After watching Ireland come so close against France in the Aviva Stadium last night, let’s take a look at some of the stories doing the rounds on KCLR and Scoreline.ie for your Tuesday morning.
Beginning with Gaelic games and a week on from a comprehensive win over Wicklow to start their Electric Ireland Leinster minor hurling championship campaign, Carlow suffered a comprehensive defeat at the hands of Kildare at Netwatch Cullen Park last night. Trailing by seven points inside the first quarter hour, St. Mullins Colm Kavanagh hit the back of the net for Carlow to narrow the gap but a par of Tim Ryan goals in the second half helped the visitors to a 3-23 to 1-9 win.
The result leaves Carlow wth a win and a loss in the group stages – they only get two games group games. It also means that if Kildare can turn over Wicklow, Carlow should progress to the knockout stages with the top two teams progressing.
Kilkenny injury updates
On to senior matters and by 10 o’clock last night there was still no official confirmation of a throw-in time or venue for this year’s Allianz Hurling League final and it’s the same story this morning. We do know it’s going to be between Kilkenny and Limerick and the original thought was that it would go to Croke Park with the Divsion 1 camogie final serving as the curtain-raiser.
Depending on who you talk to, it could also be heading to FBD Semple Stadium Thurles on Easter Saturday but we should know in a few hours. We had been speaking to Kilkenny manager Derek Lyng after Sunday’s game to get an injury update on a few household names and this is what he had to say about Adrian Mullen and TJ Reid who are being tipped for a possible feature in the final. Take a listen back to Scoreline Extra for more details.
He had suggested Eoin Cody and Billy Ryan may be unavailable for the Limerick game while Richie Reid remains questionable having sat out the Cork game with concussion symptoms.
Minor leagues underway
The Kilkenny minor hurling leagues got underway last night with almost 30 sides in action for round 1. Among the winners were St. Martin’s with a 3-18 to 1-14 victory over Dicksboro, and St. Patrick’s who beat Mooncoin 4-19 to 2-19 in minor A while John Lockes had six points to spare in minor B over Lisdowney, that game finishing 1-17 to 1-11. Find the full results online at KilkennyGAA.ie.
In football, Rathvilly just about shaded a win over Palatine last night n division 3 of the Carlow football league last night, that one finishing 2-7 to 1-9.
The bigger picture
Kilkenny manager Brian Dowling has been telling our Full Time show that they’re looking at the bigger picture this season with the league campaign over for another year for his side.
While the intermediates look like they’ll meet Cork in the Division 2B final, Kilkenny’s seniors endured a tricky campaign but at least got to finish on a high over the weekend, something he told us last night, that will help set the tone ahead of the championship. You can hear Brian’s interview in full on the latest Full Time podcast, out mid-morning today.
Farewell Sexton
He didn’t know it before the week but Johnny Sexton has likely played his final game for Leinster.
Head coach Leo Cullen confirmed on Monday that Sexton is due to see a specialist today to address a groin injury picked up during Ireland’s Six Nations clash against England just over a week ago. Sexton is now confirmed to miss the remainder of the club rugby season, instead focusing on a return to Ireland in time for the Rugby World Cup.
Silver linings
There are more medals coming back to the Carlow Kilkenny region from the World Masters Championships in Poland this week.
Sunday saw Kilkenny City Harriers take gold in the 3000m over 35s event while yesterday saw Tinryaland AC’s Tommy Payne scoop silver in the 8000m cross country in the over 65s category, 20 seconds off world champion Jukka Kauppila of Finland and almost a minute clear of UKranks Vktor Nedybaliuk of Ukraine.
Yard-sticks for Ireland
Captain Seamus Coleman says the Republic of Ireland must use last night’s performance against France as the yard-stick for the rest of their Euro 2024 campaign.
It took a gift of a goal to give the World Cup finalists a 1-0 victory at the Aviva. Benjamin Pavard capitalised on a sloppy Josh Cullen pass to score the only goal of the game. A miracle save from Mike Maignan from a late Nathan Collins header preserved all three points for France who top the group on six points.
Next up for Ireland is a trip to Greece on June 16th.
