Brighton striker Aaron Connolly is out of Ireland's two international games over the coming week due to a groin strain picked up against Manchester United on Sunday. Ireland manager Mick McCarthy, who already has 27 players in for the two games against New Zealand and Denmark, said he will not call in any replacement. The Republic of Ireland women's team need to avoid any blemishes against Greece tonight to remain on track for an automatic route to the 2021 European Championship finals. That match is live on RTÉ2 at 1pm Irish time. Last night Dundalk hit Linfield for six goals to add late silverware to an already stellar season by claiming the Unite the Union Champions Cup with a 7-1 aggregate triumph.
In his column this morning, Gerry Thornley explains how the Champions Cup can begin Irish rugby's healing process: "plenty of those on the Japanese expedition as well as those overlooked will feel they have something to prove and should be in the condition to do so." Leinster coach Stuart Lancaster has shed light on the province's system of 'unstructured chaos' while insisting there is no one system that is right and one that is wrong. He says: "what we are trying to achieve is a balance between the real importance of starter plays and execution at set-pieces and everything else – to be very good at that but also be very good when the game becomes into phases three to 10, let's call it." With Robbie Henshaw's return to training this week, Leinster will have the luxury of picking from almost all of their World Cup players for the first round of the Champions Cup this Saturday against Benetton.
After East Kerry ended their 20-year wait for the Kerry county championship on Sunday, David Clifford who chipped in with 1-3, appears the most likely candidate for the Kerry captaincy in 2020. Kerry are one of the last counties to afford their county champions the honour of nominating the team captaincy.
Meanwhile Shane Lowry has criticised the heavy weighting of points for the final events of the season in the Race to Dubai standings. Giving additional points to the winner of the Tour Championship makes it a final shootout, perhaps even a winner-takes-all scenario in that anyone in the top 10 going into the final tournament will claim the order of merit if he wins the tournament. As it stands, Lowry is third and Rory McIlroy is in fifth.
