Gavin Cromwell, trainer of the Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Inothewayurthinkin, says the horse will not run in the Aintree Grand National on April 5. After the surprise win at Cheltenham on March, when his horse beat Willie Mullins’s favorite Galopin des Champs, Cromwell said that he would talk to Frank Berry, who is the racing manager for owner J.P. McManus, and then make a decision. And it only took a few days to make that big decision. Cromwell said: ‘‘The horse is only a 7-year-old and we have worked hard on his jumping this season and his jumping has improved an awful lot. We think it’s the right thing to do. It’s all about doing the right thing for the horse.’’
With Aintree now off the table, Inothewayurthinkin could round off his season in the Punchestown Gold Cup at the end of April, but that has not been confirmed. ‘‘Punchestown is an option, but it’s not definite,’’ added Cromwell.
FRIENDLY
VS. SENEGAL
Senegal have been confirmed as the Republic of Ireland’s opponents for the first of the two June friendlies. It will be our first-ever senior international against the country ranked 17th in the FIFA world rankings. The Republic are currently ranked 60th in the rankings. The team known as the Lions of Teranga will become the 85th different country to play us since 1924. No date has been confirmed for the game, but it will probably be June 6 or 7 at the Aviva before the squad head to Luxembourg for another friendly on June 10.
The West African nation’s best-known player is Sadio Mané, who scored 90 Premier League goals for Liverpool in 196 games from 2016 through 2022. He has 113 caps for his national team.
The June games will be Irish manager Heimir Hallgrimsson’s last opportunity to look at new players ahead of the World Cup qualifying campaign, which starts at the Aviva on Sept. 6 against Hungary. There is no longer an international window in the month of August.
Talking of World Cup, last week Japan became the first country to qualify for the 2026 finals via the qualifiers when they beat Bahrain 2-0 in Saitama.
IRELAND ‘REGRESSED’:
RTE ANALYST FERRIS
While there was some silverware in the shape of a Triple Crown with wins over Wales, England and Scotland, Ireland missed out the goal of winning an unprecedented 3rd consecutive Six Nations championship. Former Ireland back-row Stephen Ferris reckons has questioned the direction in style. The analyst for RTE said: ‘‘I have got to say that I think they have regressed a little bit over the Six Nations. You expect them to get better, game in, game out, and they haven’t. They really struggled against Italy. Teams are putting it up to them, defensively getting into their faces. Their attack hasn’t been functioning as well.
Ferris, an Ulster player who was part of the Six Nations title-winning team in 2009, added: “And they are kicking a lot more. Are they a possession-based team? Are they moving more towards the Leinster style of kicking the ball more and trying to put pressure with their defense?’’ Ireland won four games out of five in the Six Nations, losing in round four to France and finished 3rd in the Six Nations with a finally tally of 20 points, 3 of them bonus points. England won four games, also, but with their one loss to Ireland at the Aviva; as did France who lost their game to England.
ST PAT’S EMERGE
AS LOI FAVORITES
The League of Ireland resumes this weekend after the international break and after just six series of games it’s difficult to predict who is going to be crowned champions in November. We all thought Shelbourne under the effervescent Damien Duff were going to dominate, but now it looks like the strong squad assembled by Stephen Kenny in Inchicore makes the St Patrick’s Athletic favorites. Shamrock Rovers had a great European campaign last year, but they failed to make it five in-a-row. The Hoops are definitely not as strong as they were a few years back or maybe the other clubs are catching up. Drogheda are the early leaders, but I don’t think anybody expects the Boynesiders to stay in the top three. Drogheda are away to Cork City on Friday night, but I fancy the Saints could go top this weekend with a win in Waterford.
TAILTEANN GETS
SUNDAY SLOTS
The GAA are keeping their promise to give the Tailteann Cup, Gaelic football’s secondary competition, a high profile by giving the semi-finals and finals a Sunday slot. That means the All-Ireland hurling quarter-finals will be played on Saturday June 21 and the Tailteann Cup semi-finals on Sunday, June 22. Last year Wexford, who were involved in the hurling quarter-finals unsuccessfully looked for the fixtures to be reversed as Wexford Town was hosting the Féile na Gael hurling tournament on Saturday.
DONEGAL HOSTS
RTE’S OPENER
The Ulster football championship preliminary round between Donegal and Derry will start RTE’s 2025 GAA championship coverage. The local derby will be played in McCumhaill Park, Ballybofey on Sunday, April 6. “The Sunday Game” program also returns to television screens that evening. Joanne Cantwell will present the live show in the afternoon, while Jacqui Hurley will continue to anchor the highlights program on Sunday nights. The state broadcaster will carry live coverage of all four provincial football finals in addition to the Munster and Leinster hurling finals, the Joe McDonagh Cup and Tailteann Cup finals, plus the All-Ireland semi-finals in football, hurling and Camogie. Other games will be covered on the new service GAA+, which replaces GAA Go, but prices for the new service have yet to be confirmed.
Meanwhile All-Ireland champions Armagh will have to do without star forward Rian O’Neill this summer because he’s taking a break from the game. O’Neill’s Crossmaglen colleague Aaron Kernan said: ‘‘You cannot measure his loss. Rian is just a unique player. He is the type of player that would put bums on seats. There are stages in big games where Rian would step up, whether that is a catch, a free kick or a score from play. I know he will be back with Crossmaglen and with Armagh, but it looks like it won’t be this year.’’
LEITRIM STRUGGLE
TO FIELD A FIT TEAM
The Leitrim footballers are going to be playing in Division 4 of the National Football League again next season. Having already lost their five opening game in Division 3, 10 days ago Leitrim had to give a walk over to Fermanagh as they struggled for fit players. Manager Steven Poacher explained their predicament by saying: ‘‘It's an unfortunate set of circumstances. We are probably in unprecedented territory in that we are the one county in Ireland that has six under 20 players that are on the senior panel and that five of them started most National League games this year. We have a new panel, a young panel, with 20 players coming in who have never played county football before so they have been exposed towards a heavier load of training, S&C and games. We played five weeks in a row after our first game against Laois was postponed because of the storm.’’
Leitrim has a population of only 35,000 and 23 clubs. Over the past 18 months, 90 players have sought transfers out of the county to clubs elsewhere in Ireland and abroad. Meanwhile former Leitrim player Emlyn Mulligan said that he himself and a few other players are willing to come out of retirement to make the numbers against Fermanagh, but their offer was declined. The 37 year-old garda added: ‘‘It was very sad situation as I am a proud Leitrim man, a proud Leitrim footballer for as long as I can remember. And to see you county in that sort of situation is embarrassing.’’
GER FITZGERALD, 60
The death occurred last week of former Midleton and Cork hurler Ger Fitzgerald at the age of 60. Fitzgerald helped Cork win the MacCarthy Cup in 1986 and 1990. In doing so, he emulated his famous father Paddy who was goalkeeper on Cork’s 1966 All-Ireland winning team. The corner forward also captained the Rebels to a Munster final win in 1992 and won a National League the following year following an epic three-game saga against Wexford.
