“Mouthwatering” is how Andy Farrell describes the prospect of Ireland’s Six Nations opener against France in Marseille tomorrow night, but it’s a daunting enough one too. As Gerry Thornley reminds us, “since 1972, Ireland have won just three times in 27 games away to France” - and those wins, in 2000, 2014 and 2018, “were by margins of two points”. Little wonder, then, that Ronan O’Gara reckons a triumph in Marseille “would rank as one of the great Irish victories”, Farrell concurring with that view.
Among those being thrown in to the fray is Calvin Nash, the injured Mack Hansen’s difficulty the Munster man’s opportunity, writes Johnny Watterson. “All you need in life is an opportunity, and it’s a big one for Calvin,” said Farrell.
Gerry analyses Fabien Galthié's “relatively cautious” team selection, the French head coach making five changes to the side that suffered its own World Cup quarter-final heartbreak last October, three of them enforced. Maxime Lucu has rather gigantic boots to fill, coming in at scrumhalf in place of the Olympics-bound Antoine Dupont.
John O’Sullivan takes a look at Italy’s Six Nations prospects, Gonzalo Quesada now at the helm after the departure of Kieran Crowley, and he also talks to Munster’s Brian Gleeson ahead of the start of the Irish under-20 team’s Six Nations campaign against France on Saturday.
Ken Early on World Cup draw: Ireland face task to overcome Hungary, their football opposites
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In Gaelic games, Cork legend Jimmy Barry-Murphy tells Gordon Manning that SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh is “a sensible compromise” in the naming rights conundrum concerning the stadium, although Malachy Clerkin admits that “for most of our lives, we called it nothing other than that awful kip below in Cork”. But now “it’s a big shiny box” that needs paying for, so “people are going to need to be a bit more grown up” about the commercial realities.
Ciarán Murphy, meanwhile, puts some perspective on the “visceral reaction” to Mickey Harte’s appointment as Derry manager, the county having “faced down worse crises than an outsider in charge of their football team” through the years. That perspective became all the more stark when he travelled last week to meet with the family of Seán Brown, the Bellaghy Wolfe Tones chairman who was murdered by the LVF in 1997. Ciarán spoke to Sean’s daughter and grandson about their fight for justice.
And in his America at Large column, Dave Hannigan writes about the mind-boggling costs for children to join competitive baseball or softball teams in the United States - up to $10,000 a year. “Children’s sport in America is a $19.2 billion business and no longer fit for purpose,” he says.
TV Watch: Eurosport 2 brings you stage two of cycling’s Tour of Valencia this afternoon (2pm-3.30pm) and later Sky Sports Golf has the opening round of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am where Rory McIlroy, Séamus Power and a bunch of celebrities are in the field (4.30pm-midnight). Tonight, there are two Premier League games to choose from, West Ham v Bournemouth (TNT Sports 2, 7.30pm) and Wolves v Manchester United (TNT Sports 1, 8.15pm), while Derry’s 1993 All-Ireland winner Tony Scullion is the subject of TG4′s Laochra Gael series (9.30pm).
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