Ireland's Six Nations clash with Italy on Saturday March 7th has been postponed due to fears over the coronavirus. The IRFU confirmed the fourth round match wouldn't go ahead after meeting with the Minister for Health Simon Harris yesterday. The fixture - along with the women's and Under-20s games - now has to be rearranged in an already congested calendar, with it unlikely to take place this campaign. As Gerry Thornley writes: "There is no blank weekend for the remainder of this season which, due to the Rugby World Cup, runs until June 20th when the Pro 14 final is scheduled to be played in Cardiff, after which the Irish senior squad embark on a two-week tour to Australia." The rest of the Six Nations Championship is also in doubt, with England due to visit Rome in the final round of fixtures on March 14th.
Elsewhere Manchester City - who are facing a two-year ban from the Champions League for breaking financial fair play rules - have grabbed the initiative in their last-16 tie against Real Madrid with a 2-1 first leg win at the Bernabeu last night. Zinedine Zidane's 13-time winners took the lead on the hour mark through Isco before capitulating late on - a Gabriel Jesus header and a 83rd-minute Kevin de Bruyne penalty, as well as a Sergio Ramos red card, leaving City firmly in the driving seat. Elsewhere Cristiano Ronaldo's Juventus have plenty of work to do after they were beaten 1-0 away to Lyon, Lucas Tousart with a first-half winner. Tonight Manchester United welcome Club Brugge to Old Trafford in for the second leg of their Europa League last-32 tie with the scores level at 1-1 after last week's sodden draw in Belgium. Celtic and Arsenal are also in action tonight against FC Copenhagen and Olympiakos respectively.
This year's GAA Congress takes place on February 28th and 29th, and one of the proposals will be the introduction of a black card in hurling. However, as Malachy Clerkin writes this morning, the proposal is unlikely to make it through: "Hurling people in general don't want a black card or a sin-bin - and that's their prerogative. The vast majority have at least moved beyond the silly old carry-on of stating there's no cynicism in the game. But when a drag-down happens in a game, it's never seen as anything out of the ordinary." But why are hurling people resistant to the idea of following in the steps of football and introducing the black card? For Jackie Tyrell, it's because goal scoring chances are at more of a premium in football than in hurling: "When a lad gets through one on one in football, it's a great opportunity for a goal. How many of them happen in a game of football? One a half maybe, on average? Whereas in hurling, one long ball can create a catching situation and just like that, the goal is on."
In this morning's rugby statistics column John O'Sullivan has looked ahead to this weekend's Pro14 fixtures between Munster and the Scarlets and Leinster against Edinburgh, and picked out a selection of provincial players whose numbers so far this season read impressively. For Munster, it's fullback Mike Haley and number eight Arno Botha who are the standouts, while for the defending champions Leinster, Ronan Kelleher and Max Deegan - members of Ireland's Six Nations squad - have really caught the eye.
In her column this morning Joanne O'Riordan has looked at the messy situation surrounding Mo Farah, Alberto Salazar, UK Athletics and Ukada: "But, it's not Mo's fault. Mo just wants to run and eat Quorn, but his coaches and team-mates keep being accused of using PEDs, both legal and illegal. Mo has trouble hearing, trouble remembering, has problems filling out his whereabouts forms, goes to the wrong country and was once identified by the IAAF as being "likely doping". It's really not his fault."
And Maria Sharapova announced her retirement from tennis yesterday. The 32-year-old won five Grand Slam titles, as well as serving a 15-month drug ban after testing positive for meldonium.
