The celebrations may still be ongoing in Tullow this morning but we’re in the office bright and early to tackle the stories of the day, so let’s have a look at what’s making the headlines on KCLR and Scoreline.ie for your Monday morning.
Beginning with Gaelic games and Kilkenny’s minors completed a hat-trick of hurling wins for the county yesterday with a 2-15 to 0-14 win over Offaly at Faithful Fields. Credit to Kilkenny, they were full value for the win in the wind-up and will head to this coming weekend’s provincial semi-finals with the wind at their backs. Goals from Ed McDermott and Conor Doyle proved pivotal with manager Niall Bergin pragmatic in his chats with KCLR after the game. Hear his thoughts on the latest Scoreline Extra podcast.
We’ll know more about the semi-final lineup later with Dublin and Kildare meeting in Portlaoise tonight at 7.30pm in the other quarter-final.
We also saw Kilkenny’s Under 20s see off Dublin over the weekend with Derek Lyng getting his first Leinster senior championship win in a fairly one-sided contest against Westmeath.
On the camogie front, Kilkenny’s intermediates slipped to a defeat to Cork on Saturday with the Leesiders coming away with the VERY Camogie League Division 2B title at the second time of asking. Yesterday saw Kilkeny bow out of the All-Ireland minor A camogie series at the semi-final stages. Waterford took a 1-6 to 0-3 lead into the second half and despite going down to 14 before the break held out for a 2-8 to 1-7 win to set up an All-Ireland final against Cork. That game goes ahead in UPMC Nowlan Park on May 7th.
There’ll be plenty of talk this week too after Carlow’s Joe McDonagh Cup draw with Laois on Saturday leaving destiny in their own hands with a trip to Ballycran to face Down in a fortnight’s time.
Provincial Towns Cup
Yesterday saw cup rugby at its best in Athy as Kilkenny and Tullow went head to head to decide this year’s Bank of Ireland Provincial Towns Cup.
Following a sluggish start, Tullow made good use of space in the first half to open up a 17-6 lead at the break before Kilkenny roared back into the game late in the second half to narrow the score to 24-20.
Piling on the pressure, Kilkenny were within a whisker of a dramatic win but for a knock on denying what looked like a certain try at the death, leaving Tullow to claim a four point victory and the biggest title in junior rugby for just the second time in the club’s history.
Speaking to KCLR after the game, club legend and former Irish international Sean O’Brien was full of praise for Kilkenny but equally hinted that Tullow are just getting started. Listen to the tail end of our coverage below to hear from Sean O’Brien, Maurice Logue, Tom Nolan, Robin Johnson and more from Tullow RFC.
The win capped a huge weekend for the Carlow club with Tullow Ladies picking up the Paul Flood Cup for a second consecutive year on Saturday evening while the club’s men’s seconds are through to their Leinster cup final next weekend following a win over North Kildare.
Boxing latest
Marble City boxers Scott Delaney and Jack Johnson have booked their place in next weekend’s All-Ireland boxing championships. Clubmate Philip Carthy will also be involved in next weekend’s national finals.
Goals galore
There were two games in the KCLR McCalmont Cup yesterday. In a repeat of the scoreline in the Pat Maher Shield, Freebooters kept their quadruple charge going strong with a 3-1 win over Bridge United while Callan saw off Thomastown 3-1. Callan will now play Evergreen 46 in the semi-final stages while Freebooters face Deen Celtic, both of those games to be held at Derdimus Park, likely next month given Deen Celtic are still in divisional cup action.
In Carlow, New Oak Boys and Crettyard United will contest this year’s Keating Memorial Premier Cup Final. Crettyard had a 2-0 win over Vale Wanderers yesterday while New Oak saw off Kilree Celtic 2-1.
Then in the Premier League, it turned out to be raining goals with West Ham beating Bournemouth 4-0 away – plus having a fifth ruled out – while Newcastle demolished Spurs 6-1, five of those goals coming in the opening 20 minutes of Sunday afternoon’s game.
This year’s FA Cup will also be an all-Manchester affair with United needing penalties, in the end, to get past Brighton after 120 minutes of football. Solly March missed Brighton’s last penalty, Victor Lindelof converting his with United running out winners to make it 7-6 on the shootout.
Highlights: Newcastle v Tottenham (6-1)
Highlights: West Ham v Bournemouth (4-0)
Get more stories in our hourly bulletins across the day, or find Scoreline.ie on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Have a story of your own to share? Email the Scoreline team now at [email protected].
