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Weakened Liverpool exit FA Cup; Vital month ahead for Irish rugby

Morning Sports Briefing: Keep ahead of the game with ‘The Irish Times’ sports team

Ruben Neves scores the winning goal for Wolverhampton Wanderers against Liverpool. Photograph: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images

Tue Jan 8 2019 - 07:32

Wolves knocked Premier League leaders Liverpool out of the FA Cup last night with a 2-1 third round win at Molineux. Jurgen Klopp's experimental team included two debutants while 16 year-old Ki-Jana Hoever was brought on after only six minutes because of an injury to Dejan Lovren. Following the match the draw for the fourth round of the competition was made, with Manchester United's trip to Arsenal being the standout fixture.

In his column this morning Gerry Thornley looks ahead to a vital month coming up for all four provinces before England come calling at the Aviva - a busy few weeks promises an antidote to the post-Christmas blues: "Come the end of the penultimate (Champions Cup) round, conceivably all four provinces could be leading their pools and well set for qualification. Yet none dare look beyond this weekend's penultimate round, when defeats would seriously imperil their hopes of advancing. And, of course, just three weeks from next Saturday, England come calling for Ireland's opening defence of the Six Nations at the Aviva Stadium."

In other rugby news, Munster centre Chris Farrell has emerged as a major doubt for Ireland's Grand Slam defence, the 25-year-old is to undergo scans to establish the extent of the knee injury picked up in the final play of the night in the win over Connacht on Saturday. Connacht wing Cian Kelleher will return to Leinster next season. The 24-year-old left Dublin for Galway in 2016 after turning down a promotion from the Academy into the senior squad.

The Cheltenham Gold Cup favourite Presenting Percy is set to finally return to action this season over hurdles at Gowran later this month. Although Presenting Percy impressively won the 2017 Pertemps Hurdle at Cheltenham on ground officially described as good, both Pat Kelly and owner Philip Reynolds are keen for the eight-year-old to make his seasonal debut on an easier surface.

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Meanwhile Dublin will have home advantage for both their Walsh Cup and O'Byrne Cup semi-finals this weekend, the latter providing the first competitive outing of the new season for football manager Jim Gavin.