Slán leat 2025 agus dia duit 2026! A new year does not equal a rest period in rugby, such is the appetite for sport during the winter break. The January URC fixtures was again a derby week, with two interpros amongst them.
Slán leat 2025 agus dia duit 2026! A new year does not equal a rest period in rugby, such is the appetite for sport during the winter break. The January URC fixtures was again a derby week, with two interpros amongst them.
Here are our takeaways from the latest round of all-Irish games.
Leinster: Attack Finding Gear?
You cannot score over 50 points in this sport, without doing something right in attack. 8 tries, 52 points scored, and with a rotated team? That’s more like the Leinster of old.
The home side did not have it all their own way, having a 14 point lead overturned before half-time briefly, but six tries without reply was a true flexing of the muscles. To Connacht’s credit, they did well with what possession they had; but Leinster were the better team throughout.
8 tries from 13 entries to the 22; and a 4 points-per-entry return. Their ruck speed was three seconds or under 65% of the time, their set-piece was above 95% combined, and they had more passes, carries and metres made.
A lot gets said about Tyler Bleyendaal’s attacking structure, similar to what was said about Andrew Goodman before him, but games like this point fans and critics in a positive direction.
The next challenge will be stiffer as Leinster welcome old foes La Rochelle to the Aviva Stadium, before an interesting clash with Bayonne a week later.
Ulster: Brotherly Beatdown
Sticking with swagger in victory, Ulster’s 28-3 crushing of Munster on Friday night was exactly that. As you can read about here on this site, it was a rampaging win in front of a raucous home support as Richie Murphy’s men continue to brew a unique flavour of rugby.
The epitome of the win, was two brothers from Ballynahinch RFC. Zac and Bryn Ward. The older winger and younger back-rower are a combative and feisty duo that took the game by the scruff of its neck.
On a night where sleet and snow dictated the unpredictable handling skills on show, it was the direct carrying of the Wards that stood out.
Ulster return to Challenge Cup action this weekend where they face a novel trip to Amsterdam to take on the Cheetahs in front of a 5,000 capacity crowd. A win there would set them up nicely for a potential top of the table clash with Stade Francais, at home, a week later.
It’s a great time to be optimistic in Belfast!
Munster: What the… ?
I’ve been fortunate enough to be covering Munster for the past three seasons now, but I simply cannot remember a performance as flat as what they produced last weekend.
Fresh from a near-miss to Leinster and routine try bonus point wins over Gloucester and Ospreys, Clayton McMillan chopped and changed his squad in hope of picking up a point, or more, from Ravenhill.
But, with just two genuine chances and 22 entries, a road scalp never really looked like happening.
Instead the Kiwi head coach cut an understandably frustrated figure post-gamer, as his side now fell to a fourth loss in six games, after starting the season with six wins on the trot.
The Red Army now face into the resumption of Europe in a perplexing place. They know how to beat French teams, but their mid layer in the depth chart seems undercooked.
The winter block was always going to be tricky but now you can add an attack that appears to be struggling to the list of concerns.
Munster will need to pull some more magic out of a hat when they face Toulon this weekend, to ensure a home Champions Cup knockout game is still on the cards when they face Castres a week later.
Connacht: Not great, not good
Last week I claimed that I still couldn’t quite figure Connacht out yet. Fast forward seven days, and if that picture is clearer… it’s not prettier.
No professional side can ship 48 and 52 points across consecutive away games and get anything better than pelters and question marks. Stuart Lancaster and his players know this.
Now, last weekend’s trip to Dublin was not all bad, and Connacht enjoyed a number of decent passages in this game, but this is a results business.
With the likes of Finlay Bealham, Cian Prendergast, Josh Ioane, Bundee Aki and Sam Gilbert all starting; this was a Connacht squad with plenty of experience on the field when the game started to slip away, and frankly, should not have allowed for heads to drop.
The challenge now is to pick themselves up as Connacht face back to back games against Top 14 outfits in Europe. This Sunday sees them visit the south east of France to take on tournament heavyweights Montpellier, before a round 4 home tie with Montauban with everything on the line.