John Keane has embraced new faces but will meet some old ones in the Munster Club SHC final on Sunday.

Former Tipperary captain Ger ‘Redser’ O’Grady was there for Pa Bourke’s once-in-a-lifetime achievement on July 29.

DECLAN KIDNEY has consistently deflected the ongoing debate about who should wear the Ireland no 10 jersey by stressing his good fortune at having two such talented players from which to choose.

DECLAN KIDNEY has welcomed back his big guns from injury for Ireland’s pivotal World Cup Pool C clash with Australia this Saturday, and also reunited Leinster out-halves Eoin Reddan and Jonny Sexton.

TIPPERARY champions Thurles Sarsfields put their poor divisional form behind them as they hammered Knockavilla Kickhams 6-21 to 1-12 in the first round of the county senior hurling championship at The Ragg.

WHAT a difference two weeks makes. A couple of Sundays ago, in the semi-final, the Tipperary champions put their bodies on the line, gave everything possible to get the win over Kilmallock, in Kilmallock.

DUBLIN looks set to host a Connacht old boys reunion after Leinster and Brive’s Heineken Cup battle on Saturday.

PRIDE, as well as pool points, will be a motivating factor for the reigning European champions when they play host to the Scarlets at the RDS tomorrow.

AS Leinster bring back some heavy hitters for Friday’s Magners League clash with the Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium, it’s fair to assume defence coach Kurt McQuilkin has put the players through the wringer this week.

Leinster captain Leo Cullen has learned to treasure this part of the season as he moves inevitably towards the end of a magnificent career.

THIRTEEN years on from the All-Ireland semi-final of 1993, when they failed to Galway after storming through Munster, Babs Keating returns to Croke Park as manager of the Tipperary hurling team.

According to a statement issued by the Tipperary county board this afternoon, only two players have been dropped from the Tipperary senior hurling panel, and not five as previously reported.

Thurles Sarsfields 1-17 Drom-Inch 0-15

THE whiff of cordite may have evaporated from this clash compared to the encounters of the late eighties, but Galway-Tipperary tomorrow promises more for the neutral than the game that follows it.

THE good news for Tipperary fans in the run-up to Sunday’s All-Ireland senior hurling quarter-final meeting with Galway is the return to training of stalwarts such as Eddie Enright and Seamus Butler, and the increasing fitness of the Ger ‘Redser’ O’Grady and John Carroll.

Jim O’Sullivan

KEN Hogan wasn’t one bit surprised by the strength of Limerick’s challenge in Thurles yesterday. It proved that the potential from winning three All-Ireland U21 titles is there, he said.

SEVENTY minutes old, and already the championship coffers are swelling. Tipperary and Limerick will rejoin their fight for the right to meet Clare in the Munster hurling semi final next Saturday.

Tipperary forward Ger 'Redser' O'Grady has been axed from the Premier County hurling panel.

GAA PRESIDENT Seán Kelly believes the high-powered Games Administration Committee should be split into two separate entities, separating responsibility for discipline and fixtures.