Irish Rugby

             The Ireland rugby union team represents the island of Ireland including northern Ireland. Every year the team competes in the 6 nations. Ireland compete against England, France, Italy, Wales and Scotland. last year Ireland won the trophy beating France 20-22 in the Stade de France. Irelands coach josef Smith is from Australia and has improved the team a lot. All the teams I have recently blogged about are all in Ireland and most of the players for those teams represent Ireland apart from one or two players who play overseas in Europe. Ireland is made up of 4 provinces Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connacht, also 32 counties. During the summer Ireland played a series of matches against Argentina in Argentina, Ireland won the series winning all three matches. Irelands preparation for the 2015 World cup in England begins from now having the autumn internationals and the 6 nations which they will hope to retain. Ireland are in pool D where they will face France, Italy, Romania and Canada. An easy enough pool for Ireland so they should go on further in the competition. Were playing in the Millennium stadium in Cardiff, Wales and  Wembley Stadium London, England and The Olympic stadium London, England. At the moment Ireland are seeded 5th in the Rugby world rankings. This is the point system below.

1(1)	NEW ZEALAND	93.75
2(2)	SOUTH AFRICA	88.24
3(3)	AUSTRALIA	88.10
4(4)	ENGLAND	85.68
5(5)	IRELAND	83.44
6(6)	WALES	80.70
7(7)	FRANCE	80.01
8(8)	SCOTLAND	77.75
9(9)	SAMOA	76.35
10(10)	JAPAN	75.63

Ireland play there rugby in the Aviva stadium which is in Dublin the capital of Ireland. Ireland are captained by Paul O Connell who is from Munster.

Ireland is really a great rugby nation and I hope you have understood this from reading my blogs about Irish rugby. Ireland will always be pushing to be the best team in the world and I believe they will get there one day. This is the flag of the irfu and it includes all the four provinces and the Irish team.

                              Ulster Rugby

                  Ulster Rugby is one of the four  provincial rugby teams from Ireland. They compete in the Pro12 and the European Rugby Champions Cup. Ulster has six counties in Northern Ireland and three in Ireland. Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, Monaghen and Tyrone. Ulster play there rugby in Kingspan Park which is the new Raven hill in Belfast. Ulster turned professional in 1995 and since then have played in the pro 12 along side the other teams in Ireland. Ulster have won the Heineken cup once in 1999 and won the Celtic league twice in 2003 and 2006. Ulster are probably the most successful team in Ireland winning 26 inter-provincial titles also being the first ever Irish team to win the Heineken cup. Ulster have a new director of rugby/first team coach who is from Australia. His name is Les Kiss. Ulster have players from the southern hemisphere South Africa and New Zealand. Since ulsters Heineken cup win in 1999 they have yet to retain the trophy after losing to fellow Irish team Leinster in 2012.  Ulster are a growing squad and there academy is getting stronger every year producing great players and overseas will keep on coming. Great club with a great future ahead!

                 
                             Leinster Rugby

Leinster Rugby is the biggest rugby team in Ireland being the most successful in Ireland and in Europe. Leinster is made up of 12 counties, Dublin, Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Louth, Meath, Offaly, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow.  Leinster rugby have won the most Heineken cups from the 3 other provincial teams in Ireland.  They won there first cup in the 2008-09 season beating the Leicester Tigers 19-16 in Murray field, Scotland. And then went on to win it back to back years in 2010-11 and 2011-12 playing in Wales for the second title and in England for the third title. Recently leinster have brought in a new coach matt O'Connor who is from Australia. this summer he has recently brought in two players from the southern hemisphere. Kane Douglas who is from Australia and plays second row, he is a very big player and should contribute a lot to the team this year. Another one of his signings is Samoan man Ben Teo who is said to be the replacement for Brian Odriscol. Currently he is playing in Australia with the rugby league team Rabbitohs and after the season is finished he will join the leinster squad. This will be his first time playing rugby union. Leinster currently play in the RDS stadium in donnybrook Dublin 4 and also they play in the Aviva stadium for big games just like Munster. Leinster recently got given there champions cup pool table, they were drawn with the French side Castres and two English sides Harlequins and Wasps. The top scorer for Leinster rugby is the Argentine Felipe Contapomi scoring a phenomenal 1,225 points. Leinster have recently announced the return of Irish out half Jonathan Sexton from Racing Metro after a 2 year spell with the club he will return at the end of the season. Leinster rugby is really a interesting club with a lot of history and fame to it and it will keep growing and becoming one of the most dominant team in Europe.                            Enjoy Reading!

             Munster Rugby                         

 Overseas  players                          

BJ Botha: 2011–present

CJ Stander: 2012–present

Gerhard van den Heever 2013–present

Quentin MacDonald 2014 (loan)

Andrew Smith 2014–present

Munster rugby is probably the most historic team in all of Ireland. Munster is the largest province in all of Ireland its counties are cork, Clare, Kerry, limerick, Tipperary and Waterford.  the two major towns are cork city, Waterford city and limerick city which is were Munster play there rugby. Munster have won the Heineken cup two times. There first victory of the trophy was in 2005-06 and second victory was in 2007-08 winning it back to back times. Over the years Munster have played international teams such as New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Samoa. Munster beat New Zealand 12-0 being the only Irish team to ever beat the famous all blacks even now a days the Ireland rugby team have yet to beat them. that famous win in 1978 at Thomand park is something Munster rugby will never forget. Munster have two stadiums, Thomand park in limerick and Musgrave park in Cork. Thomand park being the bigger stadium is where Munster generally play there matches. In 2010 at the Munster and Leinster match in the Aviva stadium the biggest crowd attendance in the Celtic league game ever went up to 50,645. Munster rugby is quite a dominant rugby team with a good consistency while playing abroad and every year they seem to get in new talent from the southern hemisphere or Europe and I think they will continue to strive as a great club in the future.




                                 Enjoy Reading!

                               Irish rugby!

CONNACHT RUGBY

The Connacht Branch of the IRFU was founded on 8 December 1885, and along with it the provincial rugby team. The team was formed after all the other provinces Leinster, Munster and Ulster so that they could compete against each other. The 1995-96 saw the first ever Heineken cup a new tournament set up for the top European teams to play against each other. The irish teams were only given 3 places in the tournament, unfortunately Connacht were not selected.

The 1997-98 proved to be more successful for Connacht after warren gatland led them finishing top of there group. They reached the quarter final but lost. Another new Zealand coach glenn ross took over after warren gatland as he went on to coach Ireland.

in 2001 a new competition began It was called the inaugural  celtic league, teams from Ireland, wales and Scotland competed in it.

Connacht rugby was in danger of shutting down after the irfu proposed shutting them down for cost cuts. a huge protest broke out in Dublin over 2000 Connacht fans. the irfu were forced to keep the team.

As the years went on Connacht grew and grew as a rugby team becoming a stronger team. new coaches such as Michael Bradley and eric elwood. Michael Bradley was awarded the chairman's award after coaching the team for 7 years. eric elwood had a rough term coming 9th in the celtic league and failing to keep key players such as sean Cronin and ian keatley.  Connacht made there first ever Heineken cup appearance in 2011-12 after leinster winning the competition year before. in 2013 Connacht introduced another coach pat lam. he had a great first year having the record of winning streak since 11 years.

Provincial Honours

COMPETITION              CHAMPIONSHIPS          BEST RESULT irish inter-provincial                          2                         champions: competition celtic league/pro 12                            0                         quarter finalists: 2001-02, 2002-03 Heineken cup                                     0                         3rd in pool: 2012-13, 2013-14 European challenge                            0                         semi-finalists: 2003-04, 2004-05, 2009-10 cup Overseas Internationals Warwick Waugh Robbie Morris Mils Muliaina Henry Fa'afili Ray Ofisa James So'oialo Ofisa Treviranus Gavin Williams Dan Parks Eric Peters Fetu'u Vainikolo Enjoy Reading!

hello fellow bloggers I am a student currently doing transition year in Ireland. I will be blogging about rugby all around the world and its geography. I hope you enjoy reading my blogs. :)