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Mary Hannigan: Winning takes care of everything for Ireland

Promotion and relegation in GAA leagues; wacky FA Cup tie; interview with Sammie Szmodics

Ireland’s Peter O’Mahony and Conor Murray celebrate with the trophy Guinness Six Nations trophy. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Mary Hannigan's face
Mary Hannigan
Mon Mar 18 2024 - 11:22

For the first 40 minutes on Saturday, there was, writes Gerry Thornley, a “slightly anticlimactic” feel to this Irish team edging towards retaining their Six Nations title at home on a St Patrick’s weekend. That, he says, was “an extraordinary state of affairs”, but a measure of the level of expectations this side has to live with now. “Regrets, they’ll have a few, not least about Twickenham, but lifting the trophy was the best way of atoning. Champions all right.” And don’t try talking anticlimaxes to Peter O’Mahony. This, he said, “has to be up there as one of the most special days in my career, if not the most”.

You’ll need to set aside a good chunk of the day to read through all the coverage of the victory over Scotland and reflections on the campaign, included in the menu John O’Sullivan’s player ratings, Johnny Watterson’s analysis of Jordan Larmour’s performance after his late call-up following Hugo Keenan’s withdrawal through injury. Johnny also brings us ‘Five things we learned from the final Six Nations weekend’, while David Gorman sifts through the media reaction to Ireland’s back-to-back titles.

The best writing of all, though, comes from 16-year-old Alice McManus who was the winner of “Tap and Go”, our competition to be an Irish rugby writer for a day. You can read her take on the game here.

In Gaelic games, Seán Moran rounds up a football weekend that saw some league issues settled, but others left very much alive. Kerry’s victory over Roscommon means they retain a chance of reaching the final, but Roscommon are still flirting with relegation. Monaghan drop down after 10 years in the top flight, while Armagh and Donegal will both play Division One football next year, Donegal sending Kildare down to Division Three. And Cork’s third win in a row, this one over Meath, saw them retain their Division Two status. In women’s football, Armagh reached their first league final with their sixth win out of six, with Kerry and Dublin left to scrap it out for the right to meet them in the decider.

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And in hurling, Denis Walsh saw Wexford’s league campaign come apart at the seams against Cork, for whom Alan Connolly scored his second hat-trick in a week. A busy Denis also found time to write about the demands placed on intercounty players, but their willingness to take on those challenges, despite their schedules looking like an ordeal, “an endless sequence of Bush Tucker trials”.

Ken Early, meanwhile, tries to make sense of that wacky FA Cup game between Manchester United and Liverpool on Sunday, his chief conclusion: “Football, bloody hell.” And Michael Walker hears from Blackburn Rovers’ Sammie Szmodics who hopes to make his Republic of Ireland debut in the team’s upcoming friendlies.

TV Watch: Ireland take on Afghanistan in the third of their T20 series this afternoon (Premier Sports 1 from 4pm), while this evening RTÉ 2′s Against the Head reflects on the final weekend of the Six Nations (8.0) and TG4 brings the highlights from the GAA weekend (8.0).

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