Cork City game with Shamrock Rovers called off an hour before kick-off as weather wipes out GAA fixture list

The relentless rain across the last week wreaked havoc on the fixture list for Cork clubs with Cork City the worst hit after their clash with Shamrock Rovers was postponed an hour before kick-off on Sunday evening.

The SSE Airtricity League Premier Division tie in Tallaght was subject to pitch inspections at 11.15am and 4pm but the surface was deemed too waterlogged at 5pm, at which point both teams had named their starting line-ups and Cork City fans had already travelled.

City drew with Galway United at Turner's Cross in their opening game of the campaign while Rovers had lost a derby against Bohemians which was held at the Aviva. The dominant force in League of Ireland had also suffered a crushing penalty shootout loss to Molde in the Europa League on Thursday night.

Given their hectic opening to the season, Rovers will probably be relieved to regroup but City will be left fuming by the call after they'd already incurred the costs of heading to Dublin.

The Rebel Army will be in action twice next weekend, on Friday night at the Cross against Bohs and on Monday, March 3 at 7.45pm in Waterford.

BRUTAL

Closer to home, the brutal weather saw a host of U21 finals and semi-finals put on hold as clubs were forced to pull their pitches. The Seandún A decider between Nemo Rangers and Douglas, the South East showdown between Carrigaline and Kinsale and the Muskerry final which paired Éire Óg and Ballincollig were among the casualties. 

In West Cork, the Carbery division had already taken the decision midweek to put their competition back until later in the summer. How they will stack up against the county and divisional round-robin series by then remains to be seen.

The Cork County Board had designated Sundays in February for U21 football activity with the inter-county minor and U20 squads taking priority now across the spring with the Munster championships commencing shortly.

There could be a chance in late May before the Leaving Cert to finish the divisional U21 sections, depending on how the Cork teams fare. 

BOUNCE

Meanwhile, on the basketball front on Sunday, Ireland concluded their FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Pre-Qualifying campaign with an impressive 79-64 away win over Azerbaijan. 

There was a very strong Cork presence in the 12-man squad, with Jordan Blount and Kyle Hosford in the starting five and Adrian O'Sullivan, David Lehane, Sean Jenkins and James Hannigan also getting game-time.

It left Ireland with a 3-3 record in Group A and it was an impressive recovery from a heavy loss to Switzerland on Thursday.

Ireland led this game in Baku from start to finish and got off to an early 4-0 lead through baskets from Hosford and John Carroll in the opening minute.

Captain Sean Flood began this contest brightly and his second from three-point line helped put Ireland 12-8 up midway through the opening quarter. Their advantage was five points by the end of the first, 21-16, following a pair of Flood free throws.

It was 41-30 at half-time, with Flood on 16 points, but Azerbaijan made a blistering start to the third quarter. 

It was 48-45 when the hosts' scoring sequence was snapped by a timely Jordan Blount deep three.

Azerbaijan got within six points, 59-53 in the final quarter but Ireland responded decisively with back-to-back threes courtesy of Blount and Flood. 

Head coach Mark Keenan said: "It’s not easy to come here and get back up after Thursday’s game, but credit to the lads, they were very composed. They rattled us a little bit with the zone at the start of the second half, but we steadied the ship and we managed to keep that cushion. They got within four, but we responded then, so it was great to be able to close it out with a little less pressure on in the last minute."