The Morning Sports Briefing

Soccer: Euro qualifiers

Ireland welcome the world champions to the Aviva tonight for a crunch European qualifier tie - the last time the teams met in this venue the Germans put six goals past Kieran Westwood - this time around though and "team spirit" will be Ireland's key to getting a result.

Three years on from that 6-1 thrashing and Ireland have taken confidence from their 1-1 away draw against the now World champions last year - and manager Martin O’Neill expects his side “to battle with every ounce”. He has some tough selection calls to make with an injury crisis of sorts in the centre of defence, Glenn Whelan’s suspension in central midfield, and who will start up front?

Brian Kerr fancies Shane Long to come in and ruffle the German defence with his dynamism and physicality - yet for him it'll be aggressive, but disciplined defending that will give O'Neill's team a fighting chance. Malachy Clerkin spent yesterday at the German press conference and training session, where manager Joachim Löw said he knows Ireland can make it a hard night for his team with their robust nature - and he will be very wary of the Irish counter attack.

Meanwhile, last night Fifa's embattled president Sepp Blatter was on the verge of being suspended from football following recommendations from Fifa's ethics committee. The decision is still to be ratified, and comes after the committee opened proceedings into claims that he mis-sold a World Cup TV rights contract.

Rugby: World Cup

We're finally closing in on Sunday's pool decider against France - the French players spent yesterday talking about how much they will target Ireland's outhalf Johnny Sexton. His former Racing Metro team mates feeling they can tire out Ireland's "strong man" by constantly running his channel. Loose-head prop, Eddy Ben Arous, was the most open, stating: "I know that he is slow in getting rid of the ball, I am going to try and put the maximum pressure on him. I am going to hunt him down as often as possible." Fighting talk there from the French.

Last night South Africa whitewashed the USA with a 64-0 win that cements their place at the top of pool B. While in pool C Georgia edged Namibia 17-16.

Golf

Shane Lowry starts of this morning's British Masters as one of the favourites - but he wasn't even a pro when the competition was last played.

“It’s brilliant that a tournament like this is back on the European Tour schedule, and personally I am delighted with the Marquess course here at Woburn, a very similar feel to Wentworth but probably even in slightly better condition.”

Elsewhere Dave Hannigan has an interesting piece up this morning from the US - the University of Louisville, one of the predominant college basketball teams, has been rocked by the publication of a new book. In it, a prostitute alleges that she provided strippers and hookers to high school players who were being brought to the campus on recruitment trips, and she was dealing with the director of basketball operations.

What to watch out for

Woburn British Masters is on this morning, live on Sky Sports.

Sky Sports 1, 9am-5.30pm

Republic of Ireland v Germany kicks off at 7.45pm, with Scotland v Poland on at the same time on Sky Sports 2.

RTE 2 from 7pm