Leinster's reward for winning all six of their Heineken Champions Cup pool fixtures and earning top-seeding in the tournament is a quarter-final date with Saracens in Dublin. The defending champions started yesterday by issuing an apology after accepting relegation from the English Premiership for breaking salary cap rules. Later they defied Will Skelton's red card and a serious injury to Billy Vunipola to edge past Racing 92 27-24 at Allianz Park, scraping into the Champions Cup last-eight and setting up a date with Leo Cullen's side - a repeat of last year's final in Newcastle. As Gerry Thornley writes this morning, the beleaguered European champions were: "the team nobody else wanted to face, or probably even see, in the knockout stages." Elsewhere Ulster are also faced with a daunting assignment in the knockouts, with Dan McFarland's side travelling to play four-times winners Toulouse, after they booked their place in the quarters with a hard-fought 22-15 win over bath in Belfast on Saturday. The other two quarter-final clashes will see Clermont Auvergne take on Racing 92 and Northampton face Exeter at Sandy Park. All the last-eight ties will take place on the weekend of April 3rd-5th. Munster and Connacht were also in action in their closing pool fixtures yesterday. Johann van Graan's side beat the Ospreys 33-6 at Thomond Park, while Connacht were pipped 35-29 by Montpellier in a thriller in France.
Corofin made history yesterday, as they pulled away from Kilcoo in extra-time to be crowned All-Ireland Senior club football champions for the third-consecutive year - the Galway champions running out 1-12 to 0-7 in Croke Park. Down challengers Kilcoo made life difficult for Corofin and the two sides were all square at the full-time whistle, with Paul Devlin's free making it 0-7 to 0-7. However they were then blitzed in extra-time, Corofin quickly pulling clear as they reeled off 1-5 without reply to retain their title. Earlier in the day Ballyhale Shamrocks also made it back-to-back titles, as they held off a late Borris-Ilegh surge to take the hurling final 0-18 to 0-15. Henry Shefflin's side made history of their own, with the Kilkenny champions becoming the first club to win the All-Ireland title on eight occasions, the Tipperary challengers falling just short.
Elsewhere Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's Manchester United were beaten 2-0 at Anfield yesterday, as hosts Liverpool extended their lead at the top of the Premier League table to 16 points. Virgil van Dijk opened the scoring with a header in the 14th minute after being gifted a free run at a corner, before Mohamed Salah killed the game with a breakaway goal in the last minute. United's woes were deepened by the news Marcus Rashford is facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines after suffering a stress fracture in his back. Earlier in the day Leicester City's poor run of form continued as they were beaten 2-1 by Burnley at Turf Moor. The Clarets took advantage of Jamie Vardy's penalty miss to come from behind and secure an important three points in their bid for survival, Ashley Westwood with the winner.
Conor McGregor was victorious on his UFC return on Saturday night, as he stopped veteran Donald Cerrone in just 40 seconds in Las Vegas. A rematch with Khabib Nurmagomedov and potential fights with Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz are among the lucrative options the Dubliner could now pursue, writes Philip O'Connor.
Ireland's T20 series with the West Indies has been drawn 1-1, after the tourists were thrashed by nine wickets in last night's third match in St Kitts. Andrew Balbirnie's side were asked to bat first and after a fast start were bowled out for 138 in 19.1 overs. A fine 91 not out from Lendl Simmons saw the Windies chase down the modest total in 11 overs.
The year’s first tennis Grand Slam is under way in Melbourne, with Serena Williams and Roger Federer both navigating their first round assignments on Monday with straight-set victories over Anastasia Potapova and Steve Johnson respectively.
Lee Westwood rolled back the years yesterday, as he held his nerve to shoot a final round of 67 to see off the challenge of Matthew Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood and Victor Perez and take the Abu Dhabi Championship by two strokes. The 46-year-old's victory was his 25th on the European Tour.
And Stuart Bingham has been crowned Masters champion for the first time, after he fought back from 7-5 down to beat Ali Carter 10-8 at Alexandra Palace and earn a second Triple Crown title to go alongside his 2015 World Championship.
