Monday rolls around once more and as we take the foot off for a few hours after a wild weekend of live games, let’s take a look at some of the headlines for Scoreline.ie and KCLR to start your week.
A league final awaits Kilkenny, Carlow
Kilkenny are through to the final of this year’s Allianz Hurling League Division 1. Facing Cork in the semi-finals for the second time in two years, goals from Mossy Keoghan and Billy Drennan, along with a red card for Cork’s Eoin Downey, have set Derek Lyng’s side up with a league decider against defending All-Ireland champions Limerick.
In a game that also saw Danesfort’s Richie Hogan start his first game for Kilkenny in around three years, incidentally getting the first score of the game, Cats’ manager Lyng told KCLR post-match that he was pretty pleased with his side’s display. You can hear his thoughts and those of Cork boss Pat Ryan on the latest Scoreline Extra podcast, out now.
Limerick made sure of their place in the final with a 1-28 to 0-25 defeat of Tipperary on Saturday night with this year’s League decider throwing up a repeat of last year’s All-Ireland final – and there’s nothing to be said yet that they couldn’t meet yet in July.
Meanwhile, on the camogie front, Carlow will contest this year’s Division 3A league final following a comprehensive 2-12 to 0-04 win over Kildare on Saturday. That result makes it four wins on the bounce for a revitalised Carlow side who have shown a solid brand of camogie and consistency over their short league campaign. Armagh awaits Chap Cleere’s side in the final with throw-in times and venue to be confirmed this week.
Kilkenny’s seniors signed off on their league campaign with a one point win over Tipperary on Saturday while the intermediates fell to Cork in Divsion 2B – reaction to both games you’ll also find on Scoreline Extra.
Kilkenny’s minors got back to winning ways in the third round of this year’s championship with a 2-9 to 1-9 win over Waterford.
Carlow weren’t as fortunate though as they lost out to Roscommon 1-10 to 4 points. Their seniors did have better luck at the weekend though, a fourth straight win n the league landing them a Division 3 final against Armagh next month.
There is a whole lot of GAA action tonight including Carlow’s hosting of Kildare in the Electric Ireland Leinster Minor Hurling Championship. That game throws in at half past seven in Netwatch Cullen Park. We’ll also see almost 30 teams begin their Kilkenny Vehicle Centre minor hurling league campaigns later with round one fixtures throwing in around the county from half past six.
Top honours for Tullow as Leinster League curtain falls
While Kilkenny can savour a place in the league final, Tullow Rugby Club are celebrating winning the Division 1B Leinster League title in the fourth of our five live games over the weekend. It’s a first league title for the Black Gates Club in a decade after they beat Cill Dara 46-14 yesterday, having needed to at least get some kind of bonus point from the game, and it sends them to Divsion 1A of the Leinster League next season, replacing Kilkenny as it happens. We caught up with Tullow club man and Leinster and Irish rugby legend Sean O’Brien who had this to say about the necessity of getting their mindset right heading into such a crunch fixture.
With the league done and dusted, the focus now shifts to the semi-finals of the Provincial Towns Cup for all of Tullow, Carlow and Kilkenny. Both Carlow county sides will face off on one side of the bracket while Kilkenny will face Cill Dara in the other, games scheduled for 9 April in neutral venues. This year’s final will take place on Sunday 23 April in Athy RFC.
KCLR McCalmont Cup contines
Wwe had the second round of the KCLR McCalmont Cup yesterday that saw Callan, Highview, Deen Celtic, CLover United and Bridge United through to the next round with the draws for the quarter-finals taking place on air on Scoreline this coming Saturday.
In Leinster action, Freebooters are through to the quarter-finals of the LFA Junior Cup alongside Thomastown thanks to a 2-1 win over Ferns yesterday while Evergreen and New Oak Boys both bowed out of the competition.
Lastly, big one tonight for Ireland against France. Seamus Coleman was 50/50 on Sunday, O’Dowda is out but Adam Idah might feature.
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