The British and Irish Lions face a 'fourth Test' tonight as they come up against a very strong South Africa 'A' side in Cape Town (kick-off 7pm). A dozen of the players who played against England in the World Cup final feature for the "As", including nine of the starting line-up that night in Tokyo, meaning this will be no romp. It is the generous sprinkling of spice which the tour probably needed. A 34-28 defeat in Cardiff meant that Ireland finished third in the Under-20 Six Nations Championship but there was so much to admire in the manner of their performance against a French side that physically dwarfed Richie Murphy's line-up.
Five Italians and three English players have made the Euro 2020 team of the tournament, with top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo and Italy captain Giorgio Chiellini both surprise omissions. Uefa has opened a disciplinary investigation into the chaotic scenes at last weekend's final at Wembley. Dundalk became the first side to advance to the second qualifying round of the new Uefa Europa Conference League with a 1-0 victory (5-0 on aggregate) over Newtown at Park Hall. Richie Towell's superb goal gave Shamrock Rovers a brief glimpse at a glorious European night but SK Slovan Bratislava's Vladimir Weiss, the best player on view, had other ideas. A 2-1 victory at Tallaght Stadium wasn't enough as the League of Ireland champions lost 3-2 on aggregate.
The Ireland cricket team defeated a top eight side at home for the first time on Tuesday with South Africa captain Temba Bavuma admitting afterwards "we were totally outplayed". Ireland skipper Andrew Balbirnie led from the front with his seventh one-day international century but he was superbly backed up by Harry Tector and George Dockrell, who added 90 in the last eight overs as Ireland totalled 290 for five.
Meanwhile, if you thought a missed cut at the Scottish Open would play on Rory McIlroy's mind at all, you'd be wrong. "I think in golf you always learn more about your game when you've missed a cut or struggled, or not played as well," said McIlroy ahead of Thursday's first round of the British Open at St George's.
