The week started with a bang, despite the deflation of a Lions defeat to New Zealand on Saturday.
We quickly moved on, then all of a sudden Jim Gavin had thrown every one of his toys out of the pram over media coverage of the Diarmuid Connolly saga and we were engrossed.
Monday
Before everyone could continue giving out about Gavin there were qualifier draws that had to take place in both football and hurling. Cavan were drawn to play Tipperary in football and Kilkenny drew Limerick in the only noteworthy tie in the stickball.
Joe Brolly’s greatest achievement to date is making the Irish public feel sorry for Pat Spillane after accusing him of singling out Diarmuid Connolly so that it would be advantageous to Kerry, but Croke Park came out to rubbish those claims. Good man Pat.
After all that we could finally look back at Dublin’s demolition derby in Croke Park the day before and noticed that Westmeath got an absolutely free pass in that game. No doubt in their backroom staff they had all 21 of these men.
Tuesday
The British and Irish Lions were back in action, somehow managing to relinquish a 16-point lead to the Hurricanes in Wellington.
The match spelt the end for Robbie Henshaw on the tour after suffering a horrible shoulder injury. It showed how Rory Best was a true leader on the field with how he sticks up for his teammates but English media called CJ Stander a big loser.
Gareth Bale can also play golf, so that’s nice.
Wednesday
Ireland and England get on better than ever these days and Sean O’Brien and James Haskell epitomised that after the Tullow Tank taught him the words of a Richie Kavanagh classic.
It wasn’t all roses over in New Zealand, though, as Brian O’Driscoll was starting to hear murmurs that Peter O’Mahony would be replaced by Sam Warburton in the second Test against the All Blacks.
There was also football on, believe it or not, and Cristiano Ronaldo decided to be a glory hunter instead of a leader once again and it is getting really annoying. He probably lost a lot of sleep over that, or was it because his new baby twins are keeping him awake at night?
https://www.instagram.com/p/BV7m0IZFj_p/?taken-by=cristiano&hl=en
Thursday
The Lions team was named and it caused a bit of uproar.
O’Mahony was dropped to make space for Warburton. Alun Wyn Jones kept his place too, a farce. Brian O’Driscoll said that O’Mahony was just a scapegoat in all of this, he’d know. Robbie Henshaw was officially ruled out of the tour along with George North. Closer to home, a Sligo man impressed Rory McIlroy with his unbelievable trick shot and Diarmuid Connolly decided to call out Conor McGregor; he’s only banned from GAA and not boxing, after all.
Friday
First we lost Jim McGuinness from management, now it looks like we’re losing him altogether after it was announced he’d be moving to China for a coaching role.
Rassie Erasmus also confirmed his departure form Munster but will be sticking around until December at least. Liverpool fans were delighted to hear that Jürgen Klopp would be splashing out just the £180m on three players this summer. But before the weekend could start, Johnny Sexton and Conor Murray made sure that they will go down in rugby folklore after inspiring these lyrics to a new fan song.
