Well now, that was a rather pleasant sporting weekend. As John O’Sullivan tells us, Ireland have enjoyed some “phenomenal days” under Andy Farrell, and Saturday’s “five-try, five-star win” at Twickenham ranks up there with the best of them. Rumours of their demise ... etc. “This was a proper storming of England’s HQ, and was almost like a step back in time, to the vintage highs of 2022 and 2023,” says Gerry Thornley in his match report.
Andy Farrell nigh on ran out of superlatives to describe his players’ performances when Gerry heard from him after the game, Joe McCarthy and Dan Sheehan on the elated side too. In his analysis of the game, Gerry describes Jamison Gibson-Park’s display as “Dupont-esque”, a view echoed by John in his piece on the “majesty” of the “gold-standard scrumhalf’s” contribution to the game.
Spare a thought for Johnny Watterson – the mathematics department banned him from awarding 11s out of 10s in his player ratings. Spare a thought too for England. Ah do. The gist of their media’s summary of their efforts against Ireland: “Frightful, feeble, fragile, feckless.” And Nathan Johns picks out five things we learned from the Six Nations weekend, among them the benefit of having speedsters in the form of Robert Baloucoune and Tommy O’Brien.
In Gaelic games, there’s no stopping Donegal in the National Football League, Malachy Clerkin on hand at the Athletic Grounds to see them get the better of Armagh. And after, he heard Jim McGuinness backing his Armagh counterpart Kieran McGeeney’s depiction of the kickout battle under the new rules as “piggery”.
READ MORE
Mayo and Roscommon kept pace with Donegal by beating Monaghan and Galway, respectively, but Gordon Manning reports on Dublin’s third defeat of the campaign, Kerry never once trailing during their six-point win.
In hurling, Denis Walsh was at Semple Stadium for the meeting of Tipperary and Limerick, a game that promised plenty but proved to be “a soufflé that sank in the middle”. There was a considerably livelier contest between Kilkenny and Waterford, Seán Moran at Nowlan Park where the feline folk won out with a 76th-minute free. And Galway finally got off the mark with a comfortable victory over Offaly in Birr. Click here for all the reports from the weekend’s football and hurling games.
And after the Gaelic Players’ Association launched a document that, in part, dealt with how GAA players interact with the media, Denis looks at the changing nature of that relationship.
In football, our Green Shoots man Conor McEvoy is enduring Groundhog Day – more joy for Troy Parrott, more injury worries for Evan Ferguson. And it was another miserable weekend for Spurs, 4-1 losers in the north London derby, Ken Early tracing their descent to their current position: “a team that now looks at serious risk of relegation”.
And in racing, what’s in Constitution Hill’s schedule after his “sparkling debut performance on the flat” on Friday night? The Champions Hurdle at Cheltenham? The Melbourne Cup? Brian O’Connor looks at the options.
TV Watch: There’s a fair old chance that you might want to tune in to RTÉ2’s Against the Head this evening (8pm), which will be luxuriating in a certain match in London over the weekend. At the same time, TG4 has the weekend’s GAA highlights, and also at 8pm, Everton host Manchester United in the Premier League (Sky Sports).
