After a fairly even start the home side took the lead in the 23rd when Cork Constitution winger Simon Zebo swept across the line from a move that started in the Irish 22, Brian Kingston failed to convert. Shortly afterwards Ryan was sin-binned for infringements at the breakdown, allowing Ravens to pile on the pressure resulting in an unconverted penalty try just before half time.
Early play was scrappy in the second half, a penalty in the 51st put the Ravens ahead briefly before an excellent unconverted try by John Cooney, 10-8.
A disallowed try in the 59th by the Under-20s looked to put them ahead before one of the assistants flagged that a punch had been thrown in the ruck. The final quarter saw the Under-20s move the ball around more only for disaster to strike and Craig Gliroy intercepted on the half way to get a try under the posts, allowing an easy conversion for the Ravens. Ravens lead 15-10.
A final penalty by Robinson in the 73rd wrapped things up 18-10.
The management should take much from this game despite the loss, as a preparation for the Under 20s’ Six Nations campaign starting against Italy on Friday February 5th.
Donncha O’Callaghan capped off an amazing year yesterday by marrying his long-term girlfriend Jennifer Harte in Cork.
With a winter wonderland surrounding them, vast amounts of salt was scattered around the entrance to St Columba’s Chuch to avoid any injury to the pride of Irish rugby in attendance.
Almost all of the Ireland, Munster and Leinster players were there, along with some international stars such as Dougie Howlett (All Blacks), Lifeimi Mafi (Tonga) and Tigers captain Geordan Murphy. The bride’s cousin had a dual role on the day as well as being family he is Donncha’s captain at international level – yes none other than Brian O’Driscoll!
Rugby fans gathered at the church to congratulate the happy couple, with a handful eager to gather autographs from the assembled galaxy of stars.
Our pictures show Donncha looking a little less clean cut during the famous victory that capped their first grand slam in 60 years!
At 25 the world’s his oyster and his market value soared after an amazing Lions tour where he scored four tries. Out of contract at the end of the season with Ospreys, interest is growing from Ulster, Leinster and Munster!
That said it looks like the Ospreys will retain Mr Bowe’s services having scored nine tries in nine games for them. A move back to Ireland give Bowe an IRFU central contract, which would give generous player welfare through to the next World Cup.
Bowe still has strong connections at Ulster, but with two recent Heineken Cup champions interested, that’s got to be tempting hasn’t it?
DUBLIN, Dec 23 (Reuters) – Ireland and Munster back row forward Denis Leamy has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a knee injury, the southern Irish province said in a statement on Wednesday.
Leamy was injured in the last play of Sunday’s bonus point 37-14 Heineken Cup victory at Perpignan and was operated on in Dublin on Tuesday.
He will miss Ireland’s Six Nations defence which begins in February and Munster’s bid for a third European title.
The pools have been announced for the 2010 Women’s Rugby World Cup in England, the games will be played from August 20 to September 5th and feature three pools of four teams.
The seeded sides in their individual pools are:
New Zealand, defending champions.
England, hosts and 2006 runners-up.
France, 2006 bronze medallists.
The qualification process saw 16 teams complete for those six places outside of those automatically qualifed.
Direct Qualifiers
New Zealand, England, France, Canada, USA and South Africa all qualified directly,
Six Nations Qualifiers
Wales and Ireland
Regional Qualifiers:
Sweden and Scotland – European qualifiers
Australia – the Oceania qualifier.
Kazakhstan from Asia.
The pools are:
Pool A: New Zealand, Wales, Australia, South Africa Pool B: England, USA, Ireland, Kazakhstan
Pool C: France, Canada, Scotland, Sweden
Luke Fitzgerald will be out for four to six months after rupturing a knee ligament in Ireland’s 20-20 draw with Australia. Fitzgerald will require surgery and intensive rehabilitation in that time.
Seven other changes have been made for the Fiji game since that nail-biting draw, with Jonathan Sexton ready to make his debut. Horgan, Reddan and D’Arcy come in from the Leinster backline with winger Keith Earls.
Leo Cullen, Australian born Tom Court and Denis Leamy will join the pack.
No surprises here that Brian O’Driscoll is on the list for the IRB Player of the Year.
The full list are:
Ireland – Brian O’Driscoll
Ireland – Jamie Heaslip
England – Tom Croft
New Zealand – Richie McCaw
Australia – Matt Giteau
South Africa – Francois Steyn
South Africa – Fourie du Preez
O’Driscoll will be favourite to the second Irishman to win after Keith Wood won in 2001, to win this would conclude an unbelievable year for O’Driscoll. A year which has included winning the RBS Six Nations Player of the Tournament on his way to Ireland’s second Grand Slam, playing in the Lions tour and winning the Heinken Cup. The recent game against Australia took O’Driscoll into the elite group of people who’ve pulled on international shirts 100 times (including 6 for the British and Irish Lions!).
A last minute try by Brian O’Driscoll foiled Australia’s plan for a Grand Slam of the home nations and leaves Ireland unbeaten under Declan Kidney.
Australia had stepped up a gear after their defeat of England last week and delivered a much more polished performance with Rocky Elsom at the helm. O’Driscoll’s first touch (fumble) gifted Australia a lead, but if there was ever a time for O’Driscoll magic it was in the last minute to level the game (with the help of O’Gara’s conversion) in his 100th test!
Ireland haven’t played together for six months and will now know how much work they need to do before they meet the Springboks in a fortnight. The scrum was dismantled and John Hayes had a terrible time in what proved to be a very tight game mastered in some ways by Quade Cooper who looked like he’d played Test rugby for years! Ireland’s kicks were rarely as perfect!
The game ran in bits and bobs with Giteau and Elsom making good breaks, O’Gara’s unorthodox chip penalty just couldn’t reach Tommy Bowe in the wing.
By half time the score was 10-6, Matt Giteau landing one penalty to O’Gara’s two and adding it to Mitchell’s try from the early O’Driscoll mistake.
The second half was even better for Australia, ironing out the early mistakes in the forwards leaving little for Ireland to play off. Giteau missed one penalty and landed the other after 55 minutes – with Australia having 70% second half territory and possession.
Cian Healy wasn’t having the best of debuts in the tight, but in the loose really pushed himself winning the restart and heading straight for the 22. Eight phases culminated in a double pass move for Bowe to go over the line.
At thirteen all, Australia simply carried straight on. Healy again in the thick of it was turned over and Wallabies moved side to side before Elsom powered into the corner. Converted by Giteau and it looked like it was all over.
Australia running on empty were besieged by Ireland in the last ten (a time of the game Ireland are used to fighting from), two penalties given away by Australia in the corner resulting in a team warning. From the next phase Tommy Bowe was held up in the corner, the scrum was solid and Tomas O’Leary delayed his pass perfectly to find the right one of the three runners. The Australian centres parted and O’Driscoll waltzed over the line!
Reading between the lines whilst watching the line-up’s come out for the autumn tests, you can be pretty sure that a few players have played their last games for Ireland:
Mal O’Kelly, Bernard Jackman, Alan Quinlan and Girvan Dempsey
More will come as the young talent builds in Cronin, Toner, O’Brien, Ryan, Healy and Sextion, it’s natural. You’d have to expect Big John Hayes and Marcus Horan to be gone before 2011.
Here are some special memories of Dempsey, in particular that day in 2004 when Ireland gave England their first home defeat since they’d won the World Cup!
And another one against England at Croker in 2007:
