It has emerged that the Six Nations may put back the start of next year's tournament because of the financial impact of playing behind closed doors or before a small number of spectators. The 2021 Six Nations is scheduled to start on February 6th. Gerry Thornley has been looking at the permutations in the draw for the Champions Cup which will be made toward the end of this month. Results over the last few weekends have indicated the potential pool opponents for the Irish teams: "for example, there is now a 50 per cent chance that Munster (who had to cancel training yesterday after confirming that an unnamed senior player tested positive for Covid-19) will face La Rochelle, where their legendary former outhalf Ronan O'Gara is the head coach." In his column this morning, Gordon D'Arcy explains why Munster need to get Ben Healy to 50 caps as quick as they can: "At his first real opportunity, Healy comfortably ran the show. Here is a big personality in a key position but we know next to nothing about him. He was a schools star. He looks the part. He has four caps for Munster. Let him accumulate 50 caps."
Claycourt master Rafa Nadal passed his first real test of this year's French Open with a 7-6(4) 6-4 6-1 victory against Italian rising star Jannik Sinner as his quest for a record-breaking 13th title gathered momentum. The Spaniard, also looking to match Roger Federer's record of 20 Grand Slam men's singles titles, finished his quarter-final match at 1.26am local time in cold, windy conditions. Diego Schwartzman reached his first Grand Slam semi-final with a 7-6 (1), 5-7, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (5) win against the US Open champion Dominic Thiem at Roland Garros after a five-hour psychodrama. Nadia Podoroska, playing at the French Open for the first time, made history in becoming the first qualifier to reach the women's singles semi-finals following a shock victory over third seed Elina Svitolina.
Ahead of Thursday night's rescheduled European Championships play-off against Slovakia, UCD lecturer James McDermott explains: from Euro 1976 to Marek Hamsik, Slovakia's football heritage is to be respected. As for Ireland - the team simply does not score enough goals and the new manager has made it fairly clear that he sees David McGoldrick as addressing that, primarily through his ability to unlock the potential of the players around him. Despite the FAI confirming a member of the Irish backroom staff has tested positive for Covid-19 - all players and management tested negative and were given the green light to fly to Bratislava yesterday as planned by HSE. Newly signed Anderlecht midfielder Josh Cullen continued what has been a busy week by joining up with the Irish squad just before its departure in Dublin. Former Ireland international, and Brighton and Newcastle manager, Chris Hughton has taken over at Nottingham Forest.
Meanwhile, LeBron James overcame a sluggish start and Anthony Davis made a key three-pointer and block late on as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Miami Heat 102-96 to take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven NBA Finals. Seán Moran is writing about the 1956 GAA season, when polio ravaged Cork and hopes of a treble evaporated: "The last time the GAA championships were delayed before this year – allowing that there was a little tweaking done to the 1979 All-Ireland football final in order to accommodate that year's papal visit – was in 1956 and the reason back then was also rooted in public health."
