Manchester City are 15 points clear at the top of the Premier League following last night's 4-1 win over Wolves. The teams were level until the 80th minute when two late strikes from Gabriel Jesus and another by Riyad Mahrez gave Pep Guardiola's team a 21st consecutive win. An application by John Delaney's legal representative to have aspects of the High Court proceedings between the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement and the FAI held in camera so as to prevent the contents of emails he is claiming privilege over becoming public is to be held later this month. Emmet Malone has all the latest . . .
Gordon Elliott is set to find out on Friday if he will be banned over the controversial photograph of him sitting on top of a dead racehorse. Yesterday, the unbeaten star Envoi Allen was removed from Elliott's yard by owners, Cheveley Park Stud. They took away all eight horses they had with Elliott – on the day he turned 43 – and divided them between Henry de Bromhead and Willie Mullins. Previous assurances of the Elliott case being a grim once-off look hollow on the back of a video emerging of jockey Rob James engaging in uncannily similar behaviour with another dead racehorse. Brian O'Connor writes: "the depth of the hole that racing is in right now can be measured by the upcoming Cheltenham festival suddenly seeming almost irrelevant."
Scotland's postponed Six Nations match with France is being lined-up for March 26th, in bad news for the sports however the women's Rugby World Cup in New Zealand has been postponed until 2022. In his column this morning (Subscriber Only), Gordon D'Arcy explains how Ireland merely picked through the carcass of Italian rugby in Saturday's win in Rome: "Ireland racked up six tries without setting the world on fire. The Italian resistance was abysmal, and the Irish coaches would have identified this fact quicker than the rest of us."
Meanwhile, Seán Moran explains how the 2034 report - which new GAA president Larry McCarthy helped shape - now has the feel of a prophecy revealed by a pandemic. Wexford's Matthew O'Hanlon believes joint-captains' trophy rule 'nonsensical'. In 2019 both Lee Chin and O'Hanlon were presented with the O'Keeffe Cup after winning the Leinster hurling final.
