It’s hard to believe there was a two-month break between Ireland’s second Test win over the Springboks in Durban and last week’s victory over Australia by the Ireland women’s team. Blink and you missed it, that being the Irish summer of course, and with it the rugby off-season.
And so, after this week’s Indian summer, the BKT URC and Energia All-Ireland leagues swing into action this weekend. Rugby is back.
The 2023 World Cup in France heralded a near year-long campaign. This being a Lions year, the third Test against the Wallabies is set for Sydney next – wait for it – Saturday, August 2nd, almost 11 months away.
All of which, as ever, heightens the importance of the IRFU’s central contracting system and player management. Ireland’s frontliners from the summer tour are scheduled to return in rounds three and four of the URC, just in time for the Leinster-Munster shindig at Croke Park on Saturday, October 12th, which will really shift the season up a gear or three.
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As has long been the case, those frontliners are also being primed for an extended, four-match Autumn Series. In another change, the games against New Zealand and Argentina will both take place on Friday nights, before Ireland host Fiji and then, in an additional match outside the official November window, will renew acquaintances with Joe Schmidt and Australia.
Schmidt’s legacy with Leinster and Ireland will forever stand the test of time, but as Australia’s recent filleting by Felipe Contepomi’s Pumas demonstrated, he has taken on a huge task with the Wallabies, not least in readying them for the Lions.
Fittingly, that final Autumn Series Test against Australia marks Andy Farrell’s final match as head coach of Ireland before he takes an eight-month sabbatical to focus on the Lions and more renewals with Schmidt. Simon Easterby will then step in as interim head coach with the simple task of leading Ireland to a third successive outright Six Nations title, which has never been done in the history of the Championship.
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It will be interesting to see whether the Friday nights under lights against the All Blacks and the Pumas liven up the Aviva Stadium from its customary, November corporate slumber. But if the ground doesn’t rock for Ireland’s opening Six Nations game against England on February 1st, we may as well give up.
Either way, if there’s one game in which Ireland will not struggle for motivation it is assuredly that opener given what happened at Twickenham last March. A tad tediously, it will invariably be viewed in the prism of the Lions tour.
As well as a possible showdown for the captaincy between Caelan Doris and Maro Itoje, behind whom there is sure to be a strong campaign in the English media, there’ll be a host of other contenders for the touring squad on show.
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From this remove, it looks like the standout fixture of the season, even if the high-calibre Ireland-France clashes have filled that role for each of the last three Championships. Ireland then head to Edinburgh and Cardiff before hosting France on the penultimate weekend and, not unpleasantly, finish off in Rome, officially in springtime.
The Six Nations have been shared between RTÉ and Virgin Media in recent times, while Ireland’s November matches have moved from the former to the latter. Across the water, TNT Sports have seemingly taken a tactical decision to step away from the Champions Cup and augment their broadcasting of the Premiership with all of the November Tests.
As a consequence, Premier Sport have now assumed the broadcasting rights for the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup, in addition to the URC, with RTÉ retaining one home match per week in the Champions Cup and TG4 maintaining its coverage of the URC.
Played in five different countries across three time zones, with each passing season the URC becomes even more brutally tough. After four successive Pro12/14 titles, that Leinster haven’t won it in the three seasons of its existing iteration proves as much.
The early rounds may seem like mere jostling for position before the campaign clicks into gear, but as Leo Cullen has been fond of reminding us in recent weeks, Glasgow’s bonus point in the opening round last season carried significance all the way through to the final standings and knock-out stages.
It kick-started the URC’s only unbeaten home campaign at Scotstoun and helped earn the eventual champions fourth place, while Leinster finished third. Had Leinster won, they’d have topped the standings again and earned home ties potentially all the way through to a home final.
Not that this is any guarantee of ultimate success in the URC based on the last three seasons, but the remodelled Champions Cup and Challenge Cup have absolutely underlined the critical importance of every single point in the pool stages, and securing home advantage in the knock-out stages.
In that respect, nothing has changed.
