There’s a fair chance that Heimir Hallgrímsson spoke for us all when he was asked what he wanted from this evening’s World Cup qualifier against Armenia. “I would take us playing a shitty game and winning 1-0,” he said. “This is a result game, 100 per cent.” That it is, captain Nathan Collins hoping to ease the memories of last month’s defeat in Yerevan with a win against the same opposition on home turf, thereby reviving the team’s hopes of a trip to the United States/Canada/Mexico next summer.
With Ireland sitting bottom of the group having taken only one point from three games, qualification for the World Cup might seem like a fanciful dream – but David Gorman tells us how it might just be possible with his permutations explainer. Mind you, James McDermott would do nothing for the nerves with his look back on the two nations’ meetings over the years, a history that suggests Armenia don’t have a whole heap to fear.
In rugby, Gerry Thornley looks ahead to Saturday’s meeting between old buddies Leinster and Munster at Croke Park, the fixture long since “the driver of Irish professional rugby”. Johnny Watterson talks to Josh van der Flier in the build-up to the game which will see Tadhg Beirne make his season’s debut for Munster.
Linley MacKenzie previews Connacht’s URC match against the Bulls on Friday, while Owen Doyle bemoans what has become of the lineout, the art not helped by “nonsensical” rule fiddling and the “underhand trickery” that besets it.
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A week after he announced his retirement from competitive swimming, three-time Irish Olympian Shane Ryan has revealed that he will be taking part in next summer’s Enhanced Games, a controversial new competition that permits athletes to take banned performance-enhancing drugs.
Rory McIlroy, meanwhile, will compete in India this week for the first time in his career, Philip Reid telling us that a chat with Roger Federer persuaded McIlroy to try pastures new.
Ian O’Riordan talks to Ann-Marie McGlynn as she fine-tunes her preparations for Sunday week’s Dublin Marathon, and Brian O’Connor savours a potential “epic three-pronged clash between Delacroix, Ombudsman and Calandagan” at Ascot on Saturday.
TV Watch: Light yer candles, at 7.45pm this evening Ireland kick off against Armenia at the Aviva Stadium (RTÉ 2). Anything but a win will all but mean your aunties and uncles in Boston, Monterrey and Vancouver won’t have to put you up next summer, you’ll be watching the World Cup on the telly.
