Euro 2016
With just over 48 hours to go until Ireland take on France in the last 16 of the European Championships, the build-up is intensifying.
After receiving much criticism following the opening two games of the tournament, James McCarthy redeemed himself in Wednesday's historic win over Italy when he played in the deeper midfield role. Ken Early spoke to the Everton midfielder following the game about just how much Ireland means to him.
Meanwhile, much of the French media is already concentrating on Thierry Henry's handball in 2009 which helped France qualify for the 2010 World Cup ahead of Ireland. Emmet Malone writes about his memories of the night and the occasional ill-feeling that still persists.
On the team news front Stephen Ward and Jonathan Walters are both touch-and-go as to whether they will play on Sunday. The team will train in Versailles today before travelling to Lyon tomorrow.
A tired Martin O'Neill conducted a press conference yesterday after the team returned to their base from Lille in the early hours of Thursday morning.
“We will have to go produce energy when we don’t have the ball, but we have to go and produce the type of football that we played last night. And we have to replicate it in spades,” the Ireland manager said of Sunday’s match.
Meanwhile, in the England camp, the FA has been left unimpressed by Jamie Vardy signing a new four-year deal with Leicester and rejecting Arsenal.
The news comes just five days after the striker stated publicly his focus would remain solely on England during Euro 2016.
The unrest is also being felt by Raheem Sterling who may be left out of the side to face Iceland on Monday as senior management staff grow ever more concerned about his confidence and state of mind after the Manchester City winger received a huge amount of criticism on social media and from the stands.
In Lyon Michael Walker looks at the success of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and how the French media continues to praise the efforts of the players on the pitch and the fans from both sides off the pitch.
Rugby
The huge weekend of Irish sport gets underway tomorrow afternoon when Joe Schmidt’s side take on South Africa in the deciding test of the series.
Schmidt himself spoke yesterday of how difficult a task it will be to slow the Boks' momentum and record an historic series win.
“To go to Jo’burg then, and everyone is really, really disappointed that we let such a fantastic opportunity slip, but I think we deserved to have the margin we did. We worked hard to build that on the back of very little field position and very little possession. That’s where we need to be able to put our best foot forward,” Schmidt said in Port Elizabeth yesterday.
Meanwhile, following the announcement that he will retire after the series, Eoin Reddan has been hailed from all corners as his stellar career comes to an end.
Croke Park
After the news yesterday that Croke Park will screen the second half of Ireland and France on Sunday, the American Football college game due to take place between Boston College and Georgia Tech in September has been thrown into doubt.
Gavin Cummiskey reports that the Irish American Football Association has voiced concerns about insurance over the event.
Meanwhile Jim Gavin has spoken of how he feels that the rivalry between Meath and Dublin is still as strong as ever ahead of Sunday's Leinster SFC semi-final.
Hurling
Finally, in his column today John Allen writes about how children are being over-coached at an early age and that confidence and enjoyment is paramount.
