It took them a while to get over the line, but finally in Tallaght on Wednesday evening Shamrock Rovers sealed their fifth League of Ireland title in just six seasons, Dylan Watts getting the goal that gave them a 1-0 win over Galway United. Gavin Cummiskey looks back on this “generationally-dominant team’s campaign”, one that has seen manager Stephen Bradley’s stock rise even higher - to the point where he could replace Heimir Hallgrímsson in the Irish job soon enough.
Carla Ward’s job is significantly more secure after Ireland’s Nations League play-off triumph over Belgium. Karen Duggan wasn’t exactly enthused by the teams’s form under Ward, but against Belgium “it was as if a switch was flipped, Ireland looked a different beast”. Now they have a League A campaign to look forward to, the draw for which takes place next Tuesday.
In rugby, Gerry Thornley brings us the latest news from the Irish camp ahead of Saturday’s meeting with New Zealand in Chicago, injuries and retirements leaving Andy Farrell with more selection decisions than might normally be the case.
Gerry also talks to forwards coach Paul O’Connell, who is happy to be back in “the trenches” after his spell in charge of the team during the summer, and he hears from James Lowe who wishes New Zealand would stop selecting his old buddy Will Jordan. “He’s shocking, man. Keeps on scoring tries.” He does too, as John O’Sullivan reminds us in his profile of Jordan who has an especially unhappy knack of scoring against Ireland.
In Gaelic games, Ciarán Murphy looks at the thorny old issue of club transfers, noting a profusion of players lining out for clubs in recent weeks “that weren’t originally their own”. And Paul Keane talks to a more guarded Davy Fitzgerald who has discovered that being “too f**king honest” can come back to bite him.
Dave Hannigan, in his America at Large column, brings us a divine revelation: Conor McGregor has found God. He announced that he had discovered “the way, the truth and the light” at a press conference “where he was carnival-barking his bottom-feeding bare-knuckle-fighting carbuncle of a promotion”. You can tell Dave is moved by this conversion.
TV Watch: There’s a fair chance that you missed Leona Maguire’s opening round at the LPGA Maybank Championship in Malaysia, seeing as happened in the middle of the night, but you can catch the highlights of day one on Sky Sports Golf this evening (7.0). And the second semi-final at the women’s cricket World Cup started earlier this morning, India and Australia battling it out for a place in the final against South Africa (Sky Sports Cricket, from 9.30am).
