A grim night for the visitors to the RDS. And it could have been much worse.

The Leinster outhalf suffered a medial ligament tear in Leinster's Champions Cup win over Northampton a month ago.

On the eve of the roaring twenties, John Fogarty hails the doyens of the last decade in hurling

Will Connors travelled down to Limerick at the weekend with his name on top of Leinster’s dominant tackle chart back at their Dublin training centre and it would not be a surprise to see him remain there following another robust performance for the flanker in this defeat of Munster.

Carbery has spent the last two months rehabbing an ankle injury.

Austin Gleeson has been chasing after his stunning form of 2016 ever since and, in a bid to finally recapture it, has decided to cancel Christmas.

A dank winter’s afternoon it might have been, but for Borris-Illeigh people in the 7,250 crowd in Semple Stadium, it’s a day that will always shine brightly Borris’ ended a 33-year wait for a senior title, an eternity for such a proud club, with a gritty win over Kiladangan.

Honours to Borris-Illeigh in this Tipperary SHC final - the 7,250 in attendance saw them defeat Kiladangan in a hard-fought encounter.

The four-time All-Star was one of the players called by Cahill this past weekend where he informed the Tipperary native that 2019 was his final season in the Déise jersey.

New Waterford senior hurling manager Liam Cahill has taken the surprising decision to drop captain Noel Connors and Maurice Shanahan among others from his 2020 panel.

Cratloe. Indefatigable Cratloe, whether it’s with the big ball or small, they just keep rolling along from week to week and match to match in pursuit of county senior titles.

Resilience is a word that is often used in relation to Kilkenny under Brian Cody.

A Shane O’Donnell and Tony Kelly-led Clare spoiled Waterford’s Munster championship homecoming to leave the Déise playing a dangerous game of catch-up in the coming weeks.

How long can a county player give his county nowadays? Waterford hurling captain Noel Connors is inclined to think that eight years is becoming the cut-off point.

Waterford 1-18 Galway 0-19

A 74th minute strike from Shane Bennett decided a game of two halves in stormy weather at Walsh Park this afternoon.

The summer game always looks strange when the players’ breath is visible in small clouds at every facemask.

A crowd of 3,224 is not what you expect for a first-round Munster SHL fixture on a cold and, at times, wet evening in mid-December. Then again, this wasn’t your run-of-the-mill pre-season blowout.

With the proposed redevelopment of Walsh Park not expected to be complete until late in 2019, at the earliest, Waterford, next year, will again play their two Munster championship home fixtures outside of the county.

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

The children of a criminal shot dead in his home told how a man holding a gun entered the kitchen wearing a balaclava before shooting their father dead.

"The women of Ireland might be better served if Bishop Cullinan left pronouncements on important clinical matters such as vaccination programmes to the experts in that field," the HSE's communications spokesman said.

Noel Connors has known Derek McGrath long enough not to try and guilt-trip him, but the Passage man believes Waterford hurling will suffer should he step down.

Here’s a rough head count of items on the agenda this morning.

Limerick fired an early warning shot that they are one of the leading contenders for All-Ireland U21 glory with this comprehensive 12-point Munster quarter-final dismissal of Tipperary.

Cork set up a first Munster final date with Clare since 1999 with a polished performance against a supposedly wilier Waterford outfit in a sun-drenched Semple Stadium.

We first saw John Connors in Love/Hate, but his gritty new crime thriller looks set to propel him into the big time, writes Esther McCarthy

Gda Reddy told the court that he was satisfied that Connors could not have done more than two hours of work on the roof

A serial burglar who regularly targets pensioners’ homes has been sentenced to 144 years in prison over the course of his criminal career, a court has heard.

Tipperary 3-17 Longford 0-18: It’s now two from four in the race for promotion from Division 3 of the Allianz Football League, according to Tipperary manager Liam Kearns.

Mary Immaculate 0-19 Limerick IT 0-14: Mary Immaculate manager Jamie Wall played down the favourite’s tag that has been thrust upon his side, but after Aaron Gillane fired them to a Fitzgibbon Cup derby win over LIT, the manager is confident his side can cope with any pressure that comes their way against IT Carlow.

Waterford defender Noel Connors paid tribute to his teammates for the “incredible amount of steel” they showed against Kilkenny last Sunday.

"All we do is cry and talk about him. We feel alone, miserable and hurt."

Noel Connors is under pressure to graduate on two fronts in 2017 but experience has taught him forcing the issue won’t help his cause.

There were angry and violent scenes yesterday when a man was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter at the Central Criminal Court.

An Irishman’s colourful obituary has gone viral after being published on Sea Coast Online.