How Irish rugby clubs are surviving as All-Ireland League remains in lockdown limbo

The Irish Examiner asked a cross-section of the AIL community about the impact of this latest lockdown and the options for playing again this season

Today should have seen a full slate of energia All Ireland League games, the second round of the new season for men’s and women’s clubs.

Yet with Ireland under lockdown again, the new season remains in a state of flux. Many senior clubs’ first teams have managed only a handful of games, mostly in last autumn’s short-lived, regionalised energia Community Series, since all domestic rugby activity was suspended by the IRFU during the first wave of the crisis on March 12.