After guiding Dungannon to their first-ever Irish Cup success last season, plus securing a top-six place in the league and European football, Swifts manager Rodney McAree does not give the impression of a man who is happy to rest on his laurels.
The Stangmore club’s 4-3 penalty shootout win over Cliftonville in the showpiece decider at Windsor Park last May sparked huge celebrations among all connected with the county Tyrone outfit.
Now the Dungannon boss is eyeing a possible retention of the trophy as his side prepare to begin the defence of the cup at home to Championship side Ards on Saturday.
“It’s exciting, it’s strange times for Dungannon Swifts to be going in as holders of the cup,” said McAree.
“We look forward to it, it’s going to be a challenging game, a difficult match, but one that we believe we can win, and we want to progress and we want to try and start to dream again.
“We’ll embrace the challenge. To win it last year was unbelievable, remarkable, but we want to try and do it again.
“Once you taste that level of success then you want to taste it a lot more than we have done in the past. We won the League Cup in 2018 and when you achieved that the next thing you wanted to win was the Irish Cup.”
The century-old rivalry series between USC and Notre Dame is taking a few years off, and as far as Lincoln Riley is concerned, that’s the fault of the Irish.
In his first public comments since the series was officially put on hiatus, the USC coach put the blame squarely on Notre Dame for not accepting USC’s most recent offer to continue the rivalry, which would have moved the 2026 game, usually scheduled in November, to the very beginning of the season.
“It’s pretty simple,” Riley said Monday, ahead of USC’s bowl matchup with Texas Christian. “We both worked for months to try to find a solution. Notre Dame was very vocal about the fact that they would play us anytime, anywhere.
“Jen Cohen, our AD, went back to Notre Dame roughly a couple of weeks ago with a scenario and a proposal that would extend the series for the next two years. We took Notre Dame at their word that they would play us anytime, anywhere. That proposal was rejected.
“Not only was it rejected, but five minutes after we got the call, it was announced they scheduled another opponent, which I’ll give them credit, that might be the fastest scheduling act in college football history.”
The Times reported last week that the Playoff selection earlier this month proved to be a turning point for USC’s administration in talks with Notre Dame. The realization that the Irish — by virtue of a side agreement with the College Football Playoff committee that hands them a bid if ranked in the top 12 — would have gotten into the field over Miami especially gave USC pause.
That’s when Cohen returned to Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua with an offer for the rivals to face off in the season opener. Notre Dame instead scheduled Brigham Young to fill that vacancy over the next two seasons.
Riley has been roundly criticized for his part in the rivalry’s potential demise after he suggested in August 2024 that the annual series could be in danger, if USC proved too much of a hurdle in the Trojans’ path to the College Football Playoff.
In the spring, as negotiations between the two schools stalled and the public pointed fingers at Riley and USC, Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said that continuing the rivalry was “pretty black and white for me.”
“I want to play them every single year,” Freeman said. “You want my opinion? I want to play them every single year. When? I don’t care. I don’t care when we play them: Start of the season, middle of the season, end of the season. I don’t care. I want to play USC every year because I think it’s great for college football.”
After initially holding firm on its intent to renegotiate terms of the rivalry year-to-year, so as to wait on changes to the College Football Playoff format, USC sent an amended offer to Notre Dame before the season that would have extended the series for two seasons. But Notre Dame wanted a longer deal.
The two schools nearly came to an agreement in October, around their final meeting in South Bend. USC had made clear that it wanted to play the game earlier in the season, but was warming up to the idea of continuing the series as is through 2027.
USC decided to dig its heels in after Selection Sunday, returning to USC with a final offer to play early in the 2026 season. Notre Dame declined.
“The fact is very, very clear, this can all be settled very quickly,” Riley said. “Had Notre Dame lived up to their word and played us anytime, anywhere, we would be playing in the next two years, and looking ahead after that, hopefully continuing the series.
“They did not follow through on it, thus we are not playing them the next couple years. We’re hopeful something can be worked out in the future. That would be fantastic. We at SC would love for the game to continue. We have no problem following through on our promises in the future.”
It’ll be a while before those negotiations start up again. The next window in which USC could play Notre Dame is during the 2030 season.
In an opening half that featured just one solitary try, the dominant theme was Leinster’s superiority in the scrum.
With former Leinster player Michael Ala’alatoa appearing to struggle on their tight-head side, Munster could not get to grips with their opposing front row, who were able to use the set-piece to relieve pressure time and time again.
Despite those difficulties, Munster still enjoyed plenty of territory but were lacking in accuracy when it came to the crunch.
Jack Crowley missed touch in what was a generally poor kicking display from those in red, while a Mike Haley knock-on after a poor Tom Farrell pass ended another attack.
Leinster struggled to convert their own opportunities but did take a 7-0 lead into the break thanks to Van der Flier’s early score.
After one of those initial scrum penalties, the visitors kicked to the corner with Ronan Kelleher finding Caelan Doris from the subsequent line-out.
While the maul made only marginal headway, there was to be no stopping Van der Flier when the back row peeled off the back and ran through the tackle of Craig Casey to score.
In what continued to be a low-scoring and disjointed game after the break, Harry Byrne and Crowley traded penalties a quarter of an hour after the restart.
Approaching the final quarter, Byrne added another three points with the boot but, as both sides turned to their benches, it felt a game already lacking in flow was becoming even more disjointed.
Replacement centre Dan Kelly’s try in the 70th minute set up an absorbing finish but, try as they might and despite plenty of late possession, Munster could not find a way through the Leinster defence for the telling score.
In truth, while the game did not lack intensity or ferocity, given the paucity of attacking quality on show, it was a fitting end to such a contest.
Both sides face another interprovincial derby in the URC next week with Munster travelling to Ulster on Friday and Leinster hosting Connacht the following day.
Ulster lock Cormac Izuchukwu says “pride in the province” is what helps make Irish derbies special as the side prepare to take on Connacht this weekend.
Richie Murphy’s side travel to the Dexcom Stadium on Saturday (17:30 GMT) for what is their second of three games in a row against Irish rivals in the United Rugby Championship (URC).
The northern province are looking to bounce back following a narrow 24-20 loss against Leinster last time out.
The home side, meanwhile, come into the match off the back of a loss comprehensive reverse against Dragons.
“Connacht away, Leinster away and Munster at home, they are special,” Izuchukwu told BBC Sport NI.
“There is something about them, they are class and class to play in.
“For me it is having pride in the province, going down there and showing what we are about.”
Izuchukwu, who hasn’t played since early October because of a recurring foot injury followed by an illness last week, has just signed a new two-year contract to keep him at Ulster until the summer of 2028.
The 25-year-old second row added that he has “grown as a person and a player” since joining the Ulster academy in 2020.
“It has been on my mind for a while now, so really happy to get it done and to get back to playing rugby,” Izuchukwu continued.
“I came here back in 2020, I didn’t have many options, and they gave me a chance. I came here, have made friends and have grown as a person and a player.
“I have made great memories here and, for me, with how the club is growing I am so happy to be here.”
The world of college football may be awash in uncertainty, but the last several weeks have proven one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Nobody runs like Notre Dame.
When the Irish got jobbed by the College Football Playoff committee and insanely were left out of the CFP, they refused to play another game this season.
Notre Dame ran from the Pop Tarts Bowl.
Then came Monday’s announcement that Notre Dame no longer will regularly play USC, essentially ending a 100-year-old rivalry because the Irish didn’t want to change the dates of the game.
Notre Dame ran from the Trojans.
Call them the Fightin’ Chickens, a once-proud Irish program that demands acquiescence or it will take its ball and go home.
The Irish could have played USC at the beginning of the season, but refused. The Irish could have kept the rivalry alive with a scheduling tweak that would have helped both teams, but refused.
Lots of folks are going to blame USC and coach Lincoln Riley for butchering a Knute Rockne-born tradition that accounted for 78 straight games, not counting 2020, the COVID-19 year. That’s wrong. Nobody has been more critical of Riley than this space, but he’s not the bad guy here.
Anybody who felt the buzz around the CFP first-round games last weekend would attest, this is where USC needs to be playing. If the Trojans truly want to return to greatness, being selected for the CFP is the goal. Not beating Notre Dame. Not even beating UCLA. It’s all about the tournament.
USC needs to put itself in the best possible position to be playing on a mid-December weekend, and that means no longer being the only Big Ten school to play a major nonconference game in the middle of the season or later.
The schedule has become tough enough. The Trojans don’t need to make it tougher with the kind of game nobody else in their conference is playing.
They need Notre Dame in August, not in late October or mid-November.
But, as it turns out, Notre Dame believes it doesn’t need USC at all.
The Irish signed a deal with the CFP that stipulates, beginning next year, if they are ranked in the top 12, they are guaranteed a playoff berth. They can get in the playoffs without risking a loss to the Trojans. They can play it safe and schedule easy and back right in.
USC doesn’t have that luxury. USC isn’t guaranteed squat. USC has a 2026 schedule that even without Notre Dame is a nightmare.
USC and Notre Dame prepare to play in a packed Notre Dame Stadium in October 2023.
(Michael Caterina / Associated Press)
Home games against Ohio State and Oregon. Road games at Indiana and Penn State.
USC doesn’t need a midseason game against Notre Dame making that road even harder.
Jennifer Cohen, the USC athletic director, said as much in a recently posted open letter to the Trojans community.
“USC is the only team in the Big Ten to play a nonconference road game after Week 4 in either of the past two seasons,” she wrote. “USC is also the only team to play a nonconference game after Week 4 in both seasons.”
Trojans fans love the rivalry. The college football world loves the rivalry. It’s Anthony Davis, it’s Carson Palmer, it’s the Bush Push, it has won Heismans and cemented championships.
But times have changed. The landscape is evolving. Everything that college football once represented is up for debate. Even the most venerable of traditions is subject to adjustments.
That’s what the Trojans wanted to do. Not eliminate, but adjust. But Notre Dame football adjusts for no one.
It was indeed a travesty that the two-loss Irish, winners of their last 10 games by double digits, did not get a spot in the national tournament. By the end of the season they were arguably one of the four best teams in the country. They easily could have captured the crown.
Tulane? James Madison? Are you kidding me? As the opening games revealed — the two AAA teams were outscored 92-44 — there is no place for Cinderellas in the CFP.
But that was no reason for Notre Dame to back out of the bowls completely, sacrificing the final game in the careers of the Irish players who will not be going to the NFL just to make a whining point that resonated with nobody.
And, besides, there’s another way Notre Dame could have been a lock for the playoffs.
Join a conference, fool!
By keeping the football team out of the otherwise Irish-infected Atlantic Coast Conference, Notre Dame is raking in big TV bucks that it doesn’t have to share. But this means the Irish are subject to the whims of a committee that could, and did, unconscionably leave them out.
Notre Dame always wants it both ways. It wants its independence, but also wants to dictate a schedule filled with conference-affiliated teams.
In demanding that their game be played in August or not at all, USC finally called Notre Dame’s bluff.
And the Irish did what they recently have done best.
They ran.
The team that initially will replace USC on the Notre Dame schedule?
It’s Brigham Young, the same team that Notre Dame snubbed in the Pop Tarts Bowl.
