Latest news with #EPCR
The Citizen
02-07-2025
- Sport
- The Citizen
‘Small margins': Rassie weighs in on SA teams finding their feet in Euro tournaments
The Springbok coach sympathised with franchise coaches due to their difficult schedule, but said it produced battle-hardened players. Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus was reluctant to criticise South African franchises and coaches for their struggles in European domestic rugby tournaments. Instead, he sympathised with the difficult schedule they faced and looked at the positives – how adversity and experience in different playing conditions breed a Test-level player. Erasmus was speaking ahead of the Springboks' first of two Tests against Italy at Loftus this Saturday, and on the back of a frustrating, if not awful, domestic season for South Africa's four big franchises. SA teams meet mixed success in URC The Bulls were the most consistent and successful South African franchise in 2024/25, reaching the final of the United Rugby Championship after finishing second on the table with 14 wins. While underperforming in the final against Leinster, they had a good campaign in the build-up, dominating all opposition in the forward pack battle and making history on a memorable tour in Europe. It was their third defeat in a URC final. Their EPCR campaign wasn't great, crashing out of the Champions Cup group stage and only reaching the quarter-finals of the lower-tier Challenge Cup, but it was better than the other SA franchises. The Sharks had their best URC to date, winning the SA shield for the first time and likewise reaching the semi-finals for the first time. But their EPCR campaign was poor. They also fell out of the Champions Cup group stage and lost their Challenge Cup last-16 match badly, though they were the defending champions. The Stormers recovered from a sub-par start to finish fifth on the URC log. However, they had a poor quarter-final against Glasgow Warriors and crashed out there. It was disappointing after winning the inaugural URC title and finishing runners-up in 2023. They had such a poor Champions Cup group stage that they didn't even qualify for the Challenge Cup. The Lions finished 11th on the URC table and, for the fourth time, didn't even reach the play-offs. They fell out of the Challenge Cup at the round of 16, a feat still better than the Cheetahs. Erasmus would love to see an SA team win the URC Erasmus said it would be a great feat for a South African franchise to win either the URC or Champions Cup, but it would be difficult. 'I think the Champions Cup at this stage, not that I want to talk [speak] for our coaches in the franchises, it's a bit of a stretch for us now to compete really well in both competitions just because of the way the season works,' he said. 'We are playing Test match rugby in the southern hemisphere and we are playing franchise rugby in the northern hemisphere. It's a very long season so it is tough. I think they will get used to that. He said looking at the success and near-success of the Stormers and Bulls in the URC, South African teams were getting there. Plus, the fact that the Bulls, Sharks and Stormers all reached the play-offs. 'It's small margins. It's sad that we don't win it, but we don't know exactly what the coaches are coaching there, and we don't tell them what to do, where players must play. So it's tough for us to judge the player there. 'And we don't go through what the franchise coach must go through, one week against [a French team], next week he is flying to Italy… But for us, it definitely grows the Test match level kind of player that gets used to Scottish, Irish, Italian players.'
Irish Times
01-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Champions Cup draw live updates: Leinster and Munster await their fate
-1 minutes ago Hello and welcome to live coverage of the EPCR pool draws for the 2025 Investec Champions Cup and the EPCR Challenge Cup , which will take place at the Premier Sports studios in Dublin at 1.30pm. Leinster and Munster are among the 24 teams that have qualified for the Champions Cup, while Ulster and Connacht have qualified for the Challenge Cup. For the Champions Cup, each pool of six will contain two clubs from each of the leagues, where Leinster and Munster will be kept apart. There will be no matches between clubs from the same league. Leinster are in Tier 1 for the draw thanks to winning the United Rugby Championship, which means they also cannot play Union Bordeaux Bègles (2025 Investec Champions Cup winners), Bath Rugby (2025 Gallagher Premiership winners) and Toulouse (Top 14 winners). Munster will be in Tier 2 with the rest of the teams. The Challenge Cup draw will have 18 clubs, with pools of six also, with Connacht and Ulster kept apart. There is no tier system involved for that draw, it is an open draw other than stipulations about teams from the same country and league meeting.
Irish Times
13-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Gerry Thornley: URC win in Dublin would end Leinster's frustrating season on a high
Akin to the Champions Cup , the URC may have been landed with a final that the competition badly needed and helped to give its competition some sustenance, particularly in Ireland. On foot of having more reboots than the most dilapidated laptop, one of the URC's biggest challenges has been in both maintaining and developing supporter interest across 16 competing teams in five different countries. It hasn't been an easy sell. Ironically, although they are the newest additions, the South African franchises and their public appear to have a bigger buy-in than their northern hemisphere counterparts, including the Irish provinces, where the URC is a poor relation to the adored and much coveted Champions Cup which is now entering its fourth decade. The URC also has nothing like the history or tradition of the Premiership in England, much less the French Championship, nor the advantages and simplicity of a competition being held within the boundaries of one country. READ MORE Not the least of these advantages is being able to set a date in stone for a final a year or more in advance, something the EPCR can also do. Given the risk of having an all-Celtic final in South Africa or an all-South African final in, say, Dublin, at a week's notice that is not an option for the URC. Next season, the URC will have a two-week gap between the semi-final and final, which is the best case scenario and will at least allow double the time to sell tickets for the competition's blue riband day. True, both Munster and Glasgow defied the long-haul travel at short notice to win the last two Grand Finals in Cape Town and Pretoria. But as well as being the first final in Croke Park, it's the first outside South Africa in the four years since the competition was expanded to include their four franchises. Considering tickets have only been on sale for six days, for more than 42,000 to have been sold by Friday is actually quite an achievement. The organisers are hoping to beat the previous Irish best of 46,092 for the Leinster -Scarlets Grand Final of 2018, when they had nine months to sell those tickets. It's just a pity that this attendance might seem a little more lost, and leave many more empty spaces, in the iconic home of the GAA. It's remarkable to think that Leinster's 2020 and 2021 Pro14 finals were won behind closed doors, while the 2019 title was claimed in Glasgow. Hence the aforementioned 2018 win over Scarlets is the last time Leinster lifted a trophy in front of their own fans. That's extraordinary really, and perhaps Leinster's first URC final in four attempts and that long gap since last lifting a trophy in front of their own living, breathing, cheering supporters has helped to galvanise interest for this seasonal finale. There was a distinct impression that the much-reduced attendances for Leinster's last four games since the Northampton defeat were a reflection of their fans' disgruntlement with that semi-final. But perhaps the magnitude of this Grand Final has hit home, as well as the realisation that this would be hugely meaningful silverware on several levels. In addition to being high achieving organisations with well stacked trophy cabinets, Leinster and the Stormers have each endured a relatively barren spell which should have them feeling voracious for an overdue piece of silverware. These finalists are giants with an appetite. Since the last of their eight Celtic/Magners League/Pro12/14 titles in 2021, Leinster have endured three semi-final defeats on foot of the South African franchises joining the URC, as well as three defeats in Champions Cup finals and, of course, that crushing semi-final loss to Northampton. Likewise, the Bulls are seeking to avoid a fourth trophyless year in a row. Since the last of their 25 Currie Cup triumphs in 2021, the Pretoria-based side lost the 2022 and 2024 URC finals away to the Stormers and at home to Glasgow either side of a quarter-final loss to the Stormers. It tells us much that the Bulls have played knock-out matches in near 50,000-full houses in Loftus Versfeld and that their much-decorated head coach Jake White unhesitatingly put the possibility of the Bulls winning a first URC title alongside their three Super Rugby triumphs in 2007, '09 and '10. The URC bar is rising. In years to come, the benefits of the South Africans coming aboard will be felt in Irish rugby. Ominously, three of the South African quartet finished in the top five. Of the other Irish sides, Munster barely made the top eight and neither Connacht nor Ulster did so. Winning this final would be end Leinster's wait for silverware and ensure less collateral damage moving into next season. But let's park that fifth star for a weekend. Were Leinster to win their ninth title in this competition's many iterations, but their first URC triumph per se, it would be the best of them all. By some distance.
The Citizen
10-06-2025
- Sport
- The Citizen
John Plumtree reflects on tough, but improved season for Sharks
Despite enjoying their best season in the URC to date, there is still a sense the Sharks underperformed, with the talent at their disposal. Sharks coach John Plumtree has presided over an improved, but still unsatisfactory season with the union. Picture: Steve Haag Sports/Gallo Images The Sharks' season came to an abrupt end over the weekend when they were dumped out of the United Rugby Championship (URC) at the semifinal stage by fierce rivals, the Bulls, at Loftus. It ended a much improved second season at the helm for coach John Plumtree, but many critics were still unhappy due to the Springbok firepower that the union have at their disposal. In the semifinal played at Loftus on Saturday evening the Sharks boasted a team featuring Rugby World Cup winners Ox Nche, Bongi Mbonambi, Vincent Koch, Siya Kolisi, Jaden Hendrikse, Andre Esterhuizen, Lukhanyo Am and Makazole Mapimpi. They also had Aphelele Fassi and Jordan Hendrikse in the starting XV, and Ntuthuko Mchunu and Phepsi Buthelezi on the bench, who have all played for the Boks in the past year. They were however missing their captain and Bok enforcer Eben Etzebeth, along with Trevor Nyakane and Grant Williams who would have added even more Bok firepower to their stocks. Despite the wealth of experience and talent at their fingertips, the Sharks still finished third on the log and dropped out in the semis. But it is still a major improvement after a disastrous previous campaign that saw them finish 14th on the URC log, although they picked up the Challenge Cup trophy to slightly salvage that season. Tough balance Plumtree explained that even though they have immense talent in the group, it was still tough to get the balance right over a long season, in which they missed players on international duty at stages and had to rest them as well. 'It has been a tough season. I learnt a lot in what was my second season of the URC. There were really tough periods of the season, especially after the November internationals when we had tired Boks coming back,' explained Plumtree. 'How we can compete in the tournament with players who have just played 14 internationals is a challenge. And then after Christmas, they go through their Springbok resting, and it's about navigating that period with the rest of the team. 'We also had 18, 19 injuries at one stage, which was a crisis. When you do finally get everyone back in, it's about where you're sitting on the log and how you can progress in two tournaments (the URC and EPCR). Looking ahead Plumtree highlighted the need to build depth at the union, with players who will be able to adequately fill in when their star Springboks are unavailable. 'The key for us is to make sure we have depth in our squad to be able to do well without Springbok players. We showed that this year but it is going to be a continuing challenge for us to keep strengthening the squad,' said Plumtree. 'I think we have done really well with the players we had and we have managed to pick up points. Coaching the Sharks is not for the fainthearted and it keeps me awake at night.'
Irish Examiner
05-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Champions Cup game in Páirc Uí Chaoimh would be 'financially advantageous', says Munster COO
Qualification for next season's Champions Cup may have brought a huge sigh of relief with Munster Rugby but it has also opened the door to an opportunity for the province to cash in an extra €500,000 dividend. When Tadhg Beirne's side secured sixth place in the URC standings with a win over Benetton at Cork's Virgin Media Park last month it not only meant avoiding the ignominy of becoming the first Munster team to fail to quality for Europe's top-tier competition and a hammering to the balance sheet for 2025-26. It allowed the organisation to begin implementing their plan to stage a Champions Cup pool game across town at Páirc Uí Chaoimh this December. The decision to move a European fixture away from Thomond Park was not taken lightly but there were sound economic reasons a change of strategy once Munster gained the approval of GAA Central Council last March, as chief operating officer Philip Quinn outlined to the Irish Examiner this week. With the EPCR pool draw not due until later this summer, the precise date of the fixture remains unclear though the intention is to play the pool game in one of the opening two rounds in December, whichever the draw allows. 'Ticket sales, they were down this year,' Quinn said of the Champions Cup home games this season. 'EPCR1, that one in December, we've seen now two years in a row where it was Bayonne and Stade Francais, where it's gone down significantly versus what we would have budgeted. Also, this year the IRFU had their 150th anniversary that fourth international (against Australia in Dublin last November 30) definitely hit us substantially. 'We were playing the Lions that night and we saw that one fall off a cliff, so it did impact us on that side of things. 'I suppose seeing the last couple of years in that EPCR game, where we've been below what we expected on it, that's where I suppose it's given us the opportunity to look at Páirc Uí Chaoimh for the current year. 'I talk about moving a game from Thomond to Cork not being financially advantageous when it's a sell-out (in Limerick). When it's not a sell-out there's a huge opportunity. Suddenly we can bring it to a much broader audience, hopefully in December, and we will make a significant amount of money. 'It will be somewhere around an extra half a million, versus what we'd make from that one-off game in Thomond. That's a big uplift for us next season.' Munster's victory over Benetton at Virgin Media Park gifted them a spot in Europe's top-tier competition for next season. File picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile Quinn stressed Munster would not be taking anything for granted in terms of ticket sales but added there was confidence the Champions Cup match had the potential to be on a par with the 40,885 supporters who watched the January 2024 friendly with Crusaders at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, or even the 41,400 sold for the previous season's first visit to Cork GAA HQ in November 2022; when South Africa A came to town. 'Based on the feedback we're getting, I would be very positive,' the COO said. 'Look, we've done a huge amount of work on all the data behind travelling support from Cork to Limerick, and the other way around. It's no secret to say for a game in Thomond, 70 per cent are travelling from outside county Limerick to the game. Whereas when we looked at the games in Cork, it's the other way. It's 70 per cent from within the county. That's the reality of the population mix. For a smaller URC game, it can be a bigger percentage from Limerick, and that can get up to 40 per cent… but it really is travelling from all around the province. 'And it's not only games, when we look at the events and concerts in both venues as well, that's where it jumps out, that for games and events in Limerick we're hugely reliant on the market outside of County Limerick, and for games and events in Cork it's mainly the market within the county of Cork. 'But that's nothing against Limerick, that's purely down to demographics and population. That's what's jumping out at us. So when we put out our economic impact assessments, it's actually on that. It shows how many are coming from outside the county and that's purely down to population. The Cork populations is probably around 580,000, Limerick is somewhere around 200,000. 'So you'd expect that and if anything, the proportion of Limerick people attending games versus the proportion of Cork relative to population, the support is probably stronger in Limerick but the numbers aren't higher. 'So when we're looking at games in Cork then yeah, we're quite confident, based on the success, what we saw with the Crusaders and South Africa. It still needs to be a successful team, the team needed to playing well but we are confident that we will get close to a sell-out.' Read More 200-cap stalwart Rory Scannell leaves Munster after 12 years
