Sport

Briefs

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Thu Mar 07 2013 - 00:00

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Roche has good day in Paris-Nice while Martin loses time in Italy

CYCLING:Nicolas Roche had a good day in Paris-Nice yesterday. The Team Saxo Tinkoff rider placed 14th, his bunch being just seven seconds behind a winning seven-man break led home by American Andrew Talansky (Garmin Sharp).

Crucially, Roche’s group was 58 seconds clear of a chasing group containing pre-race favourites such as Robert Gesink (Blanco), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) and Denis Menchov (Katusha).

Overnight leader Elia Viviani (Cannondale) cracked on the day’s final climb and lost almost three minutes. Roche moves from 57th to 18th overall, 17 seconds behind new race leader Talansky.

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Meanwhile, Roche’s first cousin Dan Martin lost time on the opening leg of Tirreno-Adriatico in Italy, with his Garmin-Sharp squad a disappointing 16th in the 16.9 kilometre team time trial to Donoratico. The Omega Pharma Quick Step squad was quickest, propelling Mark Cavendish into the first leader’s jersey. Martin is 93rd overall, 57 seconds back

SHANE STOKES

Ruddock welcomes return of Olding and Joyce to face France

RUGBY - UNDER-20 SIX NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP: Coach Mike Ruddock welcomes the return of Ulster's Stuart Olding and Conor Joyce to the Ireland Under-20 side to face France at Dubarry Park tomorrow night.

Both players are just back from Pro 12 duty with the province.

Olding starts at fullback and partners David Panter and Rory Scholes who are named on the wings.

Joyce has been named at blindside flanker alongside UCD's Josh Van Der Flier and Ryan Murphy.

"We have a tough battle on our hands against a strong French team," said Ruddock.

"They have recalled to their squad a number of players with Heineken Cup experience. We need to reproduce our valiant effort we showed against England."

Ireland were beaten 20-21 by Scotland last time out at Netherdale and also fell to Wales in the first match of the championship before beating England.

The game will broadcast live on RTÉ 2 on Friday, with the coverage starting at 7.30pm.

IRELAND (v France, Athlone, tomorrow, 7.35pm): S Olding (Ulster); D Panter (Connacht), T Daly (Leinster), R Scannell (Munster), R Scholes (Ulster); S Crosbie (Leinster), L McGrath (Leinster); P Dooley (Leinster), G McGuigan (Exile), C Taylor (Ulster), G Thornbury (Leinster), J Donnan (Ulster), C Joyce (Ulster), J Van Der Flier (Leinster), Ryan Murphy (Munster). Replacements: J Andrew (Ulster), R Furniss (Exile), A Boland (Leinster), S McCarthy (Munster), P Timmins (Leinster), J Creighton (Ulster), M Roche (Connacht), D Leader (Connacht).

JOHNNY WATTERSON

McEntee and O'Neill end Cross reign

GAELIC GAMES:Tony McEntee resigned as manager of Crossmaglen last night. Despite leading the club to back-to-back All-Ireland SFC titles and a three-in-a-row of Ulster titles this season, the management team of McEntee and Gareth O'Neill have turned down pleas from club officials to remain in charge for another season.

Crossmaglen's bid for an unprecedented three-in-a-row of All-Ireland titles was ended by St Brigid's in the semi-final last month.The duo took charge of the club in 2010 and went on to win a three county championships, three Ulster titles and two All-Irelands.