Latest news with #LeoCullen
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
How to watch URC Grand Final: TV channel and live stream for Leinster vs Bulls today
Showdown: Leinster have lost four of their six meetings against the Bulls to date (Getty Images) The United Rugby Championship (URC) winners will be confirmed today as Leinster take on the Bulls at Croke Park in the Grand Final in Dublin. Leinster are in search of a record-extending ninth title on home soil this weekend, having finished top of the table and then defeated Scarlets 33-21 in a quarter-final tie at the Aviva Stadium. Advertisement Leo Cullen's side then brushed aside defending champions Glasgow Warriors at the same venue as they ran in six tries during a dominant 37-19 semi-final victory last weekend. Now the Bulls stand between Leinster and a first championship in the current URC format, with Jake White's team having finished eight points behind their opponents in second place before dispatching both Edinburgh and South African rivals the Sharks. Leinster go into the match as clear favourites as they look to banish the disappointment of their shock home defeat by Premiership finalists Northampton Saints in the semi-finals of the Champions Cup last month, but they did see their 12-match undefeated streak ended by the Bulls in Pretoria back in March after a dramatic late penalty from David Kriel. How to watch URC Grand Final TV channel: Today's showpiece fixture is being broadcast live on Premier Sports, with coverage beginning on Premier Sports 1 at 4pm BST ahead of a 5pm kick-off at Croke Park. Advertisement Premier Sports 2 will show coverage from SuperSport in South Africa from 4pm. A subscription to Premier Sports costs from £10.99 a month in the UK. Live stream: Those with a Premier Sports subscription can also catch the final live online via the Premier Sports app and website.
RTÉ News
01-07-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Champions Cup draw: Leinster and La Rochelle meet once more, Munster drawn with Castres again
Leinster have been drawn with familiar foes La Rochelle for the 2025/26 Champions Cup. The Irish province lost to Ronan O'Gara's side in the semi-finals in 2021 and the decider in the following two seasons but have had the upper hand since, winning the last three meetings. Leo Cullen's men, semi-finalists last season, will also face Leicester Tigers, Harlequins and Bayonne in Pool 3, clubs from the same league being kept apart in the pool stages. Two-time winners Munster will meet Bath, Toulon, Castres and Gloucester in Pool 2. They lost 16-14 in Castres in last year's pool stages. First-time champions Bordeaux have been handed a rematch with losing finalists Northampton in Pool 4. Fixtures will be announced later this month. In the second-tier Challenge Cup, Connacht have been matched with Ospreys, Zebre, Montpellier, US Montauban and Black Lion, while Ulster look to face a stiffer test with four games against Cheetahs, Cardiff, Exeter Chiefs, Racing 92 or Stade Francais. Champions Cup Pool 1: Toulouse, Clermont Auvergne, Sharks, Saracens, Glasgow Warriors, Sale. Pool 2: Bath Rugby, RC Toulon, Munster Rugby, Castres Olympique, Edinburgh Rugby, Gloucester Rugby. Pool 3: Leinster Rugby, Leicester Tigers, Harlequins, La Rochelle, Aviron Bayonnais, DHL Stormers. Pool 4: Bordeaux Bègles, Scarlets, Bristol Bears, Section Paloise, Northampton Saints, Bulls. Challenge Cup
The Irish Sun
01-07-2025
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
Leinster set to face old foe as Munster come up against former head coach in Champions Cup pools
THERE will be some familiar faces in the Champions Cup next season following the pool draw. Leinster will face La Rochelle for the sixth time in five-and-a-half years. Advertisement 2 Leinster have won all three of their last meetings with La Rochelle 2 Munster lost to both Bath and Gloucester in last summer's pre-season Leo Cullen's men lost the 2021 semi-final and finals in the two following seasons but have since beaten Ronan O'Gara's men three times, but only They will also face Leicester for the fifth season in a row as well as playing Harlequins, who avenged their 2024 semi-final defeat by turning the tables at the same stage of the competition this season. Bayonne and Stormer complete Pool Three. In Pool Two, Munster will come up against their Advertisement Read more on irish sport They will also face Toulon, Castres, Gloucester and Edinburgh. On paper, Connacht look to have fared slightly better than Ulster in the draw for the Challenge Cup. Champions Cup: Pool 1: Toulouse, Clermont Auvergne, Sharks, Saracens, Glasgow Warriors, Sale Pool 2: Bath Rugby, RC Toulon, Munster Rugby , Castres Olympique, Edinburgh Rugby, Gloucester Rugby Advertisement Most read in Rugby Union Pool 3: Leinster Rugby , Leicester Tigers, Harlequins, La Rochelle, Aviron Bayonnais, DHL Stormers Pool 4: Bordeaux Bègles, Scarlets, Bristol Bears, Section Paloise, Northampton Saints, Bulls 'Big weekend' - Peter O'Mahony embarking on hectic gardening project as he aims to add '300 plants' Challenge Cup: Pool 1: Ospreys, Zebre Parma, Montpellier, Benetton Rugby, Racing 92, Connacht Rugby Pool 2: Lyon, Newcastle Falcons, Dragons RFC, US Montauban, Lions, USAP Advertisement Pool 3: Toyota Cheetahs, Cardiff Rugby, Exeter Chiefs, Black Lion, Stade Francais, Ulster Rugby
The 42
01-07-2025
- Sport
- The 42
Champions Cup draw: Leinster to face Ronan O'Gara's La Rochelle
LEINSTER HAVE BEEN paired with Ronan O'Gara's La Rochelle following today's Champions Cup draw. Munster will be in Pool 2 along with Bath, Toulon and Castres, Edinburgh and Gloucester. As well as facing La Rochelle, Leo Cullen's side will meet Leicester Tigers, Harlequins, The Stormers and Bayonne in Pool 3. Meanwhile, in the Challenge Cup, Connacht have drawn Ospreys, Zebre, Montpellier, Black Lion and US Montauban in Pool 1. Advertisement In Pool 3, Ulster will meet French sides Racing 92 and Stade Francais, as well as Toyota Chiefs, Cardiff and Exeter Chiefs.
The 42
27-06-2025
- Business
- The 42
'I don't think I've seen signs of regression. I think this year is a blip'
A YEAR INTO his role as the IRFU's performance director, David Humphreys still has one clear task at the top of his to-do list. He wants to help Connacht, Ulster, and Munster close the gap to Leinster. While Leo Cullen's side won the URC and reached the Champions Cup semi-finals, it was a tough season for the other provinces. Munster squeezed into the URC play-offs but lost in the quarter-finals, while Connacht and Ulster finished 13th and 14th in the table, respectively. Humphreys and the IRFU have taken some action over the past 12 months. A new tweak to the national contracts model will see the provinces contribute 40% of those deals from their provincial budget from the summer of 2026 onwards. Leinster have the vast majority of so-called 'central contracts,' so that will divert around €700,000 combined per season into the other three provinces each season. That money will go specifically towards Munster, Ulster, and Connacht's pathways to help them produce more homegrown players. On top of that, Humphreys and the IRFU have ended the men's sevens programme, meaning another €1.2 million will be redirected into the three provinces and women's rugby, which is another big priority for the union. So what exactly will this money be spent on as the IRFU looks to help Munster, Ulster, and Connacht bridge the gap? A key part of the plan is for the union to place full-time directors of rugby into schools around the three provinces. More than 10 schools in Leinster have directors of rugby, so Humphreys and the IRFU plan to implement something similar around the island. It remains to be seen exactly where and when this happens, but the hope is that top-class coaching and planning in more schools in Connacht, Ulster, and Munster will have a major long-term impact. 'The biggest challenge we've got is that we have one province that is incredibly good at nearly everything,' said Humphreys this week. 'That's a huge credit to Shane [Nolan, Leinaster's CEO], Leo [Cullen, Leinster's head coach], and Guy [Easterby, Leinster's COO] for the work they've done with what you see on the pitch but also how they interact with the IRFU, certainly over the time I've been here, they have been great to deal with. So they've got a brilliant set-up. 'When I first came in, there was a lot of talk around 'Leinster are too strong.' In a high-performance system, a team can never be too strong. Ultimately, the goal is to be the very, very best. They are very close to being in that position. Humphreys with Leinster head coach Leo Cullen. Nick Elliot / INPHO Nick Elliot / INPHO / INPHO 'But the challenge that I believe we in the IRFU have, and in my role, is to make the other three more competitive. 'This year has definitely been a transition year. It's been a transition year because there's been a turnover in coaches, because two of our provinces [Munster and Ulster] in particular have had massive injury crises across the course of the season, so it's felt like a lot of things that could go wrong have gone wrong. 'The challenge then becomes how we close that gap in the provinces. We can do it a little bit by recruitment, by being a little bit more flexible in terms of who they can recruit, when they can recruit, but that's a short-term solution. 'To me, we've got to go, 'What is the longer-term solution?' I fundamentally believe, based on my experience, what we've seen working through the Irish system is that if we can support players below what is traditionally considered the pathway, going into the schools system and putting directors of rugby in there or supporting schools in a way they feel is necessary to improve their rugby programme, we can get a longer-term fix which will ultimately improve the provinces and ultimately support Ireland. 'How are we going to do that? Well, that was part of the decision to finish the men's sevens programme. It wasn't simply a financial decision. It was a performance decision based on, we have to be able to reallocate the resources in our system. 'The budgets are not being cut. Kevin Potts [CEO of the IRFU] has said we can't continue to keep doing what we've always done. So what that has meant is we've made a performance decision based on the financial reality of the world that rugby is in, not just the IRFU but the wider world, to say we're going to take a longer-term solution which is the money we're going to save from finishing the men's sevens programme is going entirely into investing in the three provincial pathways and the women's game.' While improving schools programmes across the three provinces appears to be the first objective, the IRFU also hopes to help clubs make progress. Humphreys mentioned the potential for club sides to compete in schools competitions as he stressed that the pathways in Munster, Ulster, and Connacht can't simply mimic what is working in Leinster. Between cutting the men's sevens programme and remodelling the national contracting system, the IRFU can redistribute close to €2 million per season, which could have a notable long-term impact. But this is the thing. Making changes to a player development pathway can take years to have an effect at the top of the chain. Ireland won a Triple Crown this season, but it wasn't a vintage campaign for the national team. Three of the provinces struggled. The Ireland U20s were poor in their Six Nations campaign. The concern in some quarters is that Irish rugby is in regression already. Humphreys doesn't agree. Advertisement Humphreys with Andy Farrell and Simon Easterby. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO 'I don't think I've seen signs of regression,' he said. 'I think the nature of sport is that there are ups and downs and it's almost this year there's been, not quite the perfect storm, but there's a lot of things that have happened which would give off the view that it hasn't been as successful as it has been in the past. 'But for all those areas that you mentioned, when you look at some of the changes we've made, whether its coaching team, from a contracting point of view, the quality of the squads, I have no doubt that next year will be much stronger and much better, certainly across the provinces. 'We've had players who've been unbelievably successful, two or three of them probably had a dip in form at the same time. Even after the Six Nations, the form that a lot of them produced towards the end of the season was much stronger. 'The good thing is that this tour will give some of our young players the opportunity to perform and play against a very good Georgian team and we'll get a sense of where they are.' Paul O'Connell will lead the Ireland tour to Georgia next week before they head on to Lisbon to face Portugal. They will be without head coach Andy Farrell and four of his Ireland assistants, as well as 16 Irish players, and many backroom staff. Two years out from the 2027 World Cup, this seems like an important window of development for the Ireland squad, yet they will be without the bulk of the coaching staff. Humphrey believes that Irish players will only benefit in the long run from Farrell, Simon Easterby, John Fogarty, Andrew Goodman, Johnny Sexton, and Gary Keegan being with the Lions. 'In the same way that we encourage our players to be aspirational and they all want to play at the very highest level, the British and Irish Lions, we want coaches coming in here who're pushing the boundaries, who are given the opportunity to show how good they are and also improve in their coaching,' said Humphreys. 'And I've no doubt that the opportunities that those coaches will have and the experience they will have over the next few months with Andy and the Lions will make them better coaches and ultimately improve Ireland. 'I also firmly believe we've a very good group of coaches throughout the Irish system at the minute and from a longer-term point of view, this will give the coaches who are going with Paul O'Connell on the Irish tour an opportunity for them to be better in what they do and take that back to the provinces and that will ultimately make our players better.' The Ireland U20s side has been a pivotal stepping stone for many of Ireland's leading players. That age-grade side has enjoyed huge success in recent years under former head coaches Noel McNamara and Richie Murphy, but they finished last in this year's Six Nations after one win in five games. Things have not gone well for Neil Doak's side, but Humphreys is not overly concerned. 'There's a huge expectation because of the success that Irish U20s have had but Peter Smyth [the IRFU's head of elite player development] was reminding me of 2018 where Ireland had Caelan Doris, Tommy O'Brien, James Hume, Michael Lowry [but won two games in the Six Nations and finished 11th at the World Championship]. There were a number of players who've gone on to be very successful. Humphreys at the IRFU's training base this week. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO 'It isn't necessarily an indicator that players won't come through. They've been very unfortunate in terms of injuries. If you look at the stats from the Six Nations, a lot of the stats put Ireland in the top two or three but what they couldn't compete with was that they lost Niall Smyth, Alex Usanov, Alan Spicer [two props and a second row] – the size, the power. 'And because we have a smaller group of players [compared to] a lot of our competitors, when we lose two or three key players out of that, we lose just a little bit of our competitiveness. 'It has been frustrating, I know how frustrated the players and coaches have been and I know how much they see the next few weeks in Italy [for the World Rugby U20 Championship] as a challenge but also an opportunity to show what they have.' While Humphreys is clearly concerned about Munster, Ulster, and Connacht not allowing the gap to Leinster to become even wider, he insisted he is not downbeat about the state of play in Irish rugby. With Stuart Lancaster coming into Connacht, Clayton McMillan arriving in Munster, and Richie Murphy guiding Ulster's young players, Humphreys is confident that fortunes will be quickly reversed around the island. 'I think this year is a blip for a number of reasons that were around changes in coaching teams, player injuries,' he said. 'I think with our recruitment, we're going to have stronger squads next year. With the coaches we've brought in, we're going to have strong coaching teams next year. That's going to allow us to close the gap. 'How long will that take? I don't know. But, ultimately, if Leinster keep pushing the boundaries but the other provinces keep working towards closing it, we're going to have a stronger national team and stronger provinces. 'The timeline is almost irrelevant, the challenge is to make sure we are closing the gamp, and from an IRFU perspective that we're making the decisions which are right, to ensure that yes, the challenge is on the provinces to do what they need to do, but the challenge is on us as the governing body to make sure that we're supporting them to close that gap. 'The expectation in Ireland now is that we have four provinces that are competitive and an Irish team is on top of the world.'
