“Everything on the line, it’s no tomorrow, teams playing with an edge, hunger, desire, passion” …. safe to say, Jim McGuinness enjoyed the opening weekend of the football championship, reckoning that New York, Roscommon and Clare put to bed any notion that the provincial competitions are “smoking out on dying embers”.
He’s left wondering, though, where their defeat by Roscommon leaves Mayo and their championship-winning prospects, the “hype and expectation” that accompanied their league triumph now replaced “by a severe dose of reality”.
In contrast, Limerick appear to have forgotten how to lose championships, Denis Walsh reflecting on how the four-in-a-row seekers warmed up for this year’s campaign with that 11-point win over Kilkenny in last Sunday’s National Hurling League final.
While there’s been plenty of discussion about championship-format-tweaking in Gaelic games, rugby has been having its own debate about the re-shaped Champions Cup. For all its faults, though, Gerry Thornley points to the fact that the cream has risen to the top this season, with Leinster, Toulouse, Exeter and La Rochelle reaching the semi-finals.
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Whether or not Ryan Baird, James Lowe and Josh van der Flier will be fit in time to line out against Toulouse on April 29 remains to be seen, Gerry giving us updates on their condition, while looking ahead to Leinster’s forthcoming URC games against the Lions and the Bulls in Johannesburg and Pretoria, both of which the “frontliners” will skip.
Owen Doyle, meanwhile, was hoping he wouldn’t have to write about any more dangerous play controversies in his Whistleblower column this week, but along came an ugly incident Down Under in the game between Queensland Reds and the Brumbies, which saw the red card protocol trials come into operation.
In horse racing, Brian O’Connor tells us about Paul Townend’s “ride for the ages” on I Am Maximus in Monday’s Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse, while Philip Reid reflects on the performance of Augusta’s own Maximus, Jon Rahm, reckoning that the Spaniard is good enough to join the Grand Slam club – he’s half way there, with the US Open and now the Masters under his belt.
Telly watch: It’s Champions League time again with the first legs of two quarter-finals on tonight, both kicking-off at 8.0 – Manchester City v Bayern Munich (RTÉ 2 and BT Sport 1) and Benfica v Inter Milan (BT Sport 2). And for the night owls there’s the second of the Republic of Ireland’s women’s friendlies against the United States, this one in St Louis – RTÉ2 have live coverage, with kick-off at half past midnight.
