Tag Archives: Irish Sport

Aviva Stadium bids for Heineken Cup Final


Lansdowne road’s new Aviva Stadium remains in contention to host the Heineken Cup final 2011 on May 21st 2011 despite the UEFA Europa League final taking place at the stadium just three days beforehand.

Martin Murphy, Aviva stadium director has confirmed the stadium can be flipped and rebranded between sporting events within 24 hours.
It is thought that the stadium had originally considered bidding for the Heineken Cup 2010 final however it was too close to the scheduled completion of construction.

The ERC won’t be making a decision on what venue will host the 2011 final until the week of this year’s decider in Paris. The 16th Heineken Cup season begins on the second weekend of October, and climaxes with the Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup finals on the weekend of May 20th-22nd.

The ERC announced yesterday that the pool stages will again be played in three back-to-back blocks in October, December and January.

7 Ireland players in Lions Team


The Lions team for Saturday’s game against South Africa in Pretoria has been named with 7 players from Ireland included. Paul O’Connell will captain the team but is only one of 2 Munster players on the team however Ronan O’Gara has been named among the replacements

Team:
R Kearney, T Bowe, B O’Driscoll, J Roberts, L Fitzgerald, S Jones, M Phillips, G Jenkins, M Rees, A Jones, S Shaw, P O’Connell, T Croft, D Wallace, J Heaslip.

Substitutes:
R Ford, A Sheridan, A-W Jones, M Williams, H Ellis, R O’Gara, S Williams.

Denis Walsh named new Cork Hurling manager


Former dual star Denis Walsh has been named manager of Cork‘s senior hurling team.

44 year old Walsh, a member of the St Catherine’s club from Castlelyons in East Cork, holds two Hurling and two Football All-Ireland medals.
He was a double Munster winner in 1990, winning both Hurling and Football medals in the province but saw his name omitted from the Hurling team later in the year to miss out on the previously un-achieved dream of winning two All-Ireland’s medals in the same year.

Walsh managed the Waterford footballers from 2001 to 2003 and has coached successfully with his St. Catherines.

The decision to name Walsh was made by the committee chosen to make the appointment by GAA Central Council. It comprised Denis Coughlan (chairman), Jimmy Barry Murphy and John Fenton.

Walsh will be officially appointed in Cork on Monday 30 March.

Declan Kidney masterminds historic Ireland victory over France


Ireland beat France by 30 points to 21 in Croke Park on the opening day of the Six Nations.

Superb performances from Brian O’Driscoll, Ronan O’Gara and man of the match, Jamie Heaslip, ended a run of 7 losses to France and in the process saw Ireland score 3 tries against French opposition for the first time in 100 years.

In a scene reminiscant of his early career, a try by O’Driscoll was particularly pleasing with the Ireland skipper showing the acceleration and finishing ability that seemed to be on the wane in recent seasons.

Ireland win 3 medals in Beijing Olympics


The final Irish medals tally in the Beijing 2008 Olympic games is 3. All three medals were won in the Workers Gymnasium where the boxing tournaments took place.

On Tuesday (August 19th) 2 irish boxers guaranteed themselves medals in the 2008 olympic games.
Ken Egan and Paddy Barnes both qualified for the semi finals of the light heavyweight and light flyweight respectively. Continue reading →