Over to Scotland, then. If Gregor Townsend's side, as they're expected to, pick up a bonus point victory over Russia this morning (kick-off: 8.15am) then we're heading for a final game shake-up in Pool A as Ireland meet Samoa on Saturday morning before Japan take on the Scots on Sunday. You can follow all of the action from Scotland's clash with Russia on our liveblog from 7.45am while we also have coverage of Wales' meeting with Fiji which follow directly after. As we approach the end-game in the pool stages the potential permutations are beginning to stack up, no more so than in Ireland's pool. If you're confused about any of them we've cleared it all up here. On the Ireland front, Gordon D'Arcy writes this morning that Ireland are at this stage reliant on just how well Johnny Sexton's body holds up. Joe Schmidt's men have been hit with their fair share of injuries in this tournament and keeping the key number 10 healthy remains the priority. "There is no hiding from this. If able, Sexton needs to play every minute against Samoa until the bonus point is secured. Then he will be needed for every second of the quarter-final," D'Arcy writes.
Ireland will be expected to pick up the bonus point win necessary against Samoa on Saturday morning but this Rugby World Cup has shown that surprises can happen and so it could prove key for Ireland that Jacob Stockdale, who has scored 16 tries in 23 Test matches in his career, is refreshed and ready to go this weekend after sitting out the victory over Russia. "I don't think we're at panic stations or anything like that, you can see we're getting into our shape really nicely, there's just the odd pass not going to hand or maybe we're not making the right decisions so those kind of wee one-to-two per cent things are making all the difference and they're really easy to fix," the Ulster man told Gerry Thornley yesterday. At the moment Argentina are beating the USA 26-5 but the US have managed to cause a few scares the the Pumas as the quiet rugby revolution begins to pick up a bit more pace stateside. One man who is very much involved in that is Aran Islands' native and US forward Paul Mullan. He spoke to Keith Duggan yesterday about how people are becoming more and more aware of rugby in the States, so much so that the Houston Rockets basketball players have been following the results while on their tour of Asia. One of the themes of this Rugby World Cup has been the high tackle and how referees are dealing with them. Our columnist and former IRFU referee director Owen Doyle has been keeping tabs throughout the tournament and this morning he looks at how the referees have fared. Don't forget you can follow all of the build-up to Japan with columns, analysis, news, interviews, stats, fixtures and much more on our dedicated 2019 Rugby World Cup site.
Moving on to soccer and, while the Irish rugby team prepare to face Samoa on Saturday, Mick McCarthy's football team are on their way to Georgia for their crucial Euro 2020 qualifier. Yesterday the Ireland manager hinted that Aaron Connolly – who netted twice for Brighton on Saturday in what was his first Premier League start – may take his place from the off in Tbilisi. Meanwhile, Conor Hourihane spoke yesterday about how hard graft has got him to where he is today despite plenty of setbacks along the way in a career that looked like it may never reach the heights it now has. Last night it was a record-breaking occasion for the Ireland women's team as they pulled off a dramatic 3-2 victory over Ukraine on their road to Euro 2021 and in what was Vera Pauw's first game in charge. The victory was played out in front of a record crowd for a women's match in Tallaght as Ireland went 2-0 up before being pegged back to 2-2 and then rallied to victory late on. Emmet Malone was there to witness it all.
Finally to GAA and Seán Moran writes this morning that the provincial championship draws have thrown a curveball at the GAA congress. "Football's proposed Tier Two isn't as radical as the hurling precedent but the emphasis should be on its potential as a vehicle for improvement rather than the improbable implication that you won't notice you're not in Tier One," he writes.
