Leinster aim to make it back to back wins at the start of their Champions Cup campaign as Gloucester travel to the RDS tonight. Luke McGrath, Rónan Kelleher, Ross Molony and Jack Conan are all brought into Leo Cullen’s starting team, with Johnny Sexton fit enough to be named on the bench. Gerry Thornley explains in his preview why Leinster must beware of complacency against a much-changed Gloucester team. Ulster prop Andy Warwick has been suspended for three weeks after he was cited for a dangerous tackle on Sale Sharks centre Manu Tuilagi in their Champions Cup match last weekend.
If capitalism was a country, Doha would be its capital. Ken Early writes from the Qatar World Cup where he explains an unsettling air of fakeness pervades everything: “Doha is simply what happens when the capitalist imagination is set free by infinite gas revenues and dictatorial authority. That this is the kind of place we are condemned to produce when money and lives are no object.” Republic of Ireland manager Vera Pauw has been accused of criticising players over their weight in a report by the United States’ National Women’s Soccer League following an investigation into allegations of abuse and misconduct. Mary Hannigan believes “it was scandalous that Pauw’s name was inserted alongside coaches, some of them sexual predators, whose behaviour towards their players was, quite literally, criminal.”
Michael Murphy’s involvement with the intercounty game in 2023 will be restricted to his role as an analyst with GAAGO. Talking to the media at an event to promote the streaming platform, the former Donegal captain explains his shock decision to retire and discusses how life has been so far without intercounty football: “no matter who was managing Donegal, I wouldn’t have been playing ... for me to give Paddy Carr what was required this year, I just knew myself in my heart I wasn’t going to be able to.”
Meanwhile, Carrick-on-Suir rider Sam Bennett has got his mojo back and is aiming for Tour de France glory in 2023. In an interview with The Irish Times, he explains: “I wouldn’t be the rider I am today if I didn’t believe that I was able to do it. And it’s not like I’m going into unknown territory where I didn’t do it before. I’ve done it already, so why can’t I do it again?”
