Tomorrow marks three weeks since Ireland's penultimate Six Nations clash with Italy in Dublin was scheduled to take place - a lot has happened since and life has changed markedly for many. Andrew Conway was likely to line out for Andy Farrell's side against the Azzurri on March 7th but as it stands his last appearance came in the 24-12 defeat to England at Twickenham on February 23rd. And while he acknowledges the abrupt end to the season was unexpected, this morning he admits he and his professional teammates can cope with the lockdown better than most. He writes: "The following Friday the Pro14 was suspended, but soon you put everything into context, and suspending a rugby season doesn't begin to be relevant. We take for granted things we have on tap daily, but this pandemic does make us realise how lucky we all are, especially those of us who play sport for a living. It's unfortunate that it took something like this to make us value it as much as we should. . .We're privileged."

Irish language channel and Allianz League rights holders TG4 are making contingency plans with the 2020 competition looking increasingly likely to be scrapped. Last year's Division One football final between Mayo and Kerry, which Mayo won 3-11 to 2-10, was TG4's highest viewed programme of the year, with 265,000 tuning in to watch. However, the postponement and probable cancellation of the league will be a big blow for the broadcaster. Rónán Ó Coisdealbha, TG4's head of sport, said: "We lost the last three weekends of the [2020]Allianz League and, looking back to last year, the league finals in hurling and football were two of our three highest-rating games, so in terms of advertising and commercial income, like any other broadcaster, we've taken a hit. The season was suspended just before we were going to broadcast the hurling league quarter-finals. It has a huge impact."

Premier League footballers are expected to accept a wage deferral, with top flight clubs increasingly worried about their income drying up during the current coronavirus-enforced postponement. The Professional Footballers' Association will hold talks with both the Premier League and the EFL later today regarding pay, with Premier League clubs set to take a united stance on deferrals in their next video conference on April 3rd. Yesterday, Leeds announced all playing staff would defer their wages in order to ensure non-playing staff would still be paid.

And in today's Reality Bites column, John O'Sullivan has spoken to Stephen Aboud, the head of technical direction for the development of players and coaches in Italian rugby and formerly part of the IRFU set-up. Aboud is currently in Parma, and he has discussed life under lockdown: "For me there are three words when you are in a lockdown: compassion, awareness and compliancy. A lockdown means compliancy, it doesn't guarantee compassion or awareness but it does guarantee compliancy. Everyone reacts in different ways, has different needs, different personalities that can render the impositions more or less difficult."