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Malachy Clerkin: The clock is ticking and Samoa game is last-chance saloon for Andy Farrell’s squad

Mason Greenwood, Rhasidat Adeleke and the disparity of frees awarded in hurling all feature in today’s sports pages

Ireland Head Coach Andy Farrell talks to Jimmy O’Brien during training - Farrell has some big decisions coming up over the next few days. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho

Malachy Clerkin's face
Malachy Clerkin
Fri Aug 25 2023 - 09:32

The clock is ticking. We’re just a fortnight out from Ireland’s World Cup opener against Romania and only three days away from Andy Farrell announcing his 33-man squad. And so this weekend’s game against Samoa in Bayonne is the last-chance saloon, Gerry Thornley is in France for us and he brings analysis of Farrell’s team for the weekend and the pointers it provides for who might ultimately make the squad – and who looks like missing out. Johnny Watterson breaks down the Samoan challenge and explains why it ought to provide a good dry run for the pool match against Tonga.

Johnny’s column this morning is on both rugby and soccer, specifically how the Mason Greenwood case relates to the dilemma Ulster rugby were faced with a few years back. In the eyes of the law, none of the players involved did anything wrong. “But there is one strand of the law and many strands of justice,” Watterson writes.

In athletics, Sonia O’Sullivan writes from Budapest about the Irish stars of the week, Ciara Mageean and Rhasidat Adeleke. Nobody knows better than Sonia how finishing fourth in the world can be a stepping stone to greater things.

“It’s a tough place to be. I know (I finished fourth in the Worlds that time in Stuttgart in ‘93 and got my gold in Gothenburg in ‘95). But it only adds to the hunger and drive to go one step better next time and that next time in Paris may be all the sweeter knowing you belong there. You just keep turning up and the rewards will come.”

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Ian O’Riordan remains in situ in Budapest for us and he has a piece on Adeleke’s run on Wednesday night, her 2023 season in the round and her prospects for next year in Paris. “It’s extra motivation for next year, getting so close,” Rhasidat tells him. “I just went out a bit faster than I did in the previous rounds, felt it in the end, the last 50 metres. But at the end of the day I tried my best and that’s all I can do.”

In the wake of the women’s World Cup and the ongoing fall-out in Spain, Joanne O’Riordan’s column wonders when we’ll get to the point where we’re able to talk about women’s sport just for the sport and not for the latest controversy. “Must every story, interview or topic of conversation in women’s sports be dominated by something dramatic? Is it not possible to watch athletics or swimming or gymnastics and acknowledge that these athletes are incredible in their own way, and that alone should be the selling point?”

It’s a quiet time of year on the GAA front as the club championships start to get into gear. Nonetheless, Seán Moran has a fascinating story this morning on a UCC study that shows frees in intercounty hurling are significantly more likely to be given to the trailing side. Dr John Considine and his team studied every match in the 2016, ‘17 and ‘18 championships and found that, “Of the 1,183 frees awarded in 75 matches during that time, 11.4 per cent were when teams were level on the scoreboard, 39.4 per cent went to teams that were ahead and 49.2 per cent were awarded to teams losing at the time of the free.”

On Telly tonight: We’re approaching squeaky-bum time in the Premier Division of the League of Ireland and Shamrock Rovers are looking more vulnerable than they have in a while. Dundalk visit Tallaght tonight and a result for the visitors could well set us up for a cracking title race. It’s live on RTÉ Two at 7.35.