Advertisement
Darren Clarke has lost his fitness battle ahead of Sunday's clash with Laois. INPHO/Ryan Byrne
GAA

Laois and Louth name teams for Leinster Championship encounter

The Wee County will have three players making their Championship début.

THREE LOUTH PLAYERS will make their Championship débuts when they line out for the Wee County against Laois on Sunday.

Manager Aidan O’Rourke has named John Bingham, Conor Rafferty and Ciaran Byrne in the starting XV for the clash in Portlaoise.

Two of the changes were forced on O’Rourke because Conor McGuinness and Darren Clarke have failed to recover from injury in time.

Laois’ Justin McNulty, meanwhile, has named no fewer than 11 of the team who started their last Championship game of 2012 with Donie Kingston making a welcome return to the fold for the county.

The home team go into the fixture at O’Moore Park as slight favourites.

Laois: E Culliton; M Timmons, D Booth, P O’Leary; D Strong, J O’Loughlin (Capt), P McMahon; C Boyle, B Quigley; R Munnelly, D Kingston, C Begley; D O’Connor, G Walsh, C Kelly
Louth: N Gallagher; P Rath, D Finnegan, J Bingham; J O’Brien, D Crilly, A Reid; P Keenan, B Donnelly; A McDonnell, B White, C Rafferty; C Byrne, S Lennon, D Maguire

So where did it all go wrong for the Galway footballers last Sunday?

Kerry’s Donaghy on new management, veterans and the Europa League