The rugby season is well under way with all four provinces involved in the United Rugby Championship. That competition will run until June 2026 and at various times the Irish provinces will have to field weakened teams due to international commitments. The European Champions Cup gets under way in early December and Bilbao is the venue for the final on May 23. Ireland will have four internationals in November, starting with a high profile game against the All Blacks in Soldier Field, Chicago on Nov. 1 and then the Autumn Series games on consecutive Saturdays in Dublin against Japan, Australia and South Africa. Early in 2026 the big one is the Six Nations, which for Ireland starts with an away game against France on Feb. 5.
Leinster, who beat The Bulls from South Africa 32-7 to win the URC final at Croke Park last June, are back at the Jones Road venue tomorrow when old rivals Munster will provide the opposition in their first meeting of the new season. In recent seasons Leinster have held the upper hand in their meetings with Munster, but the Blues have had a very poor start in this season’s URC, losing their opening two games to the Stormers and the Bulls in South Africa. Munster, under new head coach Clayton McMillan, have started the season very well and with their out-half Jack Crowle in good form they might get a rare win over their great blue rivals at Croker on Saturday.
Also, it looks like we could see an Irish province play a URC game in the USA in the coming years. Munster CEO Ian Flanagan says they have had preliminary discussion with South African club Sharks about moving a Sharks home game to the USA. Flanagan said: “We have been quite clear that we don’t want to move a Munster home game out of Thomond Park or Musgrave Park. But we are very open to playing a Munster away game somewhere if it works for us and our supporters.”
CEO REJECTS CLAIMS
BY MURRAY IN BIO
Munster Rugby CEO Ian Flanagan has rejected claims made in Conor Murray’s autobiography that his organisation has been guilty of penny pinching on team travel, “dud” signings and disruptive coaching “churn.” Former Ireland scrum-half Murray, who retired last month after 15 years as a Munster player, wrote in his recently published “Cloud Nine”of his frustration that the team he represented 206 times failed to continue the success of the Heineken Cup-winning heroes of 2006 and 2008.
Flanagan commented: “All I can say is that since I arrived and particularly now how we have structured things with Ian Costello taking over as general manager is that there is an incredibly robust player recruitment process in place. An incredible amount of due diligence is done in terms of any players we are considering adding to the group, not just the quality of the player but the player as a person, the character of the player, that they will fit into our culture, with our values, and that they will add to the group. So, it’s not about having the biggest names in the world. Don’t get me wrong, we have signed some very big players as well in my time here. But it’s about, are they the right fit for us? Will they add value?”
As for the “managerial” churn, Flanagan attempted but some context on the departure of various coaches.