Twitter : @ccbooms
HoR.net contributions : 18 pods, 22 overall
OUR GUESTS : CONOR CRONIN & RICH MIFSUD
FRONT FIVE LINKS
OUR GUEST : CONOR CRONIN
IRELAND : 15. Henry McErlean 14. Andrew Osborne 13. Hugh Gavin 12. John Devine 11. James Nicholson 10. Sam Prendergast 9. Fintan Gunne
1. Paddy McCarthy 2. Gus McCarthy 3. Ronan Foxe 4. Diarmuid Mangan 5. Conor O’Tighearnaigh 6. James McNabney 7. Ruadhan Quinn 8. Brian Gleeson
16. Max Clein 17. George Hadden 18. Fiachna Barrett 19. Charlie Irvine 20. Evan O’Connell 21. Oscar Cawley 22. Matthew Lynch 23. Sam Berman
World Rugby U20s Championship Final
Ireland v France
Athlone Stadium, Cape Town, South Africa
Kickoff 6pm (Irish time)
Live on Virgin Media Two
THIS WEEK’S GUESTS
FULL TIME TAKES
Mark Jackson
Too disciplined
Too ruthless
Too good …next
Andrew Bailey
Great performance undoubtedly helped by Toulouse indiscipline. Extraordinary tactical failure to have the best scrum half in world along with Ntamack playing out of position for 60 minutes
Craig Grehan
A good win. Flattered by 2 yellow cards.
But, 2nd yellow proves without the “weight” toulouse didn’t seem that strong. (Except dupont)
Gavin Hegarty
Ok so just watched it back and have had time to digest it.
4 tries while they were at 14, but the first two were forward tried and it was Ramos in the bin. Can’t help but feel they kinda imploded and suffered by their lack of back subs but we dominated and beat them at their own game.
I was worried about ngatai, just hadn’t seen enough of him, but he was fantastic.
My 6 year old has watched Conan’s second try on repeat this morning, a dummy of sheer cheeky beauty, it’ll be done many times in the garden today.
Does jack willis’ header to Sheehan count as a try assist?
Byrne was class today, faultless from the tee, this run of high pressure games and form bodes extremely well for the RWC.
MASTODON
Higgs thought it was going to be tighter before the match then how it ended up. Ngatai made a huge impact in the first half. Plenty of tired legs at the end of the match
JOC IMO, the really soul-crushing moment came when Ryan yoinked the lineout steal. Absolute confidence-shattering stuff. “yay, I stole a critical Leinster lineout” “Nope” <yoink> <Heavyweight pack shoved backwards over own line>
FRONT FIVE ARTICLES
EPCR SEMIFINALS WRAP
CHAMPIONS CUP
SEMIFINALS
LEI 41-22 TLS
LAR 47-28 EXE
CHALLENGE CUP
SEMIFINALS
SCA 17-35 GLA
TLN 23-0 BEN
FINALS
Fri May 19 : Glasgow Warriors v Toulon
Sat May 20 : Leinster v La Rochelle
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THIS WEEK’S GUESTS
FULL TIME TAKES
Gerald Williamson The Bulls getting the 5pts is immaterial in the last league match. What was important for Leinster was to be able to blood new young players and get the experience of playing against a fully loaded Bulls team. This will stand to the Leinster boys.
Andrew Potts My goodness it was still a masterclass of support play and off loading by Bulls. Hopefully Leinster learn from it, because sometimes you learn more from you failures than your victories
Christy O’Connor Wasn’t expecting us to win but also wasn’t expecting such a spanking. I thought Clarkson and Soroka put in a good shift. We definitely learned more in this game than the bulls did. Roll on Toulouse.
Greg Kelly Hardly good for the competition or if you are Connacht or Munster to see the Bulls get 5 points against Leinsters 4ths and leapfrog you in the playoffs when you had to play against the 1sts. I understand giving the young guns a run but there has to be integrity in both the competition and the jersey and that was lacking today.
FRONT FIVE ARTICLES
URC ROUND 18 WRAP
ROUND 18
STO 38-22 BEN
ULS 28-14 EDI
LIO 50-35 ZEB
DRA 31-14 SCA
BUL 62-7 LEI
SHA 22-22 MUN
OSP 21-38 CAR
GLA 29-27 CON
QUARTERFINALS (WEEKEND MAY 5/6/7)
LEINSTER V SHARKS
ULSTER V CONNACHT
STORMERS V BULLS
GLASGOW V MUNSTER
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THIS WEEK’S GUESTS
FULL TIME TAKES
Paul Smith A game for the forwards and the Leinster pack delivered in spades. It was never going to be a day for free flowing rugby and their dominance in both attack and defence was the winning of the match this evening. Ryan, Baird, and Conan were outstanding and also a mention for Ross Byrne who played some smart rugby and took his points well. Have to be happy to take the win in a game that always had the potential to be a banana skin.
Andrew Potts A wet game but not inspiring. They were good enough for Ulster but it was very low key result.
South Wales Ulster Rugby Supporters Club Leinster deserved the win on the day, but Ulster Rugby didn’t make it easy. Without doubt, Stockdale’s huge kick, chase, collect to Burns & cross field kick for Hume’s try, was the best passage of play, in the whole game 🏉
MASTODON
FRONT FIVE ARTICLES
HCC ROUND OF 16 WRAP
ROUND OF 16
LEI 16-6 EDI
SHA 50-35 MUN
STO 32-28 HAR
LEI 30-15 ULS
LAR 29-26 GLO
EXE* 33-33 MON [aet]
TLS 33-9 BUL
SAR 35-20 OSP
QUARTERFINALS
FRI MAR 7
LEIN V LEIC
SAT MAR 8
TLS V SHA
EXE V STO
LAR V SAR
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OUR GUEST : CONOR CRONIN
Leinster : 15. Jordan Larmour 14. Rob Russell 13. Liam Turner 12. Ciarán Frawley 11. Dave Kearney 10. Harry Byrne 9. Luke McGrath
1. Michael Milne 2. John McKee 3. Michael Ala’alatoa 4. Ross Molony 5. Jason Jenkins 6. Rhys Ruddock > CAPTAIN 7. Scott Penny 8. Max Deegan
16. Lee Barron 17. Ed Byrne 18. Vakhtang Abdaladze 19. Brian Deeny 20. Will Connors 21. Nick McCarthy 22. Charlie Tector 23. Ben Brownlee
DHL Stormers: 15 Clayton Blommetjies 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg 13 Dan du Plessis 12 Damian Willemse 11 Seabelo Senatla 10 Manie Libbok 9 Paul de Wet
1 Steven Kitshoff (capt) 2 Joseph Dweba 3 Frans Malherbe 4 Ruben van Heerden 5 Marvin Orie 6 Deon Fourie 7 Ben-Jason Dixon 8 Hacjivah Dayimani,
16 JJ Kotze 17 Brok Harris 18 Neethling Fouche 19 Ernst van Rhyn 20 Willie Engelbrecht 21 Marcel Theunissen 22 Herschel Jantjies 23 Jean-Luc du Plessis
BKT United Rugby Championship 2022/23
Round 16
Fri Mar 24 KO 7:35pm
RDS Arena, Dublin
Live on: TG4, Premier Sports 1, Viaplay Xtra, URC.tv
Referee: Sam Grove-White (SRU)
AR 1: Peter Martin (IRFU)
AR 2: Keane Davison (IRFU)
TMO: Andrew McMenemy (SRU)
THIS WEEK’S GUESTS
CONOR CRONIN & CIAN O’MUILLEOIR
FULL TIME TAKES
Mark Jackson
Ryan Baird immense ..kudos must go to all coaches n staff and squad
10 tries conceeded in 2 6 Nations campaigns combined telling stat..hats off to Simon Easterby for defensive work especially
James Griffin
England brought physicality but not a lot of game nous. Ireland, while not always as precise as in previous games, matched their physicality but in addition, had good game management and made good decisions at crucial times. Delighted for the entire squad; a fully deserved slam.
Gavin Hegarty
Not a good Irish performance but always great to get a slam.
Up for discussion is where rugby is going. A red card should be for a malicious act, not for what steward did. His offence was a yellow at most.
MASTODON
Tim Stickland Congratulations Ireland. Great shift from Johnny Sexton. RWC looks fantastic with the French in great form too.
RichardMifsud It seems I’m required to force myself to have a celebratory #whiskey
FRONT FIVE ARTICLES
SIX NATIONS WRAP
ROUND 5
SCO 26-14 ITA
FRA 41-28 WAL
IRE 29-16 ENG
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🏉 IRELAND’S CAAAA…..
🏉 Centre, Backrow & Halfback options
🏉 ……..AAAAAAAA………
🏉 Italy’s improvement
🏉 …AAAAAAAAAAAAALL.
THIS WEEK’S GUESTS
PLUS A SPECIAL REPORT FROM RICH MIFSUD
FULL TIME TAKES
Imelda Reidy Great Italian performance. Job done. 5 points. On we roll.
Andrew Byrne Today showed one thing in particular, that Gary Ringrose is a world class operator and is streets ahead of the rest of them at playing outside centre. 12 and 13 are two very different positions, as shown by our defensive lapses today.
Alan Murphy Brilliant. Two teams playing the game in a positive way. Italy have really improved. Let’s be honest, some of our team today were 2-3rd choice and a few played out of position. We scored a bonus point, left some tries out there and also managed to think our way out of danger today. Previously we would have lost this game. Building strength in depth. So positive from me.
MASTODON
Joanne In fairness to Kieran Crowley, not only has he got Italy playing brilliantly, he’s got them believing too. So good to see and long may it continue.
Koochulainn Another win with a bonus point without conceding a losing bonus.
The performance wasn’t perfect, and Italy found some flaws in the defensive system, but you can’t get any more than five points.
Italy were great value for money too. After today and the 20s last night Italian rugby is heading in a good direction.
POTM Mack Hansen dropping an F bomb in the post match interview was a lovely coda
Colm Splendid match. Continued resurgence and improvement from Italy, and as usual this year, Ireland responded magnificently to pressure. Really looking forward to Murrayfield next month.
FRONT FIVE ARTICLES
6N RD 3 & URC ROUND 6 WRAP
ROUND 3
ITA 20-34 IRE
WAL 10-20 ENG
FRA 32-21 SCO
ROUND 4
MAR 11
ITA V WAL
ENG V FRA
MAR 12
SCO V IRE
ROUND 6
SHA 24-31 ULS
LIO 35-24 GLA
ROUND 15
MAR 3
GLA V ZEB
MUN V SCA
MAR 4
STO V SHA
BUL V LIO
EDI V LEI
OSP V BEN
DRA V CON
CAR V ULS
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Our guest : CONOR CRONIN
Leinster : 15. Jimmy O’Brien 14. Jordan Larmour 13. Liam Turner 12. Jamie Osborne 11. Dave Kearney 10. Harry Byrne 9. Luke McGrath
1. Michael Milne 2. John McKee 3. Michael Ala’alatoa 4. Ross Molony 5. Brian Deeny 6. Rhys Ruddock > CAPTAIN 7. Scott Penny 8. Max Deegan
16. Lee Barron 17. Jack Boyle 18. Thomas Clarkson 19. Jason Jenkins 20. Will Connors 21. Nick McCarthy 22. Charlie Tector 23. Rob Russell
Dragons RFC: 15 A O’Brien 14 Tomkinson 13 S Hughes 12 J Dixon 11 A Hewitt 10 W Reed 9 R Williams (c)
1 R Jones 2 B Coghlan 3 L Fairbrother 4 M Screech 5 B Carter 6 B Fry 7 T Basham 8 R Moriarty
16 J Benjamin 17 A Seiuli 18 C Coleman 19 S Lonsdale 20 R Woodman 21 L Jones 22 JJ Hanrahan 23 J Williams
BKT United Rugby Championship 2022/23
Round 14
Sat Feb 18 KO 7:35pm
RDS Arena
Referee: Mike Adamson (SRU)
AR 1: Oisin Quinn (IRFU)
AR 2: Sam Holt (IRFU)
TMO: Dave Sutherland (SRU)
Live on: RTÉ, S4C, Viaplay, Premier Sports, SuperSport, Discovery + & URC.tv
THIS WEEK’S GUESTS
FULL TIME TAKES
James Griffin
Given the travails experienced by the Murray family this past week, Conor showed immense fortitude and strength of character to even tog out today. Delighted for him and the whole squad! A fantastic performance.
Imelda Reidy
Some game. Outstanding from Ireland. There can be no argument now about the No. 1 team in the world. Need to drive on now and continue to improve. ☘☘
Gavin Hegarty
My god.what a game. We just got a bp over the second best team in the world.
Let’s not mention the definite red card.
Every man in green (bar Hanson in my view) was utterly outstanding.
Tom O’Toole, my god where did that come from? Was worried about bealham before the Wales games now we have three class tightheads.
Chuck Doris, world’s best 8. Completely outplayed alldrit.
Lowe’s try, Mon dieu c’est magnifique.
Take a bow Ireland, you have wrecked me.
MASTODON
Koochulainn @Koochulainn So that’s the “bogey match” and the “defacto title decider” out of the way Bring on the “gimme” (which isnt what it used to be), the “potential banana skin”, and the “Auld enemy”.
Séamus Mac an tSábhaisigh @jamessavage French rugby fans affronted by selective tv replays … #karma winning big games well but with clear room for improvement each time is a very exciting place to be.
FRONT FIVE ARTICLES
SIX NATIONS ROUND 2 WRAP
ROUND 2
IRE 32-19 FRA
SCO 35-7 WAL
ENG 31-14 ITA
FEB 25
ITA V IRE
WAL V ENG
FEB 26
FRA V SCO
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