Poland stand between Ireland and a place at the World Cup

Now we know who stands between Ireland and a place in next summer’s World Cup finals in Brazil: Poland. Gavin Cummiskey was at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Tuesday evening to see Carla Ward’s team wrap up their play-off semi-final against Kazakhstan with a 4-0 win, making it 12-0 on aggregate. Meanwhile, Poland got the better of the higher ranked Belgium in a penalty shoot-out in Gdańsk.

An upbeat Ward pointed to Ireland’s two wins over the Poles as recently as April, but she wasn’t losing the run of herself. “We know we got the toughest draw. Even England didn’t want Poland or Belgium, but our team is growing all the time.”

In Gaelic games, with county final season up and running, Malachy Clerkin takes a trip around the entire country to see who is contending in each county’s senior football championship, with plenty of trophy-laden clubs taking on sides seeking their first ever titles.

Cuala have been no strangers to success in recent times, both in football and hurling, and on Sunday they meet Castleknock in the Dublin football final. “Con O’Callaghan v Ciarán Kilkenny, basically.” Eoin Kennedy scored Cuala’s winning point in the 2024 final, Gordon Manning talking to the player who made his competitive debut for Dublin back in January.

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In rugby, Gerry Thornley hears from Munster’s defence coach Denis Leamy ahead of what will be an emotional day at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday when the 10th anniversary of the death of Anthony Foley will be marked. “Poignantly,” Gerry writes, Munster host the same opponents, Racing, as they were due to play in Paris when Foley died. “His memory and presence will, no doubt, linger over this Champions Cup first-round tie.”

In cycling, Ian O’Riordan previews this week’s UCI Track World Championships in Shanghai where Lara Gillespie will attempt to emulate last year’s achievement when she became the first Irish woman to claim a UCI world title in any event.

TV Watch: There are a bunch more Champions League games on your TVs today, Liverpool’s trip to Austria’s LASK among the 5.45 kick-offs (Virgin Media Two and TNT Sports 2). And at 8pm, the three-in-a-row seeking PSG are away to Manchester City (RTÉ 2, Premier Sports 1 and TNT Sports 1), Roma host Real Madrid (Virgin Media Two and TNT Sports 4) and Aston Villa are at home to Fenerbahçe (TNT Sports 2).