The weekends promise of incredible sport did not disappoint with a host of action across the globe.
Closer to home, the hurling championships continued in Munster and Leinster with plenty of action in the early stages of the football championship nationwide.
Munster were in Ulster for the URC and Treaty United continued their unbeaten run in the first division of the Airtricity League.
The race at both ends of the premier league table also heated up with the Grand Prix at Imola taking place as the NBA playoffs continued.
Check out the recap below.
GAA
Limerick managed to defeat Waterford in a thrilling championship match, with the Shannonsiders winning out 0-30 to 2-21. It was incredibly high scoring game with both sides were on top form, but the Shannonsiders were able to pull away just enough to clinch the victory
Clare and Tipperary also clashed in the Munster Championship at Semple Stadium in Thurles. Even with home advantage Tipperary were not able to overcome the performance Clare displayed. With the score line settled at fulltime at 3-21 to 2-16 it showed Clare’s dominance and Tipperary’s lack of any sort of foothold in the game.
In the Leinster Hurling Championship Wexford narrowly lost out to Dublin on Saturday. The final score was 0-23 to 0-24 in the blues favour.
Kilkenny ran away with the match in their clash against Laois winning 2-34 to 1-14. Galway gave a similar performance to Kilkenny as they smashed Westmeath in a 3-36 to 1-17 victory.
In the Connacht football championship, Galway overcame rivals Mayo for the first time under Padraig Joyce’s tutelage while Donegal earned a huge victory over Armagh in Ulster.
Rugby
Munster were in action on Friday as they took on Ulster at the Kingspan Stadium. The URC clash was highly anticipated with Ulster sat third in the table with Munster at fifth.
Ulster couldn’t find a way to overcome Munster and the game finished 17 -24 to the red province. Munster started the scoring with Stephen Archer and Keith Earls getting tries in the first half as they lead the game 15-3 going into the second period. Joey Carbery had a notable game from the boot as he kept the board ticking over.
Leinster took on the C Cell Sharks in their URC clash. Leinster fielded what could be described as a ‘B’ team with many youngsters involved. This was possibly the wrong decision however as the Blues suffered a close 28-23 to the South African side. Connacht took on the Emirates Lions in South Africa at the weekend in what could have been the game of the weekend. it was an incredibly hard victory that shows the grit and skill brewing in Connacht. The dragons suffered defeat as they faced the Scarlets in an all Welsh clash. The score line of 19-38 shows the gulf between the two sides. The Vodcom Bulls dispatched Benetton in similar fashion with a 46-29 score line.
Notable Scores for the weekend
Ulster 17-24 Munster
C Cell Sharks 28-23 Leinster
Emirates Lions 30-33 Connacht
Soccer
Treaty United were held to a goalless draw against Longford Town to extend their unbeaten run to six games in a row. Treaty currently sit at fifth in the League of Ireland First Division and ten points behind leaders Cork. The league leaders overcame Cobh Ramblers with a 3-2 victory in Cork.
Waterford had a comfortable 2-0 win over Wexford on Friday, Galway followed suit as they defeated Bray 2-0 also.
In the Premier League there was much action at either end as league leaders Manchester City maintained their narrow grip of the top of the table after a thumping 5-1 win over Watford. Liverpool kept up their hot pursuit of last years champions as they won 2-0 in the Merseyside derby against Everton with just a point seperating the sides.
Manchester United suffered a demoralising 3-1 defeat to Arsenal to dent their slim top four hopes.
Burnley’s 1-0 over Wolves helped in their hopes of Premier League survival after they sacked long term boss Sean Dyche.
Norwich find themselves in a hopeless position as they suffered a 3-0 defeat to Newcastle, and it looks like they wont be able to escape the drop once again.
Basketball
The NBA Playoffs are in full swing as each of teams look to progress to the second round.
The Denver Nugget and the Golden State Warriors each got a win in their series this weekend. The Warriors brought the series to 3-0 on Friday, Jordan Poole was the standout player as he put up 27 points.
In the reverse game MVP Nikola Jokic led his team to their first victory of the series bringing some new hopes of progression for the Nuggets.
The Milwaukee Bucks added two wins to their series against the Bulls to make the 3-1. The New Orleans Pelicans tied their series with the Phoenix Suns at two games each last night as they look to upset the No.1 seed.
The Boston Celtics added another win over the Brooklyn Nets to bring the series to 3-0. Boston now have a great chance to complete the four game sweep tonight at midnight.
To cap off the weekend the Minnesota Timberwolves defeated the Memphis Grizzlies to tie their series at two games a piece going into this weeks games.
Formula 1
The Formula 1 was back once again at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen was the story of the weekend. The World Champion raced beautifully at both the qualifying and the sprint race before Sunday’s Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz split the two Red Bulls on the starting grid on Sunday as they qualified Second and Fourth respectively.
The race on Sunday had many talking points, on the first turn Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari was beached on the gravel after Daniel Riccardo made contact on his left rear tire. The Ferrari driver finished last overall as result. Max Verstappen was comfortably in first position the whole race as he looked like he was just having fun driving that Red Bull.
Charles Leclerc was in hot pursuit of Sergio Perez in Second. A misjudged corner dashed these hopes as the man from Monaco spun out dropping down to eighth. He managed t put his Ferrari back to sixth but Ferrari were still left with a disappoint weekend in Italy.
With no competition for the two Red Bulls in front they easily sauntered over the line for a 1-2 finish and maximum points for the weekend with Lando Norris in third.
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