On Friday the last two years of misery seemed to finally be behind Kieren Fallon as his trial for race fixing collapsed in the Old Bailey and with it came the news that his license to ride in England would be restored with immediate effect. There were great scenes of emotion and joy as Fallon and the other defendants walked free as innocent men, ready to put all this behind them and get on with the rest of their lives with this very large shadow no longer hanging over their every move.

But then on Saturday, less than twenty four hours later, news emerged that Fallon had failed a drugs test in France in the summer and that the second sample or the B sample as it is known had been sent away for examination.

History has told us that the B sample rarely if ever disproves the original sample so it looks as though Fallon’s euphoria was short-lived.

If he is found guilty of drug taking then he will surely be hit with a worldwide ban which will put him worse off than he was before Friday’s decision by the court.

All in all it’s a very sad outcome. Not only for Fallon himself, but for everyone who backed him and stood by him throughout the dark times of the last two years. Especially John Magnier, the Coolmore boss who backed him to the hilt.

Fallon has for most of his career battled the demons and now just when it looked as though he finally had them beaten, it seems we were wrong.

But let us not condemn the man just yet, like the British racing authorities did by taking his license off him for two years before he had the chance to prove his innocence. Is it just me or is there some kind of thing about being innocent until proven guilty?

That was a disgraceful thing to do and now that it has backfired in a big way, I hope they get what they deserve.

What amazed me is that they went to all this trouble and spent all that money to try and ‘catch’ Fallon and then came up with an unbelievably weak case with little or no evidence, and with a ‘star’ witness who admitted that he was infact not an expert on British racing at all and therefore couldn’t really comment. Unbelievable stuff. I heard David Walsh on the radio on Friday night and he said he spoke to one of Fallon’s legal team after the second day of the trial and he said that the odds on Fallon being found innocent were 1/40. That sums it up. But it still went on for about six weeks after that. But now this fresh scandal has put a big dampener on the whole lot. A ‘flawed genius’ indeed.

Did you ever see anything like the conditions for the Munster and Llanelli match in Stradey Park on Saturday? Unbelievable or what? But once again when the chips were down Munster showed their class and wonderful resilience. If anything the previous week’s match against Leinster probably stood to them, especially the two Kiwi’s who looked a lot more at home in the rain this week than last. But once again the men who made them tick were that wonderful double act of O’Gara and Stringer. O’Gara with 19 points and a great performance and Stringer with another marvelous display in a red jersey including a piece of quick thing that caught Llanelli completely off their guard and sent David Wallace in for a first half try.

Munster now lie on top of their group but will need a bonus point home win against Llanelli before they face into the big tests of Cleremont Auvergne away and Wasps at home. Another great journey by this great team.

Ballinacourty might not be beginning life as Munster club champions this week but they can be very pleased with their performance in the final against Nemo Rangers. They stormed back into the game in the second half with the win and just came up short. Despite this it has still been a great year for Waterford football and for Ballinacourty. The 2008 Senior Football championship should be some battle.

Finally welcome to our brand new tabloid Water-ford News & Star, I hope you like it. As you’ve probably noticed already our sports section hasn’t changed at all, apart from the fact that it is no longer a pull-out.

It’s still jam packed with the best of Waterford sport and reads from the back page in, with the club scene between it and the main paper (pages 89-100 this week). Enjoy.

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