With Eddie O’Sullivan having recently said that it would be beneficial for the ‘A’ Internationals to return, it’s been announced that Ireland ‘A’ will play the French on in Donnybrook on Friday, March 11th 2005 at 7.00pm. This will be the first outing for the Ireland A team since 2003 when they played England A in Donnybrook in March.
With only four days to go until Munster’s match with Castres in the Heineken Cup, the Evening Echo has revealed that flanker Denis Leamy is an injury doubt.
Ulster lost their sixth match of the season today, when Llanelli Scarlets easily saw off the visiting Ulstermen. Ulster never once threatened the Llanelli line and only registered 3 penalties thanks to the boot of Adam Larkin. Llanelli however managed to string more together and won by 22 points to 9 and thanks to Phil John scored the only try in what was a poor game of rugby.
Connacht claimed a Welsh scalp for the second week in a row, when they saw off the challenge of Newport-Gwent Dragons at the Sportsground in Galway. The Dragons who are placed fourth in the league couldn’t cope with the spirited display from Connacht and despite threatening to win at the death went down by 19 points to 14.
A late, late drop goal from Ronan O’Gara gave Ireland the victory in an extremely hard fought encounter with Argentina at Landsdowne Road. O’Gara’s drop goal seconds from the end, put Ireland into a lead for the first time in the match, and cruely denied the Argentinians a victory many would think they deserved.
In Friday night’s Celtic League clashes both Munster and Leinster recorded wins, placing them in second and third respectively at the half way stage in the league. Both sides have completed 10 games with the second half of the competition starting on December 17th after the next two rounds of the Heineken Cup. Both sides will be delighted with their performances in the Celtic League thusfar, especially as they both had to compete without their International players at the start of the season.
Ireland’s rising star on the wing, Tommy Bowe is the only change to the Ulster side ahead of their trip to Llanelli on Sunday. Bowe, who made a try-scoring debut against the USA last Saturday, returns to the right-wing berth, with Scott Young dropping to the bench.
Five superb tries by former All-Blacks legend Christian Cullen has helped propel the fortunes of resurgent Munster and earned their in-form full back the Guinness Draught Can Celtic League Player of the Month for October.
Munster Branch President Niall O’Driscoll has unveiled plans to develop Thomond Park and Musgrave Park in a new €30m redevelopment programme. The plans include upgrading Thomond Park into a 26,000 capacity stadium, a new 6,500 capacity stand in Musgrave Park and the provision of additional playing and training facilities to develop age grade rugby in the province. A major fundraising drive was also unveiled by the Munster Branch to fund the redevelopments. A tax based scheme is at the centre of the fund raising drive, which operates under the Sports Capital Tax legislation.
Following last weekend’s developmental selection for the match against the USA, Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan has reverted to the team that beat South Africa for this weekend’s match against Argentina.