D Friday, September 11, 2009 METROSPORT 25 Play-off spectacular: Horgan RUGBY maGneRs leaGUe Quinlan back in Munster line-up AlAn QuinlAn and John Hayes will make their seasonal debuts when Munster take on the Cardiff Blues in Thomond Park tonight. The only other change in the starting line-up from the defending champions Magners league opener against Glasgow sees Barry Murphy start at centre. Quinlan, who has not played since receiving a 12-week ban for eye-gouging leinsters leo Cullen in the Heineken Cup semi-final, said: im delighted to be pulling on the Munster shirt again. i feel in good shape but its a big step up from training and i cant wait to get out on the pitch. Munster (v Cardiff): F Jones; D Howlett, B Murphy, L Mafi, D Hurley; J Manning, P Stringer; M Horan, D Fogarty, J Hayes; M ODriscoll capt, D Ryan; A Quinlan, N Ronan, D Leamy. Horgan plays down part of marked men SHAne HorGAn has admitted leinsters Heineken Cup triumph has fixed something of a bullseye on the province this season, writes Gareth Makim, but the ireland international says the valuable Magners league points on offer each week will mean much more to the opposition than the european champions scalp. leinster take on the Dragons at the rDS tomorrow night hoping to get their season up and running following defeat by the Scarlets in llanelli last weekend. And Horgan is keen to make sure the province put some points on the board in what is sure to be a tight race for a top-four spot and a place in the new end-of-season play-offs. Asked if leinster were now seen as a bigger scalp by their rivals, Horgan said: To some degree, yeah. if you look at the competition, in the Magners every team is capable of beating every other team. Were just one weekend in and some of the teams that would be expected to win lost, and others that wouldnt be fancied did well. it is a bit of scalp to beat leinster, but more than that teams are looking for those four points, to put themselves in a position like we are, to be in the top four at Christmas and be in with a shout of the competition. Thats the major scalp for everybody its points because they are so hard to come by. on the new play-off system, Horgan added: There is something spectacular when you get to a final and there is that winner-takes-all scenario. Fans like that, its good for the game. [You lose] the reward for being top of the league but its not as if they tell you with three games to go that it is going to be a play-off. SPORT Digest Good finish: McIlroy FORMULA ONE: Fernando Alonso said allegations that his Renault team staged an accident to help the double world champion win last years Singapore Grand Prix had surprised him as much as anyone. It is difficult to understand all this situation, all these investigations, the Spaniard said yesterday. I am very surprised. I cannot imagine these things or this situation. Former champions Renault are due to appear before the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) on September 21 to answer charges that they ordered Brazilian Nelson Piquet to crash in the night race a year ago. snooker: ken Doherty continued his return to form by reaching the last eight of the shanghai Masters with a 5-4 victory over englands Barry Hawkins yesterday. The Dubliner reached his first ranking quarter-final in more than two years and will now face the in-form shaun Murphy after he whitewashed Jamie Cope in just 76 minutes. ronnie osullivan advanced with a controlled 5-2 win over Hong kongs Marco Fu to set a clash with Chinese superstar Ding Junhui. osullivan said: Ive always wanted to play Ding in China, hes a class act and to play him in front of his fans will be great. GOLF: Irelands Rory McIlroy made a solid start to the Kolon- Hana Bank Korea Open as five players claimed a share of the lead at the end of yesterdays first round. McIlroy, 20, started on the back nine and though he reached the turn in two over he recovered with three birdies to return to the clubhouse with a level par 71 that left him four shots off the pace. South Koreans Kim Dae-sub, Kang Kyung-sool, Kim Dae-hyun, Park Boo-won and Australian Michael Wright finished the day in a tie for the lead on four-under-par 67. Its a difficult course, really quite tight so level par is not a bad start. I did well to get things back to even, said McIlroy. Kernan clash of styles intrigues Tribes BerginBy Paul keane Big day out: kilkenny under-21 captain Davy langton and Clare counterpart Ciaran oDoherty will do battle on sunday Picture: Sportsfile Joe Bergin has admitted he does not know how galways traditional silken skills will mix with new boss Joe Kernans Ulster steel. Armagh legend Kernan has been handed a three- year deal with the Tribesmen, affording him plenty of time to implement a new style of play. He took over his native Armagh in 2002 and de- veloped a defence-first strategy which yielded one All-ireland title and four Ulster wins before he stepped down in 2007. But a defensive approach is completely at odds with galways tradition for playing fast and attrac- tive football and long-serving midfielder Bergin said he is not quite sure how things will pan out. its no secret that theres a completely different mindset in Ulster where Joe comes from and hell bring whatever experiences he has from northern football, said Bergin. At the same time, the way he operated with Ar- magh might not necessarily work with galway or suit our team. Who knows? Those are the sort of things hell have to iron out in the coming months. The galway squad met up last night to discuss arrangements for their upcoming FBD League Fi- nal with hosts newYork on october 11 but Kernan was not in attendance as he is still on holiday. Bergin is committed to his 11th season as a gal- way player and hopes the high-profile appointment will convince other elder players to stay on too. At the end of the day it will be Joes decision who he wants to play, said Bergin. Well all have to prove were worth keeping. galway enjoyed a decent 2008 campaign under Liam Sammon and looked to be All-ireland con- tenders before losing to Mayo and Donegal in the championship. Perhaps Kernans steel is just what they need. You can never have enough steel through your team, said Bergin. Theres definitely room for improvement in that regard. Gaa foRmUla one italian GRand pRix Cats U-21s out to emulate seniors kIlkenny under-21 captain Davy langton insists he would rather win his own all-Ireland title than celebrate the seniors success. The kilkenny u-21s aim to replicate the senior teams win at Croke Park when they face Clare there this sunday in the underage decider. Munster champions Clare will be fully focused on claiming a first ever title after reaching the final with a thrilling semi-final win over Galway. But Cats captain langton insists his team will be equally tuned in despite a week of partying in the county. I suppose its hard to stay away from the celebrations but Id much rather play in an all-Ireland final any day than go and celebrate someone elses victory, said langton. all you can do is concentrate on your own match, thats enough motivation to stay away from anything else. ForMer world champion nigel Mansell has warned Jenson Button he will never have a better chance of winning the world title as he prepares for the run-in to the season finale. Button is currently 16 points clear of Brawn gP team-mate rubens Barrichello in the standings with just five races remaining. But the 29-year-old has endured a poor run of results since winning in Turkey in June with a fifth-placed finish his best effort in the last five races. Mansell dominated from the front to win the 1992 crown for Williams and believes Button will regret it for the rest of his career if he throws away this seasons title. Jenson has got himself into a wonderful position. He has a 16- point lead and he should really sew up the championship from that position, he said. He needs to shake himself up a bit. He has gone off the boil in recent races and at the moment you would have to say he is being outdriven by his team- mate. He added: He needs to get a grip right now because he will never have a better opportunity to be world champion. These chances do not come along very often and if he lets this one slip through his fingers, hell never forgive himself. 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