The Morning Sports Briefing

Galway defy mysterious bug in New York, McGrath wants to avoid repeat of Cork/Clare two years ago, McIlroy scoops €1.4m jackpot, Chelsea secure title and what to watch out for

GAA: Preliminary rounds

Galway booked their place in a Connacht championship quarter final after what proved to be a quite straight-forward victory over New York in the Gaelic Grounds last night.

Despite coming into the game dealing with a mysterious bug which had hit the camp, and then trailing for much of the early stages of the first half, Galway took over in the middle of the field with young Damien Comer doing the damage inside. New York’s cause wasn’t helped when they lost former Donegal player Ross Wherity to a hamstring complaint pre-match and then seen former Offaly midfielder Brian Connor limp off to make their cause all the harder.

Back home and Waterford and Cork ended the season’s Allianz League action with the Divison One hurling final, the Deise securing a third ever league title after a 10-point victory over the Rebels.

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The two teams meet again in the Munster championship and Derek McGrath the Waterford manager said post-match that he's already making preparations to avoid a repeat of the "Cork-Clare situation two years ago."

Elsewhere in the Leinster hurling championship round-robin series Antrim pulled off a last-gasp win over Laois in an eight goal thriller. While Westmeath edged Carlow by two points.

Golf: Match Play

World number one Rory McIlroy won the WGC-Cadillac Matchplay Championship last night, securing the €1.4m jackpot after a comfortable 4 and 2 win over American Gary Woodland in the final.

Woodland was the third competitor McIlroy dismissed on Sunday, having finished out his quarter final with Paul Casey in the morning, before finishing strongly to edge Jim Furyk in the semi-final.

Soccer: Premier League

Chelsea secured the Premier League title with a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on Sunday, with three games left to play.

They are far more of a Mourinho team than that which had wilted on occasion last season and no rival, for all the flurries of victories summoned in a game of catch-up, can match the relentless consistency - two league defeats in 35 games and a solitary one in cup competitions all campaign - this team have mustered.

Rugby: Rumour-mill

Mourad Boudjellal, the owner and president of Toulon, has stoked the rumours linking Paul O'Connell to his club by telling a Paris-based radio station when asked if the Irish captain and Duane Vermeulen would be playing with Toulon next year; "L'un des deux sera Toulonnais." (One of the two will be at Toulon.)

What to watch out for:

The snooker World Championship continues this evening with live action on both BBC2 and Eurosport, between the two there'll be coverage from 1pm to 11pm.

In the League of Ireland tonight there are two game, Dundalk host Bray as Cork City travel to Bohemians.

Setanta from 2.30pm

In the Monday night Premier League fixture high-flying Arsenal will look to close back in on second place with a win over Hull City in the KC Stadium.

Sky Sports 1 from 7pm