There was, writes Gavin Cummiskey, no shortage of effort from Heimir Hallgrímsson’s players in Luxembourg on Tuesday evening, but the gift of a goal to celebrate his 58th birthday never came, the game ending scoreless. The upside from “this low-key summer camp” is that the manager has unearthed some alternative options, Jason Knight, Kasey McAteer and Killian Phillips among those who have played their way in to contention for the start of World Cup qualifying in September.
One of Galway, Dublin and Derry will play themselves out of championship contention come Saturday night, and, says Darragh Ó Sé, “they’ll only have themselves to blame”. “You can cry all you like about being in the Group of Death, but that’s only looking for excuses. For one thing, it doesn’t seem to have caused Armagh a lot of bother.”
In hurling, Limerick might have lost the battle last weekend, in the shape of that penalty shoot-out defeat by Cork, but Cian Lynch is still hopeful that they can win the war by collecting their sixth All-Ireland title in eight years come July 20th. Gordon Manning talks to the Limerick captain.
By 2027, hurling and football finals could be played in August, Gordon hearing GAA president Jarlath Burns express his preference for the former to be played on the first weekend of August and the latter on the third Sunday.
And in advance of next year’s celebration of the centenary of the National Leagues, Seán Moran traces the history of the competitions and all the format-tweaking that has taken place since their birth.
In rugby, Gordon D’Arcy believes “there are people, plenty of them, who get a bit of joy out of seeing Leinster fall short,” so he is urging them to turn the resulting “siege mentality into a fuel source” in Saturday’s URC final against the Bulls.
Dan Sheehan will do his level best to be part of just such a triumph, Johnny Watterson talking to the Irish hooker, Johnny also hearing from Bulls’ coach Jake White who is hoping his players are inspired by the memory of the club’s former winger Cornal Hendricks who died suddenly at the age of just 37 last month.
In golf, Philip Reid talked to Shane Lowry over at Oakmont Country Club on the eve of the US Open, the Offaly man left frustrated by a year that, in his view, has seen him play his best ever golf, but has yet to yield a victory. “Every Sunday I come off the golf course I feel like I’m after getting punched in the gut,” he says. And Philip also hears from Rory McIlroy who is hoping to recover from his post-Masters slump. “You dream about the final putt going in at the Masters,” he says, “but you don’t think about what comes next.”
TV Watch: Sky Sports Golf has just the eight hours of coverage of the build-up to the US Open today (from 2pm). Later, if hockey’s your thing, Ireland’s game against the Netherlands in the men’s FIH Pro League will be on the TG4 Player (7pm).
