Ben Healy and Leona Maguire make it a memorable Thursday

Well now, between Ben Healy’s exploits at the Tour de France, and Leona Maguire’s sizzling form at the fourth Major of the season, also on French soil, that proved to be a highly tremendous Thursday for Irish sport. Until then, just six Irish riders had won a stage in the 112-year history of cycling’s blue riband event and Maguire had never hit a hole-in-one on the LPGA Tour. Time to update your records.

Ian O’Riordan has the story of a very special day for Healy, who won stage six of the Tour, while Philip Reid reports on Maguire’s first round of 65 at the Evian Championship, the fourth Major of the season. It included a hole-in-one at the 12th and gave her a share of the lead.

If Katie Taylor can see off Amanda Serrano in “the final act of their trilogy” at Madison Square Garden, that would complete a very fine week. Keith Duggan sets the scene for what might well be the Bray woman’s final fight.

There are two heavyweight bouts at Croke Park this weekend – Tyrone v Kerry and Donegal v Meath in the football semi-finals. Gordon Manning introduces you to a Meath team that has taken the championship by storm, while Ciarán Kirk hears the thoughts of Tyrone great Stephen O’Neill on his county’s game against a Kerry side powered by the ever-prolific David Clifford and Seán O’Shea.

Meet the Meath footballers who have taken the championship by storm

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Best golf courses in Co Sligo: Bucket list courses and hidden gems from Rosses Point to Tubbercurry

Joe Canning, meanwhile, looks at the rebuild facing Kilkenny after their semi-final exit, the team at a crossroads now. And if they come back with the same line-up, “it’s hard to see them winning the All-Ireland next year”.

In rugby, Gerry Thornley previews the Lions’ game against an AUNZ Invitational XV tomorrow, Tadhg Beirne the captain, and he talks to Tadhg Furlong who is on his third Lions tour. He also paid a visit to Sydney club Randwick where Irish players have found a home.

Jonathan Drennan brings the ‘View From Australia’, which is where Jamie Osborne is heading after being called up by Andy Farrell. He is, then, unavailable for Ireland’s game against Portugal tomorrow, John O’Sullivan bringing news of interim coach Paul O’Connell’s rejigging of his team.

Where are the Irish international tennis stars? Not even ChatGPT could fully answer that one when Johnny Watterson asked it the question, it being a whole 14 years now since Conor Niland played the first round of Wimbledon.

Gavin Cummiskey reports on St Patrick’s Athletic’s slender Conference League win over Lithuania’s Hegelmann Litauen, the second leg taking place next Thursday, while Brian O’Connor addresses the “annual weeping and gnashing about the Irish Derby’s slipping prestige”.

TV Watch: Sky Sports continues its coverage of golf’s Scottish Open (from 8am) and The Evian Championship (from 11am), and at Wimbledon it’s men’s semi-final day – Taylor Fritz v Carlos Alcaraz is the first match up at 1.30, followed by Jannik Sinner v Novak Djokovic.

At Euro 2025, there are the final games in group B, Italy v Spain and Portugal v Belgium (RTÉ 2 & BBC 1, 8.0), Virgin Media Two has the best of the action from the Monaco Diamond League (7pm) which, alas, won’t feature Rhasidat Adeleke, and if you’re a night owl, you can see Katie Taylor’s fight against Amanda Serrano on Netflix in the wee hours (about 3.30am).