New Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny has vowed to do things his "own way," as he replaces Mick McCarthy and begins what he has called his "ultimate job." Speaking yesterday for the first time since his appointment last weekend, former Dundalk and Under-21s boss Kenny outlined a positive vision for Ireland going forward, and suggested many of the building blocks for success are already in place, particularly at the back. "I looked at the back four against Denmark: Doherty, Egan, Duffy and Stevens and in my informed view that is in the top 10 of back fours in Europe. That's what I feel." The 48-year-old emphasises control will be key for his side going forward, and he wants the first team to set out a blueprint which the rest of the country will want to follow. He said: "I would like schoolboy teams and academy teams throughout the country to look at the senior international team and think: 'that's how we want to play'. That they connect with it at that level. That is my dream."
Elsewhere in today's whole new ball game column Malachy Clerkin has imagined the 2020 Ulster Championship final being played in the depths of next February, and the tailback of Tyrone fans as they try to make it across the Covid-border to Clones. He writes: "When the restrictions started to be lifted in the South and the counties started talking seriously about getting the games up and running again, Ulster GAA people began to get that old invisible feeling. How could you organise the All-Irelands when six of the counties has been under different conditions all this time?"
Today's favourite sporting moment sees Emmet Riordan look back to Ireland's famous win over Pakistan at the 2007 Cricket World Cup - a landmark victory which heralded a new dawn for Irish cricket. In front of a raucous St Patrick's Day crowd in Kingston, Jamaica, the underdogs bowled out Pakistan for 132, before holding their nerve to win by seven wickets - their first ever World Cup victory, and also their first over a side with Test match status. He writes: "Text messages pinged in from home informing us that packed pubs were getting over the disappointment of Ireland missing out on a first Six Nations title in a dozen years after France's late try against Scotland by realising that a) Ireland had a cricket team playing in the World Cup; and b) that they were within touching distance of causing the biggest upset in the history of the tournament."
This weekend should have seen the 2020 US Masters sliding into gear, with the year's first Major now postponed until November due to the coronavirus crisis. However, no tournament does at least mean nobody will have their dreams torn to shreds at Augusta National, and this morning Philip Reid has revisited five of the biggest Masters meltdowns - from Ed Sneed to Jordan Spieth.
And in the latest entry to his diary this morning, Andrew Conway writes about the need to stay creative as home-training starts to become a chore: "Now that we're in lockdown there will be no visiting family this Easter either, although to add some variety to our schedule this week one of the lads in my Munster training group set us a challenge of kicking a rugby ball into a wheelie bins."
