It’ll be a momentous night for Katie McCabe over in Leuven where the Republic of Ireland take on Belgium in the second leg of their Nations League play-off. The Irish captain was the driving force behind last Friday’s 4-2 in the first leg of the tie in Dublin, and now she’d quite like to mark her 100th cap by leading the side to promotion to the top flight of the competition. Head coach Carla Ward is, though, expecting a much improved Belgian showing on their home turf.
After Celtic’s recent form, they could do with a few much improved showings themselves, but Brendan Rodgers is no longer at the helm after his resignation on Tuesday. Martin O’Neill returns to take temporary charge of the team, his first managerial job in six years.
In rugby, Gerry Thornley continues the build-up to Saturday’s meeting with New Zealand in Chicago, the good news that all 36 of Andy Farrell’s squad are fit and training, including captain Caelan Doris. He hears from All Blacks coach Scott Robertson and analyses what shape Ireland are in ahead of these Autumn Internationals. “Too old? Too Leinster?”
Owen Doyle is looking further ahead, to Ireland’s game against South Africa in Dublin next month. While he was impressed with the Boks’ form en route to retaining the Rugby Championship, he was less enamoured with “the levels of legal brutal physicality” on show.
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In Gaelic games, Seán Moran talks to former All Ireland-winning Cork captain Larry Tompkins about his recent battle with a rare form of lung cancer, the very good news that his tumour has stopped growing and hasn’t spread.
Seán also doffs his cap to the eternal TJ Reid after he collected his 12th county title with Ballyhale Shamrocks at the weekend. He’ll be 38 in a couple of weeks, “but shows no sign of looking to slow down”.
Philip Reid has the latest news from the world of golf in his Different Strokes column, including word on Leona Maguire’s return to action at this week’s Maybank Championship in Malaysia. And in racing, Brian O’Connor looks at Christophe Soumillon’s prospects of bridging a 20-year gap since his last Breeders’ Cup triumph - the French champion jockey is teaming up with the horse he describes as “the best filly in the world”, the Aidan O’Brien-trained Minnie Hauk.
TV Watch: RTE2’s coverage of the second leg of the Republic of Ireland’s Nations League play-off away to Belgium starts at 7.0 this evening, the game kicking off half an hour later. A place in the top flight of the competition is at stake, and a (potentially) easier route to qualification for the next World Cup.
