Compiled by JOHNNY WATTERSON
Feast of football over the Easter weekend
CONNACHT’S EUROPEAN Challenge Cup quarter-final against Northampton Saints has been fixed for Saturday, April 11th at 3pm in Franklin’s Gardens. That would seem to dovetail nicely with those Leinster fans who manage to draw a ticket for the Heineken Cup quarter-final against Harlequins on April 12th in The Stoop.
For the dogged fan, supporting two Irish teams on successive days might just be an ideal way to spend the Easter weekend. A 70-mile dash past Milton Keynes and Luton should get the canny traveller from Northampton to London in just over an hour and a half.
Captain of London Irish, secondrow Bob Casey, will be captaining the Irish A side tonight in Donnybrook but for all of the historic connections between the London club and Irish rugby, Casey is the only Exiles player to line out for an Ireland representative side this weekend.
However, England has a number of the Sunbury-based team on both their senior and Saxons panels. Coach Martin Johnson has selected Delon Armitage and his brother Steffon, Shane Geraghty and Nick Kennedy on the England squad, while John Fischer has been selected to travel with the Saxons.
Corry's case is postponed
FORMER ENGLAND captain and Leicester secondrow Martin Corry was due to appear before an independent disciplinary committee in Dublin yesterday as a result of a citing arising from the Heineken Cup Pool Three match against the Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium at the end of last month. However, due to travel difficulties as a result of the adverse weather conditions, the hearing was postponed.
Exhibition of photographs
TO celebrate tomorrow’s Croke Park match, an exhibition of photographs of previous Ireland-France games dating back to 1997 is taking place in the Café des Amis in the Alliance Francaise. Philip Dine, senior lecturer at NUI Galway and author of French Rugby Football: A Cultural History, opened the exhibition last night. It is run in partnership with Inpho Photography.
Sign of the times for players
NO DOUBT it’s a sign of the times. Gordon D’Arcy, Peter Stringer and Ronan O’Gara, all of whom drive BMW-sponsored cars have been asked to er. . . forego them for the moment.
According to BMW Ireland it has nothing to do with dissatisfaction over their sponsorship agreement with the players but rather because of the severe downturn in the business the company have recalled a number of cars in their fleet.
“We are operating a tighter fleet this year,” a BMW official said. It is not perceived, however, that any of the players will be stuck for a smooth drive to training this week.
Darcy signs for Doncaster Knights
MATTHEW D’ARCY, the 23-year-old former Ireland Under-19 and Under-21 World Cup scrumhalf, has this week left St Mary’s to take up the offer of a professional contract with English Division One club Doncaster Knights. A product of High School who represented Leinster at Under-16, 18s and 21s, D’Arcy has become frustrated with his lack of opportunity at Leinster since coming through their Academy in 2007.
D’Arcy made a dozen appearances for Leinster A and was twice called up to the Leinster bench, and has been a first-choice AIB League scrumhalf with Trinity and St Mary’s for five years.
He has gone straight onto the Knights’ bench for their EDF Trophy, fifth round match against Sedgley Tigers tomorrow.
“It is rare for Irish players to look outside Ireland for their clubs, but looking at the Knights I see it as the place to start my career with the big boys,” commented D’Arcy.
