A few years ago the Celtic League was a bit of a farce because of the fact that with International commitments some of the bigger teams were pretty much unable to compete on a lot of weekends. Thankfully this situation is somewhat resolved these days but unfortunately there still are weekends when many players are […]
Connacht’s season ended in defeat today when they crashed out of the European Challenge Cup after losing by 59 points to 9. Connacht went into the tie knowing they would have to win by at least 7 points to win on aggregate, but in the end the third placed side in the Zurich Premiership proved too strong.
Today continued to be a busy news day with the announcement from Leinster that they would be signing England and Wasps prop Will Green. The signing is clearly intended to strengthen up Leinster’s front five which has come in for a lot of critism recently.
This weekend is crucial for Connacht and Ulster with regard to their Heineken Cup chances and both sides seem to be prepared for that. Ulster look like they are well on their way to having a big crowd at their game V Llanelli. Should Ulster win they will be certain of a Heineken Cup place next season, but if they lose, it is quite possible that they could miss out on the Heineken Cup. Coach Mark McCall has named a side that is unchanged from the one that lost last weekend to Cardiff.
Today has been an extremely busy day in terms of Irish Rugby news with changes happening all round, mainly to do with Declan Kidney’s switch from Leinster to Munster.
The Heineken Cup restarts tonight and I’m sure everyone will be glued to their TV to see whether Northampton can cause a huge upset when they face Toulouse. From an Irish point of view there’s nothing much happening but the three provinces in action this weekend should announce their squads today.
This weekend sees the return of European Rugby following the break for the Six Nations. Three of the four Irish provinces are in action. First up on Saturday it’s the turn of Connacht in the semi-finals of the European Challenge Cup, then later that evening Leinster will be looking to bury the ghosts of their past performances in the competition when they take on Leicester in Landsdowne Road. Finally on Sunday all eyes will turn to San Sebastian, Spain, where Munster are set to face French giants Biarritz. All in all it’s set to be a massive weekend of European Competition.
>Ulster finally put some daylight between themselves and Connacht when they beat the Borders by 17 points to 13 last night at Ravenhill. While they are now 3 points ahead of Connacht they’ll be very dissapointed that they weren’t able to beat bottom placed Borders by more. However Connacht have a more difficult final two matches so Ulster will be confident of claiming the final Heineken Cup spot.
The Brian Lima mystery has continued today with his supposed arrival in the country. Since this was officially announced earlier in the week we’re going to wait until we see a picture of him in a Munster shirt before we believe it.
Leinster held off Connacht to complete a double over Connacht this season and open a gap between themselves and The Dragons in the race for third place in the Celtic League. Meanwhile the losing bonus point that Connacht picked up in the 21 points to 26 defeat moves them one point ahead of Ulster in the race for the third Irish Heineken Cup spot.