Irish rugby’s version of an arranged marriage; Manchester United’s tragedy in waiting

Morning everyone,

After a weekend crammed with top level sporting action, there was no shortage of material for our writers to mull over, not least Ireland’s Six Nations win in Rome which produced plenty to ponder.

Gerry Thornley described it as a “curate’s egg of a performance”, one that was far from flawless but featured enough “attacking brilliance” to secure the bonus point win that (whisper it) keeps Ireland on track for a grand slam.

In John O’Sullivan’s ‘Player Watch’, he takes a look at how Craig Casey and Ross Byrne fared at the Stadio Olimpico in what he called “rugby’s version of an arranged marriage”, the halfback combination starting a game as a pair for the first time in the absence of Jamison Gibson-Park and Johnny Sexton.

Nicky English: We could be in for a high-scoring free-for-all with Cork v Tipperary

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Irish Olympian Jack Woolley: ‘We’ve sat in saunas and not drank water for two days’

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It’s raining metaphors at Manchester United amid soggy aftermath of underinvestment

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Joe Canning: Cork will need to reproduce their best to clear tricky Tipp hurdle

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While the odds on Manchester United achieving their own grand slam this season might be a little longer than the ones you’ll get for Ireland achieving the feat, they’ve completed the first leg of a possible quadruple by winning the Carabao Cup, their first trophy in six years.

Ken Early, though, examines the off-the-field dark clouds hovering over the club now that they’ve become the focus of a takeover bid from Qatar, one, should it prove successful, he argues, would “rob the club’s subsequent achievements of any real meaning”. “To become the possession of a state would be a tragedy for Manchester United,” he writes.

Still with football, Denis Walsh examines the dilemmas facing Republic of Ireland manager Vera Pauw ahead of naming her squad for this summer’s World Cup, arguing that she has to avoid sentimentality, even if that means leaving out players who helped the team qualify for their first ever major finals. “Pauw is under no illusions about the limitations of the current squad,” he writes, “that will frame her thinking, and muzzle her emotions.”

And Ian O’Riordan brings us news of an exceedingly good weekend for Irish athletics, with Rhasidat Adeleke breaking her own Irish 400m record with the second fastest time in the world this year and Andrew Coscoran improving both the Irish indoor and outdoor 1,500m marks which had stood, respectively, for 35 and 41 years.

Telly choice: If you haven’t had enough Six Nations analysis, then Against the Head will help you out on RTÉ2 tonight (8.0), with Eddie O’Sullivan and Darren Cave looking back at the weekend’s games.

Keep an eye on: Chelsea. Graham Potter was only appointed to the managerial job back in September, but Sunday’s defeat by Spurs means they have only won one of their last 11 games in all competitions and are now closer to the bottom three than the top four. Patience, you’d suspect, is running thin.

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