It’s unlikely that any of you will be telling your grandchildren about those 72 hours in Irish rugby: France 36, Ireland 14; Ireland XV 14, England A 52; France U20s 50, Ireland U20s 21. Tot ‘em up and that’s 138-49. “It is hard to remember a more wounding weekend in the modern history of Irish rugby,” writes Denis Walsh. He’s now left wondering how support for the team holds up “through this period of turbulence” when rugby needs all the “bandwagon-jumpers” it can muster to sustain itself in the professional era.
One of the few sparks of light on a gloomy evening in Paris was Michael Milne marking his debut with a try. Gerry Thornley talks to the man who has become the first player from Birr RFC to play for Ireland.
It was a special night too for the Prendergast brothers, Cian and Sam, starting together for the first time in any game of rugby. Gerry heard from Cian after the game, his focus now on getting the better of an Italian team that will arrive in Dublin with a spring in its step after their opening win over Scotland.
The pick of the weekend’s hurling action was the repeat of last summer’s All-Ireland final, Denis Walsh was at Páirc Uí Chaoimh to see Cork beat Tipperary by seven points. And he heard from a typically forthright Ben O’Connor after the game, the Cork manager sharing his thoughts on that “melee” before half-time.
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Seán Moran was at the Gaelic Grounds where Limerick powered home in the final quarter against Kilkenny, while Reuben Halloran’s haul of 1-12 sent Waterford on their way to victory over Offaly at Walsh Park.
In football, Gavin Cummiskey was among a 21,472 crowd at the Aviva Stadium to see Bohemians and St Patrick’s Athletic kick off their seasons with a scoreless draw, while Conor McEvoy continues to keep an eye on the Irish abroad in his Green Shoots round-up. More bother for Evan Ferguson, more bliss for Keith Andrews.
And Ken Early looks back on that meeting of Liverpool and Manchester City at Anfield, “a bad game” that was “belatedly enlivened by a comical last 20 minutes”. Once again, Liverpool “succumbed to the familiar hysteria that has characterised them at crunch moments all throughout the season”.
Ian O’Riordan brings us the latest Irish news from the Winter Olympics, the biggest story on Sunday being that horrific crash suffered by downhill skier Lindsey Vonn. In cricket, Nathan Johns was in Colombo to see Ireland go down by 20 runs to Sri Lanka in their T20 Cricket World Cup tie, seven dropped catches hardly helping the cause.
And in racing, the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board has stood over the process that led to Wexford stewards not holding an inquiry into the controversial unseating of jockey Philip Byrnes at the final flight of a hurdle race last May. Brian O’Connor has the details.
TV Watch: BBC2 and TNT Sports continue their live coverage of the Winter Olympics through the day (from 9am to 10.30pm), and at 8pm TG4 have highlights from the GAA weekend while Against the Head on RTÉ 2 reviews the rugby action.
