Latest news from the world of sport, along with the best in opinion from our outstanding team of sports writers
Kerry, you might have noticed, are quite decent at this Gaelic football lark. This season? Ballymacelligott and An Ghaeltacht – All Ireland junior and intermediate champions. And yesterday? Dingle – All Ireland senior champions. Hat-trick heaven, then, for the Kingdom, Seán Moran reporting on Dingle winning their first senior title in a thriller of a final against Roscommon’s St Brigid’s. And after, he spoke to some of the chief protagonists in what was, to put it mildly, a “phenomenal contest”.
And in the senior hurling final, Ballygunner over-powered Loughrea, Denis Walsh in Croke Park to witness the Waterford club’s “strangling dominance” lead them to their second title. And there ends the incessant questions about when they were ever going to follow up their maiden triumph in 2022.
Will Ballygunner’s success inspire Waterford this season? Denis is engaging in “the harmless futility of future gazing” as he looks ahead to the start of the inter-county year, all of the contenders with something to prove.
In rugby, Munster were the only one of the four provinces to suffer a deflating weekend, John O’Sullivan reporting on their defeat by Castres which resulted in their failure to reach the knock-out stages of the Champions Cup. Small consolation, admittedly, but the performance of Craig Casey was “outstanding”.
Leinster got the job done away to Bayonne, their 22-13 win less than glittering, but enough to secure them top spot in their pool. That they found a way to win, despite being behind for 74 minutes, was, writes Gerry Thornley, “further testimony to their depth and mental strength when seemingly in a pickle”. No one can argue that they haven’t been tested in this season’s pool phase.
Meanwhile, Connacht and Ulster march on to the knock-out phase of the Challenge Cup, both completing their pool campaigns with wins. Gerry brings you news on who they, along with Munster, will face in the next stage of the competition, as well as the identity of Leinster’s next Champions Cup opponents.
In boxing, Ciarán Kirk reports on Kellie Harrington winning yet another Irish title on Saturday night, but Philip Reid has less uplifting news from the Dubai Invitational – a calamitous finish cost Shane Lowry his first win on the DP World Tour in over three years.
In football, Ken Early wonders where Manchester United will go next, now that “the unrelenting grimness of the Ruben Amorim era” is over. Ahead of Ireland’s World Cup play-off against the Czech Republic in March, Gavin Cummiskey fills us in on how they’re shaping up under new manager Miroslav Koubek. Conor McEvoy brings you the latest on the Irish abroad, we have news on three members of the women’s national team making big moves during the transfer window, and we have a report on what proved to be an utterly chaotic Africa Cup of Nations final.
In athletics, there’s no slowing Mark English down – Ian O’Riordan has word on the Donegal man lowering his 800m Irish indoor record. And in four-legged matters, Horse Racing Ireland, Brian O’Connor tells us, is standing over its record prize money levels for this year, despite an independent report to the Government questioning the basis of its subsidisation.
TV Watch: You might not admit it, but some of you are diehard fans of bowls. You’ll be in heaven, then, today – BBC2 has four-ish hours of coverage from the World Indoor Championships (from 1pm). And at 8pm, your English Premier League offering is the south coast tussle between Brighton and Bournemouth (Sky Sports).
