The Morning Sports Briefing

Rugby: World Cup

Ireland's disappointed World Cup squad returned home yesterday evening to a hearty welcome from a large crowd gathered in Dublin airport - admittedly two weeks ahead of plan head coach Joe Schmidt told reporters.

The various diagnoses though for Ireland’s 43-20 quarter-final defeat to Argentina will stay the course of the tournament, and most probably beyond that.

Gerry Thornley's column is looking at the apparent gaping divide between the hemispheres, one which in the context of Ireland and Wales' battered and wounded squads and the misfortune of Scotland's exit, reflected upon the performances of previous tournaments, still leaves it hard to argue against the notion that the European game and the Six Nations tournament is now very much the B division. "Over the next two weekends we shall see the Premier Division have their own play-offs on European soil."

Ireland prop Mike Ross is one who won't be around in four years' time in Japan, when Ireland finally try to break that quarter-final hurdle, yet he still very much intends on wearing the green jersey again. Turning 36 in December he says the decision will of course fall to Schmidt, as Ireland look to pick up the pieces of a defeat he puts down to the absence of the team's "spine" through injury.

Meanwhile South African referee Craig Joubert has not been selected to referee either World Cup semi-final with World Rugby admitting that he made an incorrect decision in awarding Australia a late penalty to beat Scotland last Sunday.

Soccer

In last night's Premier league game Stoke secured a third win in a row with an early Bojan penalty setting them up for a 1-0 win over Swansea. Tonight in the Champions League Arsenal welcome Bayern Munich to London, in desperate need of a result, while Chelsea travel to play Dynamo Kiev.

GAA

Record All-Ireland medal holder Henry Shefflin has expressed surprise at the stand-off in Galway hurling, the former Kilkenny attacker says that as "an outsider looking in, I thought they had a very good year. They brought on new players. There was a lot of depth in their squad and everything seemed to be going well. Even the Leinster final they performed fairly well, up until the second-half performance.."

UFC

Meanwhile Malachy Clerkin caught up with Conor McGregor yesterday - gaining an insight into the 'McGregor intrigue' and what motivates the UFC interim champion;

“There’s a lot more to this sport than training hard and turning up for a fight. The game does that to you, it’s a whole other bubble.”

There's a great piece in this morning's paper too on why the IABA's failure to keep coach Billy Walsh is a serious mistake, the coach's departure to the USA is a real blow to the chances of Ireland's elite boxers in Rio writes Johnny Watterson.

What to watch out for

Dynamo Kiev v Chelsea kicks off at 7.45pm (Setanta from 7.30pm ) with Arsenal versus Bayern kicking off at the same time (TV3 from 7.30pm).