Many a campaign was plotted in the front room of John and Maureen McNamara’s house on Shamrock Hill in Clonmel, many a victory celebrated, many a defeat mourned, many a cup of tea shared over the years on good footballing days and bad.

Cork won’t have it all their own way, but have the confidence and the character to earn a perfect send-off to Páirc Uí Chaoimh

In hurling there’s a cycle every 20 years or so in the middle section of the decade. “New teams” surface and hold sway until they fade and the big guns boom again.

It’s the kind of voice you hardly hear anymore in inter-county hurling management.

JON Kenny in his famous D’Unbelievables sketch immortalised the stereotypical GAA club manager.

CONSIDER this. Since Dublin last won the Leinster SHC, exactly 50 years ago, the county has annexed six football All-Irelands and 23 provincial titles.

LAST year’s defeated All-Ireland finalists Down may have been the hottest of favourites coming into Ennis on Saturday against a Clare team hammered by Cork in the Munster championship.

Down 1-13 Clare 1-12

THE Rattler!

THE Clare senior football title race began this weekend and Kilmurry-Ibrickane record a first round win over Kilmihil on Saturday.

McGrath Cup Final

CLARE claimed the spoils in this competitive McGrath Cup quarter-final at Cooraclare yesterday.

All-Ireland champions Cork ran out comfortable winners of their first competitive match of 2011, beating Waterford IT by 0-19 to 0-5 in the McGrath Cup.

CLARE football boss Micheal McDermott is confident that the GAA’s Central Council will look favourably this weekend on their request to become eligible for the scheme which allows players to declare for the home county of their parents.

TIMMY RYAN was just a couple of months into his contract with Top 14 side Toulon when he learned a salutary lesson about what was required to survive and prosper in French rugby.

MY worst fears have been realised.

Former Munster prop Timmy Ryan has made the replacements bench on the Toulon squad to play Cardiff Blues in the Amlin Challenge Cup final in Marseilles tomorrow.

Facing a stark choice of bench-warming for Munster or a new experience and rugby education in the south of France, which do you think Timmy Ryan chose? Ahead of tonight’s clash with Connacht, he spoke to Michael Moynihan

WITH four Top 14 sides in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals, this is shaping up to be the ‘Year of the French’ and it’s a surge sourced by economics off the pitch as much as élan or elbow grease on it.

LEINSTER start their Heineken Cup campaign tonight as the hunted, not the hunter.

FOR the first time in its history, Munster Rugby will have a French international on its books after Lille native Julien Brugnaut signed on the dotted lines for the two-time Heineken Cup champions yesterday.

THE Championship wasn’t confined to Killarney yesterday.

Limerick 1-13 Clare 1-09

Clare manager Frank Doherty has handed debuts to three players ahead of the Banner County's Munster SFC clash with Limerick at Cusack Park, Ennis on Sunday.

INCOMING Toulon head coach Philippe Saint André believes new recruit Timmy Ryan could be playing for Ireland within the next few years.

WHEN we’re bad, we know how bad we can be.

Promising Munster prop Timmy Ryan has signed on for big-spending French club Toulon.

IAN DOWLING is expected to take up his normal position on Munster “s left wing in tomorrow’s Heineken Cup semi-final against Leinster at Croke Park.

MUNSTER prop Timmy Ryan looks poised to follow Leinster’s Felipe Contepomi to French Top 14 club, Toulon this summer.

Cork Constitution 6 Clontarf 25

Sligo 0-16 Waterford 1-11

Cork Constitution 6 Ballynahinch17

CORK CONSTITUTION 16 SHANNON 9

Leitrim 0-13 Wicklow 0-11, Carrick-on-Shannon

Munster coach Tony McGahan has made four changes - one positional - for tomorrow's Magners League clash with the Dragons in Rodney Parade.

Rua Tipoki returns from a knee injury to the Munster Squad to prepare for Saturday's Magners League game against Edinburgh at Musgrave Park.

THE Munster squad, minus its senior internationals, yesterday flew out to Lanzarote for a week-long warm-weather training camp.

MARIO LEDESMA is 35, Raphael Ibanez has also celebrated that landmark.

TWO goals in the opening 12 minutes from the O’Connors, Cian and Ronan, proved the decisive scores in this disappointing AIB Munster IFC final at Mallow yesterday.

I WONDER if by this time next week we will be questioning what all the fuss was about.

BEFORE looking forward to what is the crucial game of the autumn series against Argentina tomorrow, it is important to reflect on New Zealand’s brief but electrically-charged visits to Croke Park and Thomond Park over the course of the last week.

THIS was supposed to be more about the occasion than the game. Yet what transpired was a contest that nobody could have anticipated.

DESPITE missing out on the core of his usual pack and both half-backs, Munster coach Tony McGahan has chosen a very useful side to tackle the All Blacks at Thomond Park tonight.

Munster coach Tony McGahan has named a less than full-strength 23-man strong squad of players to take on New Zealand at Thomond Park next Tuesday.