One more sleep to go, how are the nerves? They won’t be calmed by Gregor Paul, the New Zealand Herald’s rugby correspondent reminding us that the All Blacks “have a habit of exploding into life at the quarter-final stage of a World Cup”. That’s enough to make it a sleepless night.
On the up side, Paul looks back on Ireland’s series win in New Zealand last year and says that they were everything that the All Blacks used to be: “composed, driven and capable of executing the basics with such precision and intensity as to make the game look elegant and simple.”
But having lost three of his four meetings with Ireland, including two in that series, New Zealand head coach Ian Foster was, writes Gerry Thornley, “of a mind to play down history”. “I don’t think the past matters,” he said, “we know the size of the challenge and how good Ireland are...”. But? “But play-off rugby is about who’s best on the day.”
And regardless of that recent history, Garry Ringrose has a heap of respect for this New Zealand side, particularly as it contains not one but three Barretts. Meath GAA’s loss was New Zealand’s gain. Gordon Manning writes about the 16 months the young Beauden, Jordie and Scott spent living in Ballinacree where their father Kevin managed a dairy farm.
The folk at St Brigid’s GAA club can still remember the boys playing Gaelic football in their bare feet, Beauden in particular catching the eye. “His abilities to catch and kick and run were superb,” says the club secretary Shane Gilsenan. “His speed was incredible. Whatever sport he took on, you knew he was probably going to be a star.”
Stephen Kenny could do with a few more stars, aside from Evan Ferguson, emerging in his Republic of Ireland team, one that will have its Euro 2024 qualifying hopes officially extinguished if they don’t beat Greece in Dublin tonight. Gavin Cummiskey previews the game and takes a look at Kenny’s options for his starting XI.
Sonia O’Sullivan, meanwhile, reflects on the recent spate of world records in the marathon, the latest being Kelvin Kiptum’s staggering 2:00:35 run in the Chicago Marathon last Sunday. This time last year he’d never even run a marathon.
In Gaelic games, Seán Moran talks to Neil McManus, the never-ending saga of the renovation of Casement Park on the retired Antrim hurler’s mind. It is, he says, “a travesty” that a whole generation of Antrim hurlers will never get the chance to play there.
Grand National winning trainer Lucinda Russell will have regarded her purchase of Flemensface for £100,000 as a bit of a travesty too – she’d barely written the cheque when she discovered the horse was serving a ban after testing positive for clenbuterol. “There is a stereotype surrounding the business of buying and selling horses,” writes Brian O’Connor, “that can make those who flog used cars for a living look like paragons of probity.”
TV Watch: It’s a big, big night in Ireland’s European qualifying group, Stephen Kenny’s charges meeting Greece in Dublin (RTÉ 2 and Premier Sports 1) and the Netherlands hosting table toppers France in Amsterdam (Virgin Media Three and Premier Sports 2) – both games kick off at 7.45pm.
