The Munster faithful are no strangers to seeing their team with their backs placed firmly against the wall going into the final pool game of a competition. But, as Johnny Watterson reminds us, “it has become a defining characteristic of the province to somehow find a way through”. And they’ll have to show their hardy side again at Thomond Park on Saturday when they’ll need a a bonus-point victory over Castres to be certain of advancing to the knockout phases.
Jeremy Loughman will be part of that battle, John O’Sullivan talking to the prop who is hoping his form this season will have caught Andy Farrell’s eye ahead of him naming his Six Nations squad next Wednesday.
Farrell won’t have Paddy McCarthy to call on though, at least not for the start of the Six Nations campaign, the Leinster man suffering a “significant” foot injury against La Rochelle last weekend. And no one is more “gutted” for him than his brother Joe who talks to Gerry Thornley.
In Gaelic games, Ciarán Murphy reflects on the All-Ireland club championships which, for all their “wonkiness”, just work. The GAA created a level for clubs like Easkey and Tooreen, who contested the intermediate hurling final, “and they’re thriving”.
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Dingle are thriving too this season, the club seeking a maiden All-Ireland senior football title when they meet St Brigid’s of Roscommon in Sunday’s final. Gordon Manning talks to one of their mainstays, Mikey Geaney, who has spent a fair chunk of the season commuting to Kerry from his Portmarnock home. His trip to Croke Park will be a little shorter.
Gordon also has word on a likely delay in the full integration of the three Gaelic games organisations, the GAA’s Management Committee no longer believing that 2027 is a realistic target.
In golf, Philip Reid previews the Dubai Invitational, which gets under way today, Shane Lowry drawn alongside a fella with whom he is quite familiar - one Rory McIlroy. Lowry hasn’t had a European Tour victory since 2022 - he’s aiming to fix that this season.
Lowry and McIlroy are unlikely to be thinking about the LA Olympics just yet, seeing as they don’t take place until 2028, but the race to buy tickets for the event has officially started. “Well, sort of,” writes Ian O’Riordan, who explains how you go about registering for the first ticket draw.
To be honest about it, it’s difficult to know where to start with Dave Hannigan’s America at Large column. Or how to be sufficiently delicate when describing its chief revelation. So, let’s just say it involves former NFL player Matt Kalil and his lawsuit against his ex-wife after she told the world that a part of his body is “the size of at least two coke cans placed on top of each other”. And we’re not talking about his neck here. Beyond that, we’re saying nothing.
TV Watch: There’s plenty of Irish interest in the Dubai Invitational which got under way this morning, Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, Tom McKibbin and Pádraig Harrington all in the field (Sky Sports Golf, 7.30am-12.30pm, highlights at 4pm). And later in the day, Séamus Power gets his season under way in the Sony Open in Hawaii (Sky Sports Golf, 5pm).
