Derry City round off a hectic season with cup win

Fair to say, Derry City supporters have been put through the wringer this season, one that started with title ambitions but flirted with relegation for a spell. But on Sunday at the Aviva Stadium, that season, writes Gavin Cooney, came to a “giddy end”, our other Gavin, the Cummiskey man, reporting on a seventh FAI Cup success for the club after their 1-0 win over Waterford. It was some conclusion to Mark Connolly’s remarkable reign as interim boss, his plan now to return to his role as the club’s director of football.

Speaking of fans being put through the wringer: Ken Early tries to make sense of what the Manchester United faithful endured while watching that 4-4 draw with Aston Villa yesterday. Michael Carrick, he writes, looked on “with the tragic dignity of a doomed Antarctic explorer who has just eaten his boots”. How much longer will the fans, who continue to sing his name, accept this “nonsense”?

Paul O’Hehir, meanwhile, rounds up the news on the Irish abroad in his Green Shoots column, Troy Parrott’s goal drought extending to eight games, but Jack Moylan forgetting how not to score.

In rugby, Gerry Thornley hears from Andy Farrell after Friday’s win over Argentina, one that was “a good launching pad for the remainder of the month”. Possibly costly, though, in terms of injuries, Farrell “unlikely to risk any of his walking wounded for next Saturday’s meeting with Fiji”.

Conán O’Donnell’s 45-minute Ireland career: ‘I’m very grateful I was caught out’

Michael Carrick looking increasingly like Manchester United’s modern-day Ron Atkinson

FAI Cup final: Who to look out for in clash between Waterford and Derry City?

“Ireland were decent enough, Argentina were all over the place,” writes Malachy Clerkin in his summing up of the game, John O’Sullivan bringing you his player ratings and ‘five things we learnt’ from the contest. And Nathan Johns salutes the work of coaches Andrew Goodman, Paul O’Connell and Johnny Sexton who all earned their supper for a perfect read of Argentina’s defensive frailties.

You’ll find reports on all the weekend’s Nations Championship games here, South Africa, New Zealand, Wales, France and England having a happy time of it.

In Gaelic games, it was, as ever, a busy club weekend, Gordon Manning seeing Kilmacud Crokes set up a Leinster hurling semi-final against Ballyhale Shamrocks, with Kilcormac-Killoughey due to meet Wexford’s Shelmaliers after their narrow quarter-final wins.

On the footballing side of things, Nemo Rangers proved too strong for Loughmore-Castleiney in the Munster quarter-finals, while Rathgormack became the first Waterford side to win a game in the province for eight years. In Ulster, Crossmaglen produced an epic comeback against Gowna, Scotstown and Edendork had the narrowest of wins, and St Eunan’s saw off Erne Gaels to progress. And in Connacht, St Brigid’s and Salthill-Knocknacarra both advanced.

And calling all Mayo fans - we have an extract today from Kieran Shannon’s book: Forever More: The Team of 2026 – The Official Inside Story of How Mayo Created History.

In golf, Philip Reid reports on Jon Rahm’s first post-LIV victory, at the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship, where Rory McIlroy’s third place finish saw him close the gap on Race to Dubai leader Eugenio Chacarra - with one tournament to go.

And in racing, Brian O’Connor rounds up the weekend’s news, and looks at Aidan O’Brien’s hopes of setting a new world record for Group One wins - last year’s dual Derby hero Lambourn might just nudge him in that direction in Friday’s Bahrain International.

TV Watch: TG4 has the highlights form the GAA club weekend at 7.30 this evening, while the pick of the night’s live football action is the FA Cup clash of Plymouth Parkway v Berkhamsted (TNT Sports 1, 7.30) - calm yerselves.