IRELAND SECOND ROW Ryan Baird will today discover if the red card he received during Saturday’s U20 World Championship defeat to Australia will end his tournament.
Baird was sent-off by referee Christopher Ridley during the first half of Ireland’s pool defeat to the Junior Wallabies in Santa Fe for a high tackle on out-half Will Harrison.
Baird was given his marching orders. Source: Pablo Gasparini/INPHO
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In the 21st minute, Leinster lock Baird flew out of Ireland’s defensive line to hit Harrison but he connected with his opponent’s head, leaving Ridley and his TMO to decide that there was a ‘high level of force and danger.’
After video recourse with his TMO, Ridley said ‘I’ve no choice but to give a red card’ and dismissed Baird, with 14-man Ireland eventually running out of steam to suffer a 45-17 defeat.
Baird will today appear at a hearing before an independent World Rugby Disciplinary Committee chaired by José Luis Rolandi [Argentina], along with Stefan Terblanche [former South African player] and Valeriu Toma [former Romanian referee], in Rosario to discover his fate.
Ahead of Tuesday’s final pool outing against Italy, and with Sean French and Iwan Hughes already gone home through injury, Noel McNamara will also be anxiously waiting on news of Ronan Watters’ fitness after he was forced off on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Jake Flannery has been issued with a citing commissioner warning for a lifting tackle on Australia prop Angus Bell. The Ireland out-half was found to be in breach of Law 9.18.
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John Fallon reports from Manchester
IRFU PERFORMANCE DIRECTOR David Nucifora said that the progress made by the Irish side in reaching the World Rugby U20 Championship final for the first time is a huge boost.
Nucifora, who flew from South Africa to attend Monday night’s 37-7 semi-final win over Argentina, said the success was down to the work of the coaching team headed by Nigel Carolan and the players.
“It’s fantastic, it’s fantastic for these boys. They put in a lot of work and they deserved that result they got and I am sure they are going to be looking forward to playing a World Cup final,” he said.
“Obviously the job that Nigel and the rest of the coaching staff has done to bring them together as a collective has been fantastic and they deserve a lot of credit as well. It’s been a really good effort. It’s great for Irish rugby to be represented at this level.”
He also attended the opening night win over Wales before travelling on to South Africa for the Tests against the Springboks.
And he noted how the senior players were paying close attention to the performances of the U20′s in Manchester.
Source: Ryan Byrne/INPHO
“They have seen all of the games. There’s a good spirit within Irish Rugby and it really gets people excited back home for these guys,” he added.
“The more of these young fellas that we can get ready for this level, the sooner the better.
Nucifora said that playing in these sort of tournaments was a great stepping stone to senior rugby and he’s pleased with the rate of improvement in players individually and as a team as they prepare for Saturday’s final against England at the AJ Bell Stadium.
“You are learning from playing at a higher level of the game and you see some boys who have improved tremendously since the start of the Six Nations.
“They get it, they understand what is involved at competing at this high level of the game. That is why benchmarking ourselves at this age is really important, and players benefit enormously from it.”
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GUINNESS PRO12 CHAMPIONS Connacht will open their title defence against last year’s semi-finalists Glasgow Warriors after the fixtures for the new season were announced this afternoon.
Pat Lam’s side will begin their campaign against Glasgow at the Galway Sportsground on Friday 2 September while Leinster will face Treviso, Ulster will hosts the Dragons and Munster will travel to the Scarlets.
The 2016/17 season will see six ‘Big Weekends’ spread across the year that will comprise of intra-union derby matches while Friday evening games will be played at the new regular ‘appointment-to-view’ time of 7.35pm.
The first ‘Big Weekend’ of the season will take place in Round 6 with the clash between Leinster and Munster at the Aviva Stadium the headline act. Connacht will welcome Ulster to Galway while there will be two Welsh derbies and two clashes between the Scottish and Italian sides.
“We are delighted to announce the fixture list, as well as the designated broadcasters for the first 13 rounds, ahead of what promises to be a truly special Guinness Pro12 season,” Martin Anayi, managing director of Pro12 Rugby, said.
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“With 70 of the first 78 matches scheduled for live television, we have more free-to-air matches than ever before, while the majority of Friday night fixtures will be at the regular timeslot of 7.35pm, which our fans tell us is their preferred slot.
70 of the opening 78 games are being shown live. Source: James Crombie/INPHO
“Our aim is to develop a schedule that puts the fan experience first and gives our clubs the best chance of bumper crowds coming to watch our star players in the biggest games of the season. Now our fans will get to experience big weekend atmospheres with mouth-watering fixtures spread across the whole season.
“For example, we have ensured that all teams have a home match in either Round 1 or 2, and in one of the last two rounds. Also, no club has three consecutive home or away matches – lending the competition a far better balance.”
The Pro12 final will take place on Saturday 27 May 2017 with the venue to be announced in due course.
Guinness Pro12 2016/17 Round 1 fixtures:
Friday, 2 September 2016 (7.35pm kick-off unless otherwise stated)
Leinster Rugby v Benetton TrevisoOspreys v Zebre RugbyUlster Rugby v Newport Gwent Dragons
Saturday, 3 September 2016
Cardiff Blues v Edinburgh Connacht Rugby v Glasgow Warriors (5.15pm)Scarlets v Munster Rugby (3pm)
Full fixture list available here
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Montpellier 21
Connacht 19
John Fallon reports from Saint-Affrique
CONNACHT GOT THEIR season up and running with a useful run out against Montpellier in the Challenge Vaquerin in Saint-Affrique.
Conditions were perfect in the small French town in the Massif Central and both sides ran in three tries apiece in a good encounter during which both squads were fully utilised.
It didn’t take Montpellier long to let Connacht know that the new season is up and running with Australian scrum-half Nic White running in the opening try after just 21 seconds.
Ben Botica, making his debut since his summer move from Harlequins, added the easy conversion.
But the Pro12 champions settled and Cian Kelleher crowned his debut with a try in the right corner after 14 minutes after an excellent offload from another newcomer Cormac Brennan from Ballyvaughan in Co Clare, the latest to come out of the Connacht academy.
Jack Carty kicks a conversion. Source: Ryan Byrne/INPHO
Irish-qualified New Zealander Dominic Robertson-McCoy also made a good debut in a side which marked Eoin Griffin’s first game back after a couple of seasons with London Irish.
Montpellier, who also picked up their first silverware last season when they won the European Challenger Cup, used a different 15 in each half in what was their only warm-up game before the Top 14 kicks off next weekend.
They led 14-7 at the break after Fijian international No.8 Akapusi Qera crossed 12 minutes from the break.
Connacht also made wholesale changes at the break with Nepia Fox-Matamua, back for his first game since suffering a knee injury in October, getting in for a try just minutes after the restart after a period of sustained pressure.
Arno Van Wyk, one of the most recent South Africans to join Jake White’s Montpellier, got their third try but winger Brennan, after some neat footwork, marked his debut with a score of his own.
New signing Lewis Stevenson also made his Connacht debut off the bench, with Irish sevens player Josh Rowland from New Zealand also making his bow.
Niyi Adeolokun breaks through. Source: Ryan Byrne/INPHO
Montpellier scorers:
Tries: N White, A Qera, A Van Wyk
Cons: B Botica (2), D Catrakilis.
Connacht scorers:
Tries: C Kelleher, N Fox-Matamua, C Brennan
Cons: J Carty, S O’Leary.
Connacht:
15. Cian Kelleher
14. Niyi Adeolokun
13. Eoin Griffin
12. Bundee Aki
11. Cormac Brennan
10. Jack Carty
9. Caolin Blade
1. Denis Buckley
2. Dave Heffernan
3. Dominic Robertson-McCoy
4. Sean O’Brien
5. Danny Qualter
6. Eoin McKeon
7. Jake Heenan
8. John Muldoon (captain)
Replacements used: Shane Delahunt, Tom McCartney, Ivan Soroka, Ronan Loughney, Saba Meunargia, JP Cooney, Cian Romaine, Lewis Stevenson, James Connolly, Nepia Fox-Matamua, Conor McKeon, Conor Lowndes, Shane O’Leary, Ed O’Keeffe, Peter Robb, Rory Parata, Josh Rowland.
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IAN MADIGAN SAYS that the demands of the French rugby season are going to mean that he will be rotated throughout a gruelling campaign which could run to well over 30 games for the club.
Madigan came off the bench for Bordeaux-Begles on Saturday night in Toulouse but a couple of penalties and setting up their opening try of the season was not enough to prevent a 22-17 loss.
Bordeaux-Begles, who will host Ulster in the opening game of the Champions Cup in October, made wholesale changes to the side which defeated champions Racing 92, but Madigan was drafted before the break when former French international Lionel Beauxis was injured.
“Lionel is a really good player, a proven French international. The first game of the season was tough so they rotated quite a lot of guys, nine changes in all,” said Madigan.
“Lionel went well in preseason and deserved his start but unfortunately I think he has now picked up a bang on his quad so that will have to be assessed and see how he is. It is a very long season and you have got to rely on your squad.
“You have 26 regular season then, hopefully, another three knockout games and then throw in Europe on top of that and you are getting into the 30s so you need to be able to rotate your squad and rely on the 40 guys you have got there.”
Madigan has settled in well after his summer move from Leinster and with successive home games to come against Montpellier and Bayonne, he is hoping to make a mark.
“We were happy to come away with a point from a position where we were 10 points down with 10 minutes to go away from home, to score a late try and get a losing bonus point was a positive for us.”
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It was a poor weekend for the Irish in France, although Ronan O’Gara’s Racing 92 got off the mark with a 29-16 home win over promoted Lyon.
But Bernard Jackman’s Grenoble fell to a second defeat, this time going down 22-19 at home to La Rochelle, with Brock James impressing for the visitors after his move from Clermont Auvergne.
Former Ulster centre Chris Farrell and Connacht lock Aly Muldowney started for Grenoble, who led 13-12 at the break.
Pau, coached by former Munster assistant Simon Mannix, also fell to a second defeat when they lost 22-18 at home to Toulon. Former Munster players Paddy Butler and James Coughlan started in a back row which was completed by England exile Steffon Armitage, playing against his former club after a summer move.
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THE STRENGTH AND conditioning sphere is an ever-growing one in Irish sport and Ed Slattery, who works with the Ireland women’s rugby team, is hopeful that a new event can contribute to the educational process.
Slattery is running the 2016 Athletic Performance Seminar in Dublin on 8 October, when the likes of Connacht’s Paul Bunce, Neil Welch of the Sports Surgery Clinic, and the IRFU’s Martin Kennedy and Marian Earls will be among the speakers.
Connacht’s Paul Bunce is one of the key speakers. Source: James Crombie/INPHO
“I think the knowledge base is definitely increasing, and that’s only a good thing,” says Slattery of strength and conditioning in Ireland.
“It’s definitely a booming industry and in a lot of ways it’s almost bottlenecking in that there are more and more people getting qualified but the number of professional jobs is limited.
“The knowledge is improving, but it’s a case of picking and choosing knowledge. You can go on the internet to look up a topic and become overwhelmed very quickly by the amount of information that’s out there. I think picking and choosing your sources is important.”
Slattery is confident that the Athletic Performance Seminar can be a valuable and affordable source for S&C coaches around Ireland, particularly with some of the best practitioners in the country featuring on the list of guests.
“Sometimes we look too much to the outside, to the US and the UK for what they’re doing,” says Slattery about how the idea for the event came about.
“Obviously, they are doing great work in strength and conditioning, but I think we sometimes neglect to look inside our own country to see what’s going on.
“A guy like Neil Welch is a phenomenal coach, an expert when it comes to dealing with injuries, but maybe doesn’t really get any recognition here. Paul Bunce has been with Connacht through the Pro12 success, so it’s interesting to see how they did that.
“It’s about looking inside Ireland and saying, ‘We have got really good coaches working here, let’s look at what they’re doing.’”
Slattery himself has developed on home soil, completing his S&C degree in the Setanta College at LIT Thurles, while also volunteering with Munster’s U19 and U18 Clubs sides.
Marian Earls is on the seminar’s guest list. Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO
He took on an internship at the Sports Surgery Clinic in Dublin upon graduating, before his current role with the Ireland Women opened up. Just over a year later, he is thankful to have a professional S&C job and to have worked with many experts around the country.
The theme of the seminar in Dublin next month is ‘Individualising and Evaluating Your Athletic Development Program,’ and Slattery is excited about the insight the likes of Bunce can provide in this area.
“It’s definitely growing a lot,” says Slattery of individualisation in rugby S&C. “For example, it was a goal of the Connacht S&C department last year to increase their individualisation.
“It maybe gets exaggerated and sometimes people want to see a squad or 30 or 40 players on 30 or 40 completely different programmes.
“Realistically, you probably have one main programme for a block and then you tinker and tailor it to each individual player. It might be small things like one player doing a deadlift while another does a squat. It might be a case of one player working on strength, with another working for power depending on their requirements.
“It’s about the athletes achieving their priority goals. It can be tough if you have a team of 30 or 40 players and limited time; how do you manage to actually do that individualisation? So we will cover that on the day.”
Working alongside the highly-regarded Earls, Slattery gets hands-on experience of the importance of individualisation every day with the Ireland Women.
“We fitness tested last week,” he says. “With those results and the results from the strength tests a few weeks prior, we’ll track priorities with players.
“With some players, it’s aerobic fitness they need to develop; with other players they are weak for their position and need to continue developing their strength. We’ll make small adjustments to their programmes.
The Ireland Women in the gym at the 2014 World Cup. Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO
“We trained this morning, for example, and we had one large block that was the template for the programme, but within that certain players did specific exercises or maybe different reps or tempos through the exercise to target their individual goals.”
Knowing that “coaching is not a massively-paid job,” Slattery was keen for the seminar to be affordable.
While visits from high-profile coaches from abroad often mean €200 for a day-long event or even €400 for a weekend, tickets for the Athletic Performance Seminar – running from 9am to 4.30pm on 8 October – are available at €80 on an early bird basis.
“We’re going to be talking about the evaluation of a programme, in terms of what needs to be done, where do I need to get a player to, and how do I structure the programme in order to achieve that?” explains Slattery.
“We’re going to look at injury management – so injury prevention strategies for the most common injuries and then how do you individualise that injury prevention? If you have a squad of 30 players, how can you structure that prevention system to get to each player’s weakness?
“We’ll look at managing the individual through competition phases, so Martin Kennedy will speak about his time with the Ireland U20s at the World Cup and two All-Ireland trophies with Dublin.
“Paul is going to speak on fitting that individualisation into the programme itself and then how you evaluate the programme. Connacht won the Pro12; does that mean the S&C programme worked?
“You can’t just take the trophy and say it worked; how do you look at it and evaluate if you accomplished what you wanted to accomplish?”
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DAVID POCOCK WILL miss the rest of the Rugby Championship after breaking his hand in Australia’s 36-20 win over Argentina in Perth on Saturday.
The back-row forward requires surgery on the injury and he could also be a doubt for the Wallabies’ tour of Europe, with the squad set to depart on October 22.
Pocock was substituted in the 36th minute against the Pumas, Australia coach Michael Cheika revealing the 28-year-old tried to continue despite the injury.
“It was quite swollen so it was hard for him to move his hands,” said Cheika.
“He wanted to play through, I had to take him off.”
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Pocock announced on social media he will undergo surgery on his hand when the swelling around the injury has reduced.
“Really disappointed to be ruled out of #RugbyChampionship,” Pocock wrote on Twitter.
“Surgery on my hand once the swelling goes down. Thanks for all the support.”
New Zealand have already wrapped up the Rugby Championship title, partly due to their pair of victories over Australia.
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CONNACHT HEAD COACH Andy Friend admitted he is relieved his side are still in control of their own Pro14 play-off destiny after escaping from Parma with a 6-5 win in a bruising encounter on Saturday evening.
The 6-5 win over Zebre, Connacht’s first away victory in the Pro14 since winning in Bloemfontein at the start of December, sets them up for a showdown with fellow contenders Cardiff Blues next Saturday at the Sportsground.
Victory for Connacht there will secure a play-off place in the league for the first time since winning it three years ago and also guarantee automatic qualification for next season’s Heineken Champions Cup.
“There is a lot of energy expended out there,” said Friend, after two Jack Carty penalties in the opening quarter were enough to see them over the line at Stadio Lanfranchi.
“We move on to Cardiff now in control of our position.”
Zebre, with former Connacht coach Michael Bradley in charge, got the only try of the game when Italian winger Mattia Bellini scored three minutes after the restart.
They defended stoutly and held Connacht out with Darragh Leader’s touchdown after 55 minutes ruled out for a forward pass in the build-up.
Connacht will have Irish internationals Bundee Aki and Quinn Roux back for Saturday’s showdown and left Parma on Sunday morning with only one new injury concern.
“Tom Farrell got a bit of a poke in the eye. We think he is going to be fine, we just need to see,” Friend added.
“But I think we got out of that game pretty clean and now we move on.”
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FORMER LEINSTER AND Ireland centre Gordon D’Arcy has little sympathy for the controversy both Israel Folau and Billy Vunipola became embroiled in last week.
Folau last week shared an image on Instagram warning “hell awaits you” to “drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists, idolators,” a move that flouted a warning issued by Rugby Australia last year about the homophobic content of his social media output.
Today, Folau has signalled he will contest the breach notice issued by his employers on Monday. Meanwhile, England and Saracens number 8 Vunipola has rowed back from comments he made in support of Folau’s stance after being issued a formal warning by his club.
Folau at Waratahs training last month. Source: AAP/PA Images
Many have argued that Folau and Vunipola should be permitted to broadcast their biblical interpretations as freedom of religion. D’Arcy does not disagree, but stresses that sport as an inclusive aspect of life, ought to be protected from such divisive language.
“Sport by it’s very nature is inclusive. It’s person-agnostic. It doesn’t care who you are,” D’Arcy said at the launch of the Aviva Stadium Tour.
“Sport is people coming together for an experience, in this case it happens to be rugby, once you step away from sport your actions outside of that have consequences if you want to continue to participate in sport.
“At a very basic level, if you start putting labels onto people in sport, you break down the fabric of what sport is. I don’t think there’s any ambiguity on that. People are entitled to believe whatever they want, but if you want to participate in sport – which is inclusive by its very nature – you need to understand that and participate in that.”
D’Arcy on hand to launch the new and improved Aviva Stadium Tour, providing fans with a unique behind the scenes experience the stadium giving them first-hand experience of what matchday is like for international football and rugby players. Source: James Crombie/INPHO
He added: “Sport can’t have labels, barriers… and if you don’t want to participate within those parameters, fine. But there are ramifications to your actions if you don’t.
“Even when you get into a team (are you asking): ‘how could I play rugby with that guy’ or ‘trust that person’?
“What if there is a person on his team who is gay and hasn’t come out or one of the many things he doesn’t agree with? How do they function under the banner of sport? Because that’s not inclusive.”
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