ireland.com - The Irish Times

Dublin can feed the hype machine
GAELIC GAMES/Dublin v Derry : Like Waterford tomorrow, Dublin can sense the quickening pulse that comes with opportunity. Like their Munster hurling counterparts, they are also being projected into a contest - a Bank of Ireland All-Ireland semi-final with Kerry - for which they, and indeed their putative opponents, have not yet qualified. p

Local boy Verplank makes good in heat
GOLF: The sadistic joke in these parts is that it is so hot that when a player steps out of the locker-room his shadow decides to stay inside. Not quite true, of course, but the 89th US PGA at Southern Hills - which reached the halfway point stage with US Ryder Cup player Scott Verplank leading on 136, four under par - has re-enforced the conviction that the six inches between a player's ears is the most important distance of all. p

Out of season - but game still tasty
RUGBY/Scotland v Ireland : The sun has been shining brightly, the evenings are balmy, the Edinburgh Festival is in full flow and there's much more eye-catching garb than the smattering of replica jerseys. Today's Murrayfield rendezvous sure doesn't feel like a proper Scotland-Ireland Test, and of course it isn't. p

Gaelic Games

Dubs crave another gusher of optimism
Tom Humphries says Dublin are now at the same juncture they were at in those heady days of 1995 p
Maturing Dublin ready to take the next step
It's no secret that Dublin have ambitions of going all the way in this year's football championship. Winning a third successive Leinster title was a fair achievement, but still not enough. The main objective at the beginning of the year would have been the All-Ireland title. p
Monaghan leaving nothing to chance
Ian O'Riordan reports on the transformation in training facilities and thorough preparation which has helped improve the county's fortunes p
Good day to observe the real McCloy
The Derry full back has had few enough chances to showcase his great talents. Croke Park seems a fitting stage, writes Keith Duggan p
Kingdom still hold most of the aces
Kerry v Monaghan: Kerry, the perennial favourites, are into the All-Ireland quarter-final as provincial champions after one strenuous game of football. But coming in cold from a six-week lay-off to play a confident qualifying team is a serious test for Pat O'Shea and his team. p
Thoroughly tired of waiting game
All-Ireland SHC semi-final/Waterford v Limerick: Tomorrow's a big day for Limerick hurling. It's 11 years since the county was in an All-Ireland semi-final. The years since have been replete with disappointed hopes and at times rock-bottom failure. p
Time for Waterford to make their break
Waterford v Limerick: Waterford have been doing their best to resist the public mood of jubilant expectation fast building in the county. Last week's win over Cork didn't trigger much celebration, just relief, and by seven o'clock the team were on the bus heading home. p
Don't close book on Limerick just yet
Waterford may be raging hot favourites with the bookmakers but I would be significantly less confident about the end result. p
Carton wins his appeal against suspension
Dublin hurler Peadar Carton won his appeal before the GAA's Central Appeals Committee on Thursday night. p

Soccer

Money the dominant player in new season
Andrew Fifield predicts a season of little change in the Premier League despite the huge sums invested by the division's lesser lights p
Keane the light in a new beginning
A year on The Wear : This is it. At 12.45 this afternoon, with Prokofiev and U2 blaring at the Stadium of Light and Roy Keane standing at the top of the tunnel shaking his Sunderland players' hands one by one, the talk will cease. It is time for Sunderland to walk again in the Premiership and a league, a city and 200 countries gawp. p
A true Blue who'll be forever Green
Emmet Malone finds Lee Carsley delighted to be back where he belongs as part of the Ireland set-up and relishing the prospect of the new Premiership campaign. p
First league title is now Drogheda's to lose
Drogheda United 2 St Patrick's Athletic 0: Having had to grind out narrow but important wins against lesser opponents in recent weeks, Paul Doolin's men stepped up a gear to beat their early-season title rivals convincingly at United Park last night thanks to goals from Shane Robinson and Eamon Zayed. p
Mansaram allows Bohemians last laugh
Bohemians 2 Cork City 1: Both these sides had much to prove having faltered of late but it was the home side's greater hunger that tipped the contest in their favour. p
Rovers have plenty to say on the pitch
Waterford United 0 Shamrock Rovers 2: There was plenty of action and drama in this absorbing clash between two old rivals at the RSC last night but, in the end, Rovers emerged with full points just as they did in their first meeting at Tolka Park last month. p
Derry end Longford's recent revival
Derry City 3 Longford Town 1: Derry City ended Longford's three-match unbeaten run at a wet Brandywell last night, thanks to a superb second-half showing. p
O'Flynn has late say as points are shared
UCD 2 Galway United 2: A dramatic goal in the third minute of added time by striker Stephen O'Flynn earned Galway United a precious point in their bid to avoid relegation in a tense clash with UCD at Belfield Park last night. p
Premiership club-by-club guide
Mary Hannigan runs the rule over runners and riders ahead of this year's Premiership campaign. p
Sit back and watch mega-bucks go at it
Sideline Cut : Niall Quinn, on a radio interview during Sunderland's whirlwind tour of Ireland last week, gave a deft response to the issue of the absurdly high wage packets earned by the heroes of the Premiership. The Dublinman has to be the most loquacious chief executive operating in English football. p

Golf

McGinley steps up a gear
Pure theatre. Where had we seen that punched, clenched fist before? The broad smile on Paul McGinley's face? p
Pierse wins British Senior
Arthur Pierse from Tipperary completed a great double for Ireland in the early evening at Nairn Golf Club yesterday. p
Southern Hills Diary
Today's other stories in brief p

Rugby

Unflappable in tightest of corners
World Cup countdown: Gerry Thornley finds Jamie Heaslip typically relaxed, even philosophical, despite an acute awareness of the huge stakes being played for today p
Untimely injury gives Moody the blues
England v France: Brian Ashton knows the 30 players he wants to take to the World Cup but keeping them fit is another matter. Of all the weekends to withdraw with a calf injury this is an inauspicious one and a frustrated Lewis Moody can only pray his absence against France this evening does not cost him dear when the final squad is confirmed on Tuesday. p
Bristol battle for good cause
Leinster rugby's first visitors arrive in Donnybrook from Bristol this afternoon - by bicycle. Twenty cyclists set off from Bristol on Thursday in an effort to raise money for the rugby charity PROPS, which provides support for special needs children. p

Racing

Danak faces stiff opposition
The cream of Ireland's jockeys will be in international competition today with Declan McDonogh and Kevin Manning flying the flag in Ascot's Shergar Cup and the illustrious trio of Mick Kinane, Pat Smullen and Johnny Murtagh facing a trans-Atlantic dash to make it back to the Curragh tomorrow from tonight's Arlington Million meeting in Chicago. p
Henrythenavigator is hard to oppose
Curragh preview: Using almost every criteria possible, the surest thing about tomorrow's Group One feature at the Curragh is that the Coolmore team will almost certainly win it again, and probably most likely with the heavy favourite Henrythenavigator. p

Other

Kumble ton finishes it
CRICKET: The game is up. Totally without remorse, India yesterday batted England out of the third Test and thus the series. Even that supreme optimist Peter Moores, a man who would regard a rainy day as an opportunity to sell umbrellas, will have his work cut out convincing his charges it is worth getting out of bed in the next three days. p
Scotland turn up the heat
CRICKET/Intercontinental Cup/Ireland v Scotland: Odd lot the Scots. On Thursday they hardly played an attacking shot all day, crawling to 183 in six hours of stultifying tedium. Yesterday it was as if a different team had come to the ground, so positive was their intent. They scored exactly 100 runs in the pre-lunch period and went on to compile 314, following it up with a rush of early Irish wickets. From looking forward to building a first innings lead, Ireland had to stand and watch as the momentum of the game moved away from them. p
New-style blazers cut from right cloth
On Athletics: Athletics Ireland staged a press conference yesterday to announce the team for the World Championships, starting in Osaka in two weeks' time. p
All the fun of the Park
DIGEST/MOTOR SPORT: The weekend's free Phoenix Park races continue a tradition that dates back to 1903 when speed trials were held in Dublin's famous venue during the week after the Gordon Bennet Cup race, writes Brian Foley. p

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