Kilkenny had a decent season in the league, winning four games and only losing to Clare on the last day. They always seemed to be part of exciting high-scoring matches with their forwards always in full force.
Wexford also had a very nice league campaign, finishing second behind the Cats. They finished strong with a comfortable victory against Dublin.
They last faced each other in the league at the end of May, Kilkenny came out victors on that day with a scoreline of Kilkenny 2-27 Wexford 0-23.
It is no secret that this Kilkenny team relies heavily on scoring frees, but they do have the countries best free-taker in TJ Reid. The 33-year-old always the difference if the Cats can win or lose a game and expect no different on Saturday
In corner-forward, Wexford has a strong contender for All-Star again this year. Lee Chin is the main man for them and is normally involved in most of the team’s important scores.
Our Senior Hurlers will face @KilkennyCLG in the @gaaleinster Senior Hurling Semi Final this Saturday afternoon at Croke Park. Throw in 4.30pm
E Murphy (GK); T Walsh, H Lawlor, P Deegan, D Corcoran, P Walsh, C Browne, R Reid, R Leahy, A Mullen, W Walsh, B Ryan, J Bergin, TJ Reid, E Cody.
Wexford
Mark Fanning (GK); S Reck, L Ryan, C Flood; J O’Connor, G Bailey, S Murphy; D O’Keefe, L McGovern; R O’Connor, C McDonald, P Morris; L Chin, J O’Connor, K Foley.
Betting
Bookies expect a close game with Kilkenny having odds to win at 4/9.
A draw in this fixture would give a big payout with odds of 10/1.
Wexford are not favorites but are close with odds of 2/1 to win.
Prediction
No matter what side wins this match, it will be close until the end. Kilkennyās main problem is that they rely too heavily on TJ Reid.
Wexford can target him and try nullifying his threat. If they can succeed, then Wexford will have the advantage in this game.
This is expected to be an entertaining and passionate contest to start off the Ulster Football Championship.
Only 500 fans will be in attendance at this match, but BBC NI will also be showing the game for those of us at home.
Monaghan had a dower football league with the finishing last in the Division 1 North with two draws and no wins. This was at least boosted by not being relegated after narrowly beating Galway in June.
Fermanagh on the other hand had an average league in the Division 3 North finishing second behind Derry. They eventually lost in the semi-finals to Offaly not leaving them in the best place for this Championship.
Monaghan have won four of the last five meetings, with their last game in 2019 the Farney County winning with 1-10 to 1-6.
Jack McCarron is best known for striking the winner against Galway in the play-off semi-final. With this pedestal, he may now have a chance to shine for Monaghan.
Conor Corrigan is a strong midfield presence for Fermanagh. The young teacher caught many viewers’ eyes last year picking up some crucial winning points for his county.
We enter the quarter-final stage of the 2021 Ulster Senior Football Championship this weekend!
R Beggan (GK); D Ward, K McMenamin, R Wylie; K Duffy, C Boyle, K OāConnell; N Kearns, K Lavelle; M Bannigan, C McCarthy, R McAnespie; S OāHanlon, J McCarron, C McManus.
Fermanagh
S McNally (GK); L Flanagan, K Connor, J Cassidy; K McDonnell, T Bogue, A Breen; S McGullion, E Donnelly; C Corrigan, J McMahon, J Largo Ellis; D Leonard, D McGurn (0-03), S Quigley
Betting
Monaghan, as expected, are the bookies’ heavy favorites with odds of 1/10.
A draw would be most unlikely with odds of 14/1.
The outside bet is Fermanagh with odds of 13/2 to win.
Prediction
Do not expect any great surprises in this tie. Monaghan is set as one of the heavy hitters in the Ulster Championship and this will be their warmup for bigger games.
Fermanagh will not give up and will continue to fight till the end but expect a final score-line with Monaghan winning by at least seven points.
The government has allowed 8,000 spectators in Croke Park to watch the game. Sky Sports will also televise the match for those not sitting in the stands.
A late flurry in their last game in the league against Cork saw Galway win by a handy margin. The Tribesmen finished top of the league with four wins against teams like Waterford and Limerick.
Dublin was not so handy in their league only getting two wins in a group with Kilkenny, Clare, and Wexford.
The two teams have not faced each other in over a year with Dublin winning the u20s Leinster hurling final last year against Galway.
Other than the talismanic figure of Joe Canning, full-forward Evan Niland could prove to be a big threat in front of goal.
Donal Burke will try to be Dublinās main man, he scored 1-10, mainly from frees and penalties, for them in their loss to Wexford.
Predicted teams
Galway
Ć Murphy (GK); D Morrissey, G McInerney, TJ Brennan; P Mannion, D Burke, F Burke; S Loftus, C Mannion; C Whelan, J Canning, Joseph Cooney; Brian Concannon, Evan Niland, Conor Cooney.
Dublin
S Brennan (GK); J Madden, E O’Donnell, C O’Callaghan; D Gray, L Rushe, C Burke; R McBride, D Burke; D Sutcliffe, C Crummey, M Schutte; C Boland, R Hayes, D Keogh.
Betting
Galway is firm favorites in this game with odds of 1/5.
Bookies are not expecting this tie to end in a stalemate with odds of 11/1 for a draw.
Lastly, Dublin is the outside bet with odds of 4/1 to win.
Prediction
The early rounds of the provincial championships are known for their surprises, but this will not be one of those games.
This is a physically strong and demanding Galway side and expect them to dominate against a county that only focuses on their Gaelic football these days.
This game will finish with a few goals score but ultimately Galway winning by at least five points.
My Illustration of Galway great Joe Canning for the new #GAA book āThe Drawn Gameā available to order now from ā”ļø https://t.co/LwCCSWKdRq
A round of 64 at Mount Juliet Estate on Thursday gave Australian Lucas Herbert the opening round lead in the ā¬3m Dubai Duty Free Irish Open in Co Kilkenny, the 21st of the European Tourās 42 Race to Dubai events.
The 25-year-old, a winner of the 2020 Omega Dubai Desert Classic, holds a one shot advantage over American Johannes Veerman. Scotlandās Grant Forrest is a single shot further back.
“It was a bit of a slow start, admitted Herbert. āEven sort of the first eight holes, I birdied 15, made a nice putt and then 17, hit it in there pretty tight for eagle and missed it. Even the first eight holes felt a little bit slow out there. (I was) only hitting the two-ball with Laurie. We just both felt like we are hitting it quite nice and couldn’t make any putts.
“I made a really long one on 18 for birdie and that kind of sparked things and got things going. Was able to play really nice that last nine holes. Felt like I was trying to get to 5- or 6-under and I didn’t really want to try and just attack really, really hard.ā
Herbert, who achieved a 14th place finish in last seasonās Race to Dubai Rankings, carded an eight under par opening round at the sun-baked Kilkenny venue. Veerman in second achieved a bogey-free seven under 65 late in the day while Scot Grant Forrest signed for a six under par round of 66.
Ryder Cup starts high on the leaderboard
2012 European Ryder Cup players Martin Kaymer and Nicolas Colsaerts are next on the leaderboard, alongside fellow former Ryder Cup players Tommy Fleetwood, ThorbjĆørn Olesen and Andy Sullivan.They share fourth spot, on five under par, with a further nine players.
German Martin Kaymer was happy with his solid opening round, stating:
“I had a really solid start with five-under after ten holes and missed my tee shot on two. Still a bogey, which was fine. Then I struggled a little bit on the back nine, so the front nine of the golf course. Had a couple good chances coming in. Unfortunately missed a four-footer on the last for six-under would have been a really good score today. Five-under is fine, and I’m playing good golf.”
Colm Moriarty, a former Challenge Tour winner back in 2007, was the best of the Irish players on the opening day as he carded a four under par round. Reigning Open Champion Shane Lowry carded a two under par 70 and four-time Major winner Rory McIlroy opened his account with a 72.
Round One Scores:
64 L HERBERT (AUS),
65 J VEERMAN (USA),
66 G FORREST (SCO),
67 J SCRIVENER (AUS), C BEZUIDENHOUT (RSA), T FLEETWOOD (ENG), D WHITNELL (ENG), S GARCIA RODRIGUEZ (ESP), A JOHNSTON (ENG), R RAMSAY (SCO), M KAYMER (GER), T DETRY (BEL), A SULLIVAN (ENG), N COLSAERTS (BEL), T OLESEN (DEN), A ARNAUS (ESP), G HAVRET (FRA), S CROCKER (USA),
68 V NORRMAN (SWE), A COCKERILL (CAN), M ARMITAGE (ENG), M LEE (AUS), S BROWN (ENG), J GUERRIER (FRA), C PAISLEY (ENG), R ROCK (ENG), K SAMOOJA (FIN), C MORIARTY (IRL), K APHIBARNRAT (THA), S JAMIESON (SCO), M KINHULT (SWE), A LEVY (FRA), A ROZNER (FRA), M KAWAMURA (JPN), F ZANOTTI (PAR), F LAPORTA (ITA),
69 J CATLIN (USA), R BLAND (ENG), P LARRAZABAL (ESP), J WALTERS (RSA), E MOLINARI (ITA), J DONALDSON (WAL), K KITAYAMA (USA), Z LOMBARD (RSA), M ANTCLIFF (AUS), A RAI (ENG), J HARDING (RSA), J HANSEN (DEN), A OTAEGUI (ESP), J SMITH (ENG), W BESSELING (NED), R MCEVOY (ENG), M JORDAN (ENG), C SYME (SCO), M KORHONEN (FIN), T PULKKANEN (FIN).
Irish Scores
70 S LOWRY
71 N KEARNEY
72 R MCILROY, P DUNNE
73 R LESTER, M POWER (AM), C SHARVIN
74 G MCDOWELL
75 G MOYNIHAN
76 J CALDWELL, P HARRINGTON
77 S THORNTON
78 C RAFFERTY (AM), N O’BRIAIN
82 R DAWSON
The GAA has planned pilot matches to test for the suitable amount of spectators that should be at matches at the end of the summer
The pilot matches over this weekend will be Leinster and Munster hurling the semi-finals. Croke Park will have an attendance of 8,000, while there will be 2,400 at Semple Stadium.
They have also granted an attendance of 1,050 to go to the Roscommon v Galway match this Sunday at Dr. Hyde Park.
All other GAA matches have an attendance of around 500 spectators due to Covid19 guidelines.
The Association hopes that with the reopening of the country and success at the pilot matches that there will be 40,000 fans at both All-Ireland finals in August. That number would still only be half capacity for Croke Park to make sure that social distancing still happens.
The GAA has made these plans in partnership with the FAI and IRFU as they also plan to have fans at the Aviva Stadium.
Croke Park stadium director, Peter McKenna said:
āIt will still look pretty cavernous, but the whole point of pilots is really to see are there any issues that we hadnāt anticipated and on the other side, concerns from theĀ Department of HealthĀ concerning the virulence of the delta variant.ā
3 more pilots confirmed this weekend
ā 2nd July- Bray Wanderers v Cobh Ramblers- Carlisle Grounds
ā 3rd July – Kilkenny v Wexford, Galway v Dublin Leinster Hurling Semi-Finals- Croke Park
The GAA also plan to start increasing the attendance to 12,000 and 20,000 in the coming weeks with social distancing and other guidelines still being enforced.
Matches in Ulster will still only have an attendance of 500 spectators including the Ulster football quarterfinals due to their guidelines.
This will be a very hectic weekend in both hurling and Gaelic football, and it is nice to know that there will be a few fans cheering on in the stadiums.
āWhat weāre hoping for is a graduated escalation in numbers. I would hope that by the time we get to All-Ireland finals youād be looking at 40,000. Thatās a real aspiration even if we have a long way to go to get to that,ā added McKenna.
Ireland under-20s winger Ben Moxham is ready for his side’s match against England U20s on Thursday night in Cardiff.
The winger has started both of Ireland’s games prior to their Triple Crown match against the English is an admirer of their game.
Moxham noted that England U20s are a very physical side that like to kick – similar to Eddie Jones’ England of late in that sense.
āTheyāre definitely a good side ā probably the best side weāre going to face yet,” said the Larne native.
He complimented the performances of their back three in their first two games and understands they will be a challenge.
However, the 20-year-old relishes the challenge facing him.
Moxham has come a long way since getting into rugby five years ago after not making it in football.
After deciding on rugby because it was “the only other sport” in Larne and putting a lot of hard work behind the scenes, he was recruited by Ulster.
Moxham has been working with the seniors at Ravenhill for a year and says that training with them has improved his game greatly.
āTraining with the [Ulster] seniors has helped me massivelyā¦Youāve got [Jacob] Stockdale, [Ian] Madigan, James Hume and others that are eager to help you as a young player.ā
Moxham cited his coaches and full-back, Jamie Osborne, as figures that have helped him throughout the U20 Six Nations Championship so far.
The Ulster winger said that Head Coach Richie Murphy has been a huge help to him.
His defensive game is his strong point in his own opinion and the connection he has with Osborne on the pitch has helped him to do his job well.
āJamieās [a] really good [communicator], it makes my job a lot easier.”
The Ireland U20s match against England U20s kicks off at 8 pm on Thursday night and will be available to watch on RTĆ News Now and the RTĆ Player.
Ireland under-20s forward Alex Soroka has said that the side’s sole focus is the match against England on Thursday night and not any silverware that comes along with it.
Their bonus-point comeback win against France and their victory over Scotland after being down to 13-men at one point in the game has underlined the strength of Alan Dickens’ side.
“There’s massive threats within them.”
Fortunately, Ireland U20s have multiple threats of their own, particularly among their pack which has been very impressive in the competition so far.
Tucker praised Ireland’s set-pieces in their opening games, noting their 88% success rate at the lineout.
Their scrummaging has also been very good with over 10 players showing their quality in that area of the game.
Ireland’s depth has looked impressive in the two games, especially at prop and Tucker says that, if the quality’s there, the coaches should not be afraid to rotate.
āThereās no doubt our depth will be tested and itās up to us as coaches to trust our squad.ā
The two Alex’s – Kendellen and Soroka – both earned individual praise from their coach.
Cullie described Kendellen as a great leader who wouldn’t ask anything of his fellow players that he would not do.
The coach put Soroka’s versatility down to his hard work off the field – studying set-pieces and other team’s calls.
āHis versatility has been a huge asset to us.ā
Ireland U20s will play England U20s at 8 pm on Thursday with a Triple Crown at stake for Richie Murphy’s side.
The game will be available to watch on RTĆ News Now and the RTĆ Player.
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