Unlucky trio to miss out on selection for Ireland
Lee Barron
The Leinster hooker has impressed on loan with Munster in his two appearances off the bench since joining alongside Michael Milne for the final weeks of the season ahead of their permanent moves to the southern province this summer and Wednesday's Ireland selection may confirm the reasons for his departure. Barron had already been passed out in the pecking order by academy hooker Gus McCarthy, who was first capped by Ireland in November but now he has been overlooked in favour of another Leinster academy player in Stephen Smyth.
No wonder the 24-year-old has left Leinster in search of quality game time with Munster.
John Hodnett
With another impressive, 22-game, seven-try campaign for Munster now in the books, it would not have been a surprise to see the 26-year-old former Emerging Ireland flanker named in a touring party alongside fellow back-rowers from his province Tom Ahern, Gavin Coombes and Alex Kendellen. Yet Hodnett's niche as a genuine, out and out openside, and his comparative height at 6ft 0ins, may have counted against the West Cork man, which a real shame for talented forward with a huge appetite for the hard yards.
Tom Farrell
Perhaps the cruellest omission of all, Farrell's snub came a day after the uncapped Munster centre was named the URC's Playmaker of the Year, and on the same day he was voted the outstanding number 13 in the URC Elite XV of the year. The citation for the former award reads: 'Adaptability, creativity, and composure under pressure define a true playmaker. The Playmaker award is given to the player who creates chances and tries for his team, with three key metrics used to decide the winner – try assists for his team, successfully completed offloads, and defenders beaten on the pitch.' Throw in a joint league-leading nine tries, then consider the absences of Ireland's three frontline midfielders, Aki, Henshaw and Ringrose, and one wonders what more Farrell could have done to make this squad.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Independent
an hour ago
- Irish Independent
Rúaidhrí O'Connor: The IRFU need to balance their books while protecting the golden goose
On Friday night, a packed Aviva Stadium waved the most Irish-influenced Lions in history off on their mission to Australia with Andy Farrell, four of his assistant coaches, 16 of his players and a swathe of support staff on board. The men's national team won seven of their nine internationals this season with all of their home games sold out, while the women's team continued their steady improvement towards this year's World Cup. Leinster played Munster at a sold-out Croke Park and went on to win the URC and reach a European semi-final. At a glance, Irish rugby has never been in a stronger position.
The Irish Sun
5 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Paddy Small stars as Dublin down Cork gears to reach All-Ireland SFC quarter-final
DESSIE Farrell says it's 'foot on the throttle' time now after steering Dublin through to the Championship's last eight. Advertisement 2 Dublin came good with a strong finish to see off Cork to seal a spot in the quarters 2 Paddy Smalls was man of the match in the win over Cork on Saturday They played in 'fits and starts', as boss Farrell said, and chugged along at times like a side powered by dirty petrol. With no Con O'Callaghan, it was left to Paddy Small to provide the inspiration and he took the Man of the Match award. Ballymun man Small blasted four points while free-taker Cormac Costello and the ultra reliable Sean Bugler split 10 points evenly between them. John Small was excellent at centre-back in just his third start of the season too, scoring a point and setting one up for sibling Paddy. Advertisement READ MORE ON GAA But it was more Renault than Rolls Royce overall and Farrell will be hoping that's the end of the misfiring with an All-Ireland quarter-final to come. That's the stage that Dublin bowed out of last year's Championship at, to Galway, and Farrell is desperate to drive on. He said: "It's foot on the throttle time now at this stage of the season and senior players come into their own. Everyone ups their game at this time of the year and it's a great learning environment for our young fellas to be operating in. "To be fair, I think the senior lads are loving the energy that they're bringing and the enthusiasm they're bringing as well. Advertisement Most read in GAA Football Exclusive "But we all know ourselves, we're far from the finished article. There's so much more room for improvement in our performance. "But I still think there's more potential within us to be realised and that's the challenge for us between now and next weekend, seeing can we tap into that." 'Just in time for Father's Day' - Dublin GAA legends welcome the birth of precious baby daughter Dublin trailed at half-time and were still a point back with 15 minutes to go despite a terrific Brian Howard goal in the 45th minute. But a Cork side that has stuttered and stumbled through another season under John Cleary couldn't sustain that effort. Advertisement Full-forward trio Chris Og Jones, Mark Cronin and Brian Hurley notched 1-10 between them for the Rebels. But when the finishing line was in sight, Dublin motored towards it and pinched four of the game's last five points. Farrell said: "It wasn't a classic performance by any stretch but it was one where we needed to show a bit of character and dig deep - and thankfully the lads did that." Farrell reckoned Dublin were 'naive' when they failed to build on their bright start, having hit the game's first four points. Advertisement They only added three more points before Bugler lofted over a two-pointer in almost the last play of the first-half. Cork were far more efficient and seemed to rise to the occasion, just like they did against Kerry in the Munster championship. They led 1-8 to 0-9 at half-time and really turned it on in a period between the ninth and 16th minutes when they reeled off 1-3 without response. Jones blasted the goal, finishing a well worked move off a sideline kick under the Hogan Stand and shooting low across Stephen Cluxton. Advertisement Jones finished with 1-4 and showed plenty of class but Cork have put in too many middle-of-the-performances this year to really trust them to finish the job. They did at least push Dublin all the way and refused to relent even when Howard slammed in his goal. Howard spun away from Sean McDonnell too easily, although his finish high into the corner of Micheal Aodh Martin's goal had a Lamborghini stamp of class about it. Cork could have tossed in the towel but reeled off four points in a row to briefly lead again. Advertisement O'Callaghan's quality, and calmness, was missed in the Dublin attack. They got some punch at least from sub Luke Breathnach who pinched a point and their experienced performers stood up as well. Costello, Paddy Small and Bugler all weighed in with hugely important scores late on as Dublin turned the screw. Dublin 1-19 Cork 1-16 Dublin: S Cluxton; E Murchan, S MacMahon, D Byrne; B Howard 1-0, J Small 0-1, L Gannon 0-1; P O Cofaigh Byrne, C Kilkenny 0-1; K McGinnis, N Scully 0-1, S Bugler 0-5, 1 tp; P Small 0-4, L O'Dell, C Costello 0-5, 2f. Advertisement Subs: C Murphy for O'Dell 45, L Breathnach 0-1 for McGinnis 57, T Lahiff for Gannon 59, N Doran for Scully 68. Cork: MA Martin 0-1, 1 45; D O'Mahony, M Shanley, N Lordan; B O'Driscoll, S Brady, M Taylor; I Maguire 0-1, C O'Callaghan 0-2; P Walsh, S Walsh 0-1, S McDonnell; B Hurley 0-2, M Cronin 0-4, 2f, C Og Jones 1-4. Subs: E McSweeney for P Walsh 48, C Cahalane for McDonnell 49-58 blood, C O'Mahony 0-1 for Hurley 55, S Powter for Taylor 58, L Fahy for Lordan 63. Ref: S Hurson (Tyrone). Advertisement
Irish Daily Mirror
6 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
British and Irish Lions backrow update as squad travel Down Under
Andy Farrell's Lions have lost their first tour match, defeat to Argentina having taken away the first aim as written on the whiteboard all those months 2025 Lions will not go down in the history books as an undefeated group, they will never be able to match themselves with the 1974 Lions, the standard by Ireland Willie John McBride they played 22 games, four of which were Tests against South Africa, three of which they won and the last of which they the current players are about to find out, Andy Farrell is a box-ticker and scratching off 'mission one' will be an irritant for him - one for which blame may well be touched on "I take responsibility" afterwards and he is not 100 percent wrong, the coaching staff got the back-row mix horrendously wrong, not so much in selection with what they had available, but in not realising they were Caelan Doris pulled out and it was clear that Josh van der Flier and Jack Conan were not going to be able to be turnaround Saturday-Friday, Farrell needed to jump from the squad straight-jacket and be have massive back-row units, no8 Joaquin Oviedo, flankers Juan Martin Gonzalez, Pablo Matera and second-rows Pedro Rubiolo, Franco Molina are physical, straight-line, in your face, Doris and with Conan and JVDF unavailable, he was left with Ben Earl, Jack Morgan, Henry Pollock and Tom Curry in Dublin for the back-row. There is no big, daunting, physical powerhouse there. The coach could have reached and called in some heavies, Wales's Toby Faletau maybe for no8, maybe Rory Darge or James Ritchie who are hardman scrappers, maybe even Ryan Baird for the bench. Was Peter O'Mahony fit? We know now, taking from Friday, that Jack Willis should have been in the squad, albeit he would have been unavailable - he plays for Toulouse who are still battling away in the Top by selecting a light back-row and putting Tadhg Beirne at no5, where he is quite light for a second-row, it was conceding fighting weight. If Beirne had been put at No6, Scott Cummings could have then the squad was selected to play on fast tracks against an Australia side who's key feature is running, running and running while Farrell can't have expected to watch Duhan van der Merwe implode defensively across the backline and he would have known Fin Smith was a weak defenderBut he won't have been pleased the lightweight-in-the-context-of-this-game Curry missed three of his 12 tackles, similarly challenged Beirne three from nine, Ben Earl two from six while Jac Morgan's contribution from openside was ephemeral, six tackles and four captain Itoje touched on this lack of physicality, the idea the Lions had wild in the face of Argentine beef in the hoof: "At times we were playing tippy-tappy and that's not what we want to be. We want to be an aggressive team. We would have liked to have been kicking off right from the off."It wasn't quite that. We didn't consistently apply pressure, we were nowhere near as accurate or as consistent as we wanted to be. We only showed glimmers of what we can do, we let them off and they caught us slipping at times."Argentina showed us where we are lacking but we are building, we will live, learn and I am happy we had a hard-fought game. This is only match one."Felipe Contepomi, soft-spoken and one helluva coach, has done it Pumas have beaten six of the seven top teams in the world in the space of a year, the British and Irish Lions now added to South Africa, New Zealand, England, France and Australia - Ireland, to whom the Pumas lost by three points in November, are the odd ones out. "It's kind of a one-off," he said, deflecting the credit. "It's an invitation game and the last time, it was 20 years ago, and we were just there and we couldn't beat them."Coming here 20 years later I think it's incredible. We don't know if we'll ever again be invited or not to play and definitely for everyone who's been involved this week it will be memorable."It is special. I know how special it is for an Irish, a Scottish, a Welsh or an English player to be a Lion, and for us to play against the best of the best in these islands, it's nearly a dream."We took a bit of an opportunity because I know they'll be much better in one month's time when they play Australia. They'll be an awesome team, because they have so much quality in there."So, no surprise, Contepomi was a gent. Owen Farrell was apportioning the blame evenly.'A lot of the game was played in the right parts of the field. Obviously, a lot of ball didn't stick. There will be a lot of images they [the Lions] will look back at the game on and learn from.'Argentina did unbelievably well to counterpunch when they got the opportunity, whether it be a ball on the floor or a turnover – they seemed to turn things into points pretty quickly."I'm sure the Lions boys will be frustrated, but the main thing is they played this great game now, this great competitive game that they played in."They will have some images to go off to see what is the standard and what's not, why some of those balls went down, why some of those decisions were good and why some were not so good." These are lessons this collective will have to take on the chin.'They will learn a hell of a lot about each other, they will learn a hell of a lot as a team and it will put them in good stead for next week. There is an ability to use that. The frustration that comes with losing a game makes you look at yourself that bit more."With the way that has gone and the frustration that you see from a lot of the players, they will come off the plane on the other side, and they will be raring to get stuck into what they can do to make it better.'There is obviously a lot of players come in over this last week in the Leinster lads, the Bath lads but it's just about taking a step forward."Meanwhile Schmidt added: "I coached Bundee for several years and know him really well and respect him massively as a player. He's a great contributor to the team environment."I've only had glancing conversations with Sione but again, by all accounts a champion bloke. You don't get to be captain of a national team without being a great bloke and really professional in those high-performance environments."Meanwhile half the world away, Joe Schmidt was having some fun at the Lions expense talking of their terrific 'Southern Hemisphere' centre someone ever ready to pick non-Irish born players for Ireland and get them passports, he noted of the current Lions squad:"I coached Bundee for several years and know him really well and respect him massively as a player. He's a great contributor to the team environment."I've only had glancing conversations with Sione but again, by all accounts a champion bloke. You don't get to be captain of a national team without being a great bloke and really professional in those high-performance environments."Somewhat tactfully, he declined to mention Duhan van Merwe and Finlay Bealham as well as subs Pierre Schoeman, Mack Hansen being southern hemisphere products too!
