LAOIS GIVE UP HOME ADVANTAGE FOR MEANINGLESS KILKENNY CLASH
THIS Sunday’s Laois-kilkenny Hurling League tie has been switched to UPMC Nowlan Park.
Laois are due to have home advantage for the game but with MW Hire O’moore Park in poor condition due to the recent bad weather, the Laois county board has decided to close the county ground for a number of weeks once it hosts Saturday night’s crunch Laois-kildare Division Two football game.
Having beaten Carlow at O’moore Park last Saturday, the outcome of the game has no impact whatsoever on Laois as they are safe from relegation and too far adrift in the Division 1B table to make the knockout stages of the competition.
Indeed, playing Kilkenny at Nowlan Park (left) should be a useful dress rehearsal for Laois boss Eddie Brennan, who takes his side to the venue for a Leinster Championship clash with his ex-boss Brian Cody on May 16.
Meanwhile, the games that fell victim to the weather earlier this month have been refixed for the weekend after next, when the
League quarter-finals were originally due to have been played.
Division 1A -Limerick v Waterford, LIT Gaelic Grounds, 7pm
Division 1A - Galway v Tipperary, Pearse Stadium, 2pm. Division 2A - Offaly v Antrim, Bord Na Mona O’connor Park, 2pm. Division 2B - Derry v Kildare, Celtic Park, 2pm. Division 3B Fermanagh v Sligo, Brewster Park, 2pm
CARL FRAMPTON is ready to go to war to become Ireland’s first-ever threeweight world champion.
The 33-year-old is expected to meet Jemel Herring for the American’s WBO world superfeatherweight title in Belfast later this year.
And Frampton knows if can beat the former US Marine he will cement his name in the pantheon of Irish boxing greats. Not that he is taking Herring lightly.
“It will be an extremely difficult night for me,” he said. “He is tall, rangy, southpaw, strong, very determined. But this is boxing at the very highest level. You don’t beat duds to win world titles.”