Lionel Messi will have the chance to crown his glittering career with a World Cup winner’s medal after opening the scoring in a magical display that helped Argentina to a 3-0 semi-final victory over Croatia last night. Ken Early was at the Lusail Stadium, in awe of Messi rolling back the years: “somehow he can still make his ordinary-looking, 35-year-old legs do these incredible things, as though his mind has a more complete command over his body than other players, as though the messages to his muscles are travelling through more and faster connections.” Kevin Kilbane believes England lack a winning mentality and that Gareth Southgate got it wrong when it mattered during their quarter-final defeat to France: “They need to focus on taking teams apart rather than the overly cautious mentality that Southgate is trying to escape; when they had France on the rack at 1-1 his instinct was to do nothing. The results don’t lie, they got the balance ever so slightly wrong when it really mattered.”
World Rugby is in crisis after vice-chairman Bernard Laporte was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence and fined €75,000 by a French court having been found guilty of corruption charges. France host the Rugby World Cup in just nine months. In his column this morning, Gordon D’Arcy reflects on Leinster’s statement Champions Cup win over Racing 92. Despite all the prematch travel disruptions the Irish province were unswerving in their focus as they bid to reach “the white fence”, he explains: “in our breakthrough season, there was a lot of emphasis put on “being ready” and the theme around that related “touching the white fence”. The “white fence” drill was a high-performance cognitive test to basically establish if athletes could block out extraneous influences while charged with completing a task ...”
In GAA news, Ross Munnelly has called time on his Laois intercounty career after two decades. His retirement – after a record 222 games for the Laois footballers, league and championship – means in 2023 there will be no current footballer outside of Dublin who has played on a winning team in a Leinster SFC final. Westmeath’s Ger Egan has also hung up his boots, the Tyrrellspass player has battled through several injury problems in recent seasons. He made his senior debut in 2010 and captained Westmeath to two Leinster final appearances.
Meanwhile, Brian O’Connor reports next year’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby will revert to a Sunday slot for the first time since 2011 with an increased prize money of €1.25 million on offer. The pinnacle of a three-day Curragh meeting, was previously set at €1 million.
