THE pressure on EU leaders to come up with a solution to the euro crisis increased yesterday with Standard and Poor’s threatening to downgrade the eurozone’s rescue fund and all six triple-A countries.

HE could tell you how he was supposed to meet up with Michael Jordan at the Ryder Cup but business got in the way of old friends reuniting and he had to settle for a phone call.

EVERY now and then Irish sports journalists of a certain vintage get wistful.

MUCH has changed since Munster last contested a Heineken Cup pool clash in this part of Wales.

TOMORROW, the Green Party celebrates. At a gathering in the Central Hotel in Dublin, members will raise a glass to 30-years-a-growing.

ARSENE WENGER has called on his Arsenal team not to let the club’s 125th anniversary celebrations detract them from delivering a match-winning performance against Everton today.

FORMER Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr sympathises with Northern Ireland’s continued loss of young talent to his old side and admits players switching allegiance “doesn’t sit right” with him.

GOLFERS arriving at Atlanta Athletic Club yesterday for this week’s PGA Championship were greeted with heat in the American south reaching three-digits on the heat index.

RORY MCILROY was a star long before he set foot on Augusta National this year but when you need security guards to patrol your back garden at night for fear of stalkers, you know you’ve reached the celebrity stratosphere.

FORGET the talk of a two-tier Europe.

NEWMARKET proved too strong for Ballinora in yesterday’s Cork Premier IFC fourth round clash at Macroom, but will have to wait for their quarter-final opponents as the second of the double headers ended in stalemate between Kiskeam and Naomh Abán.

BANDON withstood a late Dripsey comeback before eventually prevailing at Brinny on Saturday evening.

SUBSTITUTE Jordan Philpott’s 20th-minute goal proved the decisive score in this keenly contested fourth round tie at Riverstown on Saturday night.

I HOPE we’ll have a continuation tomorrow of the kind of entertainment we saw between Limerick and Cork in the Munster U21 final on Wednesday night.

Economist Jim Power is a proud Waterford hurling fan who believes sport can lift the mood of a nation

Diarmuid O’Flynn and John Fogarty argue both sides of the debate

DERRY CITY went top in Terryland Park last night as Galway United set a league record for consecutive defeats, last night’s loss being the 19th league game on the trot in which they have tasted defeat.

THE only source of surprise from Kerry’s All-Ireland Croke Park outing came long after the final whistle had blown as Mayo knocked All-Ireland champions Cork out of the race for Sam Maguire.

SPORTING a plaster across the bridge of his nose in Saturday’s post-match press conference, it appeared Jim McGuinness was also wearing the wounds of battle.

Ireland Under-19 0 Spain Under-19 5