By Kieran Rooney
IF Rory McIlroy experienced the ups and, sadly, the downs of sport at Augusta, then the same applied to the various teams looking for promotion and relegation in the National Football League last Sunday.
For many there was the high of reaching a final and gaining promotion, for others the disappointment of being relegated. Take Sligo, who went down from Division Two, after conceding an equalizer in the third minute of injury time against Kildare.
The 0-16 to 1-12 draw meant that they on the same points mark as Meath. But they were relegated on the basis that Meath had won the head-to-head meeting between the sides.
There were others, like Monaghan in Division One, who lost out because the head-to-head rule. Their day contrasted sharply with the winners, the likes of Cork who qualified to meet Dublin in the Division One final by defeating Armagh by 2-15 to 1-12 at Pairc Ui Chaoimh.
It's a Croke Park decider that will be eagerly awaited, with the Dubs looking for revenge for their All-Ireland semi-final defeat last year. But Cork, as the All-Ireland and defending league champions, are going to be a very difficult side to beat.
Dublin will go into the final, however, with a good deal of confidence following an unbeaten campaign which has seen them win six and draw one of their seven games. The draw came against the relegated Galway outfit (0-15 to 2-9) in Pearse Stadium on Sunday.
Given that they had Alan Brogan sent off in the 7th minute following an off-the-ball clash with Galway defender Johnny Duane, it wasn't a bad effort. But the problem, of course, is that Brogan will miss Sunday week's final, unless Dublin can successfully appeal.
He would unquestionably be a serious loss. He was outstanding in the narrow victory over Down and looked like continuing in the same sort of form by scoring a goal in the third minute at Pearse Stadium.
In the end, Galway could easily have snatched victory, Gary Sice seeing a 72th minute effort drop just short. Even had Sice's effort gone over, it would not have prevented Galway from being relegated, but the scalp of Dublin would undoubtedly have been nice.
As it was, their under-fire manager Tomas O Flatharta had to be satisfied with a draw that left them bottom of the table. To be fair, there were some much better individual performances from the Galway players but the overall campaign was hardly the ideal preparation for the championship.
The main concern for the Dublin boss Pat Gilroy, by comparison, was that straight red card by referee Pat Fox to Alan Brogan. Gilroy reacted: "We're annoyed with ourselves because we came here to win, not to do anyone any favors.
"On the positive side, I felt that, once we were down to 14 men, we stood up and didn't shirk our responsibilities. Because Galway were really up for this."
Bernard Brogan with five points, four of them from frees, emerged as Dublin's top scorer, while Pat Burke secured their second goal. Padraic Joyce, Cormac Bane and Paul Conroy shared 11 points for Galway.
Down at Pairc Ui Chaoimh, Cork also had a man, Eoin Cadogan, sent off. In their case, the dismissal did not come until the 48th minute, but it did mean that they had to fight hard to overcome Armagh by 2-15 to 1-12.
Given that Cork were only 1-10 to 1-8 in front at the time of the sending off, and pegged back to 1-11 each, Armagh must have fancied their chances. But Cork then showed their class to pull clear.
Once again, Daniel Goulding was very influential, scoring 0-7, three of which came from frees, while substitute Donncha O'Connor made a massive impact, contributing 2-3. Consolation for Armagh is that they avoided relation on the basis of their head-to-head record against Monaghan.
Across in Killarney, Kerry fans must have thought that their teams would be facing the Dubs in the final after hearing of the Cadogan red card and that Armagh had gone level with Cork. Eventually though, Kerry had to be satisfied with third spot in the table after beating Down by 1-13 to 1-11.
While there is the disappointment of not making the final, they will look back on a pretty decent league campaign. They won five out of seven, with two narrow defeats.
So, manager Jack O'Connor is in an optimistic mood as he prepares for the championship. "I think the lads will be looking forward to it because we didn't do ourselves justice last year," he said.
"I'm happy with where we are. The thing that's given me heart is that there is a lot of energy in the team, a lot of hunger and that always helps."
Kerry's task was made more difficult when defender Tom O'Sullivan received a straight red card in the 55th minute. So, they had to battle very had to stay out in front, with Darran O'Sullivan, responsible for a goal and two points, emerging as man-of-the-match.
In the last of the Division One games, Monaghan produced their best display of their campaign to beat Mayo by 1-18 to 2-13 but it was not enough to stop them being relegated.
Donegal and Laois are promoted to the top flight and will clash in the Division Two final. They faced each other in the final game at O'Moore Park with Laois coming out on top 1-15 to 1-11.
Derry, successful by 1-18 to 0-13 against Antrim, also finished on 10 points but had to be satisfied with third. At the bottom, Meath's hard fought 0-17 to 1-14 draw with Tyrone at Navan, saw them just avoid relegation ahead of Sligo.
Antrim make the drop along with Sligo to Division Three. Westmeath and Louth are promoted from Division Three, with Limerick and Waterford going down, while Roscommon and Longford are promoted from Division Four.
Leinster outstanding in quarterfinal
THE last Saturday in April will worth waiting for. For starters, Munster will take on Harlequins at Thomond Park in the semi-final of the Amlin Cup (1 p.m.), to be following by the meeting of Leinster and Toulouse in the last four of the Heineken Cup at the Aviva Stadium (3.30).
It's not often that a Munster match serves as an appetizer for a Leinster encounter, but that's how it will be on April 30. At the same time, Munster's clash with Harlequins is a huge match in its own right.
Ireland went into last weekend with two contenders remaining in the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup, Leinster and Ulster but emerged with just one. Leinster produced an outstanding performance to defeat former champions and current English league leaders Leicester 17-10 before a near capacity crowd at the Aviva Stadium.
It was a hugely competitive match, and at times bruising encounter, which Leinster deservedly won because their ability to dominate the line-outs and their more incisive attacking play.
Leicester secured enough possession but it was only three minutes from the end that they manged to cross for their try. With Toby Flood landing the conversion from the touchline, it made for a very nervous finish.
Leinster can reflect on a fine team performance. The pack was excellent, most especially in the line-out, and the back division was always threatening, despite getting just the one try.
Jonathan Sexton again outshone Toby Flood in the out-half duel but no one was better than Isa Nacewa at full-back. He was fantastic, scoring a crucial try nine minutes into the second half.
Collecting a clearance around half-way, Nacewa exchanged passes with Shane Horgan inside his own half before setting off on a weaving run which had the Leicester defenders transfixed.
It was one of the great individual tries, taking into account the intensity of the game. Right through, Nacewa was brilliant with his counter attacking, but the man-of-the-match went to another of Leinster's imports, the South African hooker Richardt Strauss.
He was equally impressive in the forward exchanges, but then there needed to be lots of big contributions. The one possible worry was Luke Fitzgerald who, ironically, is probably trying to hard.
The left-wing's tendency to get ahead of the pass cost Leinster what would have been a superb first half try. It was just as well then that Sexton was in such good form with his goal kicking to give Leinster at 9-3 interval advantage.
With Nacewa scoring his try and Sexton kicking his fourth penalty, Leinster seemed to have the game wrapped up at 17-3, only for Leicester to give them a late scare with their try and conversion. In those circumstances, coach Jo Schmidt was pretty relieved.
"That was as physical as it has been all season." he admitted. "I'm delighted. When the pressure is on in a cauldron like that, you have to fight to get over the line. I felt we did that."
Leicester coach wasn't exactly happy with referee Nigel Owens. But he gave Leinster credit, stating: "They are a very good team. No excuses. We had opportunities but didn't take them."
Unfortunately, Ulster could not make it two Irish provinces in the semi-finals when they took Northampton at the MK Dons Stadium on Sunday. The prospect of two Aviva Stadium semi-finals did look on when a brilliant Andrew Trimble try enabled them to go 13-7 lead eight minutes before the interval.
Up to this point they were the more creative side but ultimately the extra power of the Northampton pack told. Denied the right type of possession, they eventually lost 23-13 with Northampton going through to face Perpignan in the second semi-final.
Skipper Rory Best accepted the better team had won. He said: "It was difficult, they put us under a lot of pressure on our own ball.
"To be fair, they were very clinical when their opportunities came. We are not happy to lose out in the semi-finals but this is a good group of guys and we will move on."
If you were looking for sheer entertainment, then the Stade Amedee-Domenech was the place to be. Munster won a quite remarkable Amlin Cup quarter-final against Brive 42-37, scoring five tries to four.
The back three of Keith Earls, Dough Howlett and Felix Jones caused Brive massive problems. Earls and Howlett finished with two tries each, with the other one coming from Peter Stringer.
The remainder of the points came from the boot of Ronan O'Gara. As was the case in Leinster's Heineken semi-final, Munster had to experience some nervous moments as Brive staged a late rally.
But Munster deserved their success and can now look forward to another exciting contest against Harlequins in the semi-final. The other semi-final will be an all-French affair with the Michael Cheika coached Stade Francais facing Clermont Auvergne.
