Soccer
Manchester United and Manchester City last night played out an uninspiring 0-0 draw at the Etihad, with Marouane Fellaini's red card for a headbutt on Sergio Aguero stealing the headlines.
United set up in true Jose Mourinho style, solid at the back and dangerous on the counter, as City failed to turn their possession into goals. Substitute Gabriel Jesus looked to have stolen it for them late on however, but his effort was ruled out for offside.
Punchestown
For a second day in a row the Willie Mullins-Ruby Walsh team emerged on the wrong side of a vintage finish to a Punchestown festival feature as their Cheltenham Stayers hero Nichols Canyon lost out to the English challenger Unowhatimeanharry on Thursday.
However, momentum in the all-consuming battle to be champion trainer still seems to have shifted significantly towards Mullins with only two days to go. A week that began with Mullins trailing Gordon Elliott by over €400,000 now sees the gap cut to just over €126,830.
Brian O'Connor believes that today's Champion Hurdle could ultimately present Arctic Fire with a chance to step into the Grade One spotlight "although first he looks set to play second fiddle in the attention-stakes to Labaik."
GAA
In his new column this morning, Jackie Tyrrell explains how Tipperary's mindset was all wrong for the league final defeat to Galway.
“There’s nothing I saw in Tipperary that would make me think there was a serious structural issue or anything major that can’t be remedied. As long as they don’t brush it off as one of those things, they will be fine.”
Rugby
Liam Toland believes that Leinster and Munster were both bogged down by pre-ordained plays in their Champions Cup semi-final defeats.
“Firstly, keep pre-ordained plays to a minimum and simply play. To do this our skill-set and knowledge of space post pre-ordained plays must improve.”
Tonight Leinster seek to re-establish momentum against Glasgow in the Pro12. Their team news is here.
Boxing
Meanwhile the confirmation of Bernard Dunne as the new High Performance Director in boxing has been overshadowed by a dispute between the board of directors and the association's elected officials, who make up the Boxing Council of the IABA and run Irish boxing on a day-to-day basis.
