When the schedule for the Rugby World Cup was unveiled in the dim and distant past of February 2021, Pool B always seemed “destined to come down to this Saturday night’s Celtic shoot-out in Paris,” writes Gerry Thornley. “And so it has come to pass.”
Gerry was on hand to hear Andy Farrell and Johnny Sexton’s thoughts on the game against Scotland, the pair probably relieved that the talking is nearly done after what must have felt like an interminable build-up.
Peter O’Mahony sounded like he’d had his fill of chatting too, admitting that he’d much prefer to be having a cup of tea with the lads than sitting in front of the media. But this being the eve of him becoming just the 10th Irish player to win 100 caps for his country, media duties called.
Johnny Watterson, meanwhile, would quite like to be “sitting outside a cafe leisurely tapping out an instalment for the next day’s newspaper”, but he’s spent most of the last month on trams and trains, winding his way around France in search of team HQs and stadiums.
Your complete guide to all the festive sporting action including TV details
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In Gaelic games, Gordon Manning talks to the legendary Liz Howard, the former Camogie Association president, about a range of issues, including the recent gender balance vote at the GAA’s Special Congress. And Seán Moran writes about the prospect of the long-awaited reconstruction of Casement Park finally taking place now that the UK-Ireland bid to host Euro 2028, in which the Belfast venue is included, looks certain to succeed.
In soccer, Gavin Cummiskey runs his eye over the Republic of Ireland squad named by Stephen Kenny for the upcoming European Championship qualifiers against Greece and Gibraltar. There’s no place for James McClean, though, the Derry man having announced on Thursday morning that he would be retiring from international football at the end of the year.
Joanne O’Riordan nigh on retired from her sporting activities when she was a teenager, but not by choice. “As a wheelchair user or person with a disability, especially one as rare as mine, there are way too many hurdles to getting back to fitness,” she writes, the lack of facilities and resources among them.
And in horse racing, Brian O’Connor looks at the reputational toll of identity mix-ups following last weekend’s incident in Killarney when Ano Manna comfortably won a handicap ... only for it to emerge that “it wasn’t Ano Manna at all but her stable companion Indigo Five who was due to run in a later race”.
TV watch: After Arsenal lost to Liverpool on the opening day of the Women’s Super League, Katie McCabe and her team-mates will be rather eager to avoid a second defeat on the bounce when they take on Manchester United this evening (Sky Sports Premier League, kick-off 7.30). And, at the Rugby World Cup, a week after their 96-17 mauling by New Zealand, Italy have a nice easy game tonight ... against France (RTÉ 2 and UTV, 8.0).
