The guessing is over, we know now the identity of the 15 men who will start for the Lions against Australia on Saturday - and most importantly, that eight of them are Irish (with another three on the bench). Gerry Thornley brings you the details on Andy Farrell’s selection and he looks through Joe Schmidt’s starting XV, one that includes a gamble in the shape of young outhalf Tom Lynagh who will be making his full international debut.
Dan Sheehan, need it be said, is included in Farrell’s team, Gerry talking to the Leinster man who “looks ready to leave a world-class imprint on this series”. And Nathan Johns takes us through how Schmidt might go about masterminding a victory over his former protege Farrell.
In golf, Philip Reid previews the Open Championship which got under way at Portrush this morning, and while there are five Irish players in the field, the bulk of the glare is, of course, on Rory McIlroy. David Gorman will keep you up to date on the morning’s action in our live blog, although Johnny Watterson is probably still in the Open’s official shop where he spotted “Nikon stabilised 12x25 binoculars”. “Yours for only £700”. A snip.
Our build-up to Sunday’s All-Ireland hurling final continues, Stephen Barry talking to Cork’s Ciarán Joyce and Gordon Manning hearing from Tipperary selector Declan Laffan. And Seán Moran looks back at three Munster finals between the counties that “helped elevate the status of the fixture to a near-mythical level”.
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Ciarán Murphy waited until he was 42 to take up hurling, and he’s written a book about the experience - ‘Old Parish - Notes On Hurling’. “If this sounds suspiciously like a midlife crisis, it at least had the advantage of being a lot cheaper than a sports car,” he writes.
At the Tour de France, Ben Healy retained his yellow jersey after a solid day in the saddle, but, as Ian O’Riordan tells us, “the fearsome Pyrenees are now lying in wait”. “It’s going to be a pretty hard fight to hold on to yellow,” Healy said of Thursday’s stage, “but hopefully I’ll have some super legs”.
Gavin Cummiskey reports on Shelbourne’s super legs advancing to the second round of the Champions League qualifiers after their 1-1 draw with Linfield at Windsor Park on Wednesday evening gave them a 2-1 aggregate win. Gavin also previews St Patrick’s Athletic’s trip to Lithuania where they take a 1-0 lead in to the second leg of their Conference League game against FC Hegelmann this afternoon.
TV Watch: Sky Sports Golf had an early start this morning, their coverage of the first round at The Open Championship beginning at 6.30am - it continues until 9.30 tonight and there’ll be highlights on BBC2 at 9.0. It’s stage 12 at the Tour de France (TNT Sports 1 from noon, TG4 from 1.0), and at 8pm defending champions England meet Sweden in the quarter-finals of Euro 2025 (RTÉ 2, BBC 1 & UTV).
