Nothing beats playing, but Johnny Sexton enjoying coaching with Lions

Not long now ’til the Lions play their fourth game of this tour on Australian soil, the Brumbies their opponents in Canberra this morning in what is the penultimate warm-up before Saturday week’s first test against Joe Schmidt’s crew. Helping them fine-tune their preparations is Johnny Sexton, but does he miss playing? “Of course. I think I’ll miss it until the day I die,” Gerry Thornley heard him confess on the eve of the game.

Gerry also caught up with Canberra native and former Connacht coach Andy Friend for a chat this week. They had a lot of ground to cover too, including Friend’s globe-trotting coaching career and his earliest memories of fellow Canberran Mack Hansen, who he signed for Connacht.

Over in Lisbon, John O’Sullivan talks to Irish forwards coach Cullie Tucker ahead of Ireland’s meeting with Portugal on Saturday, Gordon D’Arcy impressed by the side’s “level of poise” in their win over Georgia last weekend. In his rugby-watching binge, though, he was less impressed by the All Blacks in their game against an impressive young French team.

In Gaelic games, Darragh Ó Sé expects Donegal and Kerry to prevail in the weekend’s football semi-finals, reckoning that what the counties produced in their last outings “was so far clear of anything any other team has been capable of in this championship”. Jordan Morris will hope to prove him wrong, Ciarán Kirk talking to the Meath star who has had to battle through major injury issues to keep his season alive.

‘There are one million cars in Georgia. Insurance is optional’

Best golf courses in Mayo, Roscommon and Leitrim: Bucket list courses and hidden gems from Carne to Carrick-on-Shannon

Katie Taylor v Amanda Serrano 3: All you need to know, including expected ring time and where to watch

In hurling, Sunday’s Tipperary v Kilkenny scoreboard controversy is petering out, the possibility of a replay having been dismissed. And Tipp manager Liam Cahill, as Gordon Manning tells us, never had any worries about having to play the game all over again. “It’s human error, that’s the bottom line,” he said. Time to “move on.”

“The whole imbroglio,” writes Seán Moran, “was a very regrettable distraction from a riveting match”, one Jeffrey Lynskey tactically analyses. Tipp’s ruthless efficiency and Kilkenny’s failure to exploit their numerical advantage, he concludes, ultimately proved decisive.

And in soccer, Gavin Cummiskey previews the first leg of Shelbourne and Linfield’s Champions League qualifier at Tolka Park this evening. A Damien Duff-less Shels, of course, Gavin hearing from his successor, Joey O’Brien, on the eve of the game.

TV Watch: It’s a busy screen-day. The Lions takes on the Brumbies at 11.0am (Sky Sports Action), there’s stage five of the Tour de France from noon (TG4 and TNT Sports 1), Tadej Pogacar claiming the 100th victory of his professional career on Tuesday, there’s men’s and women’s quarter-finals at Wimbledon (BBC from 12.15) and more rugby at 5.0 - Ireland meet New Zealand at the under-20 World Cup (rugbypass.tv).

There’s a pile of football to choose from too. Defending champions England’s Euro 2025 will be over if they lose to the Netherlands this afternoon (RTÉ 2 & BBC 1, 5.0) and France take at least a point from Wales (UTV, 8.0). Shelbourne are at home to Linfield in the first leg of their Champions League qualifier (RTÉ 2, 7.45), and PSG meet Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the Club World Cup (DAZN, 8.0). That should keep you going.