Gerry Thornley

2 days ago | irishtimes.com | Gerry Thornley

On the surface, all seems hunky dory. The Ireland men’s team are ranked third in the world, the ever-improving women’s side are ranked fifth and Leinster are one more home semi-final win away from becoming the first side ever to reach four successive Champions Cup finals. Scratch underneath, though, and the gap between Leinster and the other three provinces has never been bigger, nor more alarming. For sure, there is nothing particularly new in Leinster being the last Irish team standing in Europe.

2 days ago | irishtimes.com | Gerry Thornley

It was always a case of ‘when’ Diarmuid Mangan would break into the Leinster team rather than ‘if’. Even so, for him to describe the last 12 months since making his debut for the province away to Zebre as ‘decent’ must be one of the season’s understatements. Mangan started his seventh match of Leinster’s season in last Saturday’s 41-17 win over Ulster and has played in six of the province’s last seven games, making his Champions Cup debut off the bench against Glasgow a week previously.

3 days ago | irishtimes.com | Gerry Thornley

Ulster had to cope with plenty of adversity in their 41-17 loss to Leinster on Saturday night, and they also fired a few shots more than recent visitors to the Aviva. Yet Richie Murphy was left counting the potentially heavy costs of a spirited display and also questioned Leinster’s legality at the breakdown and scrum. Ulster slipped to 10th in the URC table, three points outside the top eight with three games remaining.

3 days ago | irishtimes.com | Gerry Thornley

Leo Cullen has confirmed that James Ryan is unlikely to be fit for Leinster’s Champions Cup semi-final against Northampton at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday week (kick-off 5.30pm), but that Ryan Baird should return in time for that game. Ryan missed Leinster’s 52-0 quarter-final win over Harlequins earlier this month due to a calf injury that he sustained in training. Baird also missed that match with a calf injury but it was relatively minor.

4 days ago | irishtimes.com | Gerry Thornley

Pedigree counts. Clontarf and Cork Constitution set up a heavyweight Energia All-Ireland League final next Sunday in the second leg of an Aviva Stadium double with the women’s final after taut, tight, hard-earned semi-final wins over Lansdowne and St Mary’s respectively. Clontarf, the 2022 champions, will thus meet the reigning champions Con in a Leinster-Munster affair.