We begin this morning with the news that James Ryan was last night named as the Rugby Writers Player of the Year after another stellar season for the Leinster man. At 23-years-old Ryan became the youngest winner of the award ever but his sights are very much set on the World Cup at this stage. Ryan was on the tour to Japan in 2017 and says the climate makes it a huge task. "A lot of the work we've been doing so far has been strength and conditioning because of the heat and the humidity over there. It's something that we're not used to," he said. Meanwhile Jack Conan was speaking yesterday ahead of Saturday's first World Cup warmup match against Italy and the 27-year-old says that the team won't be fixated on the results of these friendly games, even when it comes to playing England at Twickenham. "We're going out in pre-season to be clinical in our phase of attack, and to build on to where we left – wasn't in the best scenario – make sure we're pushing rugby forward," he said.
Moving on to soccer and Dundalk were put on the back foot late on last night as a Slovan Bratislava goal gave the home side a 1-0 victory in Slovakia. Dundalk hit the bar in injury time which was the closest they came to an away goal and they now know that they must score in Tallaght Stadium next week if they are to progress to the playoff stages where they could potentially play Ajax. In Transylvania Celtic were forced to work hard by Cluj to earn a 1-1 draw and a vital away goal in their Champions League qualifier. In the Premier League today is that wonderfully drama-filled (regularly, in fact, the opposite) day when the transfer window closes. On deal that is due to be completed is that of Romelu Lukaku to Inter Milan. The Belgian striker last night flew to the Italian city to finalise the terms of a deal which will see Manchester United receive ¤76m for the striker who scored just 15 goals last season.
In GAA Eamon Donoghue writes in his stats column this morning that it will be interesting to see who Dublin will get to track Lee Keegan in their All-Ireland semi-final clash with Mayo on Saturday as Diarmuid Connolly is not expected to start. "Where Mayo position their two best trackers (Patrick Durcan as well as Keegan) will be crucial to their chances of causing an upset – getting it right in the past is one of the major reasons why they've been competitive against the reigning champions," he writes. Meanwhile, Cork hurler Patrick Horgan had some very strong words yesterday when asked about how he felt his side had been treated by pundits this season. Horgan didn't hold back when he said "They all have situations where that word could be thrown at them too. If you go digging I'm sure you'd find it. But, yeah, I saw them fellas playing, and I'll leave it at that with them. It makes me angry, though, because hurling now is not easy."
On to golf and Shane Lowry returns to action at 1.05pm this afternoon for his first appearance since winning the British Open at Portrush. Lowry tees it up at the Northern Trust in New York for what is the first of the FedEx Cup playoffs and the Offalyman said he is glad he made the most of the celebrations for his win but now he wants to kick on and even perhaps claim that $15m bonus on offer to the FedEx Cup champion after the Tour Championship at East Lake. Ahead of this week's event at Liberty National Tiger Woods has played down fears of an injury, saying his body just feels a little stiff as he looks to play two weeks in a row for just the second time this season.
