IRELAND captain Brian O’Driscoll and coach Declan Kidney last night tried to put some perspective on this evening’s Triple Crown decider at Croke Park.

CARLOW manager Luke Dempsey has slammed referee Joe Curley for his decision not to award his team a late, close-range free in last Tuesday’s Cadbury’s Leinster U21 semi-final against Dublin.

WHEN IS a five-point margin not a five-point margin?

ENDA COUGHLAN wasn’t mincing his words after the final whistle. For the Kilmurry-Ibrickane captain, first place is everything, second is a set of steak knives.

LET’S be blunt. Yesterday’s All-Ireland club final was a very disappointing affair with few positives for fans of the game of football.

CHELSEA midfielder Joe Cole has hit back at the “lazy” critics who claim he’s just a work-shy star full of fancy tricks.

CONCENTRATION. Preparation. Focus. The buzz-words are drifting around the cafe when you sit down with Jerry Flannery. In fact, you’re even a bit conscious of having that little biscuit that comes with your cup of coffee as the Munster hooker breaks down what professionalism means.

BEFORE Northampton Saints travelled to Thomond Park to play Munster in January Dylan Hartley, their captain, talked about the image he had in his mind of Paul O’Connell leading out a side of giants, breathing fire and using every trick in the book to win the game before the first whistle had even been blown.

IRELAND’S top GAA referees, Diarmuid Kirwan and Marty Duffy, were split yesterday on the issue of the current experimental rules and whether they should be retained for the championships.

WHITES and blacks faced off angrily in song in front of a heavily guarded courthouse yesterday where a teenager and another farm worker who reportedly confessed to killing a white supremacist leader in a wage dispute were charged with murder.

YOU could sense that unmistakable surge of hope when the fourth official held up the board indicating an additional five minutes of injury time on Saturday.

AT the final whistle, despite the hostilities of the previous 80 minutes, they shook hands and went their separate ways, safe in the knowledge they had helped each other in their quest to advance to the Heineken Cup semi-finals.

THEY travel to Parnell Park in two weeks still bearing thoughts of survival in NHL Division 1, but after another emphatic defeat in the Gaelic Grounds yesterday, Limerick remain on course to drop to second tier hurling next spring.

I WAS in Páirc Uí Chaoim hearly for this match yester-day, and as the music played, a rich selection of Cork songs, the thought struck me – is this the only county in Ireland where the people are homesick even when they’re at home?

AS modes of recovery go, theirs was plucked straight from leftfield.

NOW that I am a grandmother with seven precious grandchildren, I am more aware of the importance of passing on some life skills to the next generation. They all live within 15 minutes of us so we are fortunate to see them almost every day.

MARIO BALOTELLI is to be given one more chance by Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho after he left a blemish on an otherwise successful evening at the San Siro.

AN ARGENTINIAN whose surname begins with M settled last night’s Champions League first leg semi-final encounter at the San Siro. And it wasn’t Lionel Messi.

JAMES COUGHLAN has travelled a long and frustrating road before finally realising the early potential he displayed with CBC and Dolphin.

ONE down, four to go. Aston Villa left it late, but they did what manager Martin O’Neill wanted – to win.