Liverpool's poor Premier League away form continued last night as they were beaten 1-0 by Southampton at St Mary's. Ralph Hasenhüttl's side took the lead after just two minutes thanks to a lobbed effort from Danny Ings, and the Saints held on admirably to secure all three points. The win moves Southampton up to sixth in the table - Liverpool stay top on goal difference, for now. Tonight sees the first League Cup semi-final take place - a rare London derby between Tottenham Hotspur and Brentford (kick-off 7.45pm). And Jose Mourinho is well aware of the importance of the fixture, as he looks to end Spurs' 13-year wait for a trophy. ""Is this my biggest game since arriving at Spurs? Yes, I think so," Mourinho said. "In the perspective of the club chasing silverware for many years, I would say so."
In his column this morning Gerry Thornley has questioned the viability of the season-ending Rainbow Cup, which will see the 12 sides currently competing in the Pro14 joined by four South African franchises for a tournament running from April to June. This, as he writes, clearly poses logistic difficulties: "However, on the premise that the Lions tour, much like the Olympics, will be deferred for a year and postponed until the same dates in 2022, the situation in South Africa could also make the Rainbow Cup a risk not worth taking." The creation of the Rainbow Cup has also resulted in a stunted Pro14 season with no playoff quarter-finals or semi-finals, something which means there will be numerous dead rubbers played out ahead of the final on March 27th. "Furthermore, as things stand at most only five games - namely the five Irish derbies - will feature matches where both sides still have a tangible interest in the destiny of the title."
Mayo have a major hole to fill after veteran goalkeeper David Clarke announced his intercounty retirement yesterday. 37-year-old Clark won eight Connacht titles and two All Stars during a 20-year involvement in the senior set-up, which came to an end with last month's All-Ireland final defeat to Dublin. And as Aonghus Ó Maicín writes this morning, replacing him will be far from easy: "Efforts can be made to replace All Star forwards, midfielders and defenders; finding somebody up to the challenge of filling these empty gloves is equivalent to finding the next Dalai Lama in Glenamoy or Ballycroy."
Elsewhere the IRFU and the Irish provinces are resigned to the probability it will be autumn at the earliest before limited crowds are allowed to attend fixtures. This will lead to further, heavy losses - including the more than €10million in gate receipts which would have been generated from home Six Nations fixtures against England and France. It also appears unlikely the Six Nations would be moved to the summer, even in the Lions tour is postponed, writes Gerry Thornley.
And Jack Byrne has left Shamrock Rovers to link up with Mick McCarthy at APOEL Nicosia, with the midfielder signing a contract in Cyprus until 2023.
