There was no good news from Down Under when we all woke from our slumber this morning – unless you stayed up to watch the Melbourne Cup, in which case you’ll be bleary-eyed for the rest of the day. Willie Mullins had two runners in the race, the bulk of his hopes pinned on the highly fancied Vauban, but in the end he went down Without A Fight – that also being the name of the winner – trailing home in 13th. Mullins isn’t giving up, though, on cracking the Melbourne Cup code. “It’s a great prize, it’s a great day, great occasion,” he said. “If we get one good enough, we will try again.”
Ireland will try again in 2027 to get past a World Cup quarter-final, but for now, writes Gerry Thornley, “hangovers can linger amid such an anticlimactic fallout”. But he looks to the future to see what youthful options are coming Andy Farrell’s way, not least in the outhalf department as he sets about finding a replacement for Johnny Sexton.
Owen Doyle does some crystal ball-gazing too in his Whistleblower column, taking a stab at forecasting what world Rugby will do about the thorny issue of the role of the scrum when they complete a full review of the World Cup in the new year and issue a list of new law trials. “The nettle needs to be grasped,” he says, “things cannot be allowed to continue as they are, the scrum is now, too often, a penalty-generating machine”.
John O’Sullivan, meanwhile, talks to one of life’s busier men, Seán O’Brien. He’s currently the director of rugby at Tullow RFC, a player for them periodically, the contact skills coach with Leinster and is overseeing their defence while they await the arrival of Jacques Nienaber. “I don’t sleep that much actually, five or six hours a night,” he says. It’s a wonder he manages that much,
‘Helping him in his darkest moment was also helping me’: David Eccles and Tadhg Kennelly on an act of friendship that spawned a movement
Your complete guide to all the festive sporting action including TV details
Irish Times Sportswoman of the Year Awards: ‘The greatest collection of women in Irish sport in one place ever assembled’
Two-time Olympic champion Kellie Harrington named Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year 2024
Lucy Mulhall is a busy bee herself, and even has a tattoo of one. “We are all just part of one hive,” she says of the Irish rugby Sevens team that qualified for next summer’s Olympics in May, and celebrated by heading to the nearest tattoo parlour. Mulhall, who has captained the team for nine seasons, talks to Ian O’Riordan about the build-up to Paris, the prospect of leading Ireland out at the Olympics leaving her, well, buzzing.
In Gaelic games, Gordon Manning chats with former Kerry footballer Aidan O’Mahony who, along with his friend Eoin O’Shea, is a week in to his effort to run 200km – for a very good cause, too. He’s trying to raise funds for and awareness of the Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) initiative, Try for CRY.
And in soccer, Gavin Cummiskey talks to Bohemians captain Keith Buckley who will miss Sunday’s FAI Cup final after suffering a horrific knee injury last month. One surgery down, one to go, Buckley is being encouraged by a cousin who suffered a similar injury 10 years ago. You might have heard of him: Conor McGregor. Buckley is also getting support from the wider football community in Ireland. “I was getting [so many] phone calls,” he says, “you’d think I was on the way out.”
TV Watch: We have another batch of Champions League games on our tellies today, starting with Newcastle’s trip to Germany where they’ll meet Borussia Dortmund (TNT Sports 1, 5.45). And among the 8.0 kick-offs are Atlético Madrid v Celtic (RTÉ 2 and TNT Sports 1), AC Milan v PSG (TNT Sports 3) and Manchester City v Young Boys (TNT Sports 2).
