Ryan raises issue of college participation

Kildare 0-21 UCD 1-05: Jason Ryan has raised the issue of college teams competing in the inter-county pre-season tournaments again after his side trounced UCD at St Conleth’s Park to set up a Bord na Móna O’Byrne Cup semi-final against DIT on Sunday.

A wonderful Darroch Mulhall scored nine points for the home side but it was the circumstances surrounding the suspected medial knee ligament injury picked up by midfielder Tommy Moolick, who was lining out in UCD colours, that Ryan was unhappy about.

“You’d question the wisdom of having county players playing against their own county, you’d question the wisdom of having the universities in the O’Byrne Cup in the first place and you’d question the wisdom of asking an amateur player to play a full game on a Sunday, a full game on a Wednesday and Tommy starting again today. I’m not saying if Tommy hadn’t played on Wednesday he wouldn’t have got injured today but when you’ve a load like that… Tommy’s playing midfield and he’s played every minute of the game the last two games they played. That shouldn’t have