We’ll begin as always on a Friday with a quick rundown of what’s coming up for the weekend as we’re going to be busy across the bank holiday.
Tomorrow (Saturday) we’ll have Brendan Hennessy and Mick Quinn in the upper reaches of the Aviva Stadium in Dublin to watch the two most decorated teams in European rugby battle it out for a place in this year’s Heineken Champions Cup final – incidentally also taking place in the Aviva next month. It’s Leinster v Toulouse and it’s live from 3pm with thanks to Naas Oil.
On Sunday, our buildup for the Leinster senior hurling championship round two clash of Kilkenny and Galway will start around half past one, a game one would hope provides the best senior action of the weekend. Coverage as always is with thanks to Laharts. You can find all your ticket information here.
Then on Monday, given it’s the bank holiday, we’ve got Kilkenny’s minors in a Leinster championship semi-final against Wexford at UPMC Nowlan Park. Ronnie and Michael Walsh are on duty there with coverage beginning ahead of a 2pm throw-in.
Last night’s results saw Glenmore beat O’Loughlins 0-19 to 0-13 in the opening game of the Michael Lyng Motors senior intermediate hurling league group A. Questions remain over other club fixtures in Kilkenny this morning, however, with unconfirmed reports that referees will withdraw their services from games in the county until Tuesday. We’ll have more on that story this morning.
In Carlow, Kildavin/Clonegal were beaten 4-11 to 0-14 by Carlow Town. In the Bolger Shield while in the Bolger Cup, Naomh Eoin and Bagenalstown Gaels played out a 1-13 apiece draw. In Division 1 of the Football League, Tinryland saw off Éire Óg 2-10 to 0-10
Tailteann Cup
The details of this year’s Tailteann Cup have been confirmed with Carlow’s senior footballers set to take part again following their exit of the Leinster championship at the hands of Wicklow. The draw for this year’s competition, which has changed from straight knockout to round robin, will be made at lunchtime this coming Tuesday. The first round of games will take place on the weekend of 13/14 May.
Tullow, represent
Tullow’s Dannah O’Brien has been named to start Ireland’s final TikTok Women’s Six Nations game against Scotland tomorrow as part of an unchanged fifteen from their defeat to England last week. She’ll line out at number 10 with Ireland in Edinburgh tomorrow evening. They’ve not won a game all campaign, were beaten heavily by England last week and it’s the English and French who battle it out for top honours at the weekend.
Tullow’s men’s J2s also face Athy in the Seconds Provincial Towns Cup final this Sunday. Kick off is 3pm at Oak Park in Carlow.
Finn-ish line in sight
In sailing, Carlow’s Finn Lynch is up to 36th overall in the overnight standings for French Olympic Sailing Week. He’ll continue his Gold Fleet races tomorrow with two in the diary but his scoring over the week has ruled him out of the medal race on Saturday as events come to a close in Hyeres.
Ireland calling
SETU Carlow’s Emer Dunne who’s at school in Mountmellick has been named to the final 12-person squad for the Ireland Under 18 women’s team heading to the FIBA European Championship.
The 6’1″ forward was efficient when called upon during the Under 18 Four Nations success earlier this year.
Ireland’s group games at the tournament run from June 30th where they’ll travel to Bulgaria to face Bosnia & Herzegovina, Great Britain and Norway.
Soccer roundup
With local league action all but wrapped in Carlow, Killeshin’s Adam Steed has finished as the Nationalist premier Division golden boot winner for the season with 21 goals in 15 league games including four hattricks in his last four games.
In Kilkenny, there’s one game tonight in the St. Canice’s Credit Union Premier Division. Evergreen A travel to Thomastown United where a win would give them a four-point lead at the top of the table, albeit having played a game more than Freebooters.
Evergreen C also host Freshford Town in the first of the Division 2 Ken & Michael Byrne Cup semi-finals.
The Premier League last night went pretty much how we thought it would go – Newcastle took a first-half lead over Everton and never looked back on the way to a 4-1 win, Callum Wilson’s second an absolute peach. McNeil nabbed one back for Everton, immediately cancelled out by Alexander Isak for Newcastle’s fourth. A fifth was ruled out by VAR but it could have been a whole lot worse for the Toffees.
Spurs were booed off the pitch at halftime, 2-0 down to Man United. Pedro Porro hit one back for Ryan Mason’s side 10 minutes into the second half, Bruno Fernandes smashing the crossbar from barely 6 yards about a minute later. Surprise surprise, Son levelled for Spurs and as we predicted on Breakfast yesterday morning, the draw was there and it finished 2-2. There were no surprises for Southampton who fell 1-0 at home to Bournemouth. A win there would have put them a point off Everton and really make the bottom three more interesting.
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