Latest news with #Ahern
Irish Examiner
27-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Munster's Tom Ahern eyes Ireland debut amid injury setbacks
Anyone who has watched the progress of Tom Ahern's rugby career will have emitted another sigh at Friday's Ireland squad update ahead of next Saturday's Test against Georgia. The Munster lock/flanker's efforts to make his Ireland debut have been repeatedly stymied by injury over the last two years and the latest news that the reason Connacht's Josh Murphy had joined Paul O'Connell's squad prior to Wednesday's departure for Tbilisi was to provide cover for Ahern's tight hamstring suggested a similar fate may befall the Waterford man's latest bid for Test recognition. The 25-year-old has not been ruled out and may well earn his first international cap over the next two Saturdays with Ireland set to face Portugal in Lisbon on July 12. Ahern has been nothing if not resilient in the past and spoke of his national squad travails earlier this week when he faced the media in camp at the IRFU High Performance Centre in Abbottstown. Named by head coach Andy Farrell as one of three uncapped training panellists alongside provincial team-mate Oli Jager and a certain Sam Prendergast ahead of the 2024 Six Nations, he was concussed against Northampton Saints in the match prior to entering camp. Then, a little more than four months after a string of strong performances for Munster had placed him in the frame for a spot in the summer touring squad to face the Springboks in South Africa, an ankle/lower leg injury against Ulster in the final round of the URC regular season scuppered his hopes of boarding the plane. 'Look, it's happened a couple of times now and obviously initially you're very disappointed but it's the nature of the game. You've got to pick yourself back up,' Ahern said. 'I've got a good support system around me and I'm going to move past that eventually and focus on the next job and try to eventually get back up here again.' Ahern did just that and is aiming to embrace his latest opportunity in the national camp. 'I'm buzzing to be honest. I've been unlucky with a couple of injuries but that's the nature of the game to be fair. 'I'm just taking these next couple of weeks in my stride and just delighted to be up here. 'I think the overall feeling is excitement. First, I'm excited to be up here and I think likewise with everybody else. A lot of lads getting their first opportunities up here and there's a great buzz around the place.' Ahern's candidacy for a place in the matchday 23 to face the Georgians remains strong and Munster's strong if ultimately disappointing end to the season has sent its 10-player contingent, led by tour captain Craig Casey, into camp in confident mood. Two big wins in their final URC league encounters secured Champions Cup rugby for next season and booked a return to play-offs, where the Sharks edged them out at the quarter-final stage in a goal-kicking shootout after the tie had finished 24-24 after extra time. 'It obviously didn't end the way that we wanted it, it's a tough way to go out but we were playing good rugby towards the end of the season and a lot of the lads that are up here were playing good ball as well,' Ahern said. 'So, we can take the confidence from everybody individually playing well and so hopefully we can bring it up here now.' With good fortune, that tight hamstring will not stand in his way, and if anyone deserved a slice of that, it is Ahern.
RTÉ News
27-06-2025
- Sport
- 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.
Irish Daily Mirror
27-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Ahern injury worry, Josh Murphy called up to Ireland squad as precaution
Ireland have been left worrying over Tom Ahern's fitness ahead of departure for Georgia and the first of the Ireland summer tour games. The Munster star has been described as having as a hamstring problem, and is being managed. It was serious enough for the IRFU to call in the 'Doc' - Josh Murphy that is, the Connacht player who finished his medical exams in 2021. It is the latest in a series of frustration for Munster fan-favourite Ahern who also missed out on the Ireland A game in Bristol last March through injury. An IRFU statement released this morning read: Connacht's *Josh Murphy* has joined the Ireland squad for training in Dublin today and will remain with the panel prior to Wednesday's departure to Tbilisi. Murphy will provide cover for *Tom Ahern* who is being managed for hamstring tightness." Enniscorthy-born Murphy, 30, was originally with Leinster for whom he made 61 appearances between 2017 and 2022 before a move to Connacht - where he took a year's sabbatical 2023/24 to do his medical internship. The upshot was 18 appearances in 2022/23, 17 as a starter and 21 games in 2024/25, with 17 of those as a starter. The hope is still that Ahern can travel or, at minimum, take a short hop to join the party in Lisbon for the second game against Portugal. Either way, should Ahern or Murphy travel and get capped it will still fit with assistant coach Mikey Prendergast's aspiration to have handed out 12 debuts over the two games. Says Leinster's URC winning star Tommy O'Brien who is probably at the head of the queue when it comes to those dozen and who is seen as a potential Ireland regular next season: " I'm dying to play a game for Ireland, so wherever they play me, I'll happily play. "I think I probably have been viewed more as a winger at the moment, but if it's wing, if it's centre, if it's the 23 role, yeah, I'm happy to play wherever." There is a dozen guys from different provinces who hav experienced different types of seasons but all ready to go. "There's obviously different people, so the Leinster guys would have come just almost straight in from playing, but some of the other guys would have been be champing at the bit, they would have been training away behind the scenes for the last few weeks, so everyone's champing at the bit to get some rugby under the belt. "And then obviously it's what you dream of as a kid, getting to represent your country and as you said, there's 12 of us in here who haven't done it yet and so fingers crossed now as many of them can get that first cap." The first game with Georgia, world ranked no11 and currently one place ahead of Wales, is considered the more difficult of the two tasks. "We obviously know they're a very proud rugby team, unbelievably physical and they have a good few players who play Top 14 rugby, so know some of them from that. That's something that we'll definitely look into, but we know they're a very proud emerging nation." IRELAND SUMMER TOUR SCHEDULESaturday, 5th July: Georgia v Ireland, Mikheil Meskhi Stadium, Tbilisi (kick off 9pm local time, 6pm Irish time);Saturday, 12th July: Portugal v Ireland, Estádio Nacional do Jamor, Lisbon (kick off 7pm local, same Irish time)Ireland Men's Squad – Summer Tour 2025, departing for Tbilisi on Wednesday, 2nd (14): Shayne Bolton (Connacht)*, Craig Casey (Shannon/Munster)(captain)(18), Jack Crowley (Cork Constitution/Munster)(24), Nathan Doak (Banbridge/Ulster)*, Ciaran Frawley (UCD/Leinster)(8), Hugh Gavin (Galwegians/Connacht)*, Stuart McCloskey (Bangor/Ulster)(19), Ben Murphy (Clontarf/Connacht)*, Calvin Nash (Young Munster/Munster)(10), Jimmy O'Brien (Naas/Leinster)(8), Tommy O'Brien (UCD/Leinster)*, Jamie Osborne (Naas/Leinster)(7), Sam Prendergast (Lansdowne/Leinster)(8), Jacob Stockdale (Lurgan/Ulster)(38)Forwards (18): Tom Ahern (Shannon/Munster)*, Jack Aungier (Lansdowne/Connacht)*, Ryan Baird (Dublin University/Leinster)(27), Jack Boyle (UCD/Leinster)(2), Thomas Clarkson (Dublin University/Leinster)(6), Gavin Coombes (Young Munster/Munster)(2), Max Deegan (Lansdowne/Leinster)(2), Cormac Izuchukwu (Ballynahinch/Ulster)(1), Alex Kendellen (UCC/Munster)*, Gus McCarthy (UCD/Leinster)(4), Paddy McCarthy (Dublin University/Leinster)*, Michael Milne (UCD/Munster)*, Darragh Murray (Buccaneers/Connacht)*, Tom O'Toole (Ballynahinch/Ulster)(16), Cian Prendergast (UCD/Connacht)(4), Stephen Smyth (Old Wesley/Leinster)*, Tom Stewart (Ballynahinch/Ulster)(2), Nick Timoney (Banbridge/Ulster)(3)
Otago Daily Times
24-06-2025
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
Veteran radio journalist Garry Ahern dies
Garry Ahern finishes his last sports bulletin on Morning Report in 2015. Photo: RNZ Veteran sports broadcaster Garry Ahern has died aged 75. Ahern joined Radio New Zealand in 1969, retiring in 2015, and specialised in golf reporting while presenting sports bulletins on Morning Report for two decades. He first joined the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation in 1969 (later RNZ) as an accounts clerk in Whanganui. Speaking on Morning Report, he explained how his mother was responsible for getting him into broadcasting after he had spent a couple of years at Victoria University in Wellington. "I came home from golf one day and my mother said she'd heard an advertisement on the local radio station for an accountants clerk and that certainly wasn't me, but I thought broadcasting could be quite interesting and that's how it all started." A few years later he landed a sports journalist role in Wellington and went on to cover 14 Commonwealth and Olympic Games. But his undoubted highlight was covering the New Zealand golf team's win at the Eisenhower Trophy in 1992. The team included Michael Campbell, who went on to win the US Open in 1995. In 2013, Ahern's contribution to sports journalism was recognised when he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Sports Journalists Association. The award citation described him "as the consummate broadcasting journalist who asks the right questions, gets the information and presents it knowledgably and in an entertaining fashion". Ahern died on Tuesday surrounded by his family.
Boston Globe
13-06-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Moving pieces mean ‘a ton going on' at Cannabis Commission
'Obviously, a ton going on which we're all aware of,' Ahern said Thursday. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The $19.88 million that Gov. Maura Healey, the House and the Senate have all backed for the CCC in the fiscal 2026 budget 'does not meet the needs of the organization,' Ahern As it prepares for a thinner-than-desired budget next year, Ahern said the CCC is 'in a hiring freeze based on our FY 26 budget projection' and is 'evaluating right now vacancies and the appropriateness of having those posted within the context of that hiring freeze.' Advertisement 'If that were to be impacted by a potential supplemental budget availability ... that will change kind of the outlook. And I would just say as well, for those who are concerned at all about that hiring freeze, just to note publicly as well, that, you know, obviously a hiring freeze can be lifted,' he said. The executive director said the CCC will now look to convince lawmakers to add a little more than $3 million to the agency's budget for public awareness efforts, IT infrastructure improvements, and to continue to engage consultants around testing issues. The CCC 'So that would get us to a little bit more of a normal state prior to new work created through this [House-approved] bill,' Ahern said. 'And then, obviously, we'll be working with the Legislature to calculate the cost of implementing some of the changes contemplated in this bill as it moves forward with the Senate.' The bill that the The House bill was sent to the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Monday and the News Service asked committee chair Sen. Michael Rodrigues on Thursday about interest in the topic among senators. Advertisement 'We're always interested to see what they do and we'll be taking a look at it,' he said, adding, 'Everything has some urgency about it, so we want to do everything in as timely a manner as possible.' Rodrigues emphasized that he's focused on other matters right now, mainly the annual state budget and surtax spending bills that are both in conference committee and a $532 million budget bill that the Senate plans to take up next week. 'My life's all about budgets right now,' Rodrigues said. The CCC approved a Ahern told commissioners Thursday that the agency is 'probably in a wait and see on where the Senate might be on that as they begin to take their steps forward.' 'It does appear, as we look at the legislative process, the Senate may take a little bit more time before we probably get to a conference scenario on where the overall package looks,' he said. In the meantime, the CCC plans to meet again next week to pick up its work on social consumption regulations. The 2016 legalization ballot law contemplated establishments where adults could use legal cannabis in a social setting and the latest proposal was Advertisement Beyond social consumption and potentially rules to deal with a long-discussed issue with employee badging, Ahern said the CCC may go quiet on the regulatory front as things shake out on Beacon Hill. 'I think ultimately we're just going to have to continue to work with our partners in the Legislature on the timeline of when the Senate might be coming back with with their approach, and then also keeping an eye on when this could actually get through conference, because, from a regulatory perspective of the commissioners, that's going to impact kind of the schedule for the whole year,' the executive director said. Michael P. Norton contributed reporting.
