Women’s sport still has a long way to go; Ireland’s numbers game stacks up

As 2018 draws to a close there is plenty to look back on but, in particular, it has been a stellar year for women's sport in Ireland. The Ireland women's hockey team were the first Irish team ever to get to a World Cup final, Katie Taylor retained her IBF and WBA world titles, Kellie Harrington secured gold at the AIBA World Championships, Ellen Keane won gold and bronze at the Para-Swimming European Championships, Sanita Puspure returned with gold from the World Rowing Championships and the Ireland women's 4x100m team won silver at the World U-20 Athletics Championships. And that's not to mention the domestic good news with the Ladies All-Ireland final again breaking the record for attendance at a women's sports event. However, according to Kelli O'Keefe of Teneo Sports, there is still a long way to go. In a survey carried out for The Irish Times, it shows that only 13 per cent of Irish people say they attended a women's sports event in 2018. This dips to 12 per cent when it comes to females only, while males are at 14 per cent. While there is plenty of positivity around women's sport at the end of 2018, this survey shows that there is still a lot of work to do. In her column this morning, Sonia O'Sullivan writes in similar vein and says that Ireland's high achieving sportswomen can now enjoy their just rewards at The Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year awards tomorrow night.

On to football and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has arrived in Manchester to take the reigns at his former club with his first test fast approaching in a trip to Cardiff on Saturday. The Norweigan will take temporary charge until the end of the season at which point United will appoint a new manager, while sacked boss José Mourinho has released a statement following his departure. Solskjaer's brief will be to steady the ship at United and possibly bridge the 11-point gap to the top four but he could also have some long-term impact in persuading some of the want-away players like David De Gea, Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba to stay. Elsewhere, the semi-final lineup in the League Cup was confirmed last night as Spurs knocked out rivals Arsenal at the Emirates with goals from Son and Alli to set up a tie against Chelsea. Maurizio Sarri's side were made to work hard by Bournemouth but Eden Hazard's goal eventually saw them through. In the other semi-final Manchester City will meet Burton Albion.

Moving to rugby and John O'Sullivan writes in his stats column this morning that Ireland have no problems in the scoring stakes after the historic year that was 2018. Over the 12 months that brough about a Grand Slam, a series win in Australia and a first ever win on home soil over New Zealand, Joe Schmidt's side had 37 individual try scorers in their 24 games. All augurs well for Japan next year. That historic year was not all so rosy for some however with Josh van der Flier one of the players who missed large chunks due to injury. The Leinster flanker got injured on February 3rd and didn't return until September 15th but, when he did, he did so with a bang against the All Blacks which he spoke about yesterday.

Finally, in our other columns this morning, Dave Hannigan is writing about former Chicago Bears running back Merril Hoge who was forced to retire from the NFL after 12 concussions but is now the co-author of a book which completely refutes the science that American football leads to brain injury and CTE while Joanne O'Riordan writes that Katie Taylor has now passed the greatness test.