Manchester United have one foot into the League Cup final following last night’s 3-0 win at Nottingham Forest. Marcus Rashford continued his fine season as he scored again to put the visitors in command of the tie in advance of next week’s second leg at Old Trafford. Wout Weghorst netted his first goal since joining the club, while Bruno Fernandes added the third, as United took a big step towards ending their longest trophy drought in 40 years. Everton forward Anthony Gordon missed training for the second successive day as his future at the club looks increasingly in doubt amid interest from Newcastle United.
Kilmacud Crokes officials met last night and the club are planning their response to Glen’s objection regarding the outcome of Sunday’s All-Ireland senior club football final. The Dublin champions have three options – counter object, decide not to object or provide a written admission to the CCCC that they had more than 15 players on the field during the dying seconds of injury-time in Sunday’s All-Ireland final. In his column this morning, Ciarán Murphy explains how the whole fiasco shows the unsettling gap between the GAA rule book and the GAA way: “there is the GAA Rulebook, and there is the GAA way. And stuck between the two this week was Watty Graham’s Glen GAA club from Maghera in Derry.”
In advance of next week’s Six Nations kick-off, John O’Sullivan has written an excellent feature on how Ireland Under-20 graduates have shaped Andy Farrell’s squad. Only two Irish eligible members of Farrell’s Six Nations squad did not play for Ireland at Under-20 level: “the throughput from 20s to senior international rugby in an Irish context boasts a very good strike-rate, a record that will hopefully be maintained with this season’s highly regarded crop of underage prospects.”
Meanwhile, Sonia O’Sullivan is writing about Dublin sprinter Rhasidat Adeleke, the American scholarship route is working wonders for the 20 year-old who is enjoying a stellar season: “there is no greater place to serve an athletics apprentice than through the American college system. The money invested in each student athlete varies across each college, but then you add up the academic costs, living expenses, the gear, the shoes, the facilities, the medical back up and the travel to events, all in that natural team environment.”
