Donegal and Mayo make early running in the league

“You’d drive yourself dotty trying to discern the meaning of games like these,” says Malachy Clerkin of Donegal’s win over Kerry in Ballyshannon on Sunday, something that could probably be said of all these early National League encounters, in both football and hurling. Donegal prevailed, consolation for the local youngsters who had hoped to catch a glimpse of David Clifford. Alas, “Santy” had stayed behind in Kerry.

Mayo are the only other county to have made it two wins out of two in division one, Gordon Manning reporting on their six-point defeat of Dublin in Castlebar – after which Ger Brennan hinted that some All-Ireland winners could be cut from his Dublin panel. Galway got off the mark with a late, late victory over Armagh at the Athletic Grounds, while a second-half surge saw Roscommon see off Monaghan.

In hurling, Tipperary coasted to an easy victory over Offaly while Cork edged out Galway at Pearse Stadium. Still, Cork manager Ben O’Connor wasn’t too happy. “Black cards, red cards, yellow cards ... the fellas above [are] trying to cleanse hurling.” Waterford, meanwhile, cleansed the pain of their 14-point opening day defeat by Cork by beating Limerick, Denis Walsh on hand to see them produce “a rousing victory against the odds”.

In division one of the women’s football league, a goal from Aine O’Sullivan proved decisive for Cork against Galway, while Armagh had four points to spare in their win over Kildare.

Gerry Thornley: Repeating top-eight URC feat would be an even bigger outcome for Irish game

Stephen Rochford: If Roscommon beat Tyrone, they’ll be All-Ireland contenders on merit

Nicky English: Cork get expected win but in unexpected circumstances

In rugby, Gerry Thornley brings you the latest news from Ireland’s training camp in Portugal ahead of Thursday’s Six Nations opener against France, tomorrow’s team announcement “likely to fall along established lines” – “such as Sam Prendergast retaining the keys at outhalf”. He also talks to James Ryan who is about to embark on his ninth Six Nations campaign. Ninth! “Where does the time go?”

John O’Sullivan tells us that former French captain and coach Philippe Saint-André sees only one winner at the Stade de France, and it’s not Ireland. “I think they are not as good as two years ago,” he says. “Munster are struggling ... Leinster still win, but they don’t play like before.”

In soccer, Ken Early looks at Pep Guardiola’s failure to get a consistent tune out of his Manchester City team this season, their “appalling” performance in Sunday’s draw with Spurs the latest from a side that doesn’t “remotely resemble his successful teams of the past”.

Meanwhile, Conor McEvoy’s round-up of how the Irish abroad fared in the last week has a familiar ring to it: more positives for Troy Parrott, more worries for Evan Ferguson, and yet another impressive outing for Brentford and their Irish contingent.

In racing, Brian O’Connor reports on a deluge-interrupted Dublin Racing Festival, Brighterdaysahead the star of Sunday’s action when she held off Lossiemouth in the Champion Hurdle. Can Galopin Des Champs complete a Gold Cup four-in-a-row today?

And Denis Walsh is discovering that, like us all, he has no secrets from his phone. Only the other day, he was the ‘victim’ of “a targeted hit of nostalgia” when YouTube took him back to the first World Cup he can remember, when Mario Kempes was in his pomp in 1978. Mind you, Jimmy Barry-Murphy hasn’t popped up yet. “My phone needs to pay more attention.”

TV Watch: TG4 has live coverage of the Meath v Dublin (2pm) and Kerry v Waterford (3.45pm) games in the women’s football league, and at 8pm they have highlights of the weekend’s GAA action. At the same time, RTÉ 2’s Against the Head looks ahead to the Six Nations, and Sky have the Premier League meeting of Sunderland and Burnley.