[caption id="attachment_67797" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Ireland's Ciaran McKeever, left, and Eoin Cadogan celebrate the victory over Australia."]
IRELAND'S International Rules series against Australia will go ahead in 2013 and 2014 despite the one-sided nature of the two most recent games.
Last Friday's 50 (1-13-5) to 29 (0-7-8) second test victory at the Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast meant that Ireland ran away with the away with the series on an aggregage of 130 to 65. Furthermore, just 12,545 turned up to watch.
Hardly the ingredients, you would have thought, to give much hope for the future. But the GAA'S director general Paraic Duffy has confirmed that the series will continue, starting in Ireland in two years time. Duffy has had a meeting with the AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou.
"We have agreed to play for another two years." stressed Duffy. "He [Demetriou] said that they are absolutely committed and that the players do want to play in it."
Fair enough. But hopefully Australia will manage to bring a stronger squad than the one which performed so disappointingly in the most recent two tests.
Interestingly, James Kelly, the winner of the Jim Stynes award as Australia's best player, believes they will. He bases this on the fact that a lot of the top players are going to fancy a trip to Ireland.
Perhaps their attitude will also be somewhat better. Australia just never got going in the current series, no doubt underestimating just how competitive the Irish squad was going to be.
Despite the limitations of Australia, nothing should be taken away from Anthony Tohill's Irish team. Having learned their lesson from last year's home series defeat, they arrived in Australia really well prepared and subsequently delivered at a high level from start of finish in both games.
After the embarrassment of losing by first test by such a huge margin, the Australians were determined to prove a point in Friday's second test. For a brief period, they looked capable of making a match of it, leading for much of the opening quarter.
But two overs from Armagh's Steven McDonnell enabled Ireland establish a 9-8 lead at the end of the quarter, and that was effectively the end of Australia's challenge. Ireland won the second quarter 25-15, the third 7-1 and the last 9-5.
Once again the Irish defense, well marshaled by vice-captain Ciaran McKeever, was outstanding. And while the forwards were not as prolific as the first test, they always knew too much for their rivals.
McDonnell and Tommy Walsh finished as top scorers with nine points, Michael Murphy contributed seven, while the goal was scored by Wickow's Leighton Glynn. But Ireland's Player of the Series quite rightly went to Tadgh Kennelly.
Although there was a punch-up in the third quarter, things never quite got out of hand. And, to be fair to AFL coach Rodney Eade he was gracious in defeat.
"I thought the Irish boys were fantastic, and thoroughly deserved their win." Eade admitted. They were very professional. This is probably the best squad they have ever picked."
Clearly much of the credit must go to Tohill and the rest of his management team. Tohill said: "We are very relieved and satisfied with the victory. Our target before we came out her was to win the series and we did half of that last Friday night and we finished the job tonight."
Brogans can stop St. Brigid's
IT was something of a mixed weekend for the Brogan brothers Bernard and Alan. The good news is that Pat Gilroy has agreed to stay on in charge of the Dublin team for another year.
The bad is that the Brogan's St Oliver Plunkett's/Eogan Ruadh team was beaten 0-10 to 0-8 by local rivals St Bridgid's in the Dublin SFC final. Both of the Brogans contributed 0-3 but that wasn't enough to stop St Brigid's from getting a deserved victory.
There was never much in it, but St Brigids finished the better with some late scores to edge out their rivals. Substitute Lorcan McCarthy made a telling impact, helping St Brigids draw level before sending over a late vital point.
They will now face Meath's Summerhill in their opening match of the Leinster competition. Elsewhere, on the football front, Colm Cooper scored 2-3 in helping Dr Corkes demolish Ballincourty from Waterford by 3-13 to 0-7 in the first round of the Munster series.
In the same competition, UCC needed extra-time to defeat Molaleen 1-19 to 2-5. In the Connacht semi-finals, Galway's Carofin edged out Ballintubber 1-11 to 2-7, while St Brigid's from Roscommon got the better of Tourlestrane by 0-16 to 0-10.
Thomas McDonagh's won the Tipperary football decider beating Moyle Rovers 0-9 to 0-7.
Oulart-the-Ballagh
through to semi
AFTER their heroic efforts in winning the Kilkenny title, James Stephens were brought down to earth when losing by 2-12 to 0-15 to Wexford's Oulart-the-Ballagh in the quarter-final fo the Leinster SHC.
Forced to play without their suspended captain Jackie Tyrell, James Stephens found themselves up against a very determined Oulart side. Eoin Moore, with a goal and five points, was a huge contribution to the Wexford team's victory.
In another Leinster quarter-final, Dublin's Ballyboden St Enda's were given a really tough match by Westmeath's Clonkill. But they eventually got home by 2-12 to 1-13.
Gort won the Galway SHC final beating reigning All-Ireland club champions Clarinbridge by 0-17 to 1-12. Nearly 9,000 turned up at Pearse Stadium to see a hard fought contest which was in doubt until the final minutes.
But captain Andy Coen edged Gort in front in the dying minutes and Aidan Harte added another point in stoppage time to make sure.
O'Driscoll out for six months
CONFIRMATION that Brian O'Driscoll will be out of action for six months has taken much of the gloss off Leinster's 24-19 Pro 12 success over Munster at the Aviva Stadium.
Not only will O'Driscoll miss Leinster's entire pool campaign in their
defence of their Heineken Cup, but he will also be absent for Ireland's Six Nations campaign. Instead, he will be be recovering from surgery on a trapped nerve in his shoulder.
Having consulted several specialists about his condition, the Irish captain has been left with no option but to go ahead with the operation next week. Importantly, the 32-year-old is optimistic that he will be able to return at the top level.
But much will clearly depend on how his recovery goes after the operation. For the moment, he is coming to terms with the injury which he admits did affect him in the recent World Cup.
He said: "I initially started to feel it during the Six Nations this year. I'm not playing at 100 per cent and I can't continue to do that for a full season.
"Yes, it was a factor in the World Cup. It was there in the background and I was lucky to have gotten through certain parts of the competition.
"So, I had to make a decision concerning possible surgery which wasn't just a rugby based thing, but from a quality of life point of view as well.
"I'm now keen to get the operation done. It will be hard sitting out Leinster and Ireland's games but I just have to stay positive."
So do Ireland coach Declan Kidney and Joe Schmidt, as he prepares for the start of Leinster's defence away to Montpellier on Saturday without O'Driscoll. Leinster coach Schmidt paired Fergus McFadden alongside Gordon D'Arcy in the midfield against Munster.
But this was not a game for backs, the French referee Pascal Gauzere made sure of that. There wasn't much hint of either side crossing the line as virtually all of the points were scored by Jonathan Sexton and Ronan O'Gara.
Sexton landed seven out of seven penalties with Rob Kearney also contributing a drop goal in Leinster's 24-19 success. O'Gara kicked four penalties and also added the extra points to a late penalty try for Munster in a hard-fought but ultimately disappointing contest.
Leinster were also without wing Shane Horgan who has undergone surgery on a knee problem and he may be out for four months. Some disappointing news for Munster is that they will be missing their international wing Keith Earls for their opening Heineken Cup clash with Northampton at Thomond Park on Saturday after he sustained a knee injury in the first half against Leinster.
Elsewhere, Ulster got a boost prior the the start of their European campaign with a much needed 22-3 Pro12 League success over Connacht at Ravenhill. The nothern province will face a tough opening Heinekien Cup match against crack French outfit Clermont Auvergne at the same venue on Saturday.
Ulster coach Brian McLaughlin is hopeful that internationals Stephen Ferris and Tom Court will recover in time from injuries for that game.
Connacht face a difficult visit to high-flying Harlequins in their first Heineken Cup outing on Friday night. They must hope to pick up considerably on their form against Ulster if they are to have any chance in that game.
