IRFU find chickens are coming home to roost for provinces
'On the surface,' writes Gerry Thornley, 'all seems hunky dory' with Irish rugby. The men's team are ranked third in the world, the women's side fifth, and Leinster are one win away from becoming the first side to reach four successive Champions Cup finals. But? 'Scratch underneath and
the gap between Leinster and the other three provinces has never been bigger
, nor more alarming', he says. In investing more heavily on Ireland's international teams the IRFU 'have taken their eye off the provinces ... the chickens are already coming home to roost'.
Not that Diarmuid Mangan will be too concerned about Leinster continuing to pull away from the pack,
the former Ireland under-20 star enjoying a stellar year
with the province. Gerry talks to the 22-year-old about the rapid strides he's been making, including a call-up to the senior Irish squad.
Owen Doyle, meanwhile, reflects on
'the chaotic cock-up' in Munster's URC defeat to the Bulls
, when referee Andrea Piardi incorrectly reduced them to 14 men for 13 minutes, his mood not lightened by how the lineout was officiated either. 'The contest at the scrum has long since disappeared over the horizon, the lineout should not be allowed to follow it.'
In Gaelic games, Denis Walsh concludes that
there is no such thing as a safe lead in hurling any more
, as Cork can attest to after Clare's comeback at the weekend. 'Violent scoreboard swings have become a constant hazard for every team. This is how hurling rolls now: wild.'
READ MORE
And in his column, Conor McManus looks back at Donegal and Down's Ulster championship wins over Monaghan and Fermanagh, respectively, reckoning that
defending champions Donegal are in rude health
: 'two from two, unscathed and still on course for the provincial final.'
In soccer, Gavin Cummiskey was at Tallaght Stadium to see
Bohemians complete a gobsmacking comeback
against their best buddies Shamrock Rovers, scoring three times in the last 20 minutes having been 2-0 down. How did the Bohs faithful greet teenager Rhys Brennan's 96th-minute winner? Rather ecstatically.
In his Different Strokes column, Philip Reid takes us through the Irish playing schedule for the week,
Leona Maguire in action at the Chevron Championship
in Texas, the first major of the year, and Rory McIlroy back on the horse at the two-man Zurich Classic of New Orleans where he and Shane Lowry will be defending their title.
And in horse racing, Brian O'Connor reports on
a roaring Welsh dragon at Fairyhouse on Monday
, Haiti Couleurs becoming the first cross-channel trained winner of the Irish Grand National in 11 years.
TV Watch:
There's continuing coverage of snooker's world championships on BBC1, BBC Four and TNT Sports through the day and evening. At 8pm, Manchester City play Aston Villa in the Premier League (Sky Sports) and Barcelona are at home to Mallorca in La Liga (Premier Sports 1).
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Irish Examiner
33 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
Raging McIlroy finds late magic to make cut as Oakmont leaves Lowry at low ebb
With the skies about to open above him, Rory McIlroy pulled himself out of the hellish challenge that has been Oakmont these past 48 hours and fired a heavenly closing birdie to make the cut on Friday night. Standing on the 18th tee at 7-over for the year's third major, the cutline moving up and down between +6 and +7, McIlroy knew only a birdie could guarantee his run of six-straight US Open cuts made. With playing partners Shane Lowry and Justin Rose having long since succumbed to the horrors of the Pittsburgh course, his was the only fate to be decided. After a post-Masters run that has defied expectations and, at times, belief, McIlroy found a little bit of vintage magic. How badly he needed it. American Sam Burns had set the pace with a morning 65 which got all the more impressive as Friday progressed in Western Pennsylvania. By nightfall Burns was the outright halfway leader at 3-under, one of just three of the 156 in the field to remain under par. Overnight leader JJ Spaun did his best to cling in there but otherwise those who began in the red felt the creep of the black. Big names joined Lowry and Rose in falling by the wayside too, defending champion Bryson DeChambeau and Ludvig Aberg among them. From start to finish there were crooked scores everywhere and the organisers even found time in the darkening hours for an absurd weather delay which meant a handful of misfortunates have to return on Saturday morning, when rough weather is expected to play a major factor throughout the third round. Friday at Oakmont featured plenty of Irish carnage as Lowry leaned into another expletive-laced reaction to major struggles then picked up an inexplicable penalty stroke while McIlroy tossed a club down the fairway on one hole and later smashed a tee marker for good measure. Birdie for the weekend 🐦@McIlroyRory converts to make it inside the projected cutline @ — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 13, 2025 However on his pivotal final hole of the round the Holywood man composed himself to find his best tee-to-cup performance since his third hole the previous day. A perfect drive set him up for his most sparkling wedge of the week finding the last fraction of a degree of undulation to bring the ball back to just four feet. He rolled in the birdie for a 2-over 72 that in the circumstances may be his best round since Augusta. That's probably an overstatement or a bias towards how he finished it. Because it started in spectacularly hideous fashion, a calamitous double bogey on the first added to with another on the third to push him to 8-over overall and well outside the cut line. From there it was slow progress, in terms of both moment and plain ol actual progress, the pace of play disgracefully slow. He birdied the 9th to turn in brighter form but gave one back on the 11th and laboured a little until another arrived at the 15th. Shane Lowry won't be hanging around and won't be eager to ever discuss his visit to Pittsburgh this time around. A 54-hole leader here in 2016, this was a sequel which proved to be a box office bomb. The Offaly man left with a two-round card that by his high standards looked nothing short of diabolical. He followed up his Thursday 79 with an 8-over 78 to leave the grounds with an ugly +17 to the right of his name on the leaderboard. Below him were just 16 players, a grouping which you wouldn't describe as a golfing who's who but a who's he? Where to start with Lowry's fiendish Friday? How about the fact that on the 14th green he bent to mark his ball and pick it up but forgot to do the first bit. The vision of the slow dawning of what he'd just done, as he stood with ball in hand and marker in pocket was a vision of what the place can do to the best in the game. Lowry so rarely looked like a member of the elite unfortunately. Of all the places to need a fast start, Oakmont may be the last you'd pick. Looking for birdies, Lowry found an opening bogey on the confiding 1st and followed it with a double and two more bogeys before he stepped on to the 5th. He was +14 and wanted to be anywhere else. There was a throwback to his misery at Quail Hollow when he repeated his 'f*** this place' line after that third bogey. His only birdie of the week arrived so late it felt early, on the par-4 7th but there was further woe on the way home, bogeys on 10, the brain fart on 14 and one last bogey on 15. As he congratulated McIlroy for making the cut, Lowry joked and laughed with his friend. 'Rather you than me,' may have been the gist of it. Lowry spoke to the Examiner last week about how hard he has found recent weeks with his wife and children already back in Ireland for the summer. He has one more event before he heads home for six weeks but as he prepares for a weighty return to the Open at Portrush, there can be no hiding the need for work. Lowry's 2025 major season reads as follows: a closing 81 at Augusta to plummet down the field, a missed cut at Quail Hollow and a tie for 138th at an Oakmont course where he was widely expected to contend. Not great. For McIlroy, a wholly unpredictable weekend awaits. As afternoon scores spiked and big names tumbled, some made the point that Scottie Scheffler may have sat at 4-over but in a tie for 23rd, just seven back with only three major wins between him and the lead. McIlroy is just two further back on the course which offers up the least predictability in golf.
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Everybody loves Leinster
Sir, – Following their United Rugby Championship (URC) semi-final win over Glasgow Warriors last weekend, Leinster second-row Joe McCarthy declared 'everyone loves to hate Leinster'. Post match, rugby commentator Donal Lenihan, a former Munster, Ireland and Lions great, considered McCarthy's comment 'over the top'. I agree. All true lovers of Irish rugby will rejoice if Leinster overcome the South African Bulls in Croke Park in today's URC final. Their considerable past achievements will hopefully be embellished by a long overdue win to reward the consistent brilliance which ought to be admired rather than envied. READ MORE Come on Leinster! – Yours, etc, PJ MCDERMOTT, Westport, Co Mayo.
Irish Independent
2 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Rory McIlroy overcomes club throwing and tee marker smashing tantrums to make US Open cut but Shane Lowry bows out
As Shane Lowry added to his putting torture by absent-mindedly picking up his ball on the 14th green without marking it, incurring a one-shot penalty en route to an eight-over 78 that left him on 17-over, McIlroy shot a battling 72 that left him nine shots behind clubhouse leader Sam Burns on six-over despite his frustration reaching boiling point on the back nine. He was four-over for the day and eight-over for the championship, a shot outside the cut line, when he hooked his second 20 yards left into deep rough at the 647-yard 12th. Utterly exasperated, he used both hands to propel his club 30 yards down the fairway. While he walked away with a par there, he missed a 12 foot birdie chance at the short 13th, leaving him needing to play his last five holes one-under to dip inside the top 60 and ties who make the weekend. He made a 20-footer for a birdie at the tough 15th to get back to seven-over but after missing from 35 feet at the 16th, pushed his three wood into a deep bunker at the 305-yard 17th, turned and lashed out at the left tee marker, splitting it in two. He was on the projected seven-over cut mark playing the 18th and blasted a massive, 373-yard drive down the last before brushing in a five footer for birdie and a 72 that left him nine shots behind clubhouse Burns on six-over. It was a rollercoaster day for the Irish duo, who started the day well off the pace — McIlroy eight shots off the lead on four-over and Lowry two shots off the predicted cut on plus-nine. The Offaly man was so keen to improve on his dismal putting performance in the first round that he went to the putting green with coach Neil Manchip in the early morning, nearly five hours before his afternoon tee time. But it made little difference as both he and McIlroy suffered a brutal start on Oakmont's front nine, dropping nine shots between them over the first four holes alone. McIlroy made a double bogey six at the first as he drove into sand left, pitched out sideways and then took four to get down from there as his third scuttled off the green into heavy rough. ADVERTISEMENT He managed to par the second but double bogeyed the third as he caught the face of the bunker with his second, then fired his third through the green into more heavy rough. He was eight over for the tournament after just three holes of his second round but it was an even tougher start for Lowry. The 2016 runner-up at Oakmont also overshot the first green from the rough and made bogey, then took six at the 359-yard second when he flew into the back bunker with his second and failed to get out the first time of asking. He went on to drop shots at the next two holes, joining McIlroy in flying through the back at the third before three-putting from six feet for bogey at the 626-yard fourth. He went on to birdie the seventh from 15 feet — his first red number since his eagle two at the third on Thursday — and turned for home on 13-over. McIlroy birdied the ninth from 33 feet for his first birdie since his third hole in the first round to turn for home needing a level par back nine to have any chance of avoiding missing the cut. He dropped a shot at the 11th, which explained his frustration at the 12th while Lowry bogeyed the 10th and could only smile as he mistake on thee 14th green cost him two shots. Facing a 55 footer for par, he bent down without thinking and picked up the ball before realising he'd forgotten to put down a mark. Another shot went for the Clara man at the 15th as his high hopes of a big week evaporated with that opening 79. American Sam Burns held the clubhouse lead on three-under after putting brilliantly for a best-of-the-week, five-under 65. He was one shot clear of first round leader JJ Spaun (72) and two clear of Viktor Hovland who shot a 68. Russell Henley (72) and two-time US Open winner Brooks Koepka (74) were five behind two-over while world number one Scottie Scheffler (71), former winner Jon Rahm (75) and two-time major champion Collin Morikawa (74) were in a group seven shots behind Burns. 'Honestly, I'm too annoyed and too mad right now to think about any perspective,' Rahm said after taking 35 putts. 'Very frustrated. Very few rounds of golf I played in my life where I think I hit good putts and they didn't sniff the hole, so it's frustrating.' Scheffler was also out of sorts but pleased to 'get away' with a 71. 'I'm four-over,' Scheffler said. 'We'll see what the lead is after today, but around this golf course I don't think by any means I'm out of the tournament.'
