Ultimately Ireland came away from Belgrade with nothing after a 3-2 loss to Serbia last night but, with the bar set so low over the last few years, there were plenty of positives to take from Stephen Kenny's first World Cup qualifier in charge. Some excellent attacking moves were a welcome change from previous regimes and it was one such attack which led to Alan Browne heading home for the opener. However, Aleksandar Mitrovic's class ultimately shone through as he netted twice in the second half to take the points for Serbia. Afterwards, Browne took little solace from his goal but said there are bright spots to be taken from the performance. With Luxembourg to come at home on Saturday, and hopefully Kenny's first win as manager, this could prove to be something of a turning point as Ireland finally looked to pose a goal threat, writes Keith Duggan. Meanwhile, in his column, Ken Early writes that Kenny's 3-5-2 system already looks to have more promise than what we've seen in the past but Ireland now just need to learn how to maintain this level of effort for 90 minutes. Elsewhere, Mary Hannigan writes that Browne gave Ireland fans their "we were there (on the couch)" moment while Patrick Madden hands out the player ratings.
Moving on to rugby and John O'Sullivan reports this morning that RTÉ are the strong contenders to take over Pro14 rights from Eir Sport after they decided not to renew their contract for the league competition. "It is seven years since RTÉ (2014) was last involved with the Pro 14 but there would be an appetite among the general public, certainly from a financial standpoint, to have the tournament back on terrestrial television," he writes. Meanwhile, with the Pro14 final coming up this Saturday between Munster and Leinster, Gavin Coombes and Scott Penny are two of the younger players who will be looking to take advantage of game time in such a big match.
In our women in sport pages this morning Dave Hannigan writes that the NCAA recently offered an astonishing Spring Sexism masterclass in anything but equality for the women's teams involved in March Madness with gym facilities in particular proving to be nothing like what was given to their male counterparts. Elsewhere, Sonia O'Sullivan writes that a catch-up with her old Villanova room-mate has her dusting down the dumbbells in a lifelong lesson in bodybuilding while Joanne O'Riordan writes that she has learned how vital it is to shape exercise around her menstrual cycle.
In golf, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry both suffered heavy defeats in their opening pool matches at the WGC World Match Play in Austin, Texas yesterday with a completely out-of-sorts McIlroy going down 6 and 5 to Ian Poulter while Ryan Palmer beat Lowry 4 and 2. Elsewhere on the opening day, Frenchman Antoine Rozner took a big scalp by beating Bryson DeChambeau two up.
Finally, in our film series this morning, Philip Reid looks back on the classic Cool Runnings in which fiction turned out to be better and funnier than fact.
