David de Gea was the hero as Manchester United beat Tottenham and extended their winning start under interim boss Ole Gunnar Solskjær to six matches on Sunday evening. That's the record for any new manager at the club. The Spanish goalkeeper made 11 saves as Marcus Rashford scored the only goal of the match to give Solskjær what is by a distance his biggest win so far. In his column this morning Ken Early explains how Solskjær's managerial credentials are looking increasingly serious: "by the end of the season, "Pochettino" could be the answer to a question nobody at United is still asking. In Solskjær they have already chanced upon the solution."
The injury picked up by Luke McGrath in Leinster's win over Toulouse on Saturday was the only blight in an otherwise perfect European weekend for the Irish provinces. Four wins from four leaves the Irish quartet on course for qualification from their respective Champions Cup and Challenge Cup pools, although all are still in need of one more win to make sure. Gerry Thornley writes: "For all four to secure places in the knockout stages would be a first, and a huge fillip before England come calling on the opening weekend of the Six Nations on Saturday week."
The weekend's GAA action saw the five new proposed football rules in action again during the various pre-season competitions, and Malachy Clerkin believes that the GAA rules committee is due a bit more respect than they are currently getting: "the way managers have been talking over the past few weeks, you'd think these ideas were plucked out of thin air. It's a well-worn stat at this stage but it bears repeating – Rob Carroll's numbers come from having watched 322 matches from the past eight seasons." Joe Canning however provided the real talking point of the weekend, coming off the bench to land a stoppage time sideline cut to beat Dublin in the Walsh Cup semi-final.
Meanwhile Matt Kuchar overcame an early stumble to win a second PGA Tour title of the season at the Sony Open in Hawaii. After losing his two-stroke advantage after the fourth hole, Kuchar kicked things into high gear by birding six of his final 10 holes to finish off a four-under-par 66 that took him to 22-under at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu.
