Gavan Reilly, Killian Woods, Paul Fennessy, Richard Chambers and editor-in-waiting Bridget Fitzsimons discuss the climax of the Premier League season and José Mourinho’s inevitable move to Madrid; we preview Leinster’s upcoming glorious weekend – but tougher times on the horizon; we name our Premier League teams of the year and choose our World Cup tips; and Killian offers his Disgusting Team of the Season.

The Observer Sports Show is produced and presented by Gavan Reilly.

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Gavan Reilly, Killian Woods and Paul Fennessy discuss FA Cup developments, Tottenham’s crazy week and the ongoing race for fourth, and the Heineken Cup quarter-finals – while Bridget Fitzsimons and Catriona Laverty share their anticipation of a Fantasy Girls day out.

The Observer Sports Show is produced and presented by Gavan Reilly.

Click here to listen to the show, or click here to subscribe to the UO Sports Podcast in iTunes. Leave your comments in the field below, or send them to our Twitter!

UCD RFC played their last AIB League Division 2 game of the season against an Old Wesley side that still held aspirations of making the playoffs. The game also took on some extra importance with the return of former UCD captain Michael Hastings to the club he joined in late 2000. His return to Belfield didn’t start well, as UCD established a healthy lead in the opening stages of the game.

After kicking off proceedings, UCD managed to turn the ball over in the Old Wesley half and apply some serious pressure on the Wesley defence. A series of quick offloads kept UCD’s attack flowing and eventually led to their opening score: with UCD pushing closer and closer to blitzing the visitors with an early try, Old Wesley were penalised for hands in the ruck, allowing John Cooney to slot over a difficult penalty from the far right hand side. Five minutes later, Cooney extended his side’s lead further as he kicked another difficult penalty from the right touchline.

This was a great start to the game for UCD, as they looked good for the first try of the match. The try nearly came through an overlap created by UCD’s backs, which saw Collidge winger Rory Allwright bundled into touch as he dove for the line.

Even after 20 minutes, UCD were controlling possession and bossed healthy percentages for territory and used these positives to increase their lead to nine points from the boot of Cooney with just over 22 minutes gone. From this point, however, Old Wesley began to up their game and just before half time managed to overhaul UCD’s lead thanks to two tries in five minutes.

Wesley’s first try came after sustained pressure inside the UCD 22-metre line saw flanker Colin Wallace barge over, only for the conversion to be missed by fly half David Smith. The second try resulted from a mix-up in the UCD defence who assumed en masse that a penalty had been given. Luckily for Wesley, substitute winger Alan Thompson continued to chase the kick and gathered to give his side the lead, which Smith added to with the conversion.

With UCD only three points behind their opponents at half time, they were hardly out of this contest. Play at the start of the second half, however, took far more wind out of UCD as Wesley began to further dominate the contest. Indeed, it was heart-in-mouth time for UCD just four minutes in, after John Rowe made a clean break and offloaded to Carroll who tore up the pitch, looking likely to score Wesley’s third try of the afternoon. An unbelievable tackle by Andy Cummiskey denied Carroll his try, and averted UCD falling further behind.

Unfortunately this superb covering tackle was only prolonging the inevitable; Wesley scored their third of the afternoon thanks to a great move off a scrum in the UCD half creating a five-on-two overlap for the visitors and Thompson going over. A successful conversion brought Wesley’s lead to ten.

UCD narrowed the gap to three straight from the restart, thanks to a well-worked try crafted by centre Eoghan Conran and finished by winger Calibhe Doherty. With the game now entering the closing stages, Old Wesley were repelling UCD’s ventures forward and looking likely to see out the game, but in the dying minutes, UCD found themselves cemented deep in their own half conceding possession to Thompson who completed his hat-trick and rub salt into Collidge wounds.

The result leaves UCD 13^th of 16 sides in Division 2 after a long, tough season that saw the fruition of many young players such as Rhys Ruddock and Niall Earls. The season might not have been a classic, but the future look bright.

Eighty years after the tournament’s inauguration, we will finally see the first ever FIFA World Cup hosted on African soil when South Africa play host to some of the world’s finest football stars. Even after some minor scares in qualifying, all the coined ‘big nations’ have qualified for the prestigious competition with no major absence from any team to note.

CAF

Although much has been said about the possible capabilities of Ivory Coast and Ghana, the draw for the group stages was hardly kind to them. Ivory Coast being pitted against Brazil, Portugal and North Korea seems to be a step too far for the Elephants and even with Sven-Göran Eriksson at the helm, a group exit could be on the cards.

Likewise for Ghana, who will have to overcome Germany and Serbia to progress, so the possible African fairytale story could come from Nigeria or Cameroon. Cameroon have a good spine to their squad with the likes of Samuel Eto’o and Alex Song, where as Nigeria have an expert coach leading the way in Lars Lagerbäck. Unfortunately, South Africa and Algeria are too weak for this level and early group exits are definitely on the cards.

UEFA

It is not beyond possibility that the winner could originate from this pool of thirteen teams. Spain are touted as being the main contenders from this confederation, with their attractive and ruthless style of play from Euro 2008 expected to ease them through the competition. However, a strong push could be made by a host of European countries.

It is always dangerous to write off the Germans as they have proven in the past two World Cups. France could also pose a threat to any team and have a host of players who have performed well all season such as Florent Malouda and Franck Ribéry to call upon. Hysteria around England’s chances are building, while Portugal have Cristiano Ronaldo, a game-changing player who could be the difference in tight situations.

One team that could become a tricky opponent come the knockout stages is Serbia. They don’t boast many stars, but have a solid style of play that doesn’t see them concede many goals. It is likely that a European team will progress from at least seven of the eight groups – among them the Netherlands, who always flatter to deceive in the group stage with little end product.

CONMEBOL

The five South American representatives that have qualified for the tournament have won the competition nine times between them – equalling the European total – and two teams in particular could tip the records in their favour yet again. Brazil have developed into a menacing counter attacking side that can soak up pressure and pick off their opponents, while Argentina have finally created a settled team full of individually talented players.

Apart from Uruguay, who find themselves in a tricky group with Mexico and France, all South American teams should qualify from their groups. There is also a slight worry hanging over Chile, due to their lack of match practice coming into the tournament. Their recent friendly matches were called off after the devastating earthquake, while a game against Germany was also cancelled following the death of German keeper Robert Enke.

CONCACAF

Habitual qualifiers Mexico and United States will yet again compete at the World Cup. This tournament will mark the American’s sixth consecutive World Cup, compared to Mexico’s fifth. The other qualifier from this region, Honduras, make their first appearance since 1982 and will probably be mere attendees. USA are expected to qualify from their group, but Mexico will play second fiddle to France and Uruguay.

Asian and Oceania Football Federations

The five teams from these two confederations have found themselves in very difficult groups, and a spout of group stage eliminations could be expected. Nonetheless, these teams are all included in very tight groups that could arguably see a team progress with three draws or a solitary win. However, I wouldn’t hold out much hope for New Zealand.

We are now down to the wire in European Cup rugby, with Leinster flying high after their narrow one point victory over Clermont Auvergne. Their pulsating tie with the current French champions at the RDS typified the meeting of two teams with a thorough and comprehensive grasp on how to play an exciting brand of rugby that is pleasing on the eye.

Whether it was the sheer physicality on show or the pace these two sides managed to incorporate into their attack, Leinster and Clermont dispelled any thoughts that their individual attacking prowess would cancel each other out. The contest progressed in a prolonged end-to-end fashion in which both teams dominated particular sections of the game and for the Leinster’s part, maximized their effort-to-points ratio.

Looking for one specific aspect that allowed Leinster claim a narrow victory, one must look no further than the lack of a competent place-kicker in the Clermont team. Normally a clinical kicker in all manners, Brock James had – by any fly half’s standards – an unacceptable performance from the boot. The Australian kicker sacrificed a combined 23 points, missing four penalties, one conversion and three drop-goals.

Though expecting James to kick 100 per cent of his place kicks is asking for a very high standard, his missed conversion alone would have sufficed to see Clermont through to the semi-final – and even converting a handful of those opportunities would have seen his team comfortable winners. So if Brock James is to be so harshly singled out as the sole perpetrator for Clermont’s loss, then why should Jonathon Sexton not be individually praised for his key role?

Supposedly out of form coming into this crunch fixture, Sexton kicked 19 of Leinster’s 29 nine points, missing just one place kick in the process. It is always easy to single out one player for a loss, and the Irish public are renowned for scapegoating the fly half for a loss of any magnitude. Therefore in victory, a fly half who maximizes his teams points from place kicking to a rate of 87 per cent accuracy should be lauded as a game winner.

Although Sexton should be praised for his game-changing performance, light still needs to be shone on the worrying number of points Leinster conceded in a home game with so much at stake. As highlighted previously, Leinster could have found themselves on the wrong end of an irreversible points deficit if James had been more accurate with the boot. The Heineken Cup champions conceded eleven penalties, an unforgivable amount for a team at this level.

Giving away numerous penalties within the kicking range of an average fly half at such a high level of rugby almost invites any opposition to round off a game with ease. For future ties, Leinster cannot rely on any team being significantly weak in this fundamental area of modern day rugby.

The manner of this performance overall, though, would have to be pleasing for the Leinster coach Michael Cheika, even if they were the undeserved winners. Clermont Auvergne were never going to arrive for this Heineken Cup quarter final with a game plan revolving around anything but attacking rugby. Therefore, positives must be taken from the fact that Leinster managed to balance fending off the current French champions for large parts of the game, while still finding a method to enact their own style of attacking rugby.

It must not be taken for granted how difficult a job it was for Leinster to balance the defensive necessity with the need to beat their opponents at their own free-flowing rugby game. No team this season has come to the RDS and been capable of carrying their own game plan with the efficiency Clermont had on Friday evening, and it must be said that no other team is probably capable of doing so.

The visitors managed to win all five of their scrums against a ferocious Leinster front row containing Stan Wright, CJ van der Linde and Cian Healy in reserve, while also turning over two Leinster scrums. In addition, their domination in claiming eight of their own eleven lineouts, while sufficiently challenging Leinster at theirs, just shows how this marauding French team were very close to a win in all aspects of the game.

The statistics between the sides in all areas, apart from place kicking and penalties conceded, only minutely tip in the favour of Leinster, so on that basis the Blues were good for the win. The players and coaches can take solace in the fact that no team remaining in the competition will be able to match their own ruthlessness in defence, with particular reference to the breakdown where Clermont equalled Leinster’s 96 per cent recycling success rate, and their 85 per cent success in the tackle.

Figuratively speaking, Leinster have contested a mini-final – and in doing so overcame a major hurdle. Their combination of luck and sheer efficiency has pulled them through. Roll on France.

It’s a bumper show this week with six in the studio, as Killian Woods, Richard Chambers and Paul Fennessy join Gavan Reilly to talk about UCD’s two successive 0-0 draws in the Airtricity League and the fortunes of the American Football Club – as well as Manchester United’s horror week in the Premier League and Champions Leagues, Tiger Woods’ return at the US Masters and the weekend’s Heineken Cup action and the Aintree Grand National. Bridget Fitzsimons and Catriona Laverty also drop by to keep us updated on their fortunes in the topsy-turvy world of Fantasy Premier League. All this plus Fenno’s Preddos, Killian’s Disgusting Team of the Week and more!

The Observer Sports Show is produced and presented by Gavan Reilly.

Click here to listen to the show, or click here to subscribe to the UO Sports Podcast in iTunes. Leave your comments in the field below, or send them to our Twitter!

Killian Woods, Paul Fennessy and Richard Chambers chat about the absence of Wayne Rooney, the chances of United’s Champions League, UCD’s recent triumph over Bray Wanderers, Argentina’s entry into the Tri Nations Tournament, the continuing controversy over Caster Semenya and the mixed fortunes of the Formula 1 season.

The Observer sports show is hosted and produced by Gavan Reilly.

Click this link to listen to the podcast… UO Sports Podcast: March 31st, 2010 …or click here to subscribe to the Observer sports show in iTunes.

(Apologies for the scratchy audio quality this week – the environs were quite loud with the UCD Musical Society production of Glee in the adjacent theatre!)

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Mountain Running

The first confined college championships was held on the 800 metre course in Camaderry with athletes from UCD, DIT, IT Tallaght, NUI Galway, Trinity College, Queens Belfast University and Galway-Mayo IT all competing for honours.

UCD’s team consisting of Eoin Brady, Tim Grummell and Michael Hickey finished third overall in the competition with the team members finishing sixth, seventh and sixteenth respectively. Brady trailed DIT’s Eoin Pierce at the front for most of the race, but neither the UCD runner nor Pierce could sustain their pressure, as both were overtaken by eventual winner Gerard Butler.

Sailing

UCD Sailing Club had a successful time on a recent trip to Scotland as they won the Scottish University Championships, which was recently hosted by University of Strathclyde Sailing Club. The club made an impressive start to the tournament by winning all four races in the pool stage of the round robin competition.

UCD were pitted against SUSA Old Boys in their semi-final, where a series of dramatic events for the UCD team triggered by a gear failure led to a tight race. The team were granted a redress and despite further problems with the rudder, UCD went on to claim a 2-0 win over their Scottish opponents and win a place in the final against Edinburgh.

After their opponents had claimed victory in the Irish University Sailing Intervarsity last month, UCD had their work cut out in the final. However, continuing their good form in the competition, UCD overcame Edinburgh to claim the Scottish Champions title.

Squash

Following their success in the Colours competition against Trinity College last semester, UCD Squash Club emerged victorious in the annual Irish squash intervarsities, held over two days in Cork last weekend. The men’s A team (pictured L-R) of David Tighe, Dave Corbett, Stephen Meredith, Tariq Zaki and Ray Byrne overcame their counterparts from Trinity and UCC to claim the title for a third successive year.

The men’s B, C and D teams and UCD’s ladies team also put in strong performances in a series of matches against Trinity, UCC, DCU and RCSI.

December 2009 was a very successful month for UCD’s Swimming and Waterpolo Club as they recorded one of their greatest successes to date when the Club competed in the annual Swimming and Lifesaving Intervarsity Championships.

Niall McCauley, Claire O’Donovan and Earl McCarthy presenting the Ladies Swimming Intervarsities Award and the Mark McGann Memorial Cup to Brian Mullins, UCD Director of Sport. Photo: Killian Woods

The event, hosted by DCU in Donaghmede Leisure Centre, was a tremendous success for the 21-strong UCD team. The women’s team in particular were very successful, winning the overall best team award with 62 points, beating Trinity College (45 points) and NUI Maynooth (34 points) into second and third place respectively.

Their male counterparts finishing second in their category to NUI Maynooth, who boasted a 35 strong swim team, and who finished just six points ahead of UCD’s point tally of 111.

There were many standout performers for UCD at the event, with 2008 Olympian Aisling Cooney, Julie Galloway, and Grace Sweeney all winning medals, while David Cooney, Vincent McArdle and Paul Murphy also did well throughout and deserved their medals in the men’s events.

Even though UCD were pipped to victory in the men’s event, the club’s medal haul was very impressive and reflected the strides that they have taken in recent years. The club contested 18 out of 29 finals and won a remarkable 25 medals, which included 13 golds as well as six silver and six bronze medals.

UCD’s coach and former Olympian (Atlanta 1996) Earl McCarthy spoke to The University Observer about the event, saying the competitions “was one of the most competitive in many years. Overall it was a fantastic performance from UCD Swimming. Our women’s team dominated, winning overall best team award and UCD men’s team fought a tough battle gaining second place behind Maynooth.”

McCarthy continued that “NUIM have been running a well established scholarship team for many years now so it looks like Varsities swimming is going to have a challenging yet successful future.”

UCD Marian took on Trinity College last Friday evening at the Trinity Sports centre in a thrilling encounter which saw UCD originally build up an early lead, only for their rivals to come roaring back late on.

The first quarter of the game saw UCD Marian establish a healthy 16-point lead over their opponents. Both sides exchange points in the first five minutes of the game, however, impressive scores from Matt Kelly and Daniel James’s six-point haul set them apart from their opponents.

Ending the first quarter with 26 points to Trinity’s 10, UCD were very much in control of the game and used this comfortable platform to maintain their lead throughout the second quarter. Conor James was one of UCD’s standout performers in this quarter as his 12-point haul in this quarter alone was the difference between the two sides.

With a 15-point lead at half time, Marian looked likely to go on and claim a comfortable victory. However, they could not have expected a resurgent Trinity to peg them back in the third quarter and heavily reduce UCD’s established lead.  By the end of the third quarter Trinity had managed to cut the gap to just three points, with only UCD’s ability to keep the scoreboard ticking over sustaining a narrow lead.

After building momentum towards the end of the third quarter, Trinity looked set to overhaul UCD’s lead entirely. Their efforts were met with stiff opposition as UCD relentlessly continued to counter-attack, and UCD further extended their lead before the end of the game through Daniel James, Paddy Young and Conor James. Marian saw out the game with a long period of possession to secure them the Colours bragging rights.

Overall it was an impressive performance from UCD Marian. Brothers Conor and Daniel James were standout performers for their side throughout scoring 25 and 15 points respectively.

UCD Marian: Mike Higgins, Conor James, Daniel James, Paddy Young, Matt Kelly, Donal O’Sullivan, Dave Guilmartin, Cathal O’Brien, Barry O’Connor, John Young, Conor Gordon