“When will it all end, and does anybody really care? Round one of the weirdly formatted Champions Cup, and the dangerous hits continued over the weekend.” These are the words of Owen Doyle as he looks at rugby’s crippling inconsistency when it comes to sanctions for dangerous head contact. The prominent example from last weekend? The decision to not even penalise Ulster’s Andrew Warwick for a head-on-head collision with Manu Tuilagi of Sale. Down in South Africa, Ox Nche of the Sharks was sent off for a similar incident - two different yet similar collisions, two vastly divergent outcomes. When will someone take control of this officiating farce? In what was a mixed opening weekend of the tournament for the Irish provinces, out of the 10 total winners of fixtures across round one, all of them had either won a Champions Cup of Challenge Cup in their time. As Gerry Thornley writes, it looks like pedigree will count for a lot once again in this year’s competition.
Argentina head coach Lionel Scaloni - the country’s second most important Lionel - rejected criticism of his players after their antics vs the Netherlands in the World Cup quarter-final. The Argentines taunted the Dutch as they ran to celebrate Lautaro Martinez’s winning penalty while goalkeeper Emi Martinez repeatedly shouted “I f**ked you twice” at the Dutch and told Louis van Gaal he needed to “shut his mouth”. All’s fair in love and war I suppose. Ken Early looks at Scaloni’s comments, and those of Croatian boss Zlatko Dalic ahead of tonight’s semi-final. Once again, are we looking at the potential impending World Cup departure of Argentina’s favourite Lionel?
Stephen Rochford has revealed his disappointment at the GAA’s refusal to allow Mayo to wear rainbow coloured numbers on their jerseys, as a nod to inclusivity and the LGBTQ+ community. According to Rochford, a member of Kevin McStay’s Mayo backroom staff, the GAA has been “a little bit inconsistent” with its messaging in this area. “I think the GAA is brilliant at a lot of things. I think it gets a hard time unnecessarily on certain items, but I do think this is a missed opportunity as the leading sports organisation, with the spread that it has.” Meanwhile down in Limerick, Cian Lynch is back in training again. It’s early days yet but after a hamstring injury and then ligament issues ruled him out of this year’s All-Ireland run, the former hurler of the year is on the verge of putting injury problems behind him ahead of next season’s campaign.
The queen of Cavan is getting her reward. Leona Maguire’s achievements on golf’s global stage are being honoured by a civil reception to be organised by Cavan County Council. A two-time Olympian, in Rio and Tokyo, the standout player in last year’s Solheim Cup and a breakthrough win on the LPGA Tour earlier this year in winning the Drive On Championship has now resulted in the civic reception. Civic receptions are afforded under Section 74 of the Local Government Act (As Amended), which provides that, “a local authority may confer a civic honour on a distinguished person.” Imagine what will happen when she ends up winning her first major.
