Bruce Springsteen only needed an hour to sell out Croke Park, but Leinster won’t grumble. As Johnny Watterson writes, “shifting over 80,000 tickets in less than 48 hours was a mini phenomenon” for a rugby club. It was, he says, further evidence of how Leinster have “broken the mould in terms of the marketing of its brand”, and how they have “shown a capacity to appeal to a broad range of people and move across gender lines”. Now it’s down to Dan Sheehan and Co to reward that crowd with a Champions Cup semi-final triumph over Northampton tomorrow, the hooker telling Gerry Thornley that he’s rearing to go after a three-week break, he and the rest of the frontline squad having been spared that URC trek to South Africa.
Tipperary’s hurlers have a short enough trip on Saturday, but if they get beaten at Walsh Park by Waterford, the trek home will feel interminable. If they produce as little fire as they did in their hammering by Limerick last weekend, Joe Canning has a notion that their “season will effectively be over”. Seán Moran, meanwhile, talks to Clare’s Shane O’Donnell, his county coming off the back of a “redemptive win down in Cork” last weekend.
There was no little bitterness this week in the sports department when it was Ian O’Riordan who was selected for the plum job of running himself close to exhaustion on a treadmill, with buckets of sweat pouring off him in 32.5 degrees of heat, in the new environmental training chamber out at the Sport Ireland Institute in Abbotstown.
The chamber allowed Ian replicate the conditions that Irish athletes can expect at the Olympics this summer. He only lasted 15 minutes though. Seriously. Leona Maguire’s Paris experience will be considerably lengthier, the Cavan golfer relishing the prospects of her third Olympic appearance. She talks to us about that and other challenges ahead, as well as reflecting on her career so far.
No hurler on the ditch: Ronan Conway a firm believer in the promise of team development
Sonia O’Sullivan: A jog down Olympic memory lane shows how far Irish athletes have come
All Stars committee’s only obligation was to judge Kyle Hayes as a hurler
Damien Duff’s unwavering belief in Irish football has elevated the whole league
Like Maguire, cyclist Eddie Dunbar was in the Irish team in Tokyo, but his sole focus for now is on the Giro d’Italia which starts tomorrow. He finished seventh last year, the best Irish showing since Stephen Roche won the race in 1987, but, he tells Shane Stokes, his form this time around isn’t quite at the same level.
In football, Gavin Cummiskey previews the weekend’s League of Ireland games, while Brian O’Connor brings us more reports from the Punchestown Festival. Jack Kennedy put one hand on a first jockeys’ championship with his success on Teahupoo on Thursday, while State Man and Ballyburn are expected to shine in Friday’s big races.
TV Watch: Snooker’s World Championships have reached the semi-final stage, BBC2, BBC Four and Eurosport with coverage through the day. It’s the penultimate day of the Punchestown Festival (RTÉ 2, 4pm-7pm) and this evening Luton are in severe need of points when they host Everton in the Premier League (Sky Sports, 8pm).
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