Ireland’s injury list opens opportunity for Nick Timoney

It was only last Thursday that we heard Sean Jansen talk about his determination to take his chance in an Irish shirt in the absence of Caelan Doris and Jack Conan. Now? The poor man has joined that pair on the injury list after limping out of Friday’s win over Argentina. He’s now back in Connacht to start work on fixing the knee injury that will see him miss the rest of the Nations Championship.

Opportunity might just knock, then, for Ulster’s Nick Timoney, Michael Scully bringing you the latest team news ahead of Saturday’s meeting with Fiji at the Aviva Stadium. Andy Farrell had already planned on doing some rotating, but with a number of players carrying niggles, and captain Dan Sheehan not due to return to training until next week when he’ll complete the 12-day return-to-play concussion protocols, he might have to make more changes than he planned.

Gerry Thornley, meanwhile, spent a day at Old Belvedere’s Ollie Campbell Park and noted the positive impact of Leinster’s decision to allow 30 contracted players play in the All-Ireland League - a move he feels the other provinces should follow.

Do you know the way overly-chatty referees drive Owen Doyle to despair? Well, he was mightily relieved to see Luke Pearce keep his lips largely zipped during Ireland’s game against Argentina. Although he was left asking: “Dr Jekyll or Mr Hyde? Will the real Luke Pearce please stand up.”

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Michael Carrick looking increasingly like Manchester United’s modern-day Ron Atkinson

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In Gaelic games, Gordon Manning hears Galway great Peter Finnerty’s thoughts on solving hurling’s problems, his view that efforts should be “less to do with rule-tinkering and focused more on helping the lower-tier counties close the gap to the game’s elite”.

And Gordon also has news on plans to move the Mayo footballers’ League games away from the Air Dome in Bekan to a larger venue due to the demand from supporters to see the fellas who won a certain trophy back in July.

In football, we have a look at Republic of Ireland international Jack Moylan’s magical season thus far for Cardiff City, his 10 goals in 15 league appearances making him (possibly) the highest scoring midfielder in Europe’s top 10-rated leagues.

In golf, the permutations for the DP World Tour’s Order of Merit battle going in to the final tournament in Dubai are a bit complicated. Rory McIlroy could win it, but so could Eugenio Chacarra and Patrick Reed. And even Jon Rahm. Philip Reid explains all.

And in his Different Strokes column, Philip looks ahead to the annual Spirit international team competition which gets under way in Texas on Thursday, a strong quartet of players, all on golfing scholarships in the United States, representing Ireland.

TV Watch: If you have Disney Plus you have no end of women’s Champions League games to choose from today, among them Katie McCabe’s Chelsea away to Sweden’s Häcken (5.45pm) and last season’s semi-finalists Bayern Munich on the road to PSG (8pm).