Sports fans go cold turkey for the weekend

THE players might be weathered and hardy, but the Beast from the East will bring sports fixtures around the country to a stop this weekend.

GAA fans will have to endure a quiet weekend as the association confirmed that all hurling, football and camogie fixtures for this weekend, including the Allianz Leagues games, will be postponed.

In a statement released online yesterday, the GAA advised that ‘a full revised fixtures programme to cover the remaining rounds of the Allianz Leagues will be issued on Monday’. For now, it has indicated that round five of the Allianz Hurling League will be rescheduled for next weekend, March 10 and 11.

Also, the Division One hurling league quarter-finals will be held on March 17 and 18, the weekend when the finals are traditionally held. The hurling semi-finals are set to be scheduled for the weekend of March 24 and 25, while the Allianz Hurling League final is expected to be held on March 31.

Round five of the Allianz Football League – which had been due to happen this weekend – will move to March 10/11. The GAA said the dates should be used as broad principles and ‘any exceptions... will be addressed in the revised fixture programme to be issued on Monday’.

Fixtures in the Littlewoods Ireland Camogie League set for this weekend have also fallen victim to Storm Emma and will be rescheduled, as will Sunday’s AIB All-Ireland Senior & Intermediate Club Championships finals.

A statement on the Camogie Association website read: ‘Details of the re-arrangement of these finals and ticketing arrangements will be finalised and announced next week.’

The wind, snow and ice is also wreaking havoc for rugby fixtures.

Both Leinster and Munster’s PRO14 rugby clashes this weekend have been postponed. Leinster had been due to play Scarlets in Wales tomorrow, while Munster had been set to play against Edinburgh away tonight. Munster’s game is expected to be rescheduled for St Patrick’s weekend.

Munster Rugby also announced yesterday that ‘all All-Ireland League games and Munster club and school fixtures planned for this weekend have been postponed’. Leinster made a similar announcement, stating: ‘Due to the prevailing wintry weather conditions, all club games organised by the Leinster Branch this weekend are being postponed.’

Several horse racing meetings have also been postponed or called off, including Sunday and Monday’s Leopardstown meetings.

And all of the SSE Airtricity League soccer matches fixed for this weekend have been rescheduled for later this month.