When Ireland take to the pitch at Murrayfield on Sunday it will be ion the knowledge that a loss would leave them staring at a fifth place finish for the first time since 2013 and a likely place below Scotland for just the second time in 21 editions of the Six Nations. In his column this morning Gerry Thornley writes that the home side will be very confident of inflicting both of those things on Ireland with some generational talents in Gregor Townsend's side capable of tipping the balance of this rivalry. One man who has risen up the Irish pecking order and could feature on Sunday is Jamison Gibson-Park. The Kiwi has been impressive in a green jersey since making his Test debut and yesterday his coach at Leinster, Stuart Lancaster, was full of praise for him. Elsewhere, writing this morning Owen Doyle says the new laws on show in Australia could turn rugby union into a much closer representation of rugby league. "In Australia, union is far down the pecking order in popularity, and is having a very hard time competing with other sports. As a result, proposals are put forward aimed at solving their problems, but these actually tear at the very fabric of the game," he writes.
Moving to soccer and West Ham's Champions League hopes took another positive turn last night as they saw off Leeds United to move within two points of Chelsea in fourth place with a game in hand. Jesse Lingard and Craig Dawson did the damage for the Hammers but afterwards David Moyes said that, such is the level of performance lately, that his team was "very disappointed" with how they'd played. Earlier on in the evening Chelsea did their part to hold on to that fourth place for now with a 2-0 win at home to Everton. Meanwhile, Emmet Malone has been speaking to Jack Byrne about his experience so far of playing in Cyprus where the Dubliner says the attitude to the game is all so different to this part of the world. The aim is to "try to get as many Jack Byrnes in as you can. It's technical football, they want to play, get the ball down and play. Maybe that's why they wanted to make the change with Mick, they want to play and knock the ball around; they take risks."
On to GAA and the association is still looking to hear more from the Government and Sport Ireland in relation to a range of Covid-19 related matters, including talks on further funding assistance for 2021 and the resumption of intercounty activity, though aren't expecting to get any concrete steer "until the turn of the month".
In golf, Rory McIlroy has fallen out of the top-10 in the world rankings for the first time in three years and the four-time Major winner is looking for a spark as he heads to TPC Sawgrass to defend his Players Championship title this week. "In his six starts so far this year, McIlroy has managed three top-10s along with two top-20s and a (rare) missed cut. The problem, as the player himself has perceived it, is that he doesn't know from one day to the next which game he will bring to the golf course," writes Philip Reid.
Finally to our film rewind series and this morning Keith Duggan is looking back at Hoosiers – the classic basketball underdog story starring Gene Hackman and Dennis Hopper which still charms today.
