The Morning Sports Briefing

Rugby

Despite the fact that Ireland have little left to play for in this year’s Six Nations, the pressure on the players to perform against Italy this weekend is even more so than usual - so says Gordon D’Arcy.

In his column this morning the former international sets out the case of this being a vital game for Joe Schmidt’s side as to lose to Italy would be a major set-back.

“In recent memory there have been three standout years when Ireland have been dreadful in the championship; the post-World Cup campaigns (2008 and 2012) and the injury-ravaged 2013 when we lost in Edinburgh then Rome.

This need not be one of those seasons but a heavy, unfamiliar pressure comes on Ireland over these next two Saturdays. This has become a vicious fight to escape last place in the table.

From back-to-back champions to that situation is a downward curve no matter what way it is viewed, while Italy and Scotland are on upward curves,” D’Arcy says.

On that front Ireland scrum coach Greg Feek spoke yesterday at Carton House about how victory is vital to restore self-belief among the squad. The impressive young duo of Josh van der Flier and Ultan Dillane are both expected to feature, while Rob Kearney could miss out with a hamstring injury.

“We try to make sure that we’re not throwing someone out there for the sake of it either, and there has to be a degree of them earning it. And sometimes if you get a taste and then you’re put back in your box for a bit, it makes you hungrier too. But we always choose a team that’s best for that week,” Feek said.

After coming on and impressing against England, Dillane is a player that there has been a lot of positive talk about in the last few weeks.

Donnacha Ryan spoke yesterday about how he is willing to take the Tralee native under his wing and help him along the way in his fledgling international career.

Ryan said: “Ultan is a good-natured guy if he wants to learn all you can do is give him the information, it’s up to him whether he accepts it or not and at the moment he’s been very forthcoming and it’s great to train with him. His positivity, like Josh [VAN DER FLIER], has been tremendous and they’re great guys in the pack to have . . .”

Tennis

With the tennis world still rocking from the news of Maria Sharapova’s failed drugs test, Johnny Watterson looks at how the other two athletes, who also recently tested positive for meldonium, will be treated in comparison to the global tennis superstar.

Russian cyclist Eduord Vorganov and former 1,500 metres world champion, Sweden’s Abeba Aregawi both tested positive for the substance before Sharapova.

The contrasting views of certain organisations can be seen in the following quotes.

“Maria is a leader and I have always known her to be a woman of great integrity,” said WTA chief executive Steve Simon.

Hard bitten athletics was treading a more furious, threadbare path.

“We totally reject all forms of cheating, doping and illegal means. We have a zero tolerance and this is totally unacceptable,” said Swedish Athletics secretary general Stefan Olsson in response to Aregawi’s positive test.

Sharapova certainly has a number of questions to answer after her revelations and Owen Gibson has set out five that the Russian needs to answer to.

GAA

Both the Kerry and Donegal county boards, as well as Neil McGee were punished yesterday by the CCCC.

Both counties have been handed fines of €7,500 after Kerry’s five-point win was overshadowed by numerous melees over the 70 minutes - particularly in a first half where two red cards and two black cards were dished out.

Donegal full back McGee has also been handed a one-match ban for his part in one of those dismissals.

In his column this morning Seán Moran discusses that topic and how the GAA is still trying to reach the aspirations set out in Seán Ó Síocháin’s annual report which was released this day 50 years ago.

One particular section which stands out is the following: “The glamorising of certain key players, even though it is done with the best of intentions, creates a problem, as it tends to engender enmities and tensions among the less favoured players and thereby causes estrangements and deterioration in team spirit . . . anything that aims at setting particular players apart should be discouraged.”

In other news, James Horan will this week host a Sporting Excellence conference in Breaffy.

Among the speakers are sports psychologist Brendan Hackett; Deirdre Lyons, player development manager with Connacht rugby; former Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr, former Olympic track cyclist Martyn Irvine and Clare O’Leary, the mountaineer and polar explorer.

Also, tonight Kerry’s under-21s will host Tipperary in Tralee as they look to end their frankly unbelievable losing streak which has seen them fail to win an under-21 game in the province since 2012.

Soccer

In the FA Cup fifth round replay Arsenal strolled by Hull City with a 4-0 win. However it was marred by injuries to Per Mertesacker, Gabriel and Aaron Ramsey.

In the Champions League last 16, Cristiano Ronaldo helped Real Madrid to a 4-0 aggregate win over Roma while Andre Schurrle’s goal was enough to see Wolfsburg past Gent.

Meanwhile, Chelsea’s Gary Cahill has said that his team is more than happy to adopt the tag of underdogs as they face into their last 16 second leg against PSG tonight.

Guus Hiddink’s side are 2-1 down from the first leg but, crucially, go into the game with an away goal.

In domestic news, Stephen McPhail is hopeful of finishing his career by completing a boyhood dream of winning the league with Shamrock Rovers.

Probably towards the back end of last season we (he and Duff) had loads of conversations about how the bodies were,” he says. “Obviously Damien’s coming back from a massive injury and he’s struggling with it really. He probably didn’t want to say that while he was here but you could see that he was struggling with it.”

Cricket

Ireland get their ICC World Twenty20 campaign underway this afternoon when they take on Oman in Dharamsala.

John Bracewell’s side bid to make it past the first round of the World Twenty20 for the first time since 2009.

To do that they will need to advance from a group of Oman, Bangladesh and the Netherlands.

The action gets underway at 2pm and you can follow full coverage with Patrick Madden on our liveblog from 1.30pm.

What to watch out for

Soccer: Chelsea take on PSG in their Champions League last 16 second leg clash. RTE TWO from 7.30pm.

Earlier, Zenit St Petersburg host Benfica in their second leg. BT Sport Europe from 4.45pm.

Cricket: Ireland take on Oman at the ICC World Twenty20 in India. Sky Sports 2 from 2pm.

In the first game of the day in Ireland’s group, Bangladesh take on the Netherlands. Sky Sports 2 from 9am.