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For Jimmy OBrien, there was little solace to be taken in the fact that he stood up and was counted on the biggest day of a burgeoning career in Marseille.

My girlfriend tried telling me that as well, the Kildare native shrugged when it was put to him that he had a good game against La Rochelle last Saturday.

I told her I would have taken playing the worst game of my career if we had won and I would have taken a red card, doing everything bad, missing every tackle, dropping every ball if we had just won.

Its very, very difficult.

Its been a brilliant year for a player once tipped for big things by Isa Nacewa and despite his disappointment, he has his hand firmly in the air for selection for tomorrows United Rugby Championship final eight clash with Glasgow Warriors at the RDS.

Its been a tough week around Leinsters UCD base, but theyve been using their hurt as motivation for taking down the Scots and booking their space in the finalfour.

We still have the URC to play for, its a knockout game, a quarter-final at home, so it is still an exciting game to play in and everyones looking forward to it, OBrien said.

I hadnt really played knockout rugby for Leinster up until this season so, yeah, I really want to play in these big games and hopefully we still have three big knockout games to come, starting this weekend against Glasgow.

Id love to play in it, theyre still massive games and Id love to play in another final and try to win one.

Theyre a very good side; tough to play against.

The one game that stands out in my mind is that Rainbow Cup game last year when we were over there and they beat us.

They really got into us and got a good win out of it and that really p***ed us off, we were very frustrated.

Long-term, OBriens focus is already on next season and going one step further in the Champions Cup.

You kind of have to remember how you felt right after it in the changing room and use that for next season, he said.

Didnt the final get announced for the Aviva next year, thats even another motivation, to get to the final at home.

Were just going to have to try to use the pain.

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'My girlfriend tried telling me that as well' - Good final performance no consolation for Jimmy O'Brien - Independent.ie

WHEN HE WAS left out of Irelands squad for the Six Nations in January, Ulster out-half Billy Burns was brutally honest when asked to reflect on losing his place in the international set-up.

I was disappointed but I probably dont warrant my selection at the moment, he told BBC Sport Northern Ireland in early February. Im still trying to get that consistency week on week, to back up my performances.

Since then hes got the consistency part right, starting all but two of Ulsters games from the start of the Six Nations to the present day and leading the line against the likes of Leinster and Toulouse, and then in big United Rugby Championship games against Edinburgh and the Cell C Sharks.

Burns form played a big part in helping the province secure a home quarter-final in the URC tonight against Munster [KO 7.35pm, live on Premier Sports 2, TG4] and, despite the temptation to move Mike Lowry to stand-off or bring in the experience of Ian Madigan, it has been the former Gloucester man who has been consistently relied upon by head coach Dan McFarland.

Whether Andy Farrell has seen enough to bring him back into the Ireland fold for the upcoming tour of New Zealand is yet to be seen, but he has surely done enough to at least warrant being back in the conversation. But impressing the national coach isnt the main goal for Burns himself, hes only interested in the man in the mirror.

Personally Ive been really happy this year Ive been able to put back-to-back performances in, says the 27-year-old.

Thats been a real issue since I came to the club in terms of picking up little injuries, but this year is the first year where Ive been able to play 80 minutes in games as much as I can. From doing that, Im more comfortable on the pitch, I feel like Im seeing pictures on pitch quicker and being able to react quicker.

In terms of my form, yeah, Im doing okay. Im hard on myself, Im my own harshest critic, but I just focus on doing my job to the best of my ability and getting results at the weekend. I feel Im in a good position but theres still definitely room for improvement.

Of course, given the nature of tonights game being an inter-pro and with someone who will be competing with him for a place on that plane opposing him in Joey Carbery, the usual head-to-head storyline is rolled out. But, once again, thats something that Burns is not concerning himself with.

Joeys someone Ive worked with a lot in Ireland camp and learned a lot off. I think hes a great player. But I tend not to look much into playing for international spots because its probably an added pressure I dont need. I put enough pressure on myself to perform well, he adds.

So, with the pressure taken off the individual battle, the focus shifts to the war as a whole and the fight to make it into the URC semi-finals at Kingspan Stadium this evening, with neither side willing to see their seasons end in the first week of June.

For Ulster, the fear that both their domestic and European campaigns could come to an end on home soil is a very real one. After being beaten by Toulouse in Belfast, which knocked them out of the Heineken Champions Cup at the last-16 stage, there is a powerful motivating factor for them not to do likewise in the URC.

Ulster take on Munster in Belfast tonight. Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO

Understandably, drawing on that gut-wrenching disappointment against the French giants is at the forefront of the mind this week and making sure they dont repeat that feat against their southern cousins. Fortunately, there is plenty they can use.

I genuinely feel like we prepared well for that game. Weve got a lot of guys who have been around the squad for a long time and we all know you dont get these knockout games at home very often. We didnt handle the occasion well, I think we went into our shell a bit in that second leg and that might have punished us late in that second game, recalls Burns.

We learned a lot. There were a few things that didnt go our way on the night. Probably over the two legs, we didnt make the most of the period when they were down a man over there, we probably didnt build ourselves a big enough lead even though we backed ourselves to get the job done at home.

We learned huge amounts in terms of how we approach games. Win or lose, you learn something every week, but this is our first knockout game since then so well see if weve learned those lessons. Hopefully those hard lessons weve learned, as hard as they were, we can turn those learnings into a good result.

A good result would set up a semi-final away to either the DHL Stormers or Edinburgh, but first they need to overcome a Munster side that already have experience of triumphing at Kingspan Stadium having caught Ulster flat-footed after that Toulouse disappointment at the tail end of April.

Get closer to the stories that matter with exclusive analysis, insight and debate in The42 Membership.

Indeed, at that time there were fears that Ulsters season could completely go off the rails and that they had simply run out of steam, but they recovered well with wins over Edinburgh and the Sharks, and Burns insists they are peaking at just the right time for a play-off run.

We still have plenty left in the tank, he maintains.

Our season has gone up and down a bit. We probably played our best rugby around Christmas-time and around the start of the New Year, and then we had a dip around when we went to South Africa. We learned a lot of lessons from those games, and obviously in Europe as well.

The Sharks game was nowhere near perfect but we were back on trend a bit, and we have to be at our best this weekend because theyre a top quality team.

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'We still have plenty left in the tank' - Burns braced for Munster challenge - The42

Zach Diewert, right, and Southeastern teammates Thomas Broyles, middle, an outfielder, and Stephen Cullen, left, an infielder. (Photo submitted)

Southeastern only two wins away from taking the NAIA title

Chemainus Zach Diewert and his Southeastern University teammates are just two wins away from potentially becoming National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics World Series baseball champions.

Related story: Diewert bound for NAIA college baseball World Series

Top-seeded Southeastern University Fire is in Lewiston, Idaho where the team has won the first three games of the tournament to reach the final four.

Southeastern overcame a 6-0 deficit in the opening game Saturday against Georgia Gwinnett and prevailed 9-7 with two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning. Diewert got into the game as a pinch runner and scored a run.

Southeastern then also trailed 3-2 in the fifth inning Monday before rallying to beat LSU Shreveport 8-4. Diewert had one at-bat as a pinch hitter, but struck out.

The latest action was Tuesday when Southeastern broke open a 3-3 tie with two runs in the fifth and three in the sixth en route to a 9-5 triumph against host Lewis-Clark State of Idaho. Diewert did not see any action in that game.

Next game is Wednesday night when the two undefeated teams in the double knockout event square off, with Southeastern facing No. 2 Tennessee Wesleyan at 6:30 p.m. Pacific Time. Lewis-Clark State meets LSU Shreveport Wednesday afternoon in a knockout game.

Southeastern now sports a remarkable 57-3 record for the season. Tennessee Wesleyan is 56-7.

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Diewert and teammates close in on World Series baseball title - Chemainus Valley Courier

GARY BENNETT wants Wrexham to come flying out of the blocks when his former club kick-off a 15th season in non-league.

The Reds promotion dream came to an end on Saturday following a heartbreaking 5-4 defeat against Grimsby Town in the play-off semi-final at The Racecourse.

After making a slow start to the campaign, Wrexham were one of the divisions in-form teams following the turn of the year and took the title race down to the final round of fixtures before finishing runners-up behind champions Stockport County.

Wrexham legend Bennett wants his former club to recapture that form from the start when the 2022-23 National League season kicks off on Saturday August 6.

We have got to hit the ground running next season, said Bennett.

We got off to a sluggish start this season and with only one team going up, we have got to make sure we start off like we did at the back end of the season.

You cant afford to get off to a sluggish start or flat patches, you have got to hit the ground running.

Poor defending proved to be Wrexhams downfall in the knockout game with Grimsby scoring the winner with one minute left in extra-time.

I am not going to tell Phil Parkinson his job because he has done a great job, said Bennett.

He will know it needs a little bit of tinkering and maybe we need to bring a midfielder in and sort it out at the back because some of the goals we conceded against Grimsby were poor.

It was poor defending but I will put all that down to the game being what it was - a one-off semi-final, full-house at The Racecourse.

It was just one of those mad games that every now and again you are involved in, it was just unfortunate we were on the wrong end of it.

Bennett added: With the team we have got we are always going to score goals.

A play-off semi-final, the game was unreal - you dont expect 5-4.

End-to-end, lots of goals and the referees performance left a lot to be desired.

There were some strange decisions, even the late goal that Grimsby scored he was marking the pitch to get the yards from throwing the ball - I have never seen that in all my time watching football, it was bizarre."

Bennett expected Grimsby, who beat Notts County 2-1 after extra-time in the play-off eliminator last Monday, to fade when the clash with Wrexham finished 4-4 inside 90 minutes.

"That is football, it is small margins. Unluckily it didn't fall for us," said Bennett.

"Respect to Grimsby they played Monday and we had a week off, when we went to extra-time I thought they would tire but they didn't, they kept going to the end.

"Good luck to Grimsby but from a Wrexham point of view, absolutely devastated."

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Wrexham legend Gary Bennett reflects on play-off heartbreak - The Leader

Under subpoena from city elections officials, a former GOP ward leader refused to testify this week about his role in diverting mail ballots requested by dozens of Republican voters in South Philadelphia to a P.O. box he controlled.

Billy Lanzilotti invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination through a letter sent by his lawyer Thursday, the same day he had been summoned to appear at a hearing of the Philadelphia City Commissioners.

His refusal to attend along with testimony at the hearing from voters he and others helped to apply for ballots escalates concerns that the effort may have violated the law. Lanzilottis actions had already led to his ouster from his ward leader position and raised concerns about the integrity of the ballots.

Leonard Armstrong, 71, told the commissioners Lanzilotti helped him fill out his ballot application, delivered his ballot, and then dropped it in the mail for him after hed filled it out.

It already had postage, so I didnt see any big deal about it. I didnt know what I was getting involved in, he said during a hearing at the Guerin Recreation Center, in the same South Philadelphia neighborhood where Lanzilotti based his ballot effort.

State law requires voters to return their own ballots unless they have a disability. Third-party ballot delivery what Republicans call ballot harvesting is forbidden. Armstrong said he didnt know that.

It was the first [time I voted by mail], he said. And it will be the last, I can tell you that. Even on my deathbed, it will be my last.

Questioned by the commissioners, Armstrong said he knew he was requesting a mail ballot, but not that it was going to a P.O. box.

Neither did the two other voters who testified Thursday after being subpoenaed. They said they never received the ballots they had applied for the ones sent to Lanzilottis P.O. box, which is also the mailing address for a Republican political action committee he had registered a few months earlier. Both voters used new ballots after elections officials, concerned about what Lanzilotti was up to, reached out to them, voided their original ballots, and sent replacements to their homes.

The voters said those ballots were legitimate and should be counted. City elections officials agreed and voted Friday to accept them, as well as those of three other voters Lanzilotti or others working with him had helped.

I do not believe the voters did anything wrong that would warrant their ballots not being counted, Chris OHara, an investigator for the commissioners, said Thursday. He had interviewed several of the voters and helped them obtain replacement ballots.

Though he refused to testify, Lanzilotti maintained in earlier interviews with The Inquirer that he had done nothing wrong.

He has since referred all questions to his attorney, A. Charles Peruto Jr., who said Friday that his client had made a simple mistake. Lanzilotti stopped his ballot delivery efforts after a May 6 story in The Inquirer raised questions about his effort, Peruto said. That could explain why some voters didnt receive their original ballots, he said, Lanzilotti had them and never delivered them.

He just froze up and did nothing. He stopped, Peruto said. We intend to answer the charges, if any are brought. There was no criminal intent.

The District Attorneys Office has said it is aware of the matter but spokesperson Jane Roh has declined to say whether it is investigating. A representative from the office attended Thursdays hearing.

Lanzilotti has maintained that he had only been offering a service to the voters when he and a few others associated with his political action committee, the Republican Registration Coalition, began knocking on doors in South Philadelphia, offering to help Republicans sign up to vote by mail.

He acknowledged filling out the address portion of the voters ballot applications, inserting his P.O. box instead of the voters home addresses. He said he had their ballots sent to him so they could be hand-delivered by someone they trusted.

It is not illegal for voters to request to have their mail ballots sent to an address other than their own. However, state law requires them to fill out and deliver their applications and ballots themselves, with an exception for disabled voters, who must explicitly acknowledge they had help from a third party in filling out their forms or mailing their ballots.

No such signatures appeared on any of the 39 mail ballot applications submitted by Lanzilotti or those working with him. And in several cases, the addresses were written in the same handwriting across multiple forms while the rest of the forms appeared individually filled out.

Several of the voters whose applications were requested through Lanzilotti told The Inquirer they had no idea who the men were when they showed up at their doors, though they accepted the help applying for mail ballots.

I dont even know who he was, Jackie OKeefe, one of the affected voters who testified at Thursdays hearing, said of the man who assisted her in filling out her application. He told me his name, but I have no clue who he was.

Lanzilotti has faced professional repercussions from his party which has run candidates who have attacked mail voting and falsely portrayed it as rife with abuse since The Inquirer first reported on his ballot effort.

His fellow Republican ward leaders ousted him from his post leading the 39th Ward in South Philadelphia, and he was barred from holding any party office in the city in the future. He also lost a job working on the reelection campaign of U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R., Bucks).

Lanzilotti had been running for ward leader in the 26th Ward, where his mail ballot effort was focused.

Two other men working with Lanzilotti Shamus ODonnell, 27, and C.J. Parker, 24, were also fired from roles with the state Republican Party.

See the rest here:
Philly officials subpoenaed the man behind a potential GOP ballot harvesting effort. He refused to testify. - The Philadelphia Inquirer