Gordon D’Arcy praises Irish ruthlessness

The dust has now settled on Ireland’s win over the All Blacks in Chicago last Saturday night, and in his column today Gordon D’Arcy looks back at the famous victory - and ahead to the visit of the New Zealand on Saturday week.

And he believes it was Ireland’s ability to play the All Blacks at their own game which proved pivotal, He writes: “So much information can be gathered from Conor Murray’s try.It is 18-8 to Ireland with 32 minutes on the clock. We are doing to New Zealand what they do to the rest of the world, we keep the ball and wear them down...”

“...The ruthlessness we showed is the best part of this victory.”

He believes Ireland must call upon the same inspiration they did at Soldier Field if they want to repeat the trick in Dublin: “Every Irish player will know the distance they have to travel. It’s just about remembering the path back through the psychological maze.”

There are likely to be wholesale changes for Saturday’s second November Test against Canada, and Joe Schmidt has a fully fit squad of 39 to choose from.

Roy Keane on Everton

Ireland assistant manager Roy Keane gave a scathing assessment of Everton and their manager Ronald Koeman yesterday following the withdrawal of James McCarthy from the squad for Saturday’s Worlc Cup qualifier in Austria.

He said: “This idea of overloading...I think Koeman could not be further from the truth. I look at Everton and mayne the players have to toughen up....”

“Remind me, when did Everton last win a trophy?”

Aidan O’Brien cleans up at Cartier Awards

And Aidan O’Brien dominaed last night’s Cartier Awards in London. The Ballydoyle handler saw his brilliant filly Minding named Horse of the Year and Three-year-old Filly of the year - while there were also awards for Chuchill, Found and Order Of St George.

O’Brien himself received the Award of Merit.