GOLF
Sergio Garcia holds a share of the lead after the opening
day of the 2013 Masters.
The Spaniard carded a brilliant 6 under par 66 at Augusta
National, which matched the earlier score of Australian Marc Leishman.
Dustin Johnson is another shot back on 5-under.
Tiger Woods is well-placed on 2 under par, while Rory
McIlroy finished with a level par 72.
Graeme McDowell carded a bogey on the 18th to finish on 1
over par, but Padraig Harrington dropped 3 shots over his closing 2 holes to
finish-up on 6 over par.
Northern
Ireland's Alan Dunbar is at the bottom of
the leaderboard after an 11 over par 83.
14yr old amateur Tianlang Guan birdied the 18 to shoot +1 in
round 1 on his debut at Augusta National.
GAELIC GAMES
Henry Shefflin could miss Kilkenny's Leinster Championship
opener with Offaly.
Team selector Martin Fogarty says there's no timescale for
the nine time All Ireland winner's recovery from a bone and ligament injury in
his foot.
Fogarty says they'll just have to wait and see if the foot
heals on time.
Cork
picked up their first major win since 2010 in the Electric Ireland Munster Minor
Hurling Championship last night.
The Rebels beat Clare 3-15 to 2-14 at Pairc Ui Rinn.
In Walsh Park Tipperary overcame Waterford 2-18 to 1-15.
In the Leinster Minor Football Championship Kildare had a
facile 2-29 to 0-1 win over Kilkenny
Westmeath host Wexford at 3.30pm tomorrow
All-Ireland Vocational Schools Junior Football champions
Gallen added the Leinster B title to their collection yesterday as they held
off a late Colaiste Iosagain charge to win 3-14 to 3-11 at O'Connor Park
The Cistercian Roscrea were 2-10 to 1-11 winners over
Avondale after extra time in the Leinster Schools Senior Football D Semi Finals
The Cork
hurlers make two changes ahead of Sunday's Allianz Hurling League Division 1A
Relegation Play-off against Clare at the Gaelic Grounds.
Manager Jimmy Barry Murphy has been able to recall fit-again
Shane O'Neill and William Egan after last weekend's defeat to Kilkenny.
Killian Murphy and Cian McCarthy are the players to make
way.
Meanwhile, Kildare and Tyrone have named their teams for
their Division 1 semi-final in Croke
Park.
The Lilywhites make three changes from the loss to Down,
with Mark Donnellan starting in goal while Daniel Flynn and Niall Kelly come
into the half-forwards.
Tyrone have made whole-sale changes with the midfield
pairing of Sean and Colm Cavanagh the only line of the team that is unchanged
from the loss to Kerry in Omagh.
SOCCER
Chelsea
will be the only Premier League club in the semi-finals of the Europa League.
The Blues booked their place in the last-four after beating
Rubin Kazan 5-4 on aggregate - despite a 3-2 second-leg defeat in Russia.
But Tottenham and Newcastle
both lost their quarter-finals.
Newcastle
were held to a 1-all draw by Benfica at St James' Park, which saw them go out
4-2 on aggregate.
And 10-man Tottenham suffered an agonising penalty shoot-out
defeat to FC Basel.
Two goals from Clint Dempsey helped Spurs to force the game
to extra-time after a two all draw in Switzerland matched the result from the
first-leg at White Heart Lane.
But poor spot-kicks from Tom Huddlestone and Emmanuel
Adebayor allowed Basel
to win the shoot-out 4-1.
The remaining four teams left in the Champions League will
find out who they'll play in the semi-finals this morning.
Spanish sides Real Madrid, Barcelona,
along with Germany's
Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund are all in the pot.
Athlone
Town host Finn Harps in
the League of Ireland's First Division this evening
Town suffered their first league defeat of the season at Waterford last week while
Finn Harps were held to a scorless draw by Wexford Youths
Niall Lanigan and Roddy Collins Junior are suspended for
Athlone but Philly Gorman is back and available for selection
Kick off this evening is 7.45pm
In the Premier Dundalk host Derry, UCD meet St Pats,
Shamrock Rovers host Bray and Shelbourne host Drogheda.
In the Combined Counties Football League's Premier Division
this evening second placed Willow Park B host Birr Town
who are fifth
Only five points separate the two clubs with Birr having
three games in hand going into the 8 O'Clock kick off
Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville has revealed
he's received a number of offers to become a manager in the last 18 months.
He's been part of Roy Hodgson's England coaching team since hanging
up his boots, and has also impressed as a pundit. He says "two or three
roles" have cropped up, but he didn't feel it would be the right decision
to accept any of them.
Celtic will have Victor Wanyama available for Sunday's
Scottish Cup semi-final with Dundee United.
He's won an appeal against the red card shown to him in last
month's SPL game with St Mirren.
A Scottish FA disciplinary panel has downgraded his offence,
and has deemed a yellow card would have been acceptable.
RUGBY UNION
Both Munster and Leinster
name their teams today for Saturday’s clash at Thomond Park.
Tonight Ulster
host the Dragons at five past seven while Connacht are away to Edinburgh at seven.
Athlone’s Robbie Henshaw starts at full back for Connacht
The Irish Independent suggests that the Irish job is Joe
Schmidts to refuse.
According to the report the Union
will interview Ewan Mc Kenzie and Jake White soon before making an announcement
at the end of the month.
Veteran Munster and Ireland
prop Marcus Horan has announced that he will retire at the end of the season.
The 35-year-old told his Munster team-mates of his decision
this morning as the prepares to end a 14-year career that has seen him win 67
Ireland caps as well as representing his province over 220 times - making him
their most-capped forward.
The Clare native was part of Ireland's
famous Grand Slam winning team in 2009 as well as Munster's Heineken Cup victories in 2006 and
2008.
The Irish Rugby Union Players Association have announced
that from this year onwards, their Young Player of the Year Award will be
renamed the Nevin Spence Young Player in honour of the Ulster centre, who won the Award in
2011.
RACING
The O'Briens claimed the feature race at Limerick last night
as El Salvador
took the Summer Twilight Nights Race
The Dermot Weld trained Diesel Ten was a 7 to 1 winner under
Rhode's Pat Smullen in the Median Auction Maiden
There's a seven race card at Dudalk from 6.15pm
Ireland's
champion jumps trainer, Willie Mullins has been named as the Philips sports
manager of the month for March 2013. The award comes after Mullins was named as
the top trainer at this year's Cheltenham
festival, including a win for Hurricane Fly in the Champion Hurdle.
BOXING
Matthew Macklin will fight WBA champion Gennady Golovkin in
a World Middleweight Championship fight in the US on Saturday June 29th. Macklin
will be taking-on the German based Kazakh, who has won all 26 of his career
fights - 23 of them by way of knockout.
BASKETBALL
Basketball Ireland
have announced that Macron is to become the official kit and leisurewear
supplier of their Irish International Programmes.
With eight Irish International Programmes now in full swing,
Macron will be busy kitting out each team over the next three years with
playing gear, performance wear and leisure wear as our star players take to the
International stage.
The partnership will also see the National Basketball Summer
Camp in Gormanston branded as the Basketball Ireland Macron Kits National Camp.
