Gerry Thornley had his work cut out picking his highlights from the Six Nations campaign, so many were there, his toughest task probably choosing the best of the matches when there were a bunch of contenders. But he’s nailed his colours to the mast, selecting his team, player, tries and surprise of the tournament, amongst others, while leaving us all pining for a visit to The Argentine Steakhouse in Richmond.
Robert Baloucoune is one of four Irish players to make Gerry’s team of the tournament, the Ulster man having been named the ‘Rising Player’ of the Six Nations. “Twenty-eight and getting the rising star, I’m getting slagged for it already,” he said. But as Gerry points out, “it’s never too late.”.
Owen Doyle, meanwhile, has left us wondering about what might have been . . . he reckons England were entitled to feel aggrieved about the penalty try they conceded in Paris. But his overall conclusion is that “the shape of the game is just fine”, the final round of games “delivering rugby that was way beyond our wildest dreams”.
With club duty calling so quickly, there wasn’t much time for the Irish players to celebrate their Triple Crown. A heap of them have returned to the Connacht and Ulster camps ahead of Friday’s URC meeting between the sides, Linley MacKenzie and Michael Sadlier talking to the respective head coaches, Stuart Lancaster and Richie Murphy. On the Leinster front, Johnny Watterson hears from Leo Cullen who could be boosted by the return of Hugo Keenan for Saturday’s game against Glasgow Warriors.
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In schools rugby, Blackrock will attempt to complete their first Leinster Cup final three-in-a-row since 1964 in Tallaght this afternoon when they meet St Mary’s, who are playing in their first final since 2008.
In Gaelic games, Malachy Clerkin looks back at Kieran McGeeney’s weekend, the Armagh manager who “lets on to be a grumpy, demented oul’ hoor half the time”. How grumpy was he after he cost his team a point against Dublin for remonstrating with the referee? Very. And in ‘What we learned from the weekend’s GAA’, our crew pick out the varying fortunes of the Roscommon, Dublin and Kildare footballers and the Tipperary hurlers.
In football, there was a whole lot more drama before Shelbourne and Bohemians’ meeting on Monday night than during the game, Paul O’Hehir reporting on the flare-up between both sets of players and coaching teams ahead of a tame enough scoreless draw.
In his Different Strokes column, Philip Reid salutes Matt Fitzpatrick for his “touch of class” after he lost out to Cameron Young at The Players on Sunday, a quality not quite displayed by the crowd who booed and jeered the Englishman on the 18th.
And in racing, Brian O’Connor looks ahead to the start of Ireland’s 2026 flat action at the Curragh on Saturday, Aidan O’Brien beginning his 30th campaign at the helm of the all-conquering Ballydoyle. His chief hopes for success in this year’s Classics? Brian’s theory? “Everything is relative to his equine Albert Einstein.” See what he did there?
TV Watch: TG4 has live coverage today of the senior hurling final (Croke Cup) between Presentation College, Athenry and St Kieran’s College, Kilkenny (1pm) and the senior football decider (Hogan Cup) between Colaiste Mhuire, Mullingar and Tralee CBS (3pm). And at 8pm, we have the second legs of three last 16 ties: Arsenal (1) v Bayer Leverkusen (1) (Virgin Media Two and TNT Sports 1), Manchester City (0) v Real Madrid (3) (Premier Sports 1) and Chelsea (2) v PSG (5) (TNT Sports 2).
