Ireland have been drawn in a group containing Wales, England and Fiji in a new, one-off eight-team rugby tournament to be held over four consecutive weeks from November 14th. Scotland, France, Italy and Japan will be in the other pool, and the winners of the respective pools will meet on December 5th. In his column this morning, Gerry Thornley writes: "Leinster behind closed doors at the Aviva Stadium has to be preferable and advantageous to Munster, Ulster and Saracens, whom Leo Cullen's men meet in the Heineken Champions Cup quarter-finals . . . for it is the wave of noise generated by near on 50,000 fans at the ground which underlines home advantage."
Irish racing's most famous meeting of the year kicked off in ghostly silence on Monday - the Galway racecourse faces a "seven-figure" loss on the back of this week's festival taking place behind closed doors. Read Brian O'Connor's preview of the festival's day two feature (the Colm Quinn BMW Mile) here: "Magnetic North hasn't won at Ballybrit but came up the hill well enough when third in last year's Ahoonora Handicap at last year's festival. That was over seven furlongs, so as a proven winner at a mile and a quarter Sheila Lavery's runner could be one to relish a stamina test in the closing stages." Across the Irish sea, and Aidan O'Brien's decision to send the Irish Derby hero Santiago to the opening day highlight of the Goodwood festival serves up a potential inter-generational classic.
Fulham will take a two-goal advantage to Craven Cottage on Thursday after last night's Championship playoff semi-final win over Cardiff. Josh Onomah and Neeskens Kebano both scored superb individual goals, and Scott Parker's team also hope to welcome back talisman Aleksandar Mitrovic for the second leg. Liverpool's Premier League winning manager Jurgen Klopp was last night named the League Managers' Association manager of the year. He has given his squad several weeks off and scheduled mid-August for the start of pre-season training. The club has allowed its players to go on holiday on condition that their destinations are cleared by the club and they make immediate arrangements to leave any country affected by a spike in coronavirus. Emmet Malone has looked at the 21 Irish players who featured during the Premier League season, and due to the breakthrough of several young players, there are promising signs for Stephen Kenny in Irish Premier League numbers.
Meanwhile a second successful weekend of resumed club activity has left the GAA cautiously optimistic about some easing of the Government restrictions on match attendances. And our Sporting Cathedrals series continues this morning with the Maracana - the Rio stadium full of myth and magic.
