Ken Early sums it up neatly: “For Ireland, football is suffering.” And the suffering came in spades in Prague on Thursday night with that penalty shoot-out defeat, the Czech Republic maintaining their 100-per-cent winning record when it comes to these blasted things. “This team gave everything,” Ken writes. “It wasn’t enough.” Although we’re left with a humongous ‘what if?’ about the needless concession of that penalty soon after Ireland had gone 2-0 up.
As Gavin Cummiskey puts it in his match report, “it was a massive moment – mainly because the Czechs seemed ready to implode”. “The cruel irony of it all is that they were good enough to go through,” says Malachy Clerkin. They “gave everything, went two goals ahead in normal time, hit the woodwork twice, drew a world-class save out of the Czech keeper. But it wasn’t their night.”
Gordon Manning was tasked with rating the players, but poor old Sammie Szmodics was hardly on the pitch when he was knocked out cold after a collision of heads. Gavin got an update from Heimir Hallgrímsson on Szmodics after the game, the manager feeling much the same as the rest of us about the defeat. “Pain. I feel pain. I feel pride in the performance of the players, they gave their all.”
In rugby, John O’Sullivan has news of Leinster’s RG Snyman being ruled out for the remainder of the season with a knee injury. The timing is brutal because, writes Johnny Watterson, “Leinster are stuttering this season more than they ever have”, this now “squeaky bum time for the squad” with their Champions Cup game against Edinburgh coming nine days after the Scarlets test.
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In light of their current financial challenges, it’s an even more critical spell for Munster, Michael Scully hearing coach Clayton McMillan acknowledge that securing qualification for next season’s Champions Cup has taken on added significance.
Meanwhile, there was good news from the Ulster camp for 21-year-old academy prospect Bryn Ward – he has been given a senior deal for next season, reward for his impressive form in the current campaign.
In Gaelic games, Gordon talks to Wexford captain Eoghan Nolan ahead of their National Football League Division 3 final against Down in Croke Park on Saturday, promotion to Division 2 already secured.
Philip Reid reports on the opening round of the Houston Open where a closing birdie, that gave him a one-under 69, boosted Shane Lowry’s hopes of surviving the cut and making upward moves into the weekend.
And in racing, tomorrow’s Dubai World Cup programme will go ahead – despite it taking place in a war zone. “When people are dying ... the spectacle of so much effort and money going into something so comparatively trivial can be unsettling,” writes Brian O’Connor. But “getting such an array of talent to Dubai in the current climate is a defiant feat”.
TV Watch: It’s round two at the Houston Open today, Sky Sports Golf’s coverage starting at 12.30pm. This evening, Leinster host Scarlets in the URC (Premier Sports 1, 7.45pm) and at the same time England play Uruguay in a friendly at Wembley (UTV and Virgin Media Two).
