A date with the All Blacks looms large for Ireland, with a full house expected at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday for the headline Test match of the November window. And as Gerry Thornley writes in his column this morning, New Zealand remain the ultimate box office proposition for rugby supporters: "A bit like Brazil in football, it would be hard to imagine rugby without them. It would certainly be duller. They are the game's leading attraction." However it seems unlikely those who walk down Lansdowne Road at the weekend will get to witness a famous Irish victory, like in Chicago in 2016 and Dublin in 2018. Indeed, the All Blacks have been in devastating form throughout the year: "Even so, there's no doubting the All Blacks' potency and they are not only expected to win every single time they play but for pretty much all of the professional era to do so with a brand of rugby that is consistently entertaining and sometimes thrilling. To that end they were, again, outstanding in the Rugby Championship."
The arrival of one superstar attraction into Dublin will be preceded by another, as Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal take on the Republic of Ireland in Thursday night's penultimate World Cup qualifier. The Manchester United forward broke Irish hearts with a match-winning brace on the Algarve in September, and midfielder Josh Cullen has reflected on the enduring genius of the 36-year-old. He said: "He's probably one of, if not the only, player in world football that could have scored those two goals. We know what a special player he is and yeah we managed to [keep him quiet] for 89 minutes but we would have much preferred to have done it for 95 or whatever it was in the end."
The FAI has promised to protect Irish referees, after this weekend's fixtures in the north Dublin schoolboy league and Metropolitan girls league were cancelled over a rising number of abusive incidents towards officials. Chief executive Jonathan Hill said: "I can assure affiliates across the country that the FAI will do whatever is needed to ensure the protection of all our referees - without them we have no game, plain and simple. The small minority of players, coaches, officials and all others guilty of such abuse need to understand that. They must know that Irish football and the FAI will do whatever we have to do to ensure a zero tolerance policy towards abuse of any match official."
Elsewhere in his column this morning Owen Doyle has reflected on last weekend's Test matches, and a refreshing afternoon in Dublin where Ireland trounced Japan 60-5. He writes: "But we've just seen that it can be done.The Aviva Stadium saw Ireland and Japan deliver a game of rugby without any serious foul play, no take-outs in the air, no dangerous high hits." However, he believes the All Blacks will prove a different kettle of fish on Saturday: "Ireland gave a performance where everything worked. They were excellent, ultra-fast handling and belief in what they were doing brought a massive tally of 60 points, including nine tries. In Rome, the New Zealand second string - while not at all a smooth purring machine - still crossed for seven tries against Italy. With their big guns back, they will present Ireland with a massive challenge in every department."
And the finish line for the new athletics track at University College Dublin is in sight, 10 years after the original site was deemed unsafe. Ian O'Riordan reports: "All that is standing in the way of its fabled reconstruction now is Mother Nature. A series of delays, mostly Covid-19-related, means the final layering of the 400m track surface - essentially the icing on the cake - is increasingly weather dependent: it also means a springtime opening date is most likely."
