Leinster fans? You’re spoilt. As Gerry Thornley reminds you, last Saturday’s win over Bath was your team’s 27th Champions Cup pool win in a row, home or away, enough to secure a third successive top-two seeding for the knockout stages. And, whisper it, the possibility of a home passage all the way to a fourth successive final. “You’d hope the vast majority appreciate how fortunate they are to support such a consistently competitive team,” Gerry writes. But “such is Leinster’s ridiculously high bar that a positive judgment on their season depends on them reaching another final. And winning it.”
They are, though, buoyed by the return from injury of Dan Sheehan and James Lowe who, John O’Sullivan tells us, will line out in Saturday’s URC game against the Stormers before heading to Portugal for Ireland’s Six Nations preparations.
Owen Doyle believes Leinster were fortunate enough against Bath, reckoning that the red card given to Beno Obano was incorrect, Bath failing to score again after he left the field. If the referee got that one wrong, Nika Amashukeli got everything right in Munster’s game against Northampton. “If there’s a better referee on the planet right now, I haven’t noticed.” Owen also returns to “the Chris Busby affair”, slating a statement from the IRFU read out on the matter when he was on BBC Radio Ulster speaking about the affair.
In Gaelic games, Gordon Manning reflects on Michael Fitzsimons’ “phenomenal” career after he won his 11th All-Ireland “adult” medal with Cuala on Sunday, to add to his record nine Sam Maguire triumphs with Dublin and an All-Ireland junior win in the dim and distant past of 2008. “Despite the defender’s decorated days in blue, it is clear that Sunday’s club success naturally resonates on a more personal and community level.”
Why Leinster fans should count their blessings, but not their chickens
NFL Division Four: Wicklow look to build on potential by getting promoted
Ken Early: Denis Law one of the very best in the days when players were the only ones who mattered
Magical Conor McManus leaves Monaghan a legacy that will never be forgotten
Philip Reid brings us the latest from the world of golf in his Different Strokes column, including looking ahead to the Irish in action this week, among them Max Kennedy who kick-starts his rookie season on the Challenge Tour at the SDC Open in South Africa.
Meanwhile, if you’re intending having a flutter on Willie Mullins’s star mare Lossiemouth at Saturday’s Trials Day in Cheltenham, be warned: two Lossiemouths will be in action at the same meeting. Mercifully, not in the same race, Brian O’Connor clearing up the confusion for us.
TV Watch: The Champions League is back today, among your many viewing choices Monaco v Aston Villa (Virgin Media Two and TNT Sports 1, 5.45) and at 8.0, Benfica v Barcelona (Virgin Media More and TNT Sports 1) and Liverpool v Lille (Premier Sports 1).
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