Johnny Sexton will lead Ireland out at the Principality Stadium on Sunday after the outhalf declared himself fit for his side's opening Six Nations match. Sexton's presence as captain will be a huge boost for head coach Andy Farrell and this morning Gerry Thornley writes that, despite approaching his 12th Six Nations, the Leinster man still remains as motivated as ever. "There'd be something missing if Sexton didn't have the same desire and drive which is an innate part of his persona," he writes. One man Ireland will be missing in Cardiff on Sunday is Jacob Stockdale and the Ulster man leaves quite a gap in the team. In his stats column this morning, John O'Sullivan writes that Stockdale boasts Ireland's best try-scoring strike rate and others may well have to step up to the plate for as long as he's out. The exciting young prospects of France have been tipped by many to perhaps end their Six Nations drought this year but the bookies still have England as very short-priced favourites to retain their crown.
Moving on to soccer and there was a further dent put in the title defence hopes of Liverpool last night as Steven Alzate netted the only goal of the game at Anfield to give Brighton a 1-0 win and leave Jürgen Klopp's side floundering. After the match the German admitted that, on current form, his side are not title contenders and they now welcome Manchester City to Anfield on Sunday. Earlier on yesterday evening City made it 13 wins in a row thanks to goal from Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling to leave Pep Guardiola's men three points clear of Manchester United at the top of the table.
In golf, the news on Tuesday that the USGA and R&A may implement some restrictions on how far the golf ball goes has caused a lot of talk with Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy both weighing in on the issue yesterday. Lowry believes the issue is something of a non-starter as any moves would, he believes, only further the advantage of the better players while McIlroy branded the process a "waste of money" and says that the authorities have much bigger issues to deal with. However, the four-time Major winner did say he would be open to some sort of bifurcation where pros play by different regulations when it comes to equipment than amateurs. In our iconic sports book series this morning golf is the focus as Philip Reid speaks to Robert Lusitech about his book Unplayable: An Inside Account of Tiger's Most Tumultuous Season and how it came about that the writer got the inside story of the 2009 Woods scandal.
Moving to Olympics news and this morning Derval O'Rourke tells Ian O'Riordan that, while the Olympics experience is a huge part of the Games, athletes have to accept that this year will be very different and focus purely on performance. "When you're there to perform, it doesn't matter who's in the stadium, it shouldn't matter. The Olympics is about going there to do your best. The other stuff, it's not relevant," she says. Meanwhile, Bernard Dunne has his focus purely on his Irish boxer's prospects in Tokyo and said yesterday that he had not yet seen the BBC Panorama documentary on Daniel Kinahan's alleged involvement in the sport but he did say that the boxing authorities must protect their athletes at all times.
