ireland.com - The Irish Times

Ireland unlikely to abdicate Crown
RUGBY: Follow that? The manner in which Ireland clinically maintained their focus, accuracy and ambition against England was akin to the All Blacks. p

Liverpool v Chelsea looms, Valencia and PSV willing
SOCCER: For the three Premiership clubs it was as much an invitation as a Champions League quarter-final draw that was issued in Athens. p

Rugby

Flower of Scotland wilts on vine
Scotland v Ireland : Johnny Watterson traces the decline of the Scottish game since the start of the professional era. p
Too much structure dangerous - Stringer
Scotland v Ireland : Peter Stringer believes Scotland's kamikaze opening against Italy was a symptom of the game's over-reliance on structure. Italy pounced on three errors to amass a 21-0 lead inside the opening seven minutes at Murrayfield two weeks ago and Scotland never recovered, collapsing to a 37-17 defeat. p
Scotland Players
A look at the Scotland players p
Ireland must retain their ruthless streak
Scotland v Ireland: Ireland should beat Scotland by a considerable margin today but to break their fluctuating form of recent times they must retain the aggression levels of a fortnight ago. p
Winless Wales staring down both barrels
Italy v Wales: Welsh rugby and crisis are words that have often cropped up in the same sentence. A year ago, with the national coach, Mike Ruddock, walking away and the captain, Gareth Thomas, suffering a mini-stroke, the Grand Slam champions were in a combustible state. Now Gareth Jenkins, brought in as a firefighter but a coach still searching for a first win over a major nation, threatens to be engulfed. p
Ashton demands rejigged pack produce a bit more steel
England v France: As Brian Ashton awaits the most significant home Test of his short tenure as head coach, he believes there are similarities with England's build-up to the 1999 World Cup. p
Error-prone Irish stay on course
Under-20 Six Nations/Scotland 8 Ireland 31: The scoreline flattered Ireland, not in that they were not comfortably the better team but in that their performance, certainly the first 40 minutes, didn't merit such a margin of victory. p

Soccer

Henry to miss the restof the season
Arsene Wenger has seen Arsenal's season go from bad to worse in recent weeks, but yesterday's injury bulletin which ruled their captain Thierry Henry out for the rest of the season will have darkened his mood still further. p
Mourinho fuels his feud with Wenger
Jose Mourinho last night intensified his ongoing feud with Arsene Wenger by claiming Arsenal have been "very intelligent" in the way their public image has been projected amid failure on the pitch and suggested the Arsenal manager too readily uses the progress of his young players as an excuse after defeats. p
Ronaldo 'paying' the penalty for speed
English FA Cup Quarter-finals: Alex Ferguson is convinced the sheer speed of Cristiano Ronaldo's feet will rob the Manchester United winger of penalties. Ronaldo heads to Middlesbrough today for the first time since he was branded a cheat by Gareth Southgate after a penalty box fall under little contact from goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer. p
'Best of the rest' bides his time
Despite his stated commitment to the club, Martin Jol admits he is unlikely to win titles at Tottenham, writes Matt Scott p
Worth the wait, but the money?
The new Wembley stadium: Jonathan Glancey is blown away by what he describes as a Colosseum for today, the £798m new Wembley Stadium p
Derry made to battle for win
Derry City 1 Bray Wanderers 0 : Derry City struggled to get into top gear at the Brandywell last night, but credit to a battling Bray Wanderers who fought doggedly for every ball. p
Sligo best in 'west' showdown
Galway Utd 0 Sligo Rovers 0: In the gnawing Galway cold a significant crowd gathered to witness the Connacht rivals collide. A raucous home support demanded a positive Premier Division start, but the visitors delivered a dynamic display to glean the spoils. p
Rovers fail to ignite
UCD 0 Shamrock Rovers 0: Newly promoted Shamrock Rovers had to be satisfied with a point on their return to the Premier Division after a tense scoreless draw with UCD at Belfield Park last night. p
Title hopefuls fail to deliver
Bohemians 0 Drogheda Utd 0: Dramatically increased television exposure was always seen by the FAI's top brass as one of the major selling points for last year's merger between the association and the league. p
Waterford return in style
Waterford Utd 1 Cork City 0: Waterford United's unexpected return to the top flight at the expense of Shelbourne saw them pitted against Munster rivals at the RSC last night. But the new Blues weren't intimidated by the tension of the derby and just about shaded the exchanges. p
Soccer Digest
Today's other stories in brief p

Gaelic Games

High Court decision due Friday
Tallaght Stadium: Next Friday the High Court will deliver judgment on the application for leave to appeal by Dublin GAA club Thomas Davis in relation to the decision of South Dublin County Council to develop the stadium on Whitestown Way in Tallaght as a soccer-only stadium. p
Canning's free scoring punishes
UL Fitzgibbon Cup Semi-finals/Limerick IT 1-19 University of Limerick 2-9: Galway's young hurling sensation Joe Canning bagged 1-8 as Limerick IT reached today's final with four points to spare over a spirited UL side in this tie at the Carlow IT grounds yesterday. p
Galway sharpen up after the break
NUI Galway 1-11 DIT 2-5: NUI Galway made up for a very wasteful first half by showing deadly accuracy in the second 30 minutes of this Ulster Bank Fitzgibbon Cup semi-final at the Carlow IT grounds yesterday as the western college defeated Kehoe Cup holders DIT to earn a place in today's final against Limerick IT. p
League should not be trifled with
National Football League/Dublin v Cork: Tom Humphries looks at the importance a strong run in the spring campaign has on a county's fortunes in the championship p
Weekend previews
The weekend's matches previewed p

Cheltenham 2007

On course for big-priced outsiders
Charlie Swan , tipster for The Irish Times , believes that with the expected very soft ground at this year's festival jockeyship will be a crucial factor. p
Plotting tales of the unexpected
Philip Fenton: Brian O'Connor talks to the 40- year-old trainer who next week will try for the first time to join the exclusive club of those that have ridden and trained winners at the festival p
Irish Angle
A look at possible Irish winners at this years Cheltenham festival p
Ruby proves to be a real gem
Ruby Walsh At a glance: Brian O'Connor gets the views from colleagues of Ruby Walsh on how the Kildare man has risen to the top of the racing tree. p
Celebrity view
Some celebrities give their views on the festival p
Macs Joy latest Irish hope to be ruled out
Macs Joy became the latest Irish star to miss out on next week's Cheltenham festival when a muscle problem found yesterday ruled him out of the Smurift Kappa Champion Hurdle. p
Ruby will enjoy Blues
Naas Preview: Ruby Walsh will be at Naas tomorrow for three rides, and the champion jockey should safely come through the eve-of-Cheltenham card with another winner on board Heavenly Blues. p

Golf

Choi in three-way tie for early lead
European and US Tours: Defending champion KJ Choi fired a hat-trick of early birdies on his way to a share of the clubhouse lead during the second round at the Pods Championship yesterday. p
Lawrie keeps the leader in his sights
Peter Lawrie is just three shots off the pace at the halfway mark at the Clariden Leu Singapore Masters after carding a two-under-par 70 at Laguna National Golf and Country Club yesterday. p

Other

Coach with no pedigree breeding success
Sideline Cut: No matter how passionately the air of Flower of Scotland is delivered around Edinburgh this weekend, it will hardly be enough to prevent Ireland claiming another Triple Crown. p
Irish will be all at sea in Antilles, says Atherton
Cricket World Cup : The former England captain tells Richard Gillis why he argues Associate teams have no place at the World Cup. p
O'Sullivan finishes second
DIGEST/ATHLETICS: Sonia O'Sullivan was runner-up in the 3,000 metres at the Australian National Championships in Brisbane yesterday. O'Sullivan, who was prevented from competing for Australia in last year's Commonwealth Games because of injury, was outsprinted on the last lap by Lauren Fleshman, who won in 9 minutes 28.53 seconds. p
Aussies in charge again
DIGEST/CRICKET: England's recent revival in their one-day fortunes came to a crashing halt in their final World Cup warm-up game when Australia cruised to a comfortable, five-wicket win p
Babington's King retired in Florida
DIGEST/EQUESTRIAN: Carling King, the horse ridden to team gold at the 2001 European championships by Kevin Babington, was officially retired at the American Nations Cup show in Wellington, Florida, last night, writes Grania Willis . p
Rossi on track for Qatar hat-trick
DIGEST/MOTOR SPORT: Valentino Rossi put Yamaha on pole position for MotoGP's Qatar season-opener with a blistering last lap in qualifying yesterday. The Italian pipped Australian Casey Stoner, on pole for Honda last year and now riding a Ducati, by 0.005 seconds in near-perfect conditions. Rossi's team-mate Colin Edwards completed the front row for today's race. p
Ireland seal win with late flourish
DIGEST/RUGBY: Ireland produced a final-quarter surge with tries from Fergus McFadden and Vasya Artemiev to beat England 21-10 in a universities international at Donnybrook yesterday. p

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