Trapattoni sets the tone

The Giovanni Trapattoni era will kick off in earnest on Saturday week when the Republic take on Serbia but there is no doubt his arrival here along with World Cup winner Marco Tardelli has put a buzz back into Irish soccer.

And the pair are not afraid to get involved in all aspects of Irish soccer. Their confirmation yesterday as the Guests of Honour for the Galway United corporate event at the Galway Races is indicative of that.

So, too, is their participation in the draw for the FAI Cup on Monday evening. It is long overdue that a connect was made between the Republic of Ireland soccer team and the domestic competitions. The Italian pair, on the face of it, have less raw material to work with than most of their predecessors but here are two who have it all and they would not have taken the task if they did not think they could move it forward.

They need to be given the space to operate in but if their willingness to reach out and embrace all aspects of the sport in this country is anything to go, then the tone has been set for an exciting era.

Sporting heroes

Compared to the Manchester United players who 'celebrated' another Premiership title by going out on Monday night and apparently blowing £130,000 in a Manchester casino, the end-of-season decision taken by two Connacht rugby players is more in keeping with what you would expect from role models. Prop Ronan Loughney and centre John Hearty, both of whom have had a frustrating season with injuries, have close to five weeks holidays before they return to pre-season training on June 16th.

Indeed, they don't have five weeks off in reality as they have been given strict programmes to maintain their fitness levels during their 'holidays'.

So, you would imagine, the beaches of some far-flung place would be the destination for these two lads in their early twenties?

Far from it, instead they are going to spend half their holidays working as volunteers with the Alan Kerins African Projects in Zambia.

The charity, which the Galway hurler and footballer set up five years ago after going to work there as a physiotherapist as a volunteer, looks after Aids-stricken children in the Mongu and Kaoma.

Galway-native Hearty (23) and Dubliner Hearty (24) pay all their own costs and will spend a week in Mongu building a guesthouse that will generate income for the orphanage before going on to Kaoma.

They will bring a couple sets of Connacht jerseys courtesy of RugbyTech as well as tags and balls. Five years ago Alan Kerins introduced these kids to the skills of hurling and Loughney and Hearty hope to teach them how to play tag rugby in between breaks from the building work.

Somehow, you suspect they will get more from the way they spend their holidays that people who blew a hundred and thirty grand sterling in a Manchester casino on Monday.

By the way, in Mongu that money would have built a new orphanage, a school and a couple of dozen houses.