Connacht blow URC play-offs wide open, Ireland bullish ahead of French rematch
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What was the significance of Connacht's comeback win against the Stormers?
Hello and welcome along to this week's RTE Rugby Podcast. Sportpodcasts at rte.ie to get in touch with us. That's sportpodcasts at rte.ie. The running order is absolutely packed again this week. Round three of the Guinness Women's Six Nations is coming up this weekend. Ireland away to France on Saturday night in Claremont in what is now looking like a proper grudge match. That's Dan Marcel Michel and Hannah O'Connor will be with me later in the pod to discuss that. We've already recorded that chat. If you do want to skip ahead to it, I'll put the timestamp in on the episode description here. And I'll do that as well for all our little mini segments as well so that the various provincial fans can hop straight to their own team.
Before that though, Bernard Jackman and Johnny Holland are with me after what was an incredible weekend in the United Rugby Championship. We'll also be touching on the All-Ireland League final this Sunday, St. Mary's versus Clontarf at the Aviva Stadium. So much to get through, but first the headlines and a wrap of the results. On Friday night, Leinster had a huge 29-21 bonus point win away to Ulster.
How did Leinster secure their position with a win at Ulster?
Leinster now have the top seed back in their sights and Ulster supporters will start to get a little bit nervous heading into the final three games. Munster put a bad week of headlines behind them with an excellent 45-15 win at Benetton and a badly needed performance. But fellas, I'm going to start this week in Cape Town. Connacht coming from 24 points to 14 down with less than 20 minutes to play against second in the table, Stormers. They win 33-24. Bonus point win for them, nothing for the hosts. We now have just seven points separating Second place Stormers from ninth place Connacht with three rounds of the regular season left to go. The playoff race, Bernard, has been blown wide open by that result on Saturday.
What challenges does Ulster face after their recent defeat?
Yeah, and some of the... If you're a monster playing last or very late and you see everything kind of going against you before that, like Cardiff just... Cardiff came back from... a mile behind to win in the last play of the game as well, which didn't help Munster. But then Munster went and did what they could do and needed to do. But the Connacht result, yeah, my hope for Connacht was that they would get two points in South Africa. I thought that was the minimum they needed, but the maximum they're going to get, if that makes sense. But fair play. And if they were to get something, it was going to be in the open.
What impact did Munster's win over Benetton have on their season?
Joburg against the Lions, but... I think that's Conor's most impressive performance in a long time because it's not a once off it's on the back of that's the sixth straight URC win it was on the back of you know disappointment the week before in Montpellier you know they had to obviously travel down they're on a pretty tight schedule but Down a few players. Down a few, like no Bundy, no Mack, no Finlay Beelum, no Joshua Annie. Yeah, youngsters, Nocton, stepping in at 10 and doing a great job. You know, the young props, you know, Billy Boyan and Sam Ilo against the Stormer Scrum, who, like all South African scrums, are pretty fearsome. So... to come from behind, for defence to be a weapon in attack.
It was a huge amount to be impressed by. And there just seems to be a really good spirit growing there. And in fairness to them, like we said this on the pod before, but in November, December, when results weren't good, any of the Connacht players I spoke to off the record there wasn't they never batted an eyelid about that they knew what they were doing was better than they've ever done before and it would come to fruition doesn't always do that but thankfully from a Connacht point of view it actually now is converting into points And yet, they're still in a race to make top eight. Like, it's scary for them. They don't have really much room for margin, obviously. They play Lions, then they play Munster in Dexcom, and then they go to Edinburgh on the last day.
But they're going into it with serious momentum.
The mad thing, Johnny, as well, is having done that on Saturday and picked off the bonus point win and the brilliant comeback and everything and the great feeling they would have had.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What was the significance of Connacht's comeback win against the Stormers?
0:08–1:09
2
How did Leinster secure their position with a win at Ulster?
1:09–1:54
3
What challenges does Ulster face after their recent defeat?
1:54–2:30
4
What impact did Munster's win over Benetton have on their season?
2:30–4:27
5
What are the details of the upcoming All-Ireland League final?
4:27–5:10
6
How did Ireland perform in the Women's Six Nations against Italy?
5:10–5:18
7
What are the expectations for Ireland's match against France?
5:18–7:18
8
What are the implications of Roger Randall's appointment for Munster?
7:18–1:37:22
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from RTÉ Rugby Podcast
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