If half the nation was bleary-eyed this morning, you know who to blame. “Deliverance! Liberation, even,” writes Philip Reid who was tasked with somehow finding the words to sum up what we witnessed at Augusta on Sunday night. After a roller-coaster ride of “emotions”, as well as “shot-making”, Rory McIlroy completed his Grand Slam jigsaw puzzle, only the sixth man to do so and the first European. Sporting theatre.
“You know, there were points in my career where I didn’t know if I would have this nice garment over my shoulders,” said McIlroy, looking resplendent in his green jacket. “I certainly didn’t make it easy today.” But, “magically, brilliantly”, he found a way, Philip bringing us a day-by-day account of McIlroy’s never-to-be-forgotten week in Georgia.
Gerry Thornley, meanwhile, rounds up the rugby weekend which, for the sixth season running, left Leinster as the last Irish team standing in the Champions Cup. Gerry was in France to see Munster’s journey in the competition come to an end at the hands of Bordeaux Bègles, captain Tadhg Beirne left ruing a first-half display when, he said, Munster “didn’t turn up”.
Leinster march on, John O’Sullivan at the Aviva Stadium on Friday to witness them “vaporising their opponents” for the second week running, this time beating Glasgow Warriors 52-0. Standing between them and a place in the final are Northampton, 51-16 winners over Castres.
There was no joy, though, for Connacht in the Challenge Cup where they lost 43-40 to Racing 92, and the Irish women fell to a ruthless second half display by England in Cork in the Six Nations. Having trailed by just two points at the break, they were, writes Denis Walsh, “tossed on wave upon tide of England attacks” en route to a 44-point beating.
In Gaelic games, Kerry took the women’s Division One football title thanks in no small part to Danielle O’Leary’s haul of 1-5 in their victory over Armagh, while Cork strolled to the camogie crown with an 11 point win over Galway, Ashling Thompson the driving force behind their display.
On the lads’ front, Wicklow put it up to Dublin for long stretches of their Leinster championship meeting in Aughrim, before the Dubs pulled away in the end. It was a similar story in Corrigan Park where All Ireland champions Armagh prevailed by 11 points having been given a fair old test by Antrim. Tyrone, though, made light enough work of Cavan’s challenge at Healy Park.
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Back in Leinster, Louth saw off Laois, while Meath recovered from being 10 points down at half-time to beat Offaly by seven. And Kildare needed their own comeback against a gallant Westmeath team.
In soccer, Ken Early reckons the game is increasingly becoming a country for old men, as evidenced by the importance to Liverpool of Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk, and the age-defying efforts of the likes of Lionel Messi, Robert Lewandowski, Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo and Luka Modric in recent times. Ageing like fine wine, the lot of them.
TV Watch: You can catch up on the weekend’s GAA highlights on TG4 at 8.0, and at the same time there’s the mega Premier League clash of, um, Bournemouth and Fulham on Sky Sports.
