It was quite the weekend for the Coombes families as brother and sister Gavin and Gillian, and their cousin, Liam, all contributed to Munster victories.
Liam crossed for an excellent individual try, the team’s fourth of five that secured the bonus point in Munster’s 33-3 United Rugby Championship (URC) victory over the Lions in the wind and rain at Musgrave Park.
[ URC: Munster tame the Lions to enjoy a bonus point victory at Musgrave ParkOpens in new window ]
Gavin demonstrated, not only his versatility in switching to the secondrow to partner Jean Kleyn from his normal position of number eight, but that he is back to the standard and form that won him a couple of Ireland caps in 2021 and a place in the national squad for last summer’s tour to New Zealand, in which he played both matches against the Maori All Blacks.
He started the season slowly and didn’t make the anticipated impact in Ireland A’s defeat to a New Zealand Development XV at the RDS; he was certainly by no means alone that night. However, in recent weeks Coombes has been back close to his best, physically powerful in his carrying and prodigious in his work-rate on both sides of the ball.
He’s been an integral part in the upturn in Munster’s fortunes, a state of affairs that bodes well for the province and will be appreciated by head coach Graham Rowntree. Coombes returned to Musgrave Park on Saturday to cheer on his sister, Gillian, who made her senior debut for Munster in a 34-0 victory over Ulster on the opening weekend of the Women’s interprovincial championship.
In maintaining the family theme, Sligo born sisters, Aoife (Leinster) and Sonia (Connacht) were in opposition at Donnybrook. Aoife enjoyed the post-match bragging rights as she helped her side to a 38-10 win with Sonia coming on as a second half replacement for Connacht. The sisters are both secondrows and both play for the Railway Union club in Dublin.
Like fathers like sons
They say that history repeats itself and that certainly seems to be the case when it comes to a couple of rugby playing sons and their fathers. Scrumhalf Rhys O’Donnell and outhalf James Humphreys formed the halfback combination for the Ulster A team that beat an Ealing Trailfinders A side 31-26 in a friendly match last Friday at the Trailfinders Sports club in London.
Three decades earlier their respective fathers, Keith O’Donnell, and David Humphreys, played scrumhalf and outhalf for an Ulster development side as O’Donnell Sr pointed out in a tweet before the Ealing match. It read: “So about 30 years ago my half back partner in an Ulster development side was a brilliant teenage outhalf called David Humphreys.
“I was with Instonians and David was with Queens. Tomorrow our sons are half backs together with the same clubs.” James Humphreys, who was at Queen’s but plays with Banbridge now, was one of Ulster’s five try scorers alongside fullback Shea O’Brien, Ben Moxham, Rob Lyttle and James McCormick while Jake Flannery kicked three conversions.
There were several familiar faces in the Ealing A side with former Munster hooker Kevin O’Byrne a try scorer while former Connacht centre Peter Robb started in midfield. Ealing were captained by outhalf Dan Lancaster, son of Leinster senior coach Stuart.
The London club has a sizeable Irish contingent and on Saturday three of them, Cian Kelleher, Ross Kane, and David O’Connor played on an Ealing team beaten for the first time in the English Championship this season when going down to Caldy.
Barrett follows in her coach’s footsteps
Jenny Murphy proved that class is permanent in scoring a brace of tries against Connacht, her enduring quality still in evidence as the 33-year-old centre continues to make an impact. The occasion was also notable for a different kind of impact she made, 10 years previously, when she coached Geesala native, Clara Barrett at a mini rugby event at the Aviva Stadium.
The Western People newspaper had a lovely photograph of the two from that day. Murphy obviously made an impression because 55-minutes into the women’s interprovincial at Donnybrook on Saturday, Barrett came on as a replacement for Connacht where she found herself in direct opposition to her former mentor.
The two caught up for a photograph after the game.
Number: 10
Cathal Forde’s two tries, scoring 10 points in the process, in Connacht’s URC victory over the Sharks proved the icing on an excellent individual performance that earned him the man-of-the-match award. It offered a reminder a mere 12 months into his first senior professional contact of just what an outstanding prospect the young, placekicking, inside centre/outhalf is, a fact that he had regularly demonstrated in age-grade rugby including at Ireland Under-20 level.
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[ Late Benetton penalty piles on the misery for UlsterOpens in new window ]
“Really proud of the way when things went against us in the second half, we came back into it to take the lead with three minutes to go. It’s a situation when things aren’t going great for you that we could easily have just sat on our hands and felt sorry for ourselves but we’re not like that – I was proud of the fellas for that.” Dan McFarland after Ulster’s agonising late defeat to Benetton.
