It’s nearly time. Saturday sees the return of the rugby season, with all four Irish provinces in action as the new United Rugby Championship campaign gets underway. Despite his continued absence after some post All Blacks tour rest, inevitably the conversation around Leinster’s season turns to Johnny Sexton in what looks to be his last year with Leinster. “We’ve had all sorts of conversations over the last number of years, so you’re constantly just checking in,” says Leo Cullen on his understanding of Sexton’s retirement timeline. “We’ll see how he goes. We’re so early in the season now and he’s obviously contracted to post-World Cup but, yeah, we’ll see the desire levels and all the rest. It’s early days.” Of course, this won’t affect Sexton and other frontliners, but it emerged yesterday that Ireland A will take on an All Blacks XV in the RDS this November. Out west, Connacht have been hit with some frustrating news that Jack Carty will miss their season opener on Saturday night. Their opponents in that one? Ulster in an immediate interpro. Dan McFarland doesn’t need reminding that his side have been turned over by Connacht five times in their last nine meetings.

Jason Sherlock doesn’t specify exactly when he felt like a loser, a sporting “failure” full of “regret” and “animosity”, except to say it was around the time of all those best wishes for a happy retirement. 12 years on and now Dublin’s forwards coach, Sherlock’s success in the sport leaves him anything but a loser. He reflects on his stellar career both on the pitch and in the backroom staff. Dessie Hutchinson missed much of Ballygunner’s Waterford success due to his attempts to forge a professional soccer career with Brighton. Gordon Manning speaks to the man who, upon his return home, seamlessly slotted back into club championship hurling to the point where he was joint captain as Ballygunner notched their ninth consecutive county crown.

Premier League football is back, though not in its entirety. Policing resources are stretched thin, particularly in London, due to events following Queen Elizabeth’s death, meaning some fixtures have fallen by the wayside for now. Most notably, this weekend, Chelsea’s home game against Liverpool and Manchester United’s home game against Leeds United have been postponed. This is in addition to Arsenal’s Europa League clash at home to PSV also being pushed back from Thursday. One match that is still going ahead is Spurs’ Champions League trip tonight to Lisbon to face Sporting. Antonio Conte’s side returns to action after their postponed game against Manchester City last weekend offered the luxury of a mini-break.

Leona Maguire is the headline act — and only Irish professional in the field — for next week’s KPMG Women’s Irish Open at Dromoland Castle, but an indication of the conveyor belt of talent following (hopefully) in her footsteps can be gauged by the list of amateur invites into the championship. Among them is Irish international Aideen Walsh, a schoolteacher in Ennis. Leona Maguire vs a schoolteacher, the headlines will write themselves if an unlikely victor pulls through. Said Walsh on the upcoming tournament: “If we can push on and make it a really good tournament for the younger Irish girls coming through, like 13, 14, 15 years that are really talented, it’s only right that they have something to they can aspire to in the future, a home professional event.”