It is a fair question to ask now, is rugby in Italy sustainable or even viable? That's the question Gordon D'Arcy is asking in his column this morning following yet another defeat for the Italian team in the Six Nations. "If you asked most Italians for their top 10 sports," he writes, "rugby would not make too many lists. To give you an example, body building is listed at 10th with 550,000 participants and rugby is nowhere to be seen." Leinster have confirmed that Caelan Doris, Jordan Larmour and Tommy O'Brien all signed new contracts of unspecified durations.
Middlesbrough produced another FA Cup upset last night by knocking out Tottenham with a 1-0 extra-time victory in the fifth round at the Riverside Stadium. Ukraine's Oleksandr Zinchenko captained Manchester City to a 2-0 win at Peterborough, while Crystal Palace left it late to edge Stoke City. James Maddison and Jamie Vardy came off the bench to deliver Leicester's first Premier League win of 2022 - a 2-0 victory at Burnley. Thomas Tuchel urged reporters to stop asking him questions about the invasion of Ukraine and Roman Abramovich's plan to pass the stewardship and care of Chelsea to the club's charitable foundation. The club's manager said: "Listen, listen, listen, you have to stop. I am not a politician. You have to stop . . . "
In his column this morning (Subscriber Only), Seán Moran explains why a little stability wouldn't go astray now that the new football championship has been decided: "Everyone will wish it well. It's too disruptive to keep changing championship format. Counties need the stability of getting used to the patterns of a championship season without its being radically changed so often."
Meanwhile, the Irish men's cricket side is set to host South Africa in England this summer. Nathan Johns revealed on Tuesday that Bristol will host a pair of T20 internationals in early August. Despite the recently revealed investment of €317,000 into the improvement of facilities, not all of Ireland's home games in 2022 will be held on these shores.
