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Murphy and Addison sign new deals

Ulster pair Jordi Murphy and Will Addison have signed new deals with Ulster Rugby. The contract extensions are for a further two years as the province also confirmed their squad for next season.

Murphy has been playing at Ulster since leaving Leinster in 2018. Will Addison played Sale Sharks, but he moved to Ulster also in 2018. The contract of both players was due to expire over the summer but they have now put pen to paper which is sure to exit Ulster supporters.

As I previously mentioned the province also confirmed their squad for the new season. Jacob Stockdale, Matt Rea and Sean Reidy will all remain at the province. Stewart Moore has committed to a three year deal, he will graduate from the Ulster academy to be a development player, before been upgraded to the senior squad. Meanwhile, Ian Madigan comes into the squad on a one year contract. Madigan comes to Ulster after playing with Bristol Bears. Alby Mathewson will also return on a one year deal, having played with Munster.

Dan McFarland, head coach at Ulster rugby said, “Our desire to build on the successes of this season to-date is evidenced in our strong investment in talent from the current squad. Although it’s an uncertain time for rugby, and all sport, I am confident our selection will stand us in good stead for when we are able to safely start the new season”.

McFarland also thanked players that have retired or moved clubs he said, “I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the players who are moving on from the squad. This includes Clive Ross, who earned 73 caps since joining the province on a development contract in 2014, along with 21-capped Angus Kernohan, and Zack McCall.

Ulster Rugby 2020/21 Squad:

Players developed through the Abbey Insurance Academy or Ulster club system are marked with * and development players are in italics.

Will Addison

John Andrew*

Robert Baloucoune*

Billy Burns

Sam Carter

Marcell Coetzee

John Cooney

Angus Curtis*

Matt Faddes

Craig Gilroy*

Iain Henderson*

Rob Herring

James Hume*

Bill Johnston

Greg Jones*

Ross Kane*

Michael Lowry*

Louis Ludik

Rob Lyttle*

Ian Madigan

Luke Marshall*

Alby Mathewson

Adam McBurney*

Kyle McCall*

Stuart McCloskey*

Jack McGrath

Gareth Milasinovic

Marty Moore

Stewart Moore*

Jordi Murphy

Alan O’Connor*

David O’Connor

Eric O’Sullivan*

Tom O’Toole*

Marcus Rea*

Matty Rea*

Sean Reidy

David Shanahan*

Jonny Stewart*

Jacob Stockdale*

Nick Timoney*

Kieran Treadwell

Andrew Warwick*

World Rugby banish tries against post protector

World Rugby have opted to banish tries against the post protector with immediate effect. The announcement will now mean tries will not be awarded by grounding the ball against the post protector.

RTE Sport report that the law change was approved on Tuesday after the World Rugby Council conducted a special meeting by conference call and it follows a recommendation by the international federations rugby committee as well as the Laws Review Group. The main reasoning behind the rule change is that it had become difficult for teams to defend the area especially in ruck areas.

The post has come to help many attackers out in the past with scoring tries. For instance CJ Stander’s try against England in 2018 at Twickenham when Ireland won 24-15.

In a statement World Rugby chairman, Bill Beaumont, who was re-elected to the role last week stated, “World Rugby’s mission is to make the game as simple, safe and enjoyable to play as possible. This law amendment reflects that mission”. Mr Beaumont continued, “By stipulating that an attacking team can no longer score against the post protector and therefore must ground the ball in-goal, this gives defending teams a fair chance of preventing a try from being scored.”

Law 8.2 in the rule book will now read:  

The post protector is no longer an extension of the goal-line and therefore Law 8.2 (a) will read: A try is scored when the attacking player is first to ground the ball in the opponents’ in-goal.

 

All Blacks say no to Autumn Internationals

The All Blacks have said no to their autumn international tour later this year according to the rugby paper.co.uk. They report New Zealand will abandon their three match tour in the autumn which is likely to cost England, Scotland and Wales more than £20 million.

The reasoning behind the cancelling of the games which were due to be held at Twickenham, Murrayfield and Cardiff is said to be on the back of advice from the New Zealand government. New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ahern, has stated the borders of the country will remain closed to the rest of the world for a long time.

Bill Sweeney the England Rugby Football Union Chief Executive has said that the effect of the lockdown will cost the RFU over £100 million over the next year, while Wales chief executive estimates a loss of around £50 million. The biggest of the three games would of course be England v New Zealand. New Zealand of course would have been looking to for revenge in that game having lost in the World Cup semi-final to the English last year. A full house would have brought in £10 million in ticket sales, not to mention the commercial aspect of things such as bars, retail shops in Twickenham itself. Rugbypaper.co.uk report that New Zealand now intend to plan a series of Super Rugby franchises followed by a four test series against Australia. All of these games will be behind closed doors of course.

Meanwhile, plans to get the Six Nations going are well underway. The Super Saturday of Six Nations games which were due to take place on the final weekend of the Six Nations have been pencilled in for October 31st. These game involve Ireland v France, Wales v Scotland and England v Italy. Simon Haliday EPCR chairman said last week, “We, the PRO14, Gallagher Premiership and Top 14, have informed World Rugby we will exercise our right to complete the tournament on our dates in October,’’ EPCR chairman Simon Halliday said last Saturday. “We fully intend that to happen but everyone, of course, is subject to being able to play.

New Wanda Diamond League Calendar for August-October 2020

A shorter Wanda Diamond League season has been scheduled for late summer and autumn 2020 it has been confirmed, with several events re-scheduled and others cancelled as organisers continue to adapt the season in the face of the coronavirus crisis

A new provisional calendar will see a number of Wanda Diamond League meetings go ahead as one-off exhibition events, while others will be staged as adapted Wanda Diamond League meetings. There will be no events in July and the first half of August (other than National Championships where possible), and the season will instead be extended into October

The 2020 Wanda Diamond League will not be a structured series of events leading to a final as is usually the case, so athletes will not earn Diamond League points this season, and there will not be a single, 24-discipline final in Zurich as originally planned.

The provisional timetable is:

August: Monaco (14th), Gateshead (16th) and Stockholm (23rd).

September: Lausanne (2nd), Brussels (4th), Paris (6th tbc), (Rome/Naples (17th), Shanghai (19th).    

October: Eugene (4th), Doha (9th), a second meeting in China (17th, venue tba).

The following events have been cancelled: Rabat (31st May, suspended in March), London (scheduled for 4th July) and Zurich (9th-11th September). The latter would have been staged as the Wanda Diamond League Final.

Following the re-structuring of the 2020 season, Zurich has been granted the right by the General Assembly of the Diamond League to stage the finals in both 2021 and 2022.

The decision was made possible after Eugene gave consent for the final of 2022, which had previously been awarded to the American venue, to be moved back by one year to 2023.

Ulster Rugby Squad for 2020-21 Season

Ulster Rugby has announced a squad of 41 fully contracted players and 2 development players – 39 of which are Irish qualified – for the 2020-21 Guinness PRO14 and Heineken Champions Cup.

The northern province has also confirmed that Jordi Murphy and Will Addison have committed to Ulster for a further two years, while Jacob Stockdale, Seán Reidy and Matty Rea, Stewart Moore have already committed to the team.

The squad for the new season includes two new faces: Ireland fly-half, Ian Madigan, who joins after a three-year stint with Bristol Bears and All Blacks scrum-half, Alby Mathewson, who played for part of last season with Munster Rugby. Both have joined on one-year contracts.

The Ulster Rugby Squad for 2020-21:

Players developed through the Abbey Insurance Academy or Ulster club system are marked with * and development players are in italics.

Will Addison
John Andrew*
Robert Baloucoune*
Billy Burns
Sam Carter
Marcell Coetzee
John Cooney
Angus Curtis*
Matt Faddes
Craig Gilroy*
Iain Henderson*
Rob Herring
James Hume*
Bill Johnston
Greg Jones*
Ross Kane*
Michael Lowry*
Louis Ludik
Rob Lyttle*
Ian Madigan
Luke Marshall*
Alby Mathewson
Adam McBurney*
Kyle McCall*
Stuart McCloskey*
Jack McGrath
Gareth Milasinovic
Marty Moore
Stewart Moore*
Jordi Murphy
Alan O’Connor*
David O’Connor
Eric O’Sullivan*
Tom O’Toole*
Marcus Rea*
Matty Rea*
Seán Reidy
David Shanahan*
Jonny Stewart*
Jacob Stockdale*
Nick Timoney*
Kieran Treadwell
Andrew Warwick*

Abbey Insurance Ulster Rugby Academy Squad for 2020-21:

Azur Allison
Ben Carson
Reuben Crothers
Nathan Doak
Lewis Finlay
Bruce Houston
Hayden Hyde
Cormac Izuchukwu
Dave McCann
James McCormick
Ethan McIlroy
Conor Rankin
Callum Reid
Aaron Sexton
Tom Stewart

Premier League clubs facing £340 million refund if season resumes

BBC Sport that Premier League clubs are facing a refund of £340 million to domestic and international broadcaster if the season resumes, that’s including behind closed doors.

The Premier League met on Monday to discuss an initiative called Project Restart. BBC also report that playing games at neutral grounds were also discussed. The reasoning behind the request for refund is due to matches not taking place as expected, without fans and different times than scheduled. The Chief Executive of the Premier League, Richard Masters said previously in April that the Premier League would lose £1bn. 

Masters said on Monday that the Premier League were able to update all the clubs. He stated, “We were able to update our clubs today on our situation with broadcasters, which is obviously confidential”. He continued, “Whatever happens, there’s going to be significant loss of revenue for clubs. That is inevitable.”

The Chief Executive said discussions were ongoing between clubs, government, police and ground safety officials. He said that not all clubs agreed to playing games at neutral grounds agreement. He said, “Everybody would prefer to play at home and away if at all possible, and it’s clear to see some clubs feel more strongly about that than others,”. BBC Report that two weeks ago, the idea of playing games were put to clubs. These were met by rejections from Watford, Aston Villa and Brighton.

There are several more meetings scheduled over the coming days and weeks to determine what will be done. On Wednesday, the PFA League Managers association will meet members regarding medical protocols. The next Premier League meeting takes place on May 18th. On this same day Premier League players will be allowed to return to group training under strict social distancing rules. A week later, May 25th, UEFA have said is the deadline for plans for restarting seasons.

The question on whether the league will return on June 12th was put to Masters in which he replied, “I think it’s too early for us to talk about it. We want to remain in step with government and the authorities. And we want to remain in step with the mood of football supporters.

It remains to be seen what will happen. Although, it is looking like Premier League officials are trying to get the sport back up and running in mid June.

Video: Sky Sports Football

Johnson and Davis Love III named Ryder Cup vice captains

The USA have named Zach Johnson and Davis Love III Ryder Cup vice captains. The news comes as golf is set to get back up and running in the coming weeks.

Davis Love previously captained the Americans in 2012 and 2016, will now team up with Ryder Cup captain, Steve Stricker. Love has a 50% strike rate in terms of win as captain, the USA lost in 2012, but beat Europe who were captained by Darren Clarke four years later 18-11. Zach Johnson was also a member of that team in 2012. However, he has been on the losing side 4 times. RTE Sport that Padraig Harrington has selected England’s Luke Donald and Sweden’s Robert Karlsson as his vice captains. Last month Harrington said that it is unlikely the Ryder Cup will go ahead unless there is fans. He said, There’s no doubt that it makes the tournament so much better.

The Ryder Cup is scheduled to take place in Whistling Straits in September, despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. However, it is likely it will go, however crowds and spectators may be limited at the event, if any. Speaking to the PGA of America Steve Stricker said, “With the Ryder Cup it’s important to surround yourself with quality individuals who you can lean on and who have the best interests of the team in mind”. He continued, “Both Zach and Davis share a passion to compete at the highest level and are strong communicators, which is important, especially when we’re in the heat of competition.”

Zach Johnson said he is really privileged to be named as vice captain. He said, “In a domestic Ryder Cup it’s important to defend ‘our turf’ and to do so on behalf of Steve – in his home state at Whistling Straits – is a great opportunity for our team to make a statement.” Davis Love said he is anxious to get to work and he is confident that Stricker has a good program in place. He said, “I’m confident in the program he has in place and am anxious to get to work”.

The action will get underway at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin. The event runs from September 25th to 27th.

No Sport in UK until June 1st

There will be no elite sport in the UK until at least June 1st. This sport will more than likely be behind closed doors with no spectators in attendance.

The UK government on Monday released a roadmap on what they intend to do over the coming weeks, in terms of what activities can be carried out. In regards to sport in the UK, this falls under step 2 in their road map. It states that sports can return on June 1st but must be behind closed. It says, “Permitting cultural and sporting events to take place behind closed-doors for broadcast, while avoiding the risk of large-scale social contact”.

The document states that cinemas and venues can re-open in step three, which is no earlier than July 4th. It states, “Some venues which are, by design, crowded and where it may prove difficult to enact distancing may still not be able to reopen safely at this point, or may be able to open safely only in part”. All of this information is available in the document entitled Our Plan to Rebuild: The UK Government’s Covid-19 Recovery Strategy’.

The document does state that the opening of venues, such as sports stadiums “will be only be fully possible significantly later depending on the reduction in numbers of infections”.

It looks certain now that the various organisations will hold meetings to discuss their next plans of action and when to get sports going from June onwards. Football has been out on the back burner in the UK for nearly two months now (March 13th). However, we reported  last month that the Premier league are looking to return to complete the 92 games in June.

Horse Racing in the UK could also return in June. Horse racing stopped in the UK on March 17th. The news came from the British Racing Authority twitter account where they tweeted,  “Industry leaders are meeting to discuss the available information and will issue an initial response later today”.

The first horse racing events which could possibly fall under the June opening of venues will be the 1000 guineas and 2000 guineas as Newmarket. Whether they will. Go ahead or not is another question. Obviously things will have to stop, ie the slow of the spread of the virus to allow this to happen. However, we are still looking at no sport until June 1st at the earliest.

Video – Sky Sports Football

GAA unlikely to return if social distancing remains in place

GAA president John Horan has said that the GAA is unlikely to return this summer if social distancing remains in place. He also said the GAA is set to lose over 50 million euros because of the impact of the coronavirus.

Horan was speaking about the impact on the GAA of the virus on The Sunday Game. He addressed the careful approach in which the GAA will take, as well as casting further on whether we will see action in the hurling and football championships this summer. Speaking about social distancing in the GAA he said, “I can’t see it happening to be quite honest. If social distancing is a priority to deal with this pandemic, I don’t know how we can play a contact sport. That is what Gaelic games is. It is a contact sport.”

He did also state that if the 2020 championship was to go ahead it just start this year to be played. He told the Sunday Game, that it is unlikely league action will be completed. He continued,” There was a concept in it that people could gather together in groups of four. We felt that just couldn’t be marshaled within clubs and that is why we continue to keep our premises closed”.

Mr Horan also addressed the how the GAA will find themselves in owing to the coronavirus pandemic in terms of financially. He said, “Throughout the organisation taking into account county boards and clubs, the loss for the year for us is probably in the region of €50m.” He also said he didn’t like the idea of games been played behind closed doors. He said, “I have a bit of an issue with the closed doors concept. If it is safe enough for the players to be in close contact on the pitch, then it is going to be safe enough to have a certain number of people in the ground gathering,”

He said if the championship was to start in 2020, it would could continue into February of 2021. He said,” I think this year’s Championship would have to start in 2020 and go into the first two months of 2021″. “After that, if we’re back in action, we would have to move on and get on with the 2021 competitions. At this stage I would be inclined to say we will struggle to finish the league.”

Going on this basis a GAA return is not likely to happen before July at least. Of course if things get better then the five stage plan announced by the Taoiseach could be pushed forward.

Pro 14 rugby fixtures list could be set for August

  • Pro 14 rugby fixtures could be set to return in August 2020. Leinster v Munster & Connacht v Ulster might be the first matches.

BBC report that plans are currently been discussed to resume a curtailed Pro 14 championship on August 22nd.

Talks have been ongoing between the Pro 14 and clubs. It is likely that if the games were to be played they would be played behind closed doors. This would mean no spectators present in the stands. A full return of the Pro 14 competition would be difficult as it covers five countries, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Italy and South Africa. Therefore, it wouldn’t be feasible in the current climate to just begin games.

BBC report that a virtual meeting was held on Thursday. Proposals were put in place to play two rounds of conference with sides playing teams from their own country from August 22nd. This would mean for example fixtures between Leinster, Connacht, Munster and Ulster. However, when you look at Wales, Scotland and South Africa, it would potentially mean teams would have to play each other on consecutive weekends.

Scottish rugby chief operating officer Dominic McKay, who is also a board member of the PRO 14 said that any resumption to the competition will be dependent on government approval. He said, “We are still looking at scenarios that might see some way of potentially finishing the PRO 14 season”.

Wales Online have released the potential fixtures which have been pencilled in for August 22nd, which shows in terms of Ireland provincial games,  Leinster playing Munster and Connacht versus Ulster. August 29th will see Leinster travel to Ulster and Connacht travelling to Munster. Heineken Champions Cup games are also scheduled to resume with these beginning on September 12th. The semi-finals are to take place on September 26th. Whether these are likely to be given the go ahead remains questionable. This is my opinion because teams will have to travel to different countries.

A fixture list has also been drawn up which Wales Online report is likely to see the season finish in August/September. They report that the Pro 14 play-off semi-finals are pencilled in for the 5th of September. The final scheduled to take place around the 17-19th of September. Obviously, these are only drafts as if the games were to go ahead they will have to get the green light from government officials.

At present rugby is seen as non essential. This is just like every other sport as we still are in midst of the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, rugby falls under stage 5 in terms of the governments 5 stage plan here in Ireland. This would mean rugby can commence from August 10th. However, as previously stated if it was to return the number of spectators will be limited or non existent. Previously, discussions took place on whether to call the season and give Leinster the trophy. This was because they had the most points of all the sides in conference A and B. European place were also going to be awarded on the basis of the teams position in the table. However, this is obviously not going to happen now owing to the new proposals which have been drawn by the PRO 14 hierarchy.

Personally, I can see the games returning. However, they will obviously have to be behind closed doors. The only concerning aspect is probably when we reach the semi-finals stages where are the games going to be played for example? Would it be okay for example for Edinburgh or Glasgow to travel over to the RDS? These are all the questions that have to be answered.

But we can now disclose fixtures featuring Cardiff Blues, Dragons, Ospreys and the Scarlets, as well as those involving the Irish and Scottish teams, could all be switched to the Republic and probably be played behind closed doors.

 

The fixture list

AUGUST 22

Proposed fixtures

Leinster v Munster

Ospreys v Dragons

Connacht v Ulster

Edinburgh v Glasgow Warriors

Zebre v Treviso

Southern Kings v Cheetahs

Scarlets v Cardiff Blues

Proposed fixtures

Ulster v Leinster

Cardiff Blues v Ospreys

Dragons v Scarlets

Glasgow Warriors v Edinburgh

Benetton v Zebre

Cheetahs v Southern Kings

Munster v Connacht

SEPTEMBER 5

Winner Conference A v Runner-up Conference B

Winner Conference B v Runner-up Conference A

SEPTEMBER 12

European quarter-finals

SEPTEMBER 17-19

PRO14 final

SEPTEMBER 26

EPCR semi-finals

 

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