The Weekend That Was !!

The Weekend That Was

The past weekend was as busy as any other on a sporting front that saw UFC kingpin Conor Mc Gregor go into battle against Nate Diaz with Diaz coming out on top with a submission win. I am not getting involved in this battle that has seen people down play his achievements or the camp that proclaims him as a world class athlete. He was beaten fair and square on Saturday evening and has taken his beating like any professional athlete should. He will go back to the drawing board and come back when he see’s fit. Miesha Tate defeated Holly Holm on the same bill and one thing that jumped out at me was the difference in pay for both the women and men. For the same event that puts all competitors in the same level of danger. It justs goes to show that things haven’t changed very much , equality in sport I very much think not..

Moving away from UFC , The Allianz National Football and Hurling League’s stepped up a gear with Kerry and Donegal going to war in Tralee yesterday along with Wexford teaching Kerry a harsh Hurling lesson earlier in the day. In the football although Kerry were winners on the day , the game will be remembered  for a number of skirmishes that broke out particularly in the opening 20 minutes. In that time Kerry had two men black carded and they also had Alan Fitzgerald red carded after he got into an altercation with Eamon Mc Gee that saw Mc Gee grab Fitzgerald by the hand and he allegedly  appeared to pull at the fingers of Alan Fitzgerald which caused him to strike out to try and free himself but this was seen by the match umpires who drew attention to the incident by bringing referee Eddie Kinsella in who subsequently sent Fitzgerald off and it saw Mc Gee go off to receive treatment for a mouth injury.

This was not the only incident in a game that was short on quality at times, the people at GAA HQ need to look into sorting out these incidents and coming down heavy on the offending players and counties. It was another game where the quality of the play came second to several incidents of Foul Play. I appeal to the GAA sort this out or will ruin the Championship this year….

With the 6 Nations on a break for a week , domestic action took centre stage with  the Pro 12 to the forefront of people’s minds. All 4 Irish teams picked up wins this weekend and Connacht in particular kept up there push for a Semi Final spot with a win over Edinburgh in Murrayfield. Munster , Leinster and Ulster also secured wins over the Dragons , Zebre and Ospreys.  Joe Schmidt has confirmed the 35 men who will hope to take on Italy and Scotland with Munster’s Jack O Donoghue called up along with Finlay Bealham.

In the race for the Premier League, Both Spurs and Arsenal slipped up to hand back control back to Leicester who now have a 5 point lead over there main rivals. The  Airtricity League came back on Friday night with Cork City beginning their quest to reclaim the league title from Dundalk with a 2-0 win over Bohemians.

Christina Mc Mahon from Co Monaghan will fight for a World Title in Mexico next Saturday night. She is Ireland’s only female Professional Boxer.  As You can see it has been a busy weekend and It will only get busier from here on in. I’ll be back next week with another Weekend that was…

By

Cian Mc Gibney

07/03/2016