D-Day for Lions hopefuls as Andy Farrell’s squad announced

For all those with hopes of making Andy Farrell’s Lions squad, it’s D-Day. At 2pm today, in the O2 Arena in London, Lions chair Ieuan Evans will announce the names of the players chosen for this summer’s tour to Australia. If the crystal ball used by the Irish Times’ rugby crew was in good working order when they sat down to predict the squad, then between 10 and 14 Irish players will make the cut. Gordon D’Arcy was the least patriotic, only selecting 10, John O’Sullivan the most generous, with 14. Gerry Thornley and Nathan Johns went for 13, the unluckiest omission from all their squads Caelan Doris due to that shoulder injury.

In Gaelic games, skorts-gate could soon be at an end after the Camogie Association announced that it will hold a special congress at Croke Park on May 22nd when delegates will again vote on whether players should be allowed wear shorts. This news comes after some defiance from Dublin camogie on the long-rumbling controversy, Malachy Clerkin reporting on their decision not to enforce the skorts-only rule for their players, while Cork and Tipperary also planned on defying the rule in Saturday’s Munster final.

Ciarán Murphy, meanwhile, is bemoaning the daft scheduling of championship games which is resulting in clashing fixtures or, worse, tasty looking games not making it to our screens at all. Mercifully, Sunday’s Leinster final between Meath and Louth will be televised, Gordon talking to Louth manager Ger Brennan in advance of the game.

In golf, Philip Reid previews Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry’s trip to Philadelphia where they will be teeing off in the first round of the Truist Championship today, McIlroy the defending champion. There’s been no end of distractions for McIlroy since he won you-know-what, so he’s eager to “get back in the groove, especially with next week’s US PGA at Quail Hollow on the horizon”.

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Bill Belichick, it might be said, found his groove when the 73-year-old NFL coaching legend struck up a relationship with a former college cheerleader 49 years his junior. It is, writes Dave Hannigan in his America at Large column, a relationship with which the country is obsessed. Is Belichick “some lovestruck Learesque character prone to exploitation in his dotage”, or is he just happy?

TV Watch: You can watch live coverage of the announcement of Andy Farrell’s Lions squad from 2pm today (Sky Sports Main Event). A bit later, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry are back in action at the Truist Championship in Philadelphia (Sky Sports Golf, 4pm), and at the same time Sky Sports+ starts its coverage of the LPGA Americas Open where Leona Maguire is in the field.

And this evening, there are three European semi-final second legs to choose from – Manchester United (3) v Athletic Club (0) (Premier Sports 1 and TNT 1) and Bodø/Glimt (1) v Tottenham (3) (Premier Sports 2 and TNT Sports 2) in the Europa League, and Chelsea (4) v Djurgården (1) (TNT Sports 3) in the Conference League. All three games start at 8.0.