Ireland will contest the Under-20 World Championship final against France at the Athlone stadium in Cape Town on Friday (6.0, Irish time, live on Virgin Media) following their excellent 31-12 victory over South Africa.
Ireland head coach Richie Murphy spoke about a special message that the players received on the morning of the semi-final. “It has obviously been a difficult couple of weeks. We have had plenty of stuff going on but obviously Greig’s (Oliver) passing was particularly difficult.
“Jack (Oliver) was in the group with us until Wednesday evening when he left. It was a difficult time for the boys, but Jack sent his support this morning and so did Fiona, Greig’s wife. So I know that they are at home and we are really delighted to be able to bring him back something because no matter what happens now in the final, we will be going back with something for Jack.”
Ireland produced an excellent second half display against the Junior Boks having grabbed a 7-0 lead at half-time. Tries from James Nicholson (2), man of the match Brian Gleeson and Sam Berman underpinned the win.
Kilkenny will face Limerick in the All Ireland hurling final after their 1-25 to 1-22 win over Clare in the semi-final. Malachy Clerkin wrote: “Brian Lohan could go back down the road regretting all manner of stuff – a hapless goal given away, a miraculous Eoin Murphy save at the death, an afternoon when they probably got the pointier end of the referee’s stick. But the biggest pothole Clare ran into was one they dug for themselves.
“In playing Séadna Morey as a seventh defender in the first half, Clare went away from the shape they’d been using all season. While it succeeded in keeping Kilkenny to a lower score than in the brutalising first half this weekend last year – 0-15 now as opposed to the crippling 1-17 then – it felt like an admission that Clare came here freighted with fear. Which Lohan more or less conceded afterwards.”
The headline on Nicky English’s column suggested that traditional Kilkenny virtues seen them home as mistakes undermined Clare, and that the Cats were worthy winners. Denis Walsh wrote about the GAA’s desire to tackle online abuse and while it is a tricky area, the commitment to doing so is to be applauded.
“It has often been said that the advent of social media has coarsened public discourse. In sport, what that really meant was that traces of the foulness and casual cruelty and lunatic condemnations that came out of some supporters’ mouths on the terraces, or on the car journey home, or on the couch, now had a variety of global platforms just waiting for blowhards who could type faster than they could think.
“The kind of people who you would avoid in the pub at all costs were now liable to turn up on your phone. The difference from the pre-digital age was the size of the audience and the sheer levels of penetration. The echo chamber was no longer just a heaving train carriage on the match special.”
Ian O’Riordan reports on Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy’s first defeat in four years at a World Cup regatta in Lucerne.
Johnny Watterson is girding his loins for week two at Wimbledon. He writes about Christopher Eubanks, a 27-year-old American, who has made considerable progress in recent times and is into the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time.
Aidan O’Brien goes into this week’s Newmarket July festival firmly in the hunt for another British trainers’ championship this season. Brian O’Connor explains that “the Irishman won the last of his six cross-channel titles in 2017 and is rated just a 5-2 shot to bridge that gap in 2023.”
ON TV
TENNIS: BBC’s coverage of week two of Wimbledon with the usual start time of 11.0am.
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