Gorey rugby seconds to take on Naas in Provincial Towns Cup final
The team are aiming to do the double, something that hasn't been done in at least 40 years, and lift the Towns Cup, having already secured top spot in the Leinster League earlier this season.
The path to the final was far from easy, with competition from first Mullingar and then Kilkenny to reach the quarter-finals. They played out a comfortable win against Carlow before meeting Wicklow, another team from Division 1A, in an epic semi-final that was finally settled after extra-time.
The final is on Sunday at 3 p.m. in Kilkenny RFC, and all support is welcome to what promises to be yet another super game of rugby.
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Irish Times
9 hours ago
- Irish Times
Joe Canning: The place where top hurlers want to be can feel like the worst place in the world
The strangest thing. When Darragh Fitzgibbon was standing over the 65 to draw the Munster final in the last minute of extra time, I felt nervous for him. I was sitting on the couch at home watching it on television and I texted a friend of mine saying that I hope he gets it. I don't know Darragh, and I wasn't rooting for Cork or Limerick , but I know what that situation is like. There's a contradiction at the heart of this. As a sportsperson you want to be in pressure situations and you want to take responsibility, but when you're there it can feel like the worst place in the world. In my playing career I had a couple of last-minute frees to draw All-Ireland finals. In 2018 against Limerick, it was a long shot, and it dropped short. Against Kilkenny in 2012, though, all kinds of crazy stuff was running through my head as I stood over the ball. The free to draw the match was a tricky one from under the Hogan Stand, but a couple of minutes earlier I had missed an easier free to put us a point up. Then Kilkenny scored and there was a gun to my head. I was literally thinking: 'If I miss this, I'm f**ked. I'll never live this down. I'll always be remembered for this.' Maybe if I had scored the free a couple of minutes earlier different thoughts would have been running through my mind, but that was the pressure I was feeling. Around that time people would have written things doubting me and doubting us as a team and that stuff was hanging in the air as well. READ MORE I don't know what Fitzgibbon was thinking. When the camera zoomed in on his face you could see him take a deep breath. For his sake, I was delighted it went over. You don't want to be living with the other outcome. I've taken plenty of penalties over the years, but I've never been in a penalty shoot-out. 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I know what it's like to miss. All the players who stood up in the Gaelic Grounds deserve our respect. Even watching on television, you could tell the atmosphere at the Munster final was electric. I was in Croke Park a day later and it was completely the opposite. The quality of the game didn't help, but even if the game had been better the atmosphere in a half-empty Croke Park is always going to be a problem. I've been convinced for a couple of years that the Leinster hurling final needs to move to a smaller ground. They gave out 20,000 free tickets to juveniles last weekend – which was a great initiative – but it still only increased the attendance on the previous year by about 2,000. I'd hate to think what the crowd would have been if the free tickets weren't given out. In Munster, Thurles is a perfect neutral venue, with a big capacity right in the centre of the province. 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The best atmosphere I ever played in was the 2018 All-Ireland semi-final replay against Clare in Thurles. The crowd in Semple Stadium wouldn't have filled Croke Park, but because Thurles was packed to the rafters the atmosphere was incredible. We played Kilkenny in a Leinster final replay in Thurles the same year and the atmosphere was terrific as well. What would be wrong with playing Leinster finals in Thurles every so often, just to shake it up? Being compared with the Munster final is tough for the Leinster final but they shouldn't be thinking about it in those terms. The Leinster final needs to have its own identity and stand on its own two feet. To do that the Leinster Council needs to start thinking outside the box. What we witnessed last Sunday can't continue.
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It's a balmy May evening at Kilkenny GAA's training facility in Dunmore and the county's football manager, Christy Walsh, is collecting footballs behind the town-end goal. His team have just finished a rigorous warm up and are preparing for their first challenge game of the year against a club side, Thurles Sarsfields. Neither could be claimed a footballing heartland but judging by the respective numbers on each panel, both are eager. Kilkenny remain the only inter-county football team in Ireland not participating in the Allianz Football League. They have already started and finished the county's senior football championship, the final on May 2nd - Mullinavat 1-21 Mooncoin 0-14. This is exclusive subscriber content. Already a subscriber? Sign in Subscribe to access all of the Irish Examiner. Annual €120€60 Best value Monthly €10€4 / month Unlimited access. Subscriber content. Daily ePaper. Additional benefits.
The Irish Sun
a day ago
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‘He had the room instantly' – Stephen Bradley reveals ‘gold dust' guidance he received from GAA icon
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