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 […]
Munster and Leinster have both named their teams for their Celtic Cup semi-final on Sunday evening. The match will be on of the team’s final match of the season. This season so far both sides have one victory a piece, but in the most recent clash on New Year’s Day, Munster’s forwards denied the Leinster backs the ball thus neutralising Leinster’s strongest asset, their backline.
The Celtic Cup kicked off this evening with an exciting match between Leinster and Glasgow. Leinster managed to go into a commanding 21 points to 3 lead in the first half, but some excellent counter attacking early in the second half saw Glasgow come back to level terms of 21 - 21. Leinster then managed, thanks to man of the match Gordon D’Arcy to score another try to put Glasgow away.
The Celtic League organisers have announced the line-up for the Celtic Cup semi-finals. The open draw means that the winner of the Munster V Edinburgh game will travel to play the winner of Leinster V Glasgow away.
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.
Following yesterday’s confirmation that Declan Kidney would be leaving the province, today brings the confirmation that flanker Shane Jennings is set to leave for Leicester.
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.
Following yesterday’s interviews for the job of Munster coach, it is being widely reported that Declan Kidney is the new Munster coach. Kidney left Munster to become Ireland assistant coach three years ago and became Leinster coach last August.
At this stage Munster, Leinster and Connacht have all named their sides for this weekend’s Heineken Cup matches. Alan Gaffney announced his Munster side this morning and it was pretty much as predicted. Despite all the injuries the side still contains a huge amount of experience and almost all the team are past or current Irish internationals.