Irish provinces ready for Champions Cup; Lisa Fallon on Bryony Frost’s courage

The Champions Cup gets underway this evening when Northampton Saints meet Racing 92 as the great and the good of European rugby line up for their latest crack at the trophy. Leinster go into the tournament in hot form and have been tipped by many at home and abroad to go all the way. Tomorrow they begin their campaign with a home tie against Bath but this morning Gerry Thornley reports that, for a number of reasons, ticket sales have been a lot lower than expected for the Aviva Stadium. For Munster it looks set to be an interesting encounter with Wasps as they throw a number of young players in at the deep end due to Covid-19 causing havoc in the squad. Speaking yesterday, Peter O'Mahony says they are trying to keep things as "cool and chilled as possible" with the nerves undoubtedly heightening among the less experienced. Around midday today Johann van Graan will name his team which is set to include a number of debutants. Munster will take solace from the fact that Wasps have been struggling so far this season, as have Bath. For Ulster it's a meeting with Clermont Auvergne while Connacht take on Stade Francais. John O'Sullivan assesses each of the Irish province's opponents. For all you need to know ahead of the weekend including kick-off times and TV details, you can read our guide.

Moving on and it was a momentous day in racing yesterday after a three-person panel ruled that Irish jockey Robbie Dune was guilty on all four counts of bullying and harassment towards Bryony Frost. The panel heard of "a course of deliberate conduct over a significant period of time," and banned Dunne for 18 months. Writing in her column this morning, Lisa Fallon says that, as a woman in sport, she commends Frost for her courage. "It is an important decision and will hopefully go some way towards changing the misogynistic, and at times frightening culture that exists in male-dominated sports," she writes.

Moving to soccer and Johnny Watterson writes in his column this morning that the IFA must make the effort to bring Northern Irish football into a more inclusive era after Michael O'Neill's recent comments that he felt his team was always disadvantaged by the playing of God Save The Queen. Whereas other teams feel a real togetherness during the anthem, O'Neill feels Northern Ireland miss out on that with players from nationalist backgrounds feeling uncomfortable. In his column, Johnny Watterson questions whether both green and orange traditions are equal in value, or is one of them just not worth it? Last night Leicester were consigned to the Europa Conference League after their defeat by Napoli with Brendan Rodgers saying afterwards that he didn't even know what the competition was.

Moving to GAA and Seán Moran writes this morning that the Limerick hurling team's achievement of 12 All Stars shows just how far they have come in the last few years. "In a couple of years John Kiely's team have gone from being trail-blazers, who finally brought the Liam MacCarthy home after 45 years, to being an almost frightening force in the game and inviting comparisons with Kilkenny's great sides of recent decades," he writes.