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No Will Skelton for Wallabies as Champion de Crespigny gets surprise debut

No Will Skelton for Wallabies as Champion de Crespigny gets surprise debut

Irish Examiner17-07-2025
Nick Champion de Crespigny will make a surprise Wallabies debut in the British & Irish Lions opener, while Rob Valetini and Will Skelton were omitted with injuries.
The 29-year-old flanker, who played for Castres Olympique in France in recent seasons, slots into the back row next to captain and No 8 Harry Wilson and Fraser McReight.
Champion de Crespigny is one of just two uncapped players in Joe Schmidt's match-day squad, and had surged into calculations after injury to pivotal backrower Valetini and the in-form Langi Gleeson.
Schmidt has backed 22-year-old Tom Lynagh to steer the ship in a new-look halves combination with Jake Gordon.
Ben Donaldson will provide backline backup on the bench, with Schmidt resisting the temptation to recall veteran James O'Connor, who wore the No 10 in all three Tests 12 years ago. Hooker Matt Faessler returns after a last-start hat-trick in gold, having started for the Reds instead of playing against Fiji in his comeback from a hamstring injury.
Uncapped Andrew Kellaway has bumped Filipo Daugunu off a new-look bench that includes hooker Billy Pollard, scrumhalf Tate McDermott, prop Tom Robertson and flankers Tom Hooper and Carlo Tizzano. James Slipper will join George Smith as the only Wallabies to feature in back-to-back Lions series in the professional era while Wilson has retained the captaincy.
Canberra-raised Champion de Crespigny returned from a Top 14 stint with Castres Olympique to play for the Western Force this season to join the back of a bulging queue of contenders.
But, with two-time defending John Eales medallist Valetini and Gleeson on ice – former captain Liam Wright (shoulder) is also out of the picture – he'll be asked to dent a Lions line that has enjoyed five relatively comfortable wins since arriving in the country late last month.
Lynagh hasn't played since the Reds lost their Super Rugby quarter-final in early June, with a broken hand ruling him out of the Fiji Test.
The Italy-born, England-raised playmaker finished school and moved to Australia in 2021 and has flourished under Wallabies coach-in-waiting Les Kiss as the Queensland Reds' main man for the last two years. He will make Australian rugby history as the first father-son Wallabies to face the Lions after Michael Lynagh wore the No 10 against the Lions in 1989.
'The whole squad has worked hard as a group to prepare for what's going to be a massive challenge against an in-form Lions team,' Schmidt said.
'With the short runway leading up to such a big test match, we know we must adapt fast and improve quickly, from the performance we had against Fiji recently. We're very much aware of the occasion and conscious of earning the support from the public through the effort they see on the field.' The Lions will name their side later on Thursday, when it's expected coach Andy Farrell will confirm son and four-time tourist Owen will not be part of the match-day 23.
WALLABIES: James Slipper, Matt Faessler, Allan Alaalatoa, Nick Frost, Jeremy Williams, Nick Champion de Crespigny, Fraser McReight, Harry Wilson (c), Jake Gordon, Tom Lynagh, Harry Potter, Len Ikitau, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Max Jorgensen, Tom Wright. Bench: Billy Pollard, Angus Bell, Tom Robertson, Tom Hooper, Carlo Tizzano, Tate McDermott, Ben Donaldson, Andrew Kellaway.
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Clodagh Finn: They called Maeve Kyle a disgrace to motherhood — then she became an Irish Olympic icon
Clodagh Finn: They called Maeve Kyle a disgrace to motherhood — then she became an Irish Olympic icon

Irish Examiner

time3 hours ago

  • Irish Examiner

Clodagh Finn: They called Maeve Kyle a disgrace to motherhood — then she became an Irish Olympic icon

Maeve Kyle, the multi-sport athlete and three-time Olympian who died on Wednesday, often told the story of the outrage that greeted her selection to compete in the Melbourne Olympics in 1956. The sting of the condemnation in a particularly virulent letter to the editor in The Irish Times stayed with her. You can almost visualise the curled-lipped indignation of its writer as he (or perhaps she) spat these words on the page: 'A sports field is no place for a woman'. Sending a woman — and a married one at that — to represent Ireland at the Games was 'most unbecoming, unseemly and degrading of womenfolk. It must not be countenanced on any grounds.' The letter was signed Vox Populi, a sign-off that was both arrogant and cowardly; here was a person willing to represent the voice of the people yet felt the need to hide behind a pen name, although that pseudonym was in regular use at the time. It is also fair to say that the sentiment reflected a widespread belief that Maeve Kyle was indeed a 'disgrace to motherhood', as she described it later herself. Even her own parents-in-law were opposed to her jetting off to Melbourne, leaving her husband (and coach) Sean and their young daughter Shauna behind. 'They never congratulated me. They never asked me how I did and they lived next door. It was quite extraordinary,' she said in an expansive and beautiful interview with Eoin O'Callaghan published in this paper in 2016. HISTORY HUB If you are interested in this article then no doubt you will enjoy exploring the various history collections and content in our history hub. Check it out HERE and happy reading And yet, you'll find evidence of early support for burgeoning female talent in places where you might not expect to find it. Who, for instance, would have imagined that Éamon de Valera, a man not known for championing women's sports, would be one of Maeve Kyle's early admirers? After winning a race at Trinity College in Dublin in the early 1950s, she got a message to say de Valera would like to meet her. 'I was brought into the enclosure and there he was. 'A fine race you ran', he said. I was gobsmacked that he was even talking to me. And then he said, 'Unusual for women' — I always remember that Whatever the early reservations in the press and society at large, it wasn't long before Maeve Kyle's sporting prowess blasted them away. If you scroll back through the coverage of her athletics and hockey careers, the tone changes very quickly. By the early 1960s, the newspapers were already celebrating 'each illustrious chapter in her success story' with glee. Maeve Kyle at home in Galgorm, Ballymena. And what success. It is difficult to summarise the scale and sweep of her achievements. Here is a potted summary of the sporting life of Kilkenny-born Maeve Kyle who died this week at the age of 96. She was our first track Olympian, representing Ireland in the 100m and 200m sprints in Melbourne in 1956, the year Ronnie Delany won gold in the 1500m. She competed in the Rome Olympics in 1960 and, in 1964, reached the semi-finals of both the 400m and 800m in Tokyo. She went on to win bronze in the 400m at the 1966 European Indoor Championships in Dortmund, Germany. In parallel, she chalked up an incredible 58 hockey caps for Ireland, and was named in the World All Star team in 1953 and 1959. She also competed in tennis, swimming, sailing and cricket. The tributes this week acknowledge her lasting legacy as a coach too. With her husband Sean, she set up the Ballymena & Antrim Athletics Club and she was involved in a fourth Olympic Games as coach to the Irish track and field team at Sydney 2000. In a tribute, John T Glover, coach and 'athletics nut' as he calls himself, captured something of the fortitude needed to, first, compete as an athlete and, then, carve out a space for others to do so. 'Maeve was often referred to as the 'Kilkenny Kitten', a sobriquet which was only half appropriate. Maeve was no 'kitten' and there were few in the sport who did not experience the sharp tongue of Mrs Kyle. But it was through her effervescent enthusiasm, innovation and doggedness that women's athletics developed. Competitions like the Top Ten, Top Town, indoor Track and Field in gyms and sports halls and of course the Celtic International were all down to her.' Recognition Her incomparable talent and contribution were widely acknowledged in her lifetime, which is the right time for it; no point leaving the glory until after the person has left us. There were a slew of awards. The one that comes to mind is the 2012 Irish Times/Sport Ireland Lifetime Achievement award because of its many Olympic echoes. It was presented by her teammate and friend, Ronnie Delany, who paid this tribute: 'She has achieved so many firsts, not forgetting the first Irish woman to set an indoor world record. Most of all she's a dear friend, and a pleasure and privilege to know.' That was also the year boxer Katie Taylor won Olympic gold, but there was another reflection of Irish Games glory which passed under the radar at the time. On April 10, 2012, Tipperary-born Olympian fencer Dorothy 'Tommy' Dermody died. She was one of five women on the 83-member Irish team at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, and she held the distinction of being Ireland's oldest living Olympian until she died age 102. She was also Games Mistress at Alexandra College Dublin where she taught one Maeve Kyle. (On an aside, she picked up the name 'Tommy' while travelling with her father, William, on his frequent trips away as a ship's captain. He was permitted just one female passenger — his wife Julia — so, in order to come along, Dorothy cut her hair and disguised herself as a boy called 'Tommy'. The name stuck). Like her student, Dorothy Dermody was gifted in several sporting disciplines. She represented Ireland in diving, lacrosse and squash, accomplishments which Sean Kyle referenced to persuade his wife of two years to consider competing in her first Olympics. You could say that was an early case of 'If you see it, you can be it', but what emerges from reading interviews with Maeve Kyle — thankfully, there are many — is that sport was innate to her. She offered this evocative vignette to the Irish Examiner in the aforementioned interview: 'My first sports memories are playing handball in a covered alley against my two younger brothers — I used to beat them because they were slower than me. The handball gave me fantastic hand-eye coordination. "I played touch rugby with the boys. I played hockey with the boys. I swam in the river with the boys. I was convinced I was a boy, too — living in a boy's school (her father CG Shankey was headmaster at Kilkenny College) with two brothers." When, aged 13, she told her father that she'd like to compete in the school sports day, he said he had not planned to put on a girl's event, so she just ran against the boys — and won! By then, she was a student at Alexandra College in Dublin and was living with her grandparents at the Provost's House, number 1 Grafton St, in Trinity College. Her grandfather, William Edward Thrift, was provost. I hadn't known that before, nor that Maeve Kyle had briefly studied medicine at the college. She later switched to natural sciences partly because she fancied someone in the class, or so she joked at one point. In an inglorious week when the focus has been on the Molly Malone statue on Suffolk St — and her poor, groped breasts — it would be the perfect time to honour this norm-shattering trailblazer at her former alma mater a stone's throw away. The Eavan Boland Library, the first building on Trinity's campus to be named after a woman in 2024, could do with a teammate.

Andy Farrell's second Test experience should serve Lions well against Australia side with 'nothing to lose'
Andy Farrell's second Test experience should serve Lions well against Australia side with 'nothing to lose'

Irish Examiner

time4 hours ago

  • Irish Examiner

Andy Farrell's second Test experience should serve Lions well against Australia side with 'nothing to lose'

There is not much in rugby that Andy Farrell has not seen before and he has been on both sides of the ledger at the midway point in a three-Test series. The British & Irish Lions take a 1-0 lead into Saturday's second Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. It is an iconic stadium which will be packed with an estimated 95,000 supporters, a huge number of whom will be hoping the side they have travelled to watch from the other end of the world can secure a first series victory in a dozen years without the need for a deciding leg. The home side's beleaguered supporters clearly have a different objective for their Wallabies and Farrell understands the situation they are in. It was as Ireland's defence coach here in Melbourne, not too far down the road from the MCG, that he and Joe Schmidt plotted a comeback from an 18-9 series-opening defeat to Australia up in Brisbane seven days earlier. Ireland won at the AAMI Stadium that night and went on to seal the series in Sydney a week later and it was four years later in New Zealand that Farrell the Ireland head coach summoned another reversal of fortune against the All Blacks having been beaten soundly at Eden Park in the first Test. His experience in those situations should serve the Lions well as they go up against an Australian team now coached by Schmidt and boosted by the return from injury of powerhouse forwards Will Skelton and Rob Valetini. Now Farrell is the one seeking to protect a 1-0 lead following last Saturday's 27-19 win at Suncorp Stadium and on Thursday, having named a side showing three changes from the Brisbane Test, he assessed the current balance of pressure in the series, between a team looking to get the job done and another fighting to stay alive. 'I suppose, when you're in the opposite camp - and I've been in that type of situation many times, playing a three-game series - everyone thinks you've got everything to lose,' the Lions head coach said, 'but you get yourself to a stage where you've got nothing to lose, because everything has to be put out there. Tommy Freeman, Head Coach Andy Farrell, Assistant Coach Simon Easterby, Jamie George, Huw Jones and Ben Earl. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan. 'You ask more of yourself. Your all is given. And that's what these type of situations bring out in you. 'But from our point of view, we need to back what we believe is our potential within our side, and making sure that we're accurate with our game, and that's accuracy in all single areas, including physicality, etc. 'So we believe that we understand what type of team we're chasing, and we think if we're able to put that out on the field, that should be good enough to put us in with a good shout at winning the game.' Wallabies hopes going into this pivotal game lie in their strong finish to the first Test, when a strong collective bench performance outgunned the Lions' replacements to rally from 24-5 down after 42 minutes to leave the tourists needing a late penalty from Marcus Smith to provide some insurance in an eight-point victory. With extra physicality from Valetini and Skelton, it points to a stronger Wallabies performance and the Lions have been aware of that since they came off the pitch in Brisbane a week ago. Farrell doubled down on that as he replaced Sione Tuipulotu with Bundee Aki at inside centre and swapped in last week's back-up loosehead Andrew Porter to start with possibly the stronger finishing Ellis Genge moving to the bench. With Ollie Chessum replacing an injured Joe McCarthy in the second row, the bench also sees a first Lions Test opportunity for lock James Ryan, while flanker Jac Morgan is named as back-row replacement at the expense of Ben Earl. The wise, older head of Owen Farrell has also been drafted onto the bench for Test action in his fourth Lions tour and will also be leaned on to see the Lions through any sticky patches. 'During victory you get an opportunity to be unbelievably honest and show each other just how much you can improve and there has been nothing but that this week as far as honesty is concerned, about where we can get to,' Farrell said. 'We certainly feel we left a few things out there, most aspects of our game will need to better but it is proving to ourselves it can be better as well.' Last week's second-half woes, when the Lions allowed the Wallabies back into the game after Dan Sheehan had finished an excellent attacking move on 42 minutes to give them a commanding 19-point lead, were attributed to a dip in focus, and a dropping off in intent. 'Not intensity, doing things properly,' Farrell clarified, 'that is what we have talked about all week, what it looks like for us and the expectation that has to happen the majority of the time. 'We are realists, we are all human and we realise it is not going to be perfect all of the time. It is not going to be a perfect 85-minute performance but staying on it as much as we can will give us a better chance of getting what we want. 'But this game might be completely different, we might have a role reversal and we have to adapt and be honest with ourselves and stay on point if we are in front, if we are behind, things going your way, not going your way. It is just staying honest as long as we possibly can.' This is a Lions team on a mission and first series win since 2013 beckons, sooner rather than later. AUSTRALIA: T Wright; M Jorgensen, J Suaalii, L Ikitau, H Potter; T Lynagh, J Gordon; J Slipper, D Porecki, A Alaalatoa; N Frost, W Skelton; R Valetini, F McReight, H Wilson – captain. Replacements: B Pollard, A Bell, T Robertson, J Williams, L Gleeson, C Tizzano, T McDermott, B Donaldson. BRITISH & IRISH LIONS: H Keenan (Ireland); T Freeman (England), H Jones (Scotland), B Aki (Ireland), J Lowe (Ireland); F Russell (Scotland), J Gibson-Park (Ireland); A Porter (Ireland), D Sheehan (Ireland), T Furlong (Ireland); M Itoje (England) – captain, O Chessum (England); T Beirne (Ireland), T Curry (England), J Conan (Ireland). Replacements: R Kelleher (Ireland), E Genge (England), W Stuart (England), J Ryan (Ireland), J Morgan (Wales), A Mitchell (England), O Farrell (England), B Kinghorn (Scotland). Referee: Andrea Piardi (Italy).

Lionesses' fans flock to Basel to cheer on team in Euros final – as pubs prepare for bumper day
Lionesses' fans flock to Basel to cheer on team in Euros final – as pubs prepare for bumper day

The Irish Sun

time6 hours ago

  • The Irish Sun

Lionesses' fans flock to Basel to cheer on team in Euros final – as pubs prepare for bumper day

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