sports bits
In rugby news, a second string Munster team went down 26 -18 to Leicester tigers in a challenge at musgrave Park in Cork on Friday night. The game by all accounts was a lively encounter and was lapped up by over 7,000 fans who turned up to watch the boys in red first game of the season. Hooker Frankie Sheahan had his first game in nine months and put in a good performance, good news given that Gerry Flannery is out for the forseeable future. Munster scored first with a Jeremy Manning penalty before Geordan Murphy crossed for two tries converted by Paul Burke. Manning then converted his own try and added a penalty to leave the home side trailing 14-13 at the break. Leiester added two more tries, the second a sublime Sam Vesty effort but Munster ended the scoring when debutant James Coughlan scored in injury time.
15. Christian Cullen, 14. John Kelly capt. (Ciaran O’ Boyle), 13. Tom Gleeson, 12. James Downey (Shaun Payne), 11. Ian Dowling (Mossy Lawlor,) 10. Jeremy Manning (Eoghan Hickey), 9. Chris Delooze (Tomas O’ Leary), 1. Eugene McGovern (Darragh Hurley), 2. Frank Sheahan (Sean Cronin), 3. Federico Pucciariello (Tim Ryan), 4. Chris Wyatt (Shane O’ Connor), 5. Donnacha Ryan, 6. James Coughlan, 7. Brendan Cuttriss (Ross Noonan), 8. John O’ Sullivan.
In soccer news, things have been going belly up for the local team lately and haven’t improved much this week. Manager Noel O’Connor resigned midweek and last night the team went down 3 -1 to UCD in the third round of the FAI Carlsberg cup. Limerick opened the scoring after half an hour with a goal from Robbie Kelleher but the students regained their composure and ran out comfortable winners in the end.