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4th April 2025
10:11am BST
Ireland recently announced their coaching ticket for the upcoming summer tour of Portugal and Georgia, with Colm Tucker, Mike Prendergast, and Denis Leamy joining head coach Paul O'Connell, while regular coaches Andy Farrell, Simon Easterby, John Fogarty, and Andrew Goodman work with the Lions.
Prendergast (attack) and Leamy (defence) are currently coaching within the Munster set-up, while O'Connell, whose regular job is as Ireland's forwards coach, and Tucker, who coaches with Connacht, both hail from the province.
On The Offload podcast with Donncha O'Callaghan, former Ireland and Ulster winger Tommy Bowe wasn't particularly pleased with the lack of Ulster names on the coaching ticket, and suggested that it will lead to bias when selecting players.
These comments, however, are amiss given that Tucker is involved with Connacht and O'Connell has not been involved with Munster in years.
Bowe also suggested that there should be new faces such as Ulster coach Jimmy Duffy, despite the fact that he does not hail from Ulster, while he was also involved with Ireland 'A' during the Six Nations.
Bowe said: "What is it about jobs for the lads, jobs for your mates.
"This is an opportunity for a new crop of Irish coaches to come through on a summer tour.
"Paul O'Connell's been given the opportunity to be head coach, and fair play to him.
"There's nothing wrong with Denis Leamy, Mike Prendergast, Colm Tucker.
"For an Ulster player to go on that tour, it is literally a Munster coaching team.
"I was thinking like a Jimmy Duffy.
"We'll have no players picked in the squad and no players involved in the squad either then."
Ulster may have the weakest player representation on the upcoming Ireland tour, but this will be down to the talent coming through at the other three provinces, rather than an anti-Ulster bias.
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