, with Ciarán Duffy from Post To Post Sport joining me for a chat on Sunday evening, but we decided to cover the whole match in just the opening portion and use the rest of the time to go back over Leinster’s URC regular season. ICYMI click here to check it out.

HAIL TO THE KING

“…we’ve got new caps, we’ve got people adding into the on-pitch stuff. We’re growing our wave. I leave here with a sense that there’s only more to come.”

Erin King hails ‘special’ day as Ireland beat Scotland in front of record crowd

John O’Sullivan – Irish Times

Like I said last week, Sunday’s Six Nations finale at the Aviva Stadium had to be about more than just the crowd, there was a match to be played and a solid third place finish to be earned. And what a performance it was. Although we did finish 3rd last year, that included a defeat to the Scots so there were scores to be settled and, well, I think you can safely say that was done and then some. This back row of Hogan, King and Wafer is a world class trio to build the team around and under Scott Bemand they have looking like a well coached group who enjoy working together and we have seen plenty to back up Erin’s claim in the quote.

And yes, the crowd was great too. But if they continue on this path as looks likely, there’s more big numbers to come there too.

Next up is the new incarnation of the WXV, known as “The Global Series” – it seems to be a women’s version of the Nations Championship although thankfully they have not just simply replicated the men’s version (they probably could do something similar with the Six Nations too).

Here’s an explanation of the new comp taken from the official site…

“The top 12 teams (Australia, Canada, England, France, Italy, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, USA, Wales) will compete in a home-and-away, cross-regional touring model within a newly aligned September – October international window. Significantly, unions will retain domestic commercial rights to their home fixtures, recognising the importance of growing the value of the women’s game in each country, and supporting reinvestment in player pathways and national programmes.”

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