Ireland Rugby Fans

Brian Smith, the Director of Rugby of the Aviva Premiership Rugby Football Union club the London Irish believes that the club’s young starlet Tom Homer will be given his chance with the England national team.

The 23 year old full back for The Exiles has long been seen by many as a future England star, especially after his back to back record breaking feats in the junior World Cup.

However, a niggling injury of the knee prevented him from building on an extremely impressive 2011-12 campaign for The Exiles when he was voted as the club’s Player of the Season and was also awarded the Aviva Premiership Golden Boot. And Homer did mention that he wasn’t expecting to be named in the squad that head coach Stuart Lancaster named last week that will go on tour of South America during the summer.

Reigning champions of the Aviva Premiership Rugby Football Union trophy Harlequins FC have confirmed that a deal has been signed between the club and fellow Aviva Premiership Rugby Football Union club the Northampton Saints for the signing of Phil Doran Jones, who will move to the London club at the end of the season.

The club has also confirmed that the prop has already agreed a two year deal with the club and will put pen to paper on the new deal when the seasons ends.

The 27 year old had long been linked with a move away from Franklin’s Gardens and a move to either one of the London Wasps or The Quins had been rumored. But the forwards coach of The Jimmies Dorian West recently made the announcement via a slip that the champions have a deal in place to take the player to the club and following that Harlequins FC have also announced that they will indeed sign the player.

Following a poor last year in terms of results for Ireland, there will be huge pressure on coach Declan Kidney to manage his talented team to a successful Six Nations position, with his contract expiring shortly.

While France look particularly strong, England and Wales have both shown inconsistency, and the general consensus is that this competition will be one of the more open showpieces of recent years. For the players themselves, there will be the added interest in trying to book themselves a seat on the plane to Australia this summer with the Lions; Warren Gatland has already indicated that his final squad will mainly be reflected from the players’ Six Nations performances.

Ireland will be without Paul O’Connell, for so long been synonymous with the Irish team, for the entire Six Nations. Other costly absences are that of Stephen Ferris and Tommy Bowe, who scored a very respectable 5 tries in last year’s competition.

Reports have it that the winger of the Ireland rugby team (better known as Ulster), the 28-year-old Tommy Bowe will have to undergo a knee surgery at the end of the week. He had his knee busted on Saturday evening when his team was playing against the Northampton Saints and it had been 77 minutes after the match took off.

He was quickly taken away from the field fearing his injury was too serious to be treated with a cramp-relieving spray. And it actually turned out to be the truth. From the team’s reports, it was confirmed that he had “sustained significant lateral ligament damage to his right knee”.

Now due to his absence, the team is under quite a lot of pressure before the Six Nations fight. It is not possible for the Ireland rugby team to set the stipulated date when he will make it back because it all depends on the recovering capacity of the individuals and the doctor’s advice.

The management and the players of the record Aviva Premiership champions Leicester Tigers are all united and on the same wavelength as they try to overcome the shock of their 22-9 at the hands of the Premiership champions Harlequins FC last weekend. This is the view that has been shared by The Tigers centre Anthony Allen, who admitted that although the whole team was in shock, they know what they need to know to get back to winning ways when they face the Exeter Chiefs next weekend.

The Tigers lost their first match at home at Welford Road when the champions thrashed them last Sunday in almost 12 months to cement their place at the top of the table whereas the defeat saw The Tigers slide down the table to fourth. These were the two sides that had met in the final of the Premiership playoffs just a few months back and with very little personnel changes taking place, it was expected that the match would be a very even one, like the final.

Declan Kidney; the coach of the Ireland Rugby Team is almost done finalizing his squad for the demanding three test match series against New Zealand and will only name it after The Barbarians have played their scheduled friendly at Kingshlom.

It has been revealed that Kidney will be naming a squad of 29 for the tour that will depart for the little island nation on Thursday and although he is yet to completely finalize his squad with some fringe players yet to be confirmed, flanker Stephen Ferris has already been ruled out of the tour due to an injury.

Shane Horgan has retired from Rugby with immediate effect due to a long term knee injury. Leinster confirmed the 33 year old’s retirement in a statement on Wednesday.

Horgan was a part of Ireland’s so called “golden generation” scoring 21 tries for his country in his 65 test appearances. He also boasts a set of three Lions appearances on the 2005 tour of New Zealand.

Having made his debut for Ireland in 2000 Horgan was a part of the Ireland side right up until his last appearance in 2009 against Wales Rugby team. He represented the province of Leinster throughout his senior career and made his final appearance for Leinster last May in a clash with their fierce rivals Munster in the Celtic League final. Leinster lost that encounter but in Horgan’s time in the side they won two Heineken Cup and two Celtic League titles.

Stephen Ferris is free to play for Ireland in Paris this Saturday after escaping punishment in a disciplinary hearing on Wednesday.

The flanker was sin-binned and cited for a tackle on Wales forward Ian Evans in the dying minutes of Sunday’s 23-21 defeat.

The subsequent penalty allowed Leigh Halfpenny to kick Wales to victory in a dramatic climax in Dublin, and a ban for Ferris would have added salt to Irish wounds.
However, a Six Nations statement explained how after careful analysis it was decided the tackle “did not uphold the citing”.

Ferris expressed his relief on Twitter, saying: “Thank goodness that is all over. Happy man.”

Wales lock Bradley Davies has received a seven-week ban for a dangerous tip tackle in the same game. In worse news for Ireland, fly-half Jonny Sexton is a doubt after suffering a thigh injury in kicking practice.

The Ireland rugby team has recently managed to sign up Paul O’Connell for this season and has appointed him as the captain for the 2012 Rugby World Cup.

This has been great news for them team as Paul is a star player and has gone on to win 82 titles for his country as a captain out of the total of 127 appearances that he has made.

All this goes on to show that he is quite capable of helping the Ireland rugby team. Paul has recently been having quite a number of injuries and hence was unable to be at his best performance.

However, the fact that he has signed up with the Ireland rugby team just after his injury has gone on to show that the club is definitely going to progress. He has always been a key pivotal player for Ireland and Munster and has made sure that he has brought about quite an impact to the game with his performance.

In the absence of regular captain Brian O’Driscoll, who will miss the forthcoming Six Nations whilst recovering from shoulder surgery, it has been confirmed that experienced lock Paul O’Connell will lead the Irish.

Munster Rugby captain O’Connell has led his nation in the past, against France in 2004 and in an reshuffled side against England in the build up to last year’s World Cup.

As well as the experience that comes with captaining his nation and one of the giants of European club Rugby, O Connell also showed excellent leadership skills when he skippered the British and Irish Lions on their 2009 tour of South Africa.

The next stage of his international and captaining careers will begin on February 5th when Ireland take on Wales in their Six Nations opener at the Aviva Stadium. The latest Betfair Six Nations Betting odds suggest that he’ll get off to a winning start.