It was another emotional day at Cheltenham, “surely never have the fates aligned so powerfully”, writes Brian O’Connor after he watched Marine Nationale and Jazzy Matty win back-to-back races. Two years ago, Michael O’Sullivan, who died from injuries sustained in a fall at Thurles last month, rode both horses to victory at the Festival, so “a poignant jumble of conflicting emotions” circled around the winner’s enclosure on Wednesday.
Brian looks back at all of day two’s action, including Willie Mullins helping himself to a hat-trick of winners, and he previews day three of the Festival, often regarded as its “problem child”. English jockey James Reveley will, though, hope to give the French something to cheer about when he rides Il Est Francais in the Ryanair Chase, the day’s most valuable contest.
In rugby, Jack Crowley, who is attracting the interest of Leicester, returns at outhalf for Ireland in the final game of their Six Nations campaign away to Italy on Saturday. See our live blog here for the team, permutations and sundry other delights with Muireann Duffy.
Ringrose is available again after serving his suspension for that red card against Wales, Johnny Watterson talking to the centre about taking part in World Rugby’s ‘Tackle School’ which resulted in that suspension being shortened by a game.
Sergio Garcia holds out hope as Cyclone Alfred has his say Down Under
Owen Doyle: Some decisions made in the Ireland v France game were utterly bizarre
Referees aren’t the only ones responsible for controlling dangerous play
Red cards no surprise, curious pitch markings and everything we learned from the GAA weekend
Should Ringrose return, he could well come up against ‘Brexoncello’, the Italian centre combination of Juan Ignacio Brex and Tommaso Menoncello who. They will, says John O’Sullivan, offer Ireland “a true test of not just tackling but defending”.
Ahead of the Republic of Ireland’s Nations League relegation play-off against Bulgaria, Gavin Cummiskey lists ‘Five Things for Heimir Hallgrímsson to consider’ as he prepares to name his squad. High on that list is his need to clarify his comments about League of Ireland players needing to move abroad to advance their careers.
In Gaelic games, Ciarán Murphy looks at the row between Antrim and Ulster GAA after the latter’s decision to move the county’s championship game against Armagh from Corrigan Park to Newry, and Gordon Manning heard Minister Patrick O’Donovan defend the Government spending €10 million on the Pittsburgh Steelers' NFL game at Croke Park later this year. It will not, he insisted, “affect investment in other areas of Irish sport”.
In athletics, Ian O’Riordan talks to Sarah Healy in the aftermath of her golden run at the European Indoor Championships last Sunday, the Dubliner hoping to add another medal to her collection at the World Indoor Championships which start on Friday week.
And in his America at Large column, Dave Hannigan recounts a string of recent incidents at schools sporting events where brawling parents made a holy show of themselves. “A toxic generation of meat-head fathers and carried-away Karens” are, he writes, “infecting sidelines with their perverse need to live vicariously through their spawn”.
TV Watch: The Players Championship gets under way at Sawgrass today, Sky Sports Golf bringing you just the 12 hours of coverage, up to 11.0 tonight. Virgin Media One and ITV have day three of the Cheltenham Festival (from 12.45) and at 8.0 this evening you can choose from the second legs of three Europa League knock-out games: Man Utd (1) v Real Sociedad (1) (Premier Sports 1 and TNT Sports 1), Tottenham (0) v AZ (1) (TNT 3) and Rangers (3) v Fenerbahçe (1) (TNT 2).
