Irish rugby has been handed a massive blow after Leinster confirmed yesterday Dan Leavy will miss this year's Rugby World Cup with a serious knee injury. Ireland flanker Leavy was carried off 11 minutes after coming on as a substitute during the province's 21-18 Champions Cup quarter-final win over Ulster last Saturday - suffering what Leinster have called "complex damage" to his knee ligaments. The 24-year-old had just returned from a calf injury, but now faces another lengthy spell on the sidelines and won't be featuring in Japan. Johnny Watterson writes: "Five months before the World Cup and competing in a backrow where few places were certain anyway, Leavy's confrontational and abrasive style of play was seen to be one of the ingredients Joe Schmidt's team needed to rediscover how to again be feared."
In his column this morning Gerry Thornley has looked back at the Heineken Champions Cup quarter-finals - a stage at which the competition tends to reach its peak for try scoring entertainment. He writes: "The four ties over the weekend produced 22 tries and 195 points, at an average of 49 per game. It was a similar story in the European Challenge Cup quarter-finals which produced 27 tries and 217 points. It was a largely wild, madcap weekend. This was rugby, but not as we know it." He suggests the large number of travelling Irish fans present at two of the last eight clashes - which had an aggregate attendance of 124,147 - added to the excitement, and that Ulster could be building something special under coach Dan McFarland. "It's vital that they at least qualify for the Pro14 play-offs and next season's Heineken Champions Cup. But, on the premise that they do so, last Saturday at the Aviva felt like the start of something rather than the end of this season's Euro journey."
Elsewhere Arsenal have moved up to third in the Premier League table after a 2-0 win over Newcastle at the Emirates Stadium last night. Goals from Aaron Ramsey and Alexandre Lacazette saw the Gunners leapfrog Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur as the battle for a Champions League place intensifies. Tonight United travel to play Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux, and yesterday manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer insisted Paul Pogba has "a big, big part to play" in the club's plans, despite links of a move to Real Madrid resurfacing over the international break. In tonight's other fixture, Fulham's relegation to the Championship can be confirmed as they travel to play Watford at Vicarage Road - Scott Parker's side need at least a point to prolong the inevitable.
And Mayo's Andy Moran has said Sunday's Division One final victory over Kerry in Croke Park - which secured the county's first league title since 2001 - has vindicated his decision to play on for another season. It was the 35-year-old's first final victory at the 11th time of trying, after 10 defeats in both the league and the All-Ireland Championship. "Ah I did; it was the first winter I ever gave it thought and I was very grateful to James (Horan) when he rang me to say, 'Listen, we want you back in.' Does it vindicate staying on? Yes it does - 100 per cent it vindicates it but you know, it's a long summer yet."
