Steel yourself for no end of chat about curses as Mayo make final

A quiet enough weekend, that. If you exclude the All-Ireland football semi-finals, the World Cup quarter-finals, the Wimbledon finals, rugby’s Nations Championship, and, oh, a plethora of other sizeable events. We’ll start with that All-Ireland business – Mayo will meet Kerry in the final in a fortnight’s time, so steel yourself for no end of chat about curses.

“Flying in the face of history,” writes Denis Walsh in his match report, “Mayo made it easy on themselves” when they “overwhelmed” Louth on Saturday. After, manager Andy Moran waved away any notion that the county should desist from celebrating in light of so many All-Ireland final disappointments down the years. “Bulls**t,” was his pithy enough response, “if they go a bit nuts, let them.”

Seán Moran reports on Kerry’s four-point win over Dublin, one that wasn’t without its controversies. In light of three key decisions going against his side in the course of the game, Dublin manager Ger Brennan was left wishing for VAR-like interventions. But no more than Moran giving the Mayo faithful the green light to party, Malachy Clerkin reckons the “celebration police” will have to put up with David Clifford a while longer yet.

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Question of the Day: Mayo, need their supporters be reminded, have lost 15 of their 18 All-Ireland football final appearances down the years. Eight of those defeats have come since 2004, Kerry and Dublin dishing out six between them – what two Ulster sides won the others?

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The Croke Park game of the weekend, though, was the Tailteann Cup final when Wicklow, somehow, recovered from a 13-point deficit to get the better of Down. Paul Keane reports on that remarkable turnaround.

In the first of a series of columns over the coming months, in which he will chronicle his recovery from the ACL injury he sustained in June, Meath’s Ruairí Kinsella talks to Gordon Manning about the day his season ended and the beginning of a long road to recovery.

And in hurling, Denis looks at the skilful management of John Kiely who has refreshed his Limerick team without it losing its “core identity”. So much for the notion that he was “managing a team in the foothills of decline”.

At the World Cup, old buddies England and Argentina advanced to a semi-final meeting on Wednesday, Ken Early in Miami to see Tommy Tuchel’s lads see off Norway, while Keith Duggan was in Kansas to witness Argentina get past Switzerland in extra-time.

The post-match spat between Tuchel and Jude Bellingham captured the bulk of the headlines, but no more than Lionel Messi with Argentina and Kylian Mbappé with France, Bellingham is emerging as the “King of the national team” – so, writes Ken, Tuchel will need to learn that his role is to be his “aide and facilitator”.

In rugby, Gerry Thornley reports on Ireland’s 36-20 win over Japan in the Nations Championship, Andy Farrell admitting that the scoreline flattered his side. John O’Sullivan rates the players and picks out five things we learned from the game, while Gerry reflects on the “infectious joy” brought by the quartet of newbies – among them Sam Illo who struggled to find the words to describe what his debut meant to him. Next up? Only New Zealand in Eden Park.

At Wimbledon, Czech mates Linda Noskova and Karolina Muchova produced a zinger of a final, Noskova surviving the mother of all Muchova comebacks to win her first grand slam title, while Jannik Sinner came from a set down against Alexander Zverev to retain his crown.

In golf, Rory McIlroy had to settle for a share of seventh at the Scottish Open, South Korea’s Tom Kim triumphing, while in racing Brian O’Connor reports on how the sport here is keeping a close eye on British racing’s spiralling ‘affordability checks’ controversy – and its potential for a major impact on vital media rights income in Ireland.

TV Watch: Ireland’s crossover game against Fiji at rugby’s Under-20 World Cup is at 5.30 this afternoon (Premier Sports 1), with the semi-final between South Africa and England starting at the same time (Premier Sports 2) – and earlier, at 3pm, France meet New Zealand in the last four (Premier Sports 2). And at 8pm, TG4 has the highlights from the GAA weekend.

Answer: Donegal in 2012 and Tyrone in 2021.