Captain Monaghan 'emotional' over Ireland return
Ireland skipper Sam Monaghan says she will "savour every moment" of her return from injury after 13 months on the sidelines. The lock injured her ACL representing her club Gloucester Hartpury in June 2024 before calf and hamstring injuries further delayed her return to action. Now able to see "light at the end of the tunnel", the 32-year-old has been named to start in the second row for Ireland's World Cup warm-up fixture against Scotland in Cork on Saturday. "It was really emotional seeing my name on the teamsheet again, not only for me but for my family, team-mates, everyone that's been on the journey with me, physios, S&Cs," said Monaghan."You build up a hunger. It's kind of like you've been starving for the last 13 months and you finally get your opportunity."I'm sure I'll really savour every moment and just want to do the best I can for the squad around me. They've really looked after me the last year so I'll be extremely excited to get back out on the pitch with them."
Monaghan's second row partner on Saturday, Eimear Corri-Fallon, has also struggled with injuries over the past year."Me and Eimear have played together before in Dubai [at the WXV tournament in 2023] and Six Nations so we have that second row connection. "Unfortunately, both of us had a bit of a rough year so we're kind of on the same journey at the minute. It's nice to come back out on the pitch together."Monaghan and Corri-Fallon are not the only returning players to Ireland's panel for what is the first of two warm-up fixtures before the World Cup which begins in England later this month.Wing Beibhinn Parsons, who broke her leg in December, will also start at Musgrave Park as Scott Bemand's side build towards the tournament where they will be in a pool alongside Japan, Spain and New Zealand. Ireland, however, have already been dealt a series of injury blows with key forwards Dorothy Wall and Erin King ruled out of the World Cup, while 2025 Six Nations Player of the Championship Aoife Wafer is a doubt. "Injuries are always so tough. We've such a strong connection as a group so when we lose someone we really feel it," Monaghan said."On and off the pitch they are such big characters, but they are both working extremely hard and I know how tough a journey it can be."That's high-level sport. It's given the opportunity for someone else to come in and we've had other girls come in and put their hand up and really perform."
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Reuters
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Lions coach Farrell says Wallabies will be a force to be reckoned with
SYDNEY, Aug 2 (Reuters) - British & Irish Lions coach Andy Farrell said a Wallabies revival was on its way and reiterated his view that it was insulting for people to suggest that they might not be strong enough opponents for a touring Lions side. After taking the Lions close in Melbourne last week, the Wallabies handed the visitors their only loss of their nine-match tour of Australia on Saturday with a convincing 22-12 victory in Sydney. Farrell had no complaints about the defeat, even if it cost his side a 3-0 series sweep, and he thought the Wallabies could be a real power when they host the World Cup in 2027. "I said to (Australia coach) Joe (Schmidt) before the game there on the pitch, that I think special things are going to happen for this team over the next 18 months," Farrell told a post-match press conference. "By the time the World Cup comes around, they'll be a force to be reckoned with, like everyone's seen in the past, they've got some special athletes and some special players, and that's no surprise to us after how they performed over the last couple of weeks." A decade of struggles on and off the pitch have knocked Australia down the pecking order in the rugby world and the twice world champions made a pool stage exit at the World Cup for the first time in 2023. Farrell, though, scoffed at the idea that they were no longer worthy of their place in the Lions touring cycle along with New Zealand and South Africa. "We all know how hard it is to be successful on the Lions tour against a good side like Australia, and they are a good side, and they proved that over the series," he said. "I mean, everyone has their ups and downs. I've looked at the progress over the last 18 months. It's been through the roof and you look at that side that's been out there over the last ... three weeks, they're a hell of a team." Asked about whether he was disappointed not to make it a clean sweep by winning Saturday's final test, Farrell said there were obviously frustrations. "Like we've said all along, that we wanted to win every game, and rightly so, but the best team won on the night today," he said.
BBC News
a minute ago
- BBC News
'A strange kind of glory' as legacy-defining win eludes Lions
Long before the British and Irish Lions' searing experience in Sydney had concluded - a night of rugby drama, biblical weather, horrible injury and delays because of lightning warnings in the distance - a statistic was passed around the stadium concerning the gigantic Will lock, who is about the size of one normal human being standing on the shoulders of another, was a colossal presence in Australia's victory, just as he was in the time he spent on the field in the second Test having not been passed to fit to play in the series Lions beat Australia 39-22 in the time Skelton was not on the pitch. With Skelton on the field, the Wallabies won 38-24. Can one man make such an enormous difference? When it is Skelton, unquestionably Lions were fortunate that he was nowhere to be seen when they won in Brisbane and that he went off early in the second half in Melbourne. In Sydney, he was a huge influence, along with Taniela Tupou and Dylan Pietsch, two players who Schmidt only called on for this Test, when the series was already the end, there was to be no 3-0, no whitewash, no title of greatest-ever Lions, the title they had talked about and felt they were pursuing on was a trophy and silver ticker tape and a lap of honour. There were words of triumph from Dan Sheehan and Maro Itoje that sounded a little forced. On a night when the heavens opened, the only devils out there were the ones in so, it is done. A 36-day blur in Australia. Nine games, eight wins and one loss. From Dublin to Perth to Brisbane, from Sydney to Canberra and from Adelaide to Melbourne these Lions will have travelled more than 25,000 miles on a dozen different aircrafts by the time they get exactly the boys of 1888, those 22 Lions pioneers who spent eight months gadding about New Zealand and Australia playing 35 games, but a fair old trip none the less. A finale that will never be forgotten It was a flat feeling in the aftermath. The Lions were desperately poor; out-battled, out-played, well will we remember this series by? How close it turned out to be? How that stunning call late, late in the day in Melbourne might have changed everything had it gone the other way?We will recall how the Wallabies, written off and almost humiliated after the first Test in Brisbane, fought back magnificently. How Schmidt wrong-headedly, rested so many of his Test players ahead of Brisbane and left them drastically was a searing occasion. Weird and wonderful. For weeks the Lions travelled around this magnificent land without anybody saying boo to a goose. There was no aggression thrown at them, no sledging, nothing to throw them off their stride. The entire tour looked like it was meandering towards a 3-0 snoozefest until the Wallabies suddenly found themselves in things got interesting. We'll always have the MCG. More than 90,000 in the stadium, the largest ever for a Lions game and one of the greatest Lions occasions in an night the series was won had everything that so many of the other games did not. A Wallaby performance, an electrified home support, a Lions team in a giant hole and a finale that will never be forgotten. When the Lions return here in 12 years time we will still be talking about the rights and wrongs of Jac Morgan's clearout in the last moment immediately entered the top-10 most controversial episodes in Lions history. Opinions blazed like wildfires. Proper touring, as Andy Farrell might put the aftermath, Schmidt made like a scientist when talking about the g-forces that went through the body of his man, Carlo trying to explain why Tizzano was hurled backwards out of that final ruck holding his head (rather than his neck where the contact came) he started citing Newton's Third Law - for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. We nodded along. Yes, Joe, of Sydney, the victorious Lions were zen warriors. Itoje quoted bible scripture, Farrell quoted, kind of, the American clergyman and psychologist, Norman Vincent Peale when talking about shooting for the moon and, even if you miss, landing among the had a sit-down with a contemplative Tadhg Furlong. "I've heard a lot of people explain Lions tours and I probably haven't found an explanation in a verbal form that matches how you feel about it as a player. It's a special thing. It really is."It's not hard to motivate yourself [when the series is already won[. My motivation is obvious. I probably won't play for the Lions again [he will be 36 in New Zealand in 2029]. It's been very good to me. Sometimes the last memory is the lasting memory you have in a jersey. I want it to be a good one."Lovely. Only it wasn't. Furlong looked exhausted and devastated afterwards. A strange kind of glory. Triumphant Lions have also frustrated All of those words and all of the vibes coming from the Lions screamed about their desire for 3-0. One by one they lined up to talk about how they hadn't yet delivered their best stuff, the inference being that was coming in Sydney, history made with a flourish in the final said it, Russell said it, Huw Jones said it, Jack Conan said it, Farrell said it. They all sang from the same hymn sheet. "We've not played to our maximum, we know there's a lot more in us, we're better than we've shown and we'll prove it on Saturday."But they didn't. They targeted 3-0 and they did not deliver. They said they wanted to be remembered as one of the great Lions teams but 2-1, as good as it will feel to be winners, doesn't cut it in legacy terms. They wanted weight of their achievement is the talking point. If all these Lions tell you that they have not played the way they know they can, then we have to take them at their word. And Saturday's disappointment only reinforces that. By their own estimation, they have not been nearly as good as they thought they would proper analysis can just ignore the reality of how underplayed the Wallabies were in the first Test. That's on Schmidt cossetting too many of his big Wallabies were also denied the rampaging brilliance of their best player Rob Valetini for all bar 40 minutes of the series. Even then they were one momentous call away from levelling the series in that extraordinary endgame in Melbourne. The Lions have triumphed but they have also sense before Sydney is that there was a better team in there than they showed. That's a highly questionable one now. The Wallabies won of four of the six halves of rugby played in the series. Great individuals, but not a great Lions squad What this tour has been about in many senses is a series of remarkable Lions players. Yes, they have now been defeated and the dream of a landslide is dead and buried, but there are still some world class players amid a less-than-world-class he played against Argentina in Dublin, Furlong had only appeared in nine games this season because of injury. There were doubts about his fitness and in the early games in Australia some questions about his capacity to find his old by bit, Furlong built into the tour. Stronger and stronger. Big scrums, big carries, big influence. It was something to see. Having started nine Lions Tests in a row, Furlong emerged as a great in Australia, Beaten, but still in the pantheon of Lions is undoubtedly another. At times at Stadium Australia the hits were so severe that they made you wince. Itoje had to come off early, a body blow, personally and to Australia he had already played 28 games this season - 10 Tests - with an average of 74 minutes in each was not himself against Argentina in Dublin, but he has been a powerhouse since then, not your normal captain, not your tub-thumping firebrand. He's considered, he's clinical and with nine Tests in a row, he too, joins the pantheon of Lions is the story of the tour - not a Lions squad that has proven its greatness but one with enough great individuals in it to be compelling. Tadhg Beirne and Tom Curry were both doubted early in the trip, both seemingly under a bit of heat for their Test opening seconds of the first Test saw the pair of them setting the agenda, Curry with a monstrous hit on James Slipper and Beirne swooping like a bird of prey to win a penalty. Marker laid down and then and Finn Russell reside in that category, also. Russell's performance in the second Test was non-vintage until those game-defining minutes at the end. His control, his calmness, his wit and game management were razor sharp exactly when they needed to conditions in Sydney were a fly-half's worst nightmare. He battled on. He tried to make things happen while on the back foot. He defended bravely. He lost, but he gave it the 2025 Lions have done a job, but not the job they so publicly talked about. They'll leave with brilliant memories of days and nights together, of wins on the road that bonded them, of a series won, but Saturday will nag away at them forever. That never goes away."Bittersweet" is the word Beirne used. Not many Lions teams in history get a chance to go 3-0 in the series. They had it in their hands and with one thunderous hit after another from Skelton and his band of behemoths, they let it slip away.
BBC News
a minute ago
- BBC News
Farrell 'unbelievably proud' of Lions series win
Head coach Andy Farrell said the British and Irish Lions were disappointed to have lost the final Test to Australia but should be "unbelievably proud" to win the side had been seeking to clinch the Lions' first 3-0 series whitewash since the 1927 tour of Argentina but failed to compete with Australia's physicality as the hosts ran out 22-12 winners in torrential defeat also ended the Lions' 100% winning record on Australian soil as they failed to emulate the 1974 side, who were the last Lions team to go unbeaten on tour."There's going to be frustration there - all along we've said we want to win every game," said Farrell, who did not rule out coaching the side again."The best team won on the night. It might take one or it might take two beers but they'll be unbelievably proud of what they've achieved on this tour. On reflection we can be unbelievably proud."The legacy for us is in the changing room. The togetherness - it's been an absolute delight."We've played some outstanding rugby and that's accumulated into a performance that last week ended up being a moment that will stay with us forever."The Lions secured their first series win since the 2013 tour of Australia, but did speak openly about wanting to win Wallabies - who for the first time in their history failed to qualify for the knockout stage of a Rugby World Cup in 2023 - improved as the series went on after starting slow in the first Test in Schmidt's side were much improved in the second Test at Melbourne Cricket Ground, but could not hold on to an 18-point lead as Hugo Keenan's last-minute try snatched a series win for the tourists. In Sydney the Wallabies, ranked sixth in the world, scored three tries and looked in control of the game for large periods to show further improvement."I said in the week it would be insulting to question Australia's place on the series and I repeat that," Farrell added."Special things are going to happen to Australia over the next 18 months. They have special athletes and special players."Australia only played one warm-up game against Fiji in the lead-up to the series, which former Lion Andy Nicol believes was a big factor in their slow start in Brisbane."Joe Schmidt has got this wrong or Australian Rugby Union have got this wrong," he told BBC's Rugby Union Weekly podcast."The preparation was just not right. We have said on so many occasions it is not like the Lions have crept up. The Lions has been 12 years in the making."They will absolutely rue the lack of preparation for that first Test because we have seen in Test two and three they are very competitive and in some cases a match or even better than the Lions."The fact the Lions won that first Test at a canter allowed them to be down in that second Test and come back and take the lead in the 79th minute."That has been hugely important and has won the Test series."
