Sweetnam focus switches to rugby

Munster Rugby are hoping Cork senior hurler Darren Sweetnam can make as big an impact with the oval ball as he has this summer with a sliotar.

Nine days after appearing off the bench at Croke Park in Cork’sAll-Ireland SHC semi-final against Galway, the 19-year-old rising GAA star was patrolling the wing at Musgrave Park as Munster Rugby’s U20s geared up for next month’sinterprovincials with a 15-7 victory over Italy on Tuesday night.

It was Sweetnam’s first rugby outing since the spring as his focus switched to hurling with the Bandon Grammar School student and Doheny’s GAA clubman gaining plaudits as a talent to watch on Jimmy Barry Murphy’s inter-county panel. Munster would like the teenager, who has also represented Ireland at hockey at U16 level, to give rugby a shot but their U20 head coach Greig Oliver told the Irish Examiner it would be a softly softly approach.