Jack Crowley, Sam Prendergast and Ciarán Frawley will, no doubt, have their minds fixed firmly on club matters for now with the Champions Cup resuming this weekend, but they’d be forgiven for occasionally letting their thoughts stray towards that Six Nations meeting with England on the first day of February. Incidentally, if you’d like a lower tier ticket for the game, you can still get one on resale websites – the best of them costing €2,481. A snip.
But for now, writes Gordon D’Arcy, “it’s shop-window time” for the trio as they attempt to “challenge Simon Easterby’s thinking when it comes to a pecking order” for Ireland’s first-choice outhalf.
How Prendergast copes against La Rochelle on Sunday “will have ramifications for him in the blue and green jerseys”, but he’ll at least be surrounded by a slew of fellow internationals who are available after injury, among them Hugo Keenan and Jack Conan. John O’Sullivan hears from attack coach Tyler “Swifty” Bleyendaal in advance of the game.
With no little upheaval off the pitch, Munster “don’t appear to be in a great place” in the build-up to their meeting with Saracens on Saturday, although their attack coach Mike Prendergast was well up for the challenge when he spoke to Gerry Thornley.
After heavy defeats to Toulouse and Bordeaux-Bègles last month, Ulster are in dire need of a pick-me-up away to Leicester Tigers on Saturday, but they have at least been buoyed by the imminent arrival of another attack coach, with Mark Sexton due to join them from Connacht. That, allied to Mack Hansen’s impending disciplinary hearing, have not made for “the merriest festive season” for Connacht – Linley MacKenzie hears from their head coach Pete Wilkins.
In Gaelic games, Malachy Clerkin wonders about the wisdom of GAA president Jarlath Burns’s intervention in the initial decision by Naas to add Rory Gallagher to their management team, a decision they subsequently reversed. “Nobody knows why Burns chose to involve himself in the process ... [but] ... the Naas/Gallagher story was filling airtime with unhelpful coverage of the GAA, and this was a way of killing it off.”
Also in Gaelic games, Gordon Manning reports on a “chronic shortage” of referees in Dublin, prompting the arrangement of an early year training course for new officials, and he also has news of Connacht Council secretary John Prenty having a dig at the GPA “for a lack of consistency in relation to player welfare”.
In soccer, Gavin Cummiskey takes us through a list of Republic of Ireland internationals who, considering their limited playing opportunities, are badly in need of a transfer, while in golf Philip Reid has word on one transfer that could well be signed and sealed any day now – there’s talk of Tom McKibbin leaving the PGA Tour for LIV Golf.
TV Watch: Spurs and Liverpool square up in the first leg of their League Cup semi-final (Sky Sports Football, 8pm), Newcastle having inserted one foot in the final by beating Arsenal 2-0 at the Emirates last night.
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