Rory O'Connor
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Okay.
Not 100% on that, but I think he may have joined them.
Yeah, and I wonder, I guess the fear is, and speaking to Dennis Leamy and John Hodnett on their call earlier this week, is that...
they have a really good record at this time of year of putting together a run and getting out of a hole.
And, you know, it took them to a URC title in 2023.
It took them to top spot and what should have been a home final had they not slipped up against an excellent Glasgow team in 2024.
Last year, they left it to the final day to secure top eight European qualification and playoff spots against Benetton and then went out in a penalty shoot against the Sharks.
But if you keep giving yourself a mountain to climb at this time of year,
you're eventually going to run out of road some year.
It might not be this year, they might pull it together, but they're dicing with danger every year.
They're putting themselves in high-stress scenarios.
It often brings out the best in them, but every year their squad is losing one or two experienced players.
There's no Peter O'Mahony this year.
He's been so important at this time of the year over the last couple of seasons.
You look back to the team that won the URC in 2023, so many of those players have either moved on or retired.
of the best players in that team, of the most important kind of contributors to that side.
And the responsibility is falling on a diminishing set of kind of key players and leaders.
One of whom is Jack Crowley, who joins the group this week.
Tideburn will play a huge role in the next number of weeks.
And I wonder how they'll use them with the Challenge Cup because this is becoming very squeaky bum time, especially if they lose in Pretoria.