There was no shortage of big off-the-field rugby news on Wednesday for both Connacht and Leinster, the former announcing that head coach Pete Wilkins is stepping down from his role with immediate effect and the latter causing a sharp intake of breath or two with news of a major signing.
All Black Rieko Ioane, Johnny Sexton’s old pal, will be joining Leinster on a seven-month contract, believed to be worth in the region of €250,000, in November. As John O’Sullivan notes, his IRFU-sanctioned signing “is sure to cause a meltdown among some supporters of Munster, Ulster and Connacht” and re-open “the debate about the funding of the four professional sides on the island”.
For now, Leinster’s focus is on the URC, John hearing from Tommy O’Brien ahead of Ulster’s visit to Dublin tomorrow. The centre is hoping to put his injury woes behind him and nail down his place in the Leinster side, as well as making a breakthrough with Ireland.
In Gaelic games, Ciarán Murphy looks at perennial outsiders Roscommon and Monaghan’s chances of springing a surprise when they take on Galway and Donegal, respectively, in the Championship on Sunday. And we hear from two players hoping to make a big impact for their counties this Championship season now that they’re back from injury - Galway footballer Damien Comer and Cork camogie star Amy O’Connor.
No magic for Carlo Ancelotti as Real Madrid fail to come back against Arsenal
St Pat’s and Shamrock Rovers thrilling in the rain, but the ‘UnderDrogs’ stay top: what we learned from Friday’s League of Ireland action
Dean Rock: In the grand scheme of things, the Leinster championship doesn’t really matter to Dublin
Munster and Leinster hurling championships: Full fixture list and who to watch out for
Gavin Cummiskey, meanwhile, has news of yet more problems for the FAI, this time with the formation of a breakaway group called the Grassroots Amateur Football Clubs of Ireland. They are opposing the association’s proposed shift for all competitions to a January to December season.
There’s strife too at Shamrock Rovers, co-owner Dermot Desmond writing to the club membership to advise them about “constant interference” in the work of the executive officers and “persistent efforts to remove Stephen Bradley as first-team manager”, despite all his success. This one, you suspect, will run and run.
In swimming, Ian O’Riordan reports from the Irish Open Championships where Daniel Wiffen, predictably enough, dominated the 1500m freestyle final, but missed out on breaking Bobby Finke’s world record. And Ian also has news of Rhasidat Adeleke declaring her availability for next month’s World Relays in China, boosting Ireland’s hopes of qualifying at least two teams for September’s World Championships.
In his America at Large column, Dave Hannigan writes about baseball’s Jarren Duran and American football’s Braden Smith opening up about the mental health battles they have endured. “There is a fear that an unforgiving public can’t seem to comprehend those who cross the white lines might be able to perform heroics,” writes Dave, “but are all too human and wracked by the same doubts as the rest of us.”
TV Watch: Unsurprisingly, Rory McIlroy opted to withdraw from the RBC Heritage which gets under way today, having had a rather eventful weekend, but a “tormented’ Justin Rose and Shane Lowry are straight back in to action after their Masters exertions (Sky Sports Golf, from 12.15pm).
Later, you have four European quarter-final second legs to choose from, all of them kicking off at 8pm - in the Europa League there’s Manchester United (2) v Lyon (2) (Premier Sports 1 and TNT Sports 1), Athletic Club (0) v Rangers (0) (TNT Sports 2) and Eintracht Frankfurt (1) v Tottenham (1) (TNT Sports 3). And in the Conference League, Chelsea (3) host Legia Warsaw (0) (TNT Sports 4). What they’d all give for a night like Arsenal enjoyed in Madrid.
