Paul O'Connell drafts old ally Caroline Currid into Ireland set-up for Summer Tour
Paul O'Connell and Caroline Currid are working together once again with the renowned sports psychologist snapped up by the IRFU for the upcoming Summer Tour.
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Irish Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
The ban on Ireland players moving abroad is out of date and self-defeating
IRFU Performance Director David Humphreys is adamant the IRFU will not be granting permission to any players of interest to the Ireland international side to play abroad any time who move to play in another jurisdiction are and will remain automatically ruled out of at a time when double-World Cup winning Rassie Erasmus, who was all too familiar with the Ireland rule from his time at Munster, opened up Springbok selection on returning to South on the back of former Ireland coach Joe Schmidt, who also had first-hand knowledge of the Ireland system, having just opened up selection from foreign clubs for while slashing the Mens and Womens Sevens programmes, putting circa 30 athletes out of their full-time jobs - to make a saving of € while, for example, Leinster have 12 Lions, 12 touring with Ireland this summer, three front line foreigners, three significant players on the injury list and seven U20s starting against Georgia this is the log-jam when the province is at 'full-strength' it doesn't have first team jerseys for 2025 Six Nations stars such as Jimmy O'Brien, Jamie Osborn, Ciaran Frawley, Jack Boyle, Ronan Kelleher, Gus McCarthy, Thomas Clarkson, Ryan 2025 Ireland A internationals Tommy O'Brien, Max Deegan, Stephen Smith, Alex Soroka, Fintan Gunne and Harry in the interest of bringing through young talent, the time has come to release a valve at Leinster and the other provinces; allow certain players in certain categories (say over 32 years-of-age and, say, over 33 caps move abroad without being ruled out of Ireland in the interest of being morally right-on employers, the money saved by taking 4/5 players off the wage bill - €1.2m approximately - could have been used to keep the Sevens/Olympics programme in place - saving 30 dream-chasers jobs in the up. When this is put to IRFU Performance Director David Humphreys as a way of finding €1.2m, saving the Sevens/Olympics jobs, and helping with the log-jam of young players, he disagrees with me completely... "No," he says, leaving a pause and bringing a silence over the room such as when Mick Jagger announces 'now here's a sing we wrote recently..."No. We've talked about the competitiveness of our provinces not being where we want it to be if we were to let some of our top players go. "It's a question that we've talked about internally, we've discussed it internally."But actually when you look at the Irish system, one of the great strengths is our player welfare, our player management. "We want all our players playing into their early-to-mid-thirties, we want to give them every chance and we believe by what we have in each of our provinces by how we manage them throughout the course of the season. "That gives them the best opportunity to have a much longer career than perhaps if you let them go and play in other leagues. "For me at the minute, that is not something that's up for discussion. up for discussion. "We've considered it, we believe that it's a fundamental strength of the Irish rugby system and believe it will continue to be so."I don't expect the IRFU Performance Director to change my mind on this soon but I'd like to see those 30 jobs in sport restored and I'd like for 19/20/21/22 year-olds being given chances to breakthrough at Champions Cup and international I still secretly think Jordie Barrett got to spy on us for six months, was taking notes, and consequently the All Blacks were not damaged in the least but will actually benefit from his spell in should do the same; send front-rows to France, second-rows to South Africa, back-rows to New Zealand and outside backs to have them report back! Meanwhile in a week where Rassie Erasmus said he wanted three players for every position before he chooses his treble-attempting RWC 2027 squad... I'd like to see half-a-dozen more Irish youngsters being given their chance to impress - our current base is, as is repeatedly shown at Rugby World Cups, too thin.
Irish Times
a day ago
- Irish Times
Lions team has a ‘distinctly emerald tinge'
Just one more sleep until the Lions get their tour of Australia under way, Western Force their opponents in Perth on Saturday morning. And, as John O'Sullivan tells us, it'll be a heck of a day for Dan Sheehan who, in the absence of Maro Itoje, will captain the side, the first Irish player to be given that honour since Conor Murray in South Africa four years ago. And Sheehan is promising Western Force that the Lions will be as hungry for a victory as themselves , not least because 'this will be the first time I will be putting on the jersey, along with a few other lads'. There is, as Robert Kitson notes, 'a distinctly emerald tinge' to the Lions teamsheet for the game, but 'the most striking selection is the squad's uncut English diamond' , Henry Pollock. 'His character is infectious to everyone,' said Andy Farrell of the 20-year-old, 'he's certainly not overawed'. Gerry Thornley, meanwhile, talks to David Humphreys a year in to his role as IRFU high-performance manager , his chief challenge helping Munster, Connacht and Ulster close the gap on Leinster who, he says, 'are incredibly good at nearly everything'. Tommy O'Brien played no small part in Leinster's successful URC campaign , John hearing from the 27-year-old winger ahead of Ireland's test matches against Georgia and Portugal. READ MORE In Gaelic games, there's been quite the backlash over the manner in which Mayo parted company with Kevin McStay and his management team. They were, writes Malachy Clerkin, perfectly within their rights to come to their decision, but the way they did it was 'classless'. If Mayo have some soul-searching to do, so too do Limerick and Galway's hurlers after their championship exits, Joe Canning still struggling to make sense of Limerick's defeat by Dublin . They will, he writes, 'spend a long winter trying to work it out', while Galway 'have a lot of thinking to do as well'. In soccer, the Republic of Ireland had a torrid time of it against the United States in Denver, their 4-0 defeat making it 16 losses in 16 games against the world's top ranked nation. And back home, Paul Buttner talks to Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley who is expecting his players to put Monday night's chastening 2-0 defeat to Bohemians behind them when Waterford visit Tallaght this evening. In racing, ahead of Sunday's Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby, Brian O'Connor looks at the 'fading grandeur' of Ireland's premier classic , 'the underlying problem commercial breeding prejudice against middle-distance ability', and wonders if cutting it to 1¼ miles would help its cause. And in tennis, 'Like Bob Dylan almost 60 years ago, Wimbledon is going electric'. As Johnny Watterson tells us, 'you cannot be serious' was the most common reaction when it was announced that 'artificial intelligence would be taking over from the Homo sapiens' - for the first time in the tournament's 148-year history, there will be no line judges. The pity is that John McEnroe isn't still playing. Oh to see him argue with a machine. TV Watch : Sky continues its golf coverage from the Italian Open (from 12.30 this afternoon), the LPGA Dow Championship (from 4.0) and the Rocket Mortgage Classic (from 5.30) where Conor Purcell, Leona Maguire and Séamus Power are, respectively, in action. From 5.10, TG4 brings coverage from The Curragh, and at 7.45 Virgin Media Two has the Premier Division meeting of Cork City and St Patrick's Athletic.
RTÉ News
a day ago
- RTÉ News
Josh Murphy added to Ireland squad after Tom Ahern injury scare
Connacht second row Josh Murphy has linked up with the Ireland squad this week as a precaution, with Munster's Tom Ahern dealing with an injury scare ahead of the summer Tests against Georgia and Portugal next month. Ahern is dealing with "hamstring tightness", according to an update from the IRFU, although he remains in contention to make his Ireland debut in the coming weeks. The Waterford forward, who can play second and back row, has been on the verge of an Ireland debut for the last two seasons where he has impressed for Munster, scoring 11 tries in 41 games in those campaigns. Murphy linked up with the squad this week as they continue their preparations for the Tests on 5 and 12 July. The 30-year-old will train with Ireland in the coming days, although he is not expected to travel to Tbilisi with the group next Wednesday, barring a setback with Ahern's hamstring. Murphy joined Connacht in the summer of 2022 after playing 61 times for Leinster in the five previous years. He played 18 games in his debut season out west, helping Connacht to the semi-finals of the URC, but spent 2024/25 out of professional rugby to further his medical studies while togging out with Clontarf in the Energia All Ireland League. Upon returning to Connacht last summer, he was a near ever present in their pack, making 21 appearances and scoring four tries in all competitions. Murphy is one of six training panellists supplementing Paul O'Connell's squad of 32, ahead of facing Georgia on 5 July, and Portugal in Lisbon on 12 July.
