After the expected victories over Romania and Tonga, Ireland’s Rugby World Cup starts properly this weekend.
In a tournament that has, as yet, failed to throw up a proper clash between two blue-chip contenders, the game against South Africa in Stade de France on Saturday night is a bona fide heavyweight encounter.
It’s the countries ranked one and two in the world.
The third-favourites against the second-favourites. The pretenders against the world champions.
Both sides have backed up their status coming in – Ireland with a collective scoring difference of 117 points in their two games, while South Africa have beaten Scotland and then Romania by an aggregate of 97.
The scoring is unlikely to be as high in Saint-Denis – closer to the 19-16 victory Ireland had at Aviva Stadium last November – but it should be far more absorbing.
Group winners
It’s the first time Ireland will meet South Africa in the World Cup and the outcome of the game should determine the group winners.
Even then, there is a school of thought that losing might be better in the long run – the winners of Pool B face the runners-up of Pool A in the quarter-finals and, after France’s opening night win over New Zealand, the All Blacks are likely to finish second there.
Of course, that takes for granted the fact that, after losing to the Springboks, Ireland would swat Scotland aside in their last outing and that’s far from a given.
Perhaps bitten by history once too often, the bookmakers are still offering the quarter-final stage as Ireland’s likelier point of exit, but the past year or so has seen the team answer a number of questions that previous Ireland teams might not have.
Nothing to fear
Prior to last year, Ireland had also won their previous game against South Africa, in 2017, and so there is nothing to fear in the sense of being overawed.
Saturday will be the biggest test faced under Andy Farrell’s leadership.
And so far, all of the signs point to a strong performance, even if that may not necessarily guarantee the victory we want to see.
Constant presence of Glen Rovers
We won’t go through all of the things that have happened in the GAA – or the wider world – since 1926.
However, through everything, the presence of Glen Rovers as a senior hurling club in Cork has been constant. In 97 years, the Blackpool outfit claimed 27 Cork titles as well as appearing in 18 other finals; they were kings of Munster on three occasions and All-Ireland club hurling champions in 1973 and 1977.
Even though the northsiders had to endure 26 years without winning the Seán Óg Murphy Cup after their 1989 victory, they ended their drought in style with victories in 2015 and 2016 and were unfortunate not to come out on top in final appearances in 2019, 2020 (beaten after extra time by Blackrock) and 2021.
When the draws were made for the 2023 Co-op SuperStores Cork Premier SHC – the grade was renamed for 2020 as the championships were re-formatted to 12 teams each – the Glen came out alongside last year’s beaten finalists Blackrock and the 2021 champions Midleton, who were unceded as they had failed to get out of their group last year.
It was quickly dubbed the ‘group of death’ as only two could qualify but the fourth team, Bishopstown, were seen as the likeliest to finish bottom and have to battle relegation.
Opening weekends
Unfortunately for the Glen, their championship campaign came to ground with defeats to Blackrock and Midleton in the opening two weekends – Bishopstown also lost to that pair – but a three-week gap until the last match offered a chance to group and at least secure third place. While the Glen had a five-point lead at one stage, Bishopstown never gave up and managed to fight back and win by two points.
That left them facing a relegation play-off last Saturday in Fermoy against Kanturk. While Kanturk can’t boast the same history or heritage as the Glen, they have battled hard to get to the top tier in Cork in hurling, in tandem with a jump from junior A to senior A (the second-highest level) in football. While all the focus was on the Glen, Kanturk had a lot to play for, too.
In the event, Kanturk won by two points and, but for wayward shooting, they would have been even more comfortable. The Glen – the club of Christy Ring, Jack Lynch, Denis Coughlan, Tomás Mulcahy, Patrick Horgan and a host of other household names – are still a senior club but they will be competing in senior A next year. In as much as the result on Saturday was not a surprise given that Kanturk had shown better form in the group stages, it is still a huge shock, in Cork and the wider hurling world.
Such is the nature of a cut-throat system but a team that fails to win four matches can have few complaints. The Glen will be the odds-on favourites to win senior A in 2024 but, equally, they will be the scalp everyone else wants to take and their return will have to be earned.
Saturday marks the start of the European Week of Sport.
People of all ages and abilities are urged to #BeActive, with hope that it can lead to pursuits being taken up on a regular basis.
As the Sport Ireland website says, “For such a tiny island, there are so many incredible opportunities to participate in sport and physical activity,” and there are a number of events taking place in Ireland over the week.
For more, see sportireland.ie/europeanweekofsport
Read more
Strong World Cup start for Ireland
And so the World Cup dream begins anew
After the expected victories over Romania and Tonga, Ireland’s Rugby World Cup starts properly this weekend.
In a tournament that has, as yet, failed to throw up a proper clash between two blue-chip contenders, the game against South Africa in Stade de France on Saturday night is a bona fide heavyweight encounter.
It’s the countries ranked one and two in the world.
The third-favourites against the second-favourites. The pretenders against the world champions.
Both sides have backed up their status coming in – Ireland with a collective scoring difference of 117 points in their two games, while South Africa have beaten Scotland and then Romania by an aggregate of 97.
The scoring is unlikely to be as high in Saint-Denis – closer to the 19-16 victory Ireland had at Aviva Stadium last November – but it should be far more absorbing.
Group winners
It’s the first time Ireland will meet South Africa in the World Cup and the outcome of the game should determine the group winners.
Even then, there is a school of thought that losing might be better in the long run – the winners of Pool B face the runners-up of Pool A in the quarter-finals and, after France’s opening night win over New Zealand, the All Blacks are likely to finish second there.
Of course, that takes for granted the fact that, after losing to the Springboks, Ireland would swat Scotland aside in their last outing and that’s far from a given.
Perhaps bitten by history once too often, the bookmakers are still offering the quarter-final stage as Ireland’s likelier point of exit, but the past year or so has seen the team answer a number of questions that previous Ireland teams might not have.
Nothing to fear
Prior to last year, Ireland had also won their previous game against South Africa, in 2017, and so there is nothing to fear in the sense of being overawed.
Saturday will be the biggest test faced under Andy Farrell’s leadership.
And so far, all of the signs point to a strong performance, even if that may not necessarily guarantee the victory we want to see.
Constant presence of Glen Rovers
We won’t go through all of the things that have happened in the GAA – or the wider world – since 1926.
However, through everything, the presence of Glen Rovers as a senior hurling club in Cork has been constant. In 97 years, the Blackpool outfit claimed 27 Cork titles as well as appearing in 18 other finals; they were kings of Munster on three occasions and All-Ireland club hurling champions in 1973 and 1977.
Even though the northsiders had to endure 26 years without winning the Seán Óg Murphy Cup after their 1989 victory, they ended their drought in style with victories in 2015 and 2016 and were unfortunate not to come out on top in final appearances in 2019, 2020 (beaten after extra time by Blackrock) and 2021.
When the draws were made for the 2023 Co-op SuperStores Cork Premier SHC – the grade was renamed for 2020 as the championships were re-formatted to 12 teams each – the Glen came out alongside last year’s beaten finalists Blackrock and the 2021 champions Midleton, who were unceded as they had failed to get out of their group last year.
It was quickly dubbed the ‘group of death’ as only two could qualify but the fourth team, Bishopstown, were seen as the likeliest to finish bottom and have to battle relegation.
Opening weekends
Unfortunately for the Glen, their championship campaign came to ground with defeats to Blackrock and Midleton in the opening two weekends – Bishopstown also lost to that pair – but a three-week gap until the last match offered a chance to group and at least secure third place. While the Glen had a five-point lead at one stage, Bishopstown never gave up and managed to fight back and win by two points.
That left them facing a relegation play-off last Saturday in Fermoy against Kanturk. While Kanturk can’t boast the same history or heritage as the Glen, they have battled hard to get to the top tier in Cork in hurling, in tandem with a jump from junior A to senior A (the second-highest level) in football. While all the focus was on the Glen, Kanturk had a lot to play for, too.
In the event, Kanturk won by two points and, but for wayward shooting, they would have been even more comfortable. The Glen – the club of Christy Ring, Jack Lynch, Denis Coughlan, Tomás Mulcahy, Patrick Horgan and a host of other household names – are still a senior club but they will be competing in senior A next year. In as much as the result on Saturday was not a surprise given that Kanturk had shown better form in the group stages, it is still a huge shock, in Cork and the wider hurling world.
Such is the nature of a cut-throat system but a team that fails to win four matches can have few complaints. The Glen will be the odds-on favourites to win senior A in 2024 but, equally, they will be the scalp everyone else wants to take and their return will have to be earned.
Saturday marks the start of the European Week of Sport.
People of all ages and abilities are urged to #BeActive, with hope that it can lead to pursuits being taken up on a regular basis.
As the Sport Ireland website says, “For such a tiny island, there are so many incredible opportunities to participate in sport and physical activity,” and there are a number of events taking place in Ireland over the week.
For more, see sportireland.ie/europeanweekofsport
Read more
Strong World Cup start for Ireland
And so the World Cup dream begins anew
SHARING OPTIONS