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Malachy Clerkin: Bringing seven forwards off the bench isn’t good for safety in rugby

Ireland’s World Cup opponents, Vera Pauw’s fate and an Irishman in the NFL

South Africa's Kwagga Smith celebrates scoring a try with his teammates during last weekend’s big win over the All Blacks. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho

Malachy Clerkin's face
Malachy Clerkin
Tue Aug 29 2023 - 11:46

As the World Cup edges ever closer, Ireland’s various oppositions hove even further into view. Owen Doyle’s refereeing column this morning addresses South Africa’s headline-grabbing move last Friday against New Zealand when they brought seven forwards off the bench in one go. “How safe can it be to send out what is basically a whole new pack to compete against fatiguing opponents?” Doyle asks, not unreasonably.

Also in rugby, Gerry Thornley casts his eye around the weekend’s matches and the problems they uncovered for so many of the teams heading to France, with so little time left to fix them. “Far from the usual phoney war, the last weekend of warm-up games felt more like the first week of the World Cup itself than ever before. Full frontline selections, full houses and full-on games.”

Elsewhere, Vera Pauw’s fate as Ireland manager is set to be decided today, when the FAI board meet. Gavin Cummiskey’s story indicates that the Dutch woman is unlikely to be handed a new contract, after soundings were taken from the squad in the wake of the World Cup. “The players, as a collective, have made it clear they do not want Pauw to remain in the job,” Cummiskey writes. “They refused to support her during the World Cup while it is understood the team’s conservative tactics became unpopular within the playing group.”

In golf, it’s Walker Cup weekend and there are four Irishmen on the GB&I team to take on the US at St Andrew’s. Philip Reid talks to one of them, the Belfast optometrist Matt McClean, who is refusing to be cowed by the superstar line-up crossing the Atlantic to take them on. “It’s obvious their team is ranked quite a distance ahead of us,” McClean says, “but I don’t think anyone is going to be standing on the first tee afraid of the other team.”

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Though it’s a quiet time of year on the GAA front, some counties still have jobs to get done, the most pressing of which is the recruitment of a new manager. As Seán Moran notes in his piece this morning, “whereas there aren’t as many vacancies in the ranks of intercounty management as there were last year, the process hasn’t become any easier.”

Across the pond, the NFL looks set to feature its first Irish-born player in almost 40 years with the news that Wicklow-born Daniel Whelan will be the punter for the Green Bay Packers when the new season begins next week. “Whelan, aged 24, originally grew up in Eniskerry, Co Wicklow,” writes Nathan Johns, “before moving to California aged 13. When the Packers start their season on Sunday, September 10th away to the Chicago Bears, he could be the first Irish-born NFL player since Dubliner Neil O’Donoghue lined out for the St Louis Cardinals in 1985.”

On Telly: Day two of the US Open tennis features, among others, Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz and old stagers Andy Murray and Venus Williams. (Sky Showcase and Sky Sports Main Event, from 3.30)