It was a busy day at FAI HQ with chief football officer Marc Canham and John O’Shea, assistant coach of the men’s team, on media duty. Gavin Cummiskey was there to hear Canham talk about the importance of building relationships with his harshest critics in the League of Ireland, and also continue to deny former women’s assistant coach Colin Healy’s claims that he had been promised a renewal of his contract last year. No such guarantee was given, Canham insisted, although he described the confusion as “deeply regrettable”.
Meanwhile, in the aftermath of Ireland beating Bulgaria in the Nations League play-offs, O’Shea doffed his cap to the leadership of Nathan Collins, captain in the absence of the injured Séamus Coleman. He conceded, though, that the Brentford defender needs to sharpen up on his concentration to eliminate those occasional glaring errors.
In Gaelic games, Malachy Clerkin brings you “a county-by-county guide to who got what from the National Football League”, although with the Championship starting in 12 days he concedes that his debrief will have “the shelf life of a cream bun”.
In his column, Maurice Deegan salutes the impact of the rule changes on the league campaign. “The game has been radically improved as far as I can see,” he writes. “The pace of the game has just gone through the roof, and I think players are starting to enjoy playing football.”
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In rugby, Gerry Thornley talks to birthday girl Aoife Wafer - 22 today - about what Ireland can take from their defeat by France in their Six Nations opener as they prepare for their trip to Parma to take on Italy on Saturday.
Gerry also looks ahead to a landmark day for Connacht rugby, their URC game against Munster on Saturday being played at MacHale Park in Castlebar in front of a 26,000-plus capacity crowd, while John O’Sullivan hears from Leinster coach Leo Cullen, his team dusting themselves down after losing to the Bulls last weekend.
And in his Whistleblower column, Owen Doyle is urging referees to be less shy about brandishing red cards, the elimination of dangerous play from the game essential for the safety of players.
In golf, Philip Reid updates us on the Irish players’ plans for the week, Rory McIlroy fine-tuning his preparations for the Masters by playing in the Houston Open, where Séamus Power and Pádraig Harrington will also be in the field. And in his Different Strokes column, Philip brings us the latest golf news from around the globe, including Sergio Garcia’s as yet unsuccessful efforts to qualify for the British Open.
TV Watch: Cycling fans have stage two of the Tour of Catalunya (TNT Sports 1, 2.15) to tune in to today, and later there are a couple of football offerings: a friendly between Sweden and Northern Ireland (BBC 2, 6.0) and - calm yerselves - a World Cup qualifier between North Macedonia and Wales (Virgin Media Two, 7.45).
