The post-mortem continues. Every inch of Ireland's Rugby World Cup failure must have been examined and re-examined at this stage but there are still a few angles to look at, a few dark corners to peer into and a few new ideas to be explored. In his column this morning Gordon D'Arcy looks at whether Ireland failed to evolve over the last few years and, in the end, were outdone by an All Blacks side which had done exactly that, particularly since their defeat in Dublin last year. "I wish Ireland had adopted a constant evolution. It would have been so much fun to have seen Johnny Sexton and Joey Carbery on the pitch together," he writes. Ireland en masse suffered a huge downturn in form since last November's victory in Dublin and, as D'Arcy writes, the rigid sticking to the same principles made that form dip harder to arrest. The Ireland squad landed back in Dublin yesterday as Joe Schmidt said his farewells after six years in charge. "It has been seven days a week and I think I can honestly say, in six and a half years I've not taken one, full day off. There's not one day where I don't think I've either been scribbling notes or watching footage, or getting to a game or doing some coaching: going into a club and doing something. I've loved it," the New Zealander said.
As it is the All Blacks now look towards conquering another Six Nations team, this time in England, to pave the way to their third successive Rugby World Cup crown. The hype has been building up around that one since the weekend with England head coach Eddie Jones typically ramping it up on Tuesday when he claimed that their training sessions had been spied on. Speaking yesterday, defence coach John Mitchell – a Kiwi himself – elaborated further and wondered what the point in rugby espionage these days when the game is so structured. And speaking of controversy, there hasn't been much greater in the last few days than the photograph of Jaco Peyper with a group of Welsh fans, seemingly mocking Sebastian Vahaamahina's elbow to the face of Aaron Wainwright. This morning our columnist and former referee Owen Doyle looks at the incident and writes that this could cause a serious issue for World Rugby given the limited options in Japan. "A certain set of semi-final results, and one poor performance, would leave them in a huge bind. And it is very hard to see Peyper reappearing: that photo isn't going anywhere. I can imagine it caused a lot more annoyance within World Rugby than is evident. They have done well to "low-key" this incident," he writes.
In soccer there were routine victories for both Spurs and Manchester City in the Champions League last night as both put five past their respective opponents. The 5-0 thrashing of Red Star Belgrade was a much-needed boost for Tottenham as Son Heung-min lit up the stage to shine some light into what has been a miserable period for Mauricio Pochettino's side. Elsewhere, City's win over Atalanta saw Raheem Sterling grab an 11 minute hat-trick in the second half to put Pep Guardiola's side well on their way to last 16 qualification. This evening Chelsea meet Ajax in Amsterdam while Liverpool travel to take on Genk. Moving closer to home and St Patrick's Athletic maintained their European hopes last night as James Doona came off the bench to fire them past Derry City at the Brandywell and leave the race for that final European spot open until the final day of the season. Meanwhile, amid talk that former FAI CEO John Delaney is lining up a bid to buy Waterford, current owner Lee Power has told The Irish Times that he is unaware of any potential buyout.
Finally to GAA and Seán Moran writes in his column this morning that GAA Congress continues to make short work of some serious motions. "The world of GAA democracy as expressed through congress was again on display and again indications that this is probably not the best way for a large organisation to conduct its business," he writes. Leaving a potential soccer career at a Premier League club to return to hurling is probably not the most common life path but that is what Ballygunner's Dessie Hutchinson has done after he left Brighton when he came to the realisation that forging a career at the top level may not be possible. Hutchinson spoke yesterday about the decision and his experiences of trying to make it at the top level in England.
