After a stuttering start to their Six Nations defence - Gerry Thornley believes Ireland are looking a little weary, or leggy, and have been afflicted by "trying-too-hard" syndrome. In his column this morning he continues: "they look like they could do with a good knees-up. They need to start enjoying their rugby again. In this, there has been idle talk of drawing comparisons with the weary and fraught World Cup campaign of 2007. It's nothing like as bad as that. Honestly. And at least it's happening now, and not in the World Cup." Yesterday evening Scott Fardy signed a one year extension to his Leinster deal, and St Michael's eclipsed rivals Blackrock for the first time in the Leinster Senior Cup when making their way to the semi-final with something to spare.
Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga has been fined one week's wages and admitted he made a "big mistake" after refusing to be substituted during Sunday's Carabao Cup final. He says he has apologised to his team mates, manager, and last night he released an apology to the fans. While in League of Ireland action, Dinny Corcoran's second half penalty was enough to decide another dramatic derby game in Bohemians' favour and maintain their' recent run of positive results against Shamrock Rovers.
The hurling league moves on to something approaching full-contact sparring this weekend - with the sorting of out of who will go where in the league quarter-finals on Sunday week at stake. Malachy Clerkin explains - "with Limerick already through to the knockout stage in 1A, all five remaining teams head into the weekend with a chance of maintaining their interest beyond it."
Meanwhile organisers of the KBC Dublin Marathon have added an extra 2,500 places for the October event, increasing the overall entry to another record high of 22,500, after the initial 20,000 limit sold out in just 40 days.
