Biarritz cancel pre-season friendly with Munster
The game was planned to take place on 22 August, but it won't be happening because of a delay to pitch renovations at the Stade Aguilera.
A statement from the province added: 'Munster Rugby and Biarritz Olympique explored alternative venues in the hope that the match could be fulfilled, but no viable and workable solutions were found.
'Given the disappointing decision by Biarritz Olympique, Munster Rugby will now make alternative arrangements regarding pre-season preparations.'
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The Irish Sun
4 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
‘Disappointing decision' – Munster Rugby suffer early pre-season blow as glamour fixture falls through
MUNSTER Rugby's pre-season friendly against Biarritz Olympique has been cancelled. The province were set to play the Pro D2 side on Friday 22 August. However due to a delay to pitch renovations at the Stade Aguilera, Biarritz Olympique are unable to host Munster Rugby for the fixture. 3 Jack Crowley wasn't selected for the British and Irish Lions 3 Craig Casey was picked to be Ireland captain for games against Georgia and Portugal 3 Munster defeated them in the 2006 Heineken Cup final Credit: Getty Alternative venues were explored between the Basque club and the 2023 URC winners but "no viable and workable solutions were found." The cancellation of the province's opening pre-season friendly will cause a lot of disruption for the new-look Munster team. A Munster spokesperson said: "Given the disappointing decision by Biarritz Olympique, Munster Rugby will now make alternative arrangements regarding pre-season preparations." Read more on Irish Sport With The Red Army are still set to face Gloucester Rugby on 5 September and Bath Rugby on 12 September. That will be a long gap in matches for the side who's season ended in a It will be a long summer break for many Munster players to dwell on the agony of the URC quarter-final exit. Most read in Rugby Union Tadgh Beirne was Munster's only selected player for the British and Irish Lions' Australia Tour this summer and has started the first two tests. 'Jack Crowley he's coming for you' jokes Peter O'Mahony's wife Jess as son practices his rugby skills A large Munster contingent were Seven players for the province will be up for selection for the game in Tbilisi on Saturday with Craig Casey picked as captain. With a record number of fifteen Ireland stars selected for the Lions, it gave an opportunity for players such as Alex Kendellen to get their first call-ups. Uncapped players Tom Aherne and Michael Milne will be looking to make their debuts alongside clubmates Jack Crowley, Calvin Nash and Gavin Coombes who have already got a taste of international rugby.
The 42
9 hours ago
- The 42
'He's learning and improving all the time, that's why he's back in this environment'
HE'S BEEN ONE of Munster's most important players for years, but when it comes to international rugby, Gavin Coombes has often found himself on the outside looking in. The 27-year-old has clocked up 120 appearances for his province but has been capped just twice at Test level, coming off the bench in a July 2021 meeting with Japan before starting against the USA a week later. Over the past 12 months he's kept his head in the door with Ireland, but has been left frustrated when it's come to selection. Coombes was named in the Ireland A squad ahead of their February meeting with an England A team, but missed the game after being called into Andy Farrell's senior squad ahead of the Six Nations meeting with Wales. He left that international window having played no minutes for either side. However the backrower looks set to get back into a green jersey over the coming fortnight, with Ireland hoping to give gametime to all of their 33-strong squad on the upcoming tour of Georgia and Portugal, which kicks-off in Tbilisi this Saturday [KO 6pm Irish time, Virgin Media]. 'Gavin, he's turned up, he's looking fit, he's looking hungry the last few days,' says Denis Leamy, Ireland's defence coach for the two-game tour. Coombes won his two Ireland caps in July 2021. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO 'I think he's deployed himself really well, he's been really good in training. Gavin has been in and out of Irish squads over the last couple of years. The times he's been left out, he's understood the reasons why and (they) have been very fair. Gavin has gone away and worked hard on those parts of the games. 'He's back in now, he has that chance now on Saturday, hopefully, if selected, that he can go and apply that and put his best foot forward. He's a guy that over the last couple of years has been very good for Munster.' Leamy, who coaches Coombes at Munster, feels the Cork man has points of difference he can offer in the squad. 'I think he's hugely strong around opposition 22. His ability to make yards, score tries, he's one of the best around at that and his general play is improving all the time. Advertisement 'He's worked great between 22 and 22. His ability to make yards in open play, his ability to clock up big numbers in his tackles, his rucks and the fundamentals around his basic play, around number eight (working) at the base (of the scrum). He's learning and improving that all the time, that's why he's back in this environment.' With many of the Ireland coaches away on the Lions tour with Andy Farrell, Leamy is enjoying the opportunity to join O'Connell's set up as defence coach. 'It's brilliant to come in and just get different perspectives on how the different provinces are playing the game. Everyone's playing the game relatively similar, but there's little tweaks here and there and everyone sees the game slightly different. Ireland assistant coach Denis Leamy. Leah Scholes / INPHO Leah Scholes / INPHO / INPHO 'A lot of the boys I've worked with either at Leinster or at Irish U20s level, so I know the vast majority of them. It's lovely to see them develop as players, how they've grown into men and how they've developed their own perspective on the game, their own opinions. It's excellent to be back in around them. 'We just find when it's a national set-up, the unity straight away, they all mix. My generation, there was huge rivalry and I think there is still rivalry but it took us a few weeks for the frostiness to wear off. The boys just seem to get on so well. They're straight in, they're best mates, they're constantly over and back on WhatsApp and all the different platforms. It's better than when I was a player. They've grown up a little bit from when we were there.' Leamy expects to see this Irish group get tested in a variety of ways against Georgia. 'I think it's very clear that they're well put together off their launch players, their scrums, their lineouts. They have really good three phase, four phase plays and they run them really well. Their big threat is Davit Niniashvili [fullback/out-half]. 'He's obviously an excellent player, but they're very well put together at 10 by Tedo Abzhandadze. He runs the thing very well. They have the ability to play around you. They have the ability to take you on confrontationally, and they're a very, very well coached team. You can see that they're top level rugby players and they're well used to playing in a big league like France. 'You'd imagine that Georgia would have loads of reasons to be inspired to play a huge game against us on Saturday,' he added. 'We're expecting a really tough, tough game. We're expecting opponents that are really well put together by their coaches… Richard Cockerill, you have Conor McPhillips who's worked in the Irish system and who's been with Bristol as well. He's a really experienced attack coach, so you can see in their game that they're well put together. They're physical. They've got a great platform around their scrum, their maul, their lineout. It is a big test. We're out of our comfort zone and it's exactly the sort of test that we're looking forward to.'
Irish Times
11 hours ago
- Irish Times
Cork have big defensive decisions to make before facing prolific Dublin
Cork will need to make a case for the defence if they are to progress to consecutive All-Ireland senior hurling finals. While Cork's attacking prowess has been well highlighted over the course of the season, their defence will be challenged on Saturday with stopping one of the most prolific goalscoring teams left in the competition. Dublin have scored 18 goals in this year's championship – and having played seven games they are averaging 2.57 goals per match. Fellow semi-finalists Kilkenny have also scored 18 goals but they amassed that in six games at an average of three goals per outing. Cork have scored 10 goals in five championship games – an average of two goals per match while Tipperary have raised 11 green flags in six games, an average of 1.8 goals per game. READ MORE The Cork defence has only managed one clean sheet in terms of shutting out goals in this year's championship – their Munster round two victory over Tipperary. But the Dublin defence has kept three clean sheets – Antrim, Galway and Limerick all failed to force a goal against the Dubs. At the other end of the field Dublin already have five players with multiple goals to their name in the championship – Seán Currie (4), Cian O'Sullivan (3), Ronan Hayes (3), John Hetherton (3) and Fergal Whitely (2). Cian O'Sullivan has scored three goals for Dublin in the championship so far. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho With that in mind, it will be interesting to see if Cork manager Pat Ryan recalls centre back Robert Downey, who is also team captain, and corner back Niall O'Leary to his starting team. Both suffered injuries during the Munster round-robin series and failed to start the provincial decider against Limerick. They are both expected to be available for selection this weekend. Séamus Harnedy has been ruled out with a hamstring injury. O'Leary had been an ever-present in the Cork defence throughout the season until he suffered a groin injury during the round-robin loss to Limerick in May. O'Leary subsequently missed Cork's win over Waterford but he did manage to come off the bench late in the Munster final victory last month. The Castlelyons man has praised the work of defensive coach Wayne Sherlock with the squad. 'We're very lucky in the group we have with the background team as well, Wayne was obviously a legend in Cork playing in the full-back line, so we're very lucky as a group to have him. 'We've learned a lot from him over the last three years and I think we've taken a lot of learnings from last year as well.' Cork's joint leading championship goalscorers are Patrick Horgan and Brian Hayes – who have both netted on three occasions. Both Cork and Dublin have scored at least one goal in all of their championship outings. Dublin's last championship win over Cork was in the 1927 All-Ireland final, but it is the lessons from last year's All-Ireland final defeat to Clare that the Rebels are looking to learn from this season. 'I know the end result didn't go our way, but I think that's a huge thing for us to get to an All-Ireland final and actually be competitive,' says O'Leary. 'This is my seventh year on the panel now, it's been a long enough seven years, not a whole pile of success in the seven years either so it's been great now the last two years to be competitive. 'I suppose the only thing we look at going forward is that we want to be remembered as a team in Cork and, to be honest with you, to be remembered you have to be winning All-Irelands.'
