By Adam Jackson
The women’s Six Nations had only an eighth. of the average television viewership of the men’s ix nations in 2025, according to the Central Statistics Office’s Women and Men in Ireland hub. This statistic shows a lack of engagement with women’s rugby from the Irish public. However, when compared with previous year’s statistics, it seems that this might be a positive trend for women’s rugby.
Photo by Sergey Omelchenko on Unsplash
It was heartbreak for France and New Zealand over the weekend as they saw their hopes of Women’s World Cup glory slip away.
France were without Axelle Berthoumieu following her 12 match ban for biting Ireland’s Aoife Wafer during their quarter-final clash. The flanker was a huge loss for ‘Les Bleues’ in the semi-final clash vs England.
England’s Ellie Kildunne was a crucial asset to her side, returning to the squad, following a quarter‑final exemption due to a concussion.
Kildunne’s killer impact came in the form of two tries that proved vital to the shift in the game.
“Ellie is absolutely electric; she can make something out of nothing,” said English Captain, Zoe Aldcroft following her teams victory on Saturday
France ebbed and flowed throughout the game, with an inconsistency that betrayed the magnitude of the occasion. Tries from Kelly Arbey and Nassira Konde just weren’t enough to close the gap.
It was clear that the strength of England’s bench, fitness and overall physicality in the latter stages were paramount on their road to victory.
In the other semi final, Canada produced a dominant first half, scoring several tries and securing themselves a strong lead going in to the 2nd half. New Zealand fought back, but couldn’t manage to overturn the lead their opposition had built.
Justine Pelletier and Asia Hogan‑Rochester were just some of the power houses at Canada’s disposal on Friday, the pair could have a pivotal impact in their Final clash with England on Saturday the 27th of September at 4pm in Twickenham.
Photo by Billy Brodzinski on Unsplash
This is Canada’s first-ever Women’s Rugby World Cup final, making this a historic moment for the team and for their country. They also had the honour of knocking out the reigning champions on their road to the final.
England return to the final following the heartbreak of 2022, where they narrowly lost to New Zealand. The Red Roses will certainly be seeking redemption and a chance at reclaiming a title that hasn’t been theirs since 2014.
Women’s sport has never been as important as it is right now. We live in a generation of social media, news coverage and an ‘if you can’t see it, you can’t be it’ mentality.
This Women’s Rugby World Cup has seen more coverage, larger attendances and greater investment than ever before. It is just a stepping stone on the long road to equality.
“We’ve seen more than 300,000 fans inside the stadiums, more than double the attendance we had in the last World Cup in New Zealand-” said Alan Gilpin, CEO, World Rugby, in an address to the media to discuss the four-year vision for the women’s game.
Those who pull on their national jersey represent their country with pride and carry their nation’s hopes on their shoulders. This is a chance for both teams to inspire a new generation of young women to play rugby.
So will England’s experience and depth carry them to victory on the day, or will Canada’s momentum and belief see them emerge victorious for the first time?
Statistically, the odds are very much in England’s favour but fans can rest assured that Canada won’t take this opportunity for granted.
Stats from Rugby World Cup Website https://www.rugbyworldcup.com/2025/en/match/winner-sf1-v-winner-sf2-final#info
Either way, the 2025 final promises to be a physical, determined and down to the wire final!
Word Count: 581 words
By Jamie Ryan
Rugby is quickly becoming one of Ireland’s most popular sports – but has often been viewed by many as ‘upper-class’.
This is because a large majority of home-grown professional Irish rugby players have come up through the school system, which is heavily featured by fee-paying schools – particularly those who rose through the Leinster ranks.
The pinnacle of school-boy rugby in the East of Ireland, is the annual Leinster Schools Rugby Senior Cup – which is hotly contested by sixteen teams from across the province.
This has been dominated since its inaugural competition in 1887, by Blackrock College with 71 Senior Cup titles respectively.
De La Salle Churchtown was the last public school to claim Senior Cup glory back in 1985 – an achievement that has become increasingly more difficult to beat, as private schools have swept up every title since.
Back in 2014, the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), appointed former Australian hooker, David Nucifora, as their High Performance Director. Since then, the IRFU have invested heavily in rugby playing private schools across the island with the aim of producing an athlete that is already prepared and has exposure to high intensity and pressure rugby by the ages of 18 or 19.
Schoolboy rugby in Ireland has become noticeably more professional in recent years with how these young players are expected to commit, train and diet, while also balancing their education.
This has put these players in a great position for when they graduate from schoolboy rugby to adult grades, however, the reason for rugby’s reputation as a posh sport is arguably because of these fee-paying schools having more funds at their disposal to dedicate to their school’s team.
This has no doubt played a vital role in many of these schools’ success while also reiterating the belief that rugby is upper-class by many, as the majority of public schools do not have the privilege of this financial backing.
Ryan McCormack, 18, played rugby right throughout his secondary school days with Temple Carrig, a public school is Greystones, and currently plays club rugby for Greystones Rugby club. “Rugby in private schools is such a culture – the players are given so many resources because they can afford to pump as much money into the sport as they want which adds to the idea that it is a posh sport,” he said.
“Blackrock College for example has nine rugby pitches, one of which being an astro turf. They have put so much money into gathering the best coaches and providing players with the best facilities at their disposal. It allows those players to get ahead of the curve but at the end of the day, it is worth nothing unless the player themself is willing to hard work and is determined to make it to the professional rugby scene.” said McCormack.
“I have been to many schools’ games with the likes of Blackrock, Clongowes, St Mary’s, and Belvedere and there are always at least three Leinster staff watching out for talent, but for other public schools’ games, there are very rarely Leinster development officers or scouts in attendance. There are far too many exceptionally talented players who have been overlooked due to where they play,” McCormack further explained.
While it is difficult to argue against the prioritisation of this focus given the results that have been achieved by the Irish team because of this system, many feel that it can appear from the outside looking in to be elitist and excludes young rugby players from reaching a professional level if they came through the club system or the public school system.
While this system clearly produces results for the national squad, it is also heavily catering to Leinster on an inter-provincial front – far more so than Munster, Ulster or Connacht due to the pure quantity of private schools in Dublin particularly.
On the island of Ireland, there are 30 private schools that play rugby with 12 of these being in Leinster, 6 in Munster, 6 in Ulster and 3 in Connacht.
This rhetoric does, however, seem to be slowly changing slightly in that interest in rugby is at an all-time high in Ireland thanks to the recent success of Irish Rugby in international competitions, but also in club competitions such as the URC, the Champions Cup and also in the AIL (All Ireland League).
Jamie Osborne has been one of the most recent examples of a player breaking the mould by rising through the juvenile ranks with his boyhood club, Naas, to now representing Leinster and Ireland but in recent times, playing coming from a non-private school system has been a rare sight.
Irish rugby fan Andrew Jones, 23, said: “It kind of sends a message really, doesn’t it? The best way for a player to get to that level is to go to a private school, which is unfair when you consider that where someone goes to school doesn’t tend to be their choice. As soon as that elitist aspect is brought to anything, there can also sometimes almost be a distaste toward the sport itself in certain areas.”
The IRFU has over the last number of years, been developing a series of strategic plans to promote growth in the game across the country beyond just the confines of just South Dublin and other surrounding areas’ private schools.
The promotion of the game in areas where rugby is not as popular would aid in combatting this ‘posh’ reputation that it currently has, as it would be more freely available for those who want to get involved.
By Jessica Lee
Leinster have kept their perfect record in the United Rugby Championship (URC), with a stunning bonus-point 33-12 win over a strong Connacht side in Galway on Saturday night.
Coming off the back of their win against Munster in a sold-out Croke Park last weekend, the boys in blue made a fast start to the game, with Jamie Osborne scoring a try in the seventh minute and was quickly followed by Ciaran Frawley kicking the conversion.
Despite Connacht’s defense holding firm against Leinster’s strong efforts, Liam Turner scored a try just minutes later, and the kick was converted.
Ciarán Frawley suffered an ankle injury during the buildup to Turners try and was replaced by Ross Byrne.
An injured Frawley will be a concern for Irish Rugby manager Andy Farrell, as Leinster are set to face New Zealand in the Aviva Stadium in three weeks’ time.
Leinster Captain James Ryan appeared to have scored a try; however, it was later disallowed due to accidental offside when Ryan received the ball and Connacht were awarded the scrum.
Connacht finally got into the game at the 33rd minute, after a scrappy tackle on the try line with Sean O’Brien getting the score.
World Cup winner and South African native, RG Snyman, got Leinster’s third try after gathering a loose ball just before half time, with Ross Byrne adding two points to Leinster’s advantage.
Just five minutes into the second half, Leinster further proved their dominance over the home side as flanker Max Deegan scored their fourth try for the bonus point.
Connacht returned from half time hungry to get scores on the board but struggled to get through the robust Leinster defense. However, a try from Cathal Forde came in the 64th minute and the conversion was scored by Josh Ioane.
This small win for Connacht was short lived, as just minutes later Andrew Osborne ripped up the wing to catch Byrne’s kick from the restart and scoring the final try of the game.
With 10 minutes left on the clock, Connacht desperately tried to close the gap, but it was too little, too late. The score was 12-33 to Leinster when the final whistle blew.
This is Leinster’s second consecutive inter-provincial victory so far in this URC campaign, with RG Snyman receiving player of the match for his performance.
Connacht: P O’Conor; S Bolton, D Hawkshaw (C Forde 62), B Aki, S Cordero (H Gavin 59); J Ioane, B Murphy (C Blade 56); D Buckley (P Dooley 52), D Heffernan (D Tierney-Martin 56), F Bealham (J Aungier 52); J Joyce (N Murray 52), D Murray; C Prendergast (c), S O’Brien (S Jansen 56), P Boyle.
Leinster: H Keenan; L Turner (H Cooney 74), G Ringrose, J Osborne, A Osborne; C Frawley (R Byrne 17), J Gibson-Park (F Gunne 71); J Boyle (A Porter 44), G McCarthy (S Smith 74), R Slimani (T Clarkson 44); RG Snyman (B Deeny 70), J Ryan (c); M Deegan, W Connors (S Penny 59), J Culhane.
Referee: Eoghan Cross (IRFU)
Trials for the very first Women’s U20’s Rugby team in Ireland are being held on Sunday December 13th at Rugby Academy Ireland. The City’s Ciaron Noble spoke with the co-founder of Rugby Academy Ireland Dan Van Zyl and the Head-Coach of the team and former Ireland international Fiona Hayes about this project.
After a strong 32-9 victory vs Wales on Friday night in the first round of the Autumn Nations Cup, Ireland’s attention turns to Twickenham on Saturday where they’ll face Eddie Jones’s England. Ireland’s Head Coach Andy Farrell is keen to improve on his first Six Nations campaign which only concluded a little During his first competitive competition the English man won all of his home games, but failed to get a victory on the road versus both England and France finishing 3rd in the final standings. Ciaron Noble explores this in statistics.
Ireland’s Head Coach Andy Farrell is keen to improve on his first Six Nations campaign which only concluded a little over two weeks ago. During his first competitive competition the English man won all of his home games, but failed to get a victory on the road versus both England and France finishing 3rd in the final standings. His predecessor Joe Schmidt was at the helm for Ireland for six years from 2013-19, with a 78% winning ratio. During his time in-charge he won three Six Nations championships including one Grand Slam in 2018, he led Ireland to their first victories against New Zealand in Chicago in 2016 and on home-soil in 2018, Ireland also became the top ranked team in the world for the first time in their history. However, the New Zealand born coach had a disappointing 2019 both in the SN (finishing 3rd) and the World Cup in Japan, failing to progress further than the quarter-final, a goal that continues to haunt Irish Rugby.
But how did Farrell’s first SN’s campaign as the head man compare to the previous campaign when Schmidt was the man behind the wheel. Let’s look at the stats, according to the SN official statistics and ESPN.
The fact that the stats for the last two campaigns are quite similar isn’t overly surprising as both coaches had similar fates winning three games and losing twice. Farrell was of course a part of Schmidt’s coaching ticket, being the defence coach for three years between 2016-19, involved in some of Ireland’s greatest moments, before taking over as head coach after the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
The jury is still out on whether or not Farrell is the man to lead Ireland to re-discover their brilliant form of 2018, although it’s important to remember he’s only 6 games into tenure and with three more games to come in the Autumn Nations Cup over the next few weeks. They find themselves in a group with Wales, England and Georgia. France, Scotland, Italy and Fiji make up the other pool. Ireland will play each team in their pool and their final opponents will be based on where they finish in the group and who is in the corresponding position in the other group. They’ve already beaten Wales.
Many people/pundits believe that it’s possible Schmidt’s game-plan and selections were becoming predictable towards the end of his reign, but in actual fact the old boss used a total of 36 players in his 2019 SN campaign whereas the new used two players on 34. Although Farrell introduced a lot of new blood during his first competition as manager including players like Caelan Dorris, Will Connors and Max Deegan. After a four-year World Cup cycle, it is very common for a batch of new players to become involved as the building process for the next World Cup ultimately starts. All seven debutants that made their first international cap play for Leinster, this isn’t surprising considering the province’s domestic success in recent times, making the European Cup final in two of the last three seasons. James Lowe made his international debut on Friday night on the wing versus Wales, scoring a try and putting in a great performance.
In the 2019 SN Ireland conceded the most number of turnovers more than any other team on 80 whereas under Farrell in the 2020 instalment of the tournament Ireland only conceded 56 turnovers’ the second lowest behind England. The men in green lead on the turnovers won stat for 2020, out in front with 35. Backrow CJ Stander made the most steals of any other player in the whole competition leading with 7 turnovers. Four Irish players were included in the top 10 for this particular stat. Although, Ireland’s turnover in the tackle was the lowest of the six countries, only managing to do it six times throughout the five games.
In terms of defence and tackles, last year Ireland had a successful tackle rate 86%, whereas in this year’s SN it improved slightly to an 88.5% success rate. Second-row James Ryan was the leading Irish player on the tackle count with 65, Stander in second with 61 tackles. However, Ireland did have the lowest number of dominant tackles with only 58.
It’s fair to say Ireland have been relatively below par in the last two SN campaigns, failing to reach the successful heights of 2018. Andy Farrell has three more games to finish his first year as head coach. He’ll be hoping for four victories and to finish 2020 on a high.
With a lot of sport being played currently behind closed doors, there is an increased clamour to allow people to still watch the local team they support. This has placed a large emphasis on streaming and technology to continue to allow sports to be broadcasted to those that want to watch them. Andrew Blair White talks about how these changes are affecting sport.
Heatley Tector is the owner of HBV Studios, who have been involved in the streaming of All Ireland League Rugby games from St Mary’s College, Naas RFC and Young Munster. “It’s a very exciting time to be broadcasting sport as there is a lot of demand for it,” he said. “A lot of these local clubs want to give a chance for members and regular visitors to watch their home games live and try to replicate being at the ground like they normally would.
“It is our job to then go ahead and produce a good service so that the viewer will enjoy and feel good value for getting to watch the game in their home.”
The numbers watching these local games are big with the AIL, GAA and League of Ireland all bringing in good viewing figures. The ‘Watch LOI’ campaign has allowed a lot of season ticket holders of local teams the opportunity to watch every game left in the season after the year was put on hold initially back in March. Since resumption, the streams have been very popular with people anxious to watch their local club and anxious to feel like they are back involved within their own club.
Tector added: “It is the way the world is going these days – there is a lot more technology present and it leads to more matches being streamed.
“The last few years, we have been broadcasting cricket coverage all over Ireland and now we are looking to branch out into other sports. We have got some rugby and also are looking to get into some hockey after this lockdown eases. This is exciting as it broadens what we can offer to each individual client, and we are looking to impress every single client that we work for. That is always our aim.”
However, broadcasting of games at a high level is not cheap. The majority of local clubs are having to rely on donations or good will from members to fund the chance of streaming games. This is a big ask in some local clubs but the good heart of an awful lot of people is showing through in these difficult times. Sponsors of leagues and of teams have stepped up to the plate brilliantly in the last few weeks, making sure that streams can be performed and that entertainment can therefore be provided. It’s a great environment when it works well, with everyone benefiting from the pictures and getting that feeling of normality with watching their local club on the weekend – no matter what the sport.
With the current restrictions potentially lasting for another while longer, there doesn’t seem to be a great chance of fans attending games very soon. Instead, clubs will have to be creative, they will have to try their best to show games to their fan base and more. Perhaps people will be in need of Heatley Tector and HBV Studios, they need a broadcaster to provide quality content.
It’s changing times at the moment, and streaming is the way forward for sport.
John Burke reports on Leinster’s outstanding performance and convincing win over title holders Saracens in Champions Cup Quarter Final.
This week’s edition sees host Leo McGuinn joined by regulars Shane O’Brien, Sean Meehan, Scott Howe and Daniel Osborne to look over Ireland’s play-off failure, Tony Pulis’ sacking and the seemingly unstoppable Manchester City, as well as looking at the insipid Irish rugby display against Fiji.
Ireland’s hopes of hosting the 2023 Rugby World Cup have been dealt a major blow after World Rugby have decided not to endorse their bid, choosing 1995 host South Africa instead.
World Rugby have selected their preferred candidate to host the 2023 World Cup after months of technical appraisals. South Africa came out on top with 78.97%, France second with 75.88% and Ireland last with only 72.25%.
Each country was assessed on five categories: finance and tournament guarantees, venues and host cities, tournament infrastructure, vision and concept, and tournament organisation and schedule.
Ireland didn’t top any of these categories and came last or joint last in all but one as shown on the table below.
World Rugby Chairman Bill Beaumont said: “The comprehensive and independently scrutinised evaluation reaffirmed that we have three exceptional bids but it also identified South Africa as a clear leader based on performance against the key criteria, which is supported by the board in the recommendation.”
This news, which came in the form of a 220-page document from World Rugby, is devastating for Irish rugby who received strong government backing, unlike France and South Africa.
Over €4 million has already been spent on Ireland’s bid to host the tournament by the IRFU and while it is not impossible for Ireland to be chosen as hosts, it now seems highly unlikely.
By Leo McGuinn
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