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Mary Hannigan: Ireland must ‘improve in every aspect’ to beat huge Springboks

Louth shocked by Mickey Harte leaving; a trip down memory lane in Paris; new era for women’s football

Steven Kitshoff with Marvin Orie, Damian Willemse and Deon Fourie. Photograph: SteveHaagSports/Steve Haag

Mary Hannigan's face
Mary Hannigan
Wed Sep 20 2023 - 09:30

Gordon D’Arcy has a notion that Ireland’s World Cup meeting with South Africa on Saturday could be rather tasty. “It should be a contest for the ages,” he writes in his column today, the game pitting “two teams with similar mindsets” against each other, but with “vastly different styles”. He’s hopeful, but says that Ireland “will have to improve in every single aspect” if they are to prevail.

They did just that last November when they beat the Springboks 19-16 in Dublin, Gerry Thornley hearing Caelan Doris describe how shocked he was at “the sheer size of them”.

Having named seven forwards on their bench for the game, South Africa will be able to introduce plenty of sizeable reinforcements to the contest on Saturday, John O’Sullivan bringing the team news from their camp.

Andy Farrell, meanwhile, is considering a 6-2 split for his bench, Gerry reckoning that after he was put in front of the media on Tuesday, Jack Crowley looks set to be named in the match day twenty-three.

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John, by the way, tried to take his mind off Saturday’s battle by taking a walk down memory lane, visiting some of his old Parisian haunts from bygone assignments, like when he covered the 1999 French Open tennis.

Mickey Harte’s Louth reign is but a memory now after he took himself off to Derry on Tuesday, Joe Brolly regarding his hiring as “the worst thing to happen to Derry since the plantation”. Gordon Manning spoke with Louth goalkeeper James Califf who, like all his team-mates, was left stunned by the news.

Vera Pauw’s departure from the Irish job left plenty stunned too, but the new era starts on Saturday when the Republic of Ireland take on Northern Ireland at the Aviva Stadium. Among those returning to the fold under interim manager Eileen Gleeson are the previously exiled midfielder Tyler Toland, as well as defender Savannah McCarthy who is back to full health after an horrific knee injury.

And in horse racing, JP McManus will hope to fill a glaring gap in his portfolio at the Listowel festival today, the Kerry National one of the very few big handicaps that he’s failed to scoop during his 47 years owning racehorses.

TV watch: Ireland take on England at Headingley today in the first of a three-match one day international series (Sky Sports Cricket from noon) - there’ll be highlights on BBC2 tonight (0.15am-1.15am). The Rugby World Cup resumes with the meeting of Italy and Uruguay (Virgin Media Two and ITV4, 4.45), while there lots more Champions League action on offer this evening, including Bayern Munich v Manchester United (Virgin Media Two and TNT Sports 2) and Arsenal v PSV Eindhoven (TNT Sports 1), both games kicking off at 8.0.