Gavin Cummiskey has landed in Perth in time for the Republic of Ireland’s critical meeting with Canada tomorrow (kick-off 1pm Irish time) and in the course of his travels he has discovered that you’ve more chance of seeing reruns of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo on Australian terrestrial television than you do the World Cup.
With the bulk of the games only available on a subscription streaming service, the tournament “has failed to land a glove on the actual footie visible all across this sprawling hinterland,” he writes.
There’s no such issue back home, mercifully, so we’ll be able to tune in to RTÉ to watch tomorrow’s game, from which Ireland need at least a draw if they are to have any hope of progressing. There’ll be no throwing caution to the wind, though, Gavin reporting that Vera Pauw will stick with her customary back five.
Whether or not Abbie Larkin makes it in to that starting line-up remains to be seen, but Louise Lawless heard Aine O’Gorman sing the 18-year-old’s praises after her display when she came on as a sub against Australia.
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They might be reigning Olympic champions, but Canada arrived at this World Cup “hamstrung by a chaotic, at times confrontational, national association”. Joe Callaghan brings us the back story to this turmoil.
In Gaelic games, Denis Walsh reflects on the Limerick hurlers’ triumph on Sunday and their “pulverising capacity to blow teams away”, while Seán Moran talks to Damien Quigley about his fellow county men’s four-in-a-row feat.
There’s plenty of reading too on next Sunday’s football final. Ian O’Riordan asked Kerry manager Jack O’Connor how he was coping with the stress ahead of that meeting with Dublin. “I tell you,” he replied, “I’d rather be dealing with it than be up the side of the mountain talking to my dog and regretting things we did and didn’t do.”
Dessie Farrell, meanwhile, waxed lyrical about David Clifford when he spoke to Gordon Manning. “I tell the kids he reminds me of myself when I played, but I think they know better! He’s brilliant. He’s probably the greatest I’ve ever seen.”
And Jim McGuinness takes a look at the managerial mind-games ahead of the final, reckoning that for all the “palaver and talk” about this historic fixture, what we’ll get is very modern football – ie “pragmatism will win out”.
Elsewhere, Ian O’Riordan catches up with Rhasidat Adeleke – not literally, he isn’t that speedy – on her return to Dublin for the National Championships, while Gerry Thornley talks to Tadhg Furlong ahead of his third World Cup appearance
And Philip Reid looks at the consequences for Shane Lowry of missing the cut at The Open last week, the chief one being that he has slipped down the qualifying rankings for the Ryder Cup. Still, you’d imagine he’d prefer to cope with the stress of that challenge than be up the side of the mountain talking to his dog.
Telly watch: You can see highlights of all of today’s World Cup games on RTÉ2 this evening (8.0), Colombia v South Korea, New Zealand v Philippines and Switzerland v Norway the teams in action.
