“Zero tolerance is a must,” writes Owen Doyle. He might, then, not be best pleased with word from the Irish camp over in Quinta do Lago, backs coach Andrew Goodman telling Gerry Thornley that Bundee Aki will be considered for Ireland’s last two Six Nations games, the final two weeks of his six-week suspension for “misconduct” having been suspended.
Owen hopes that the IRFU will “step up to the mark” by suspending Aki for the entire campaign, thereby showing “just how serious they are about referee abuse”. It is, he argues, time to call a halt to the “ridiculous, appalling amount of questioning, shouting, screaming and gesticulating at match officials”.
While Aki has found himself in a world of bother, Edwin Edogbo has found himself in dreamland after his first call-up to the senior squad, Gerry talking to the Munster lock – and Edogbo also features in Johnny Watterson’s ‘Six young players to watch’ in this year’s Six Nations.
After “an underwhelming autumnal campaign”, Goodman admits that the Irish attack is not consistently where it needs to be, the squad’s focus now on evolving its attacking and aerial game. Key, too, in their week in Portugal is, he says, “building belief”.
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Munster will, of course, have to make do without Edogbo’s services when they take on Glasgow in the URC this evening, but they look set to give a debut to another of their young talents. Tom Woods – son of Keith and grandson of Gordon – has been named on their bench.
In athletics, Sonia O’Sullivan looks ahead to Sunday’s Millrose Games where Andrew Coscoran and Cian McPhillips will look to extend a proud Irish record in the prestigious Wanamaker Mile. With 19 wins down the years, no nation outside the US has enjoyed more success in the race.
Meanwhile, a four-strong Irish squad has been named for the Winter Olympics which get under way in Italy next Friday. Ian O’Riordan talks to one of the quartet, alpine skier Cormac Comerford, and profiles each member of the team.
A day after it became likely that Shamrock Rovers’ 17-year-old striker Michael Noonan will move abroad, Gavin Cummiskey has news that Owen Elding, another of the league’s most gifted teenagers, has left Sligo Rovers for Hibernian.
In racing, you can anticipate more success for Willie Mullins in this weekend’s Willie Mullins Racing Festival. So much joy has he experienced in the Dublin Racing Festival, that’s what it’s been dubbed. Brian O’Connor takes you through his extraordinary record at the meeting.
And Ewan Murray gives his thoughts on the return to the PGA Tour of some “already obscenely rich” golfers who took “the bounty on offer from a Saudi Arabian-backed disruption model before shuffling back whence they came”. With “one-time pariahs” Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed welcomed back with open arms, those who “spurned LIV’s fluttering eyelashes” will be left wondering why they bothered.
TV Watch: Sky Sports Golf continues its coverage of the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego from 5pm this afternoon, and at 7.45pm TG4 and Premier Sports bring you the URC clash of Glasgow and Munster.
